The first major breakthrough occurred about a hundred years ago, when insurance companies found that they could double, or even triple, their sales by making one simple change in selling strategy. These breakthroughs, marked by radical new thinking and dramatic improvements in sales results, have been rare there were three of them in the last century.
A Brief History of Selling According to Adamson and Dixon, the history of selling in America has been one of slow and steady progress, occasionally interrupted by important breakthroughs that have changed the direction of the profession. But before we go too far in describing what makes the new Challenger Sales Model so exciting and compelling, let’s take just a few moments to review, as the authors did, how the business of buying and selling in America has evolved over the last hundred years or so. They’re not afraid to push back when necessary, and take control of the sale. And perhaps most importantly, rather than acquiescing to the customer's every demand or objection for the sake of the relationship, they are assertive. They tailor their sales messages to the customer's specific needs and objectives. Instead of bludgeoning customers with endless facts and features about their company and products, or focusing mindlessly on the customer relationship, above all else, Challenger sales representatives provide their customers with unique insights about how they can save or make money. The CEB study found that every sales rep in the world falls into one of five distinct profiles (which we’ll hear more about in a moment), and while all of these types of reps can deliver average results, only one – the 1Ĭhallenger – delivers consistently high performance. Based on first-hand observation of over 6,000 sales professionals worldwide, The Challenger Sale argues convincingly that old school relationship-based sales approaches are no longer effective in most complex business-to-business sales situations. It debuted in 2011 on the New York Times bestseller list, and it promises to be a must read for ambitious sales professionals for many years to come. They decided to write a book, and called it The Challenger Sale, (based on the name for their new selling technique). Authors Brent Adamson and Matthew Dixon, whose work you may have come across in the Harvard Business Review or other leading B2B forums, were then engaged to translate these research insights into a model that the rest of us could use. And having now studied that question intensively for the better part of four years, the Board has emerged with a handful of core insights. heads of sales from the world’s largest, best-known companies), the CEB set-out to identify what exactly set this very special group of sales reps apart. It was into this environment that the Arlington, Virginia-based Corporate Executive Board (CEB), launched what has since become one of the most important studies of sales productivity in decades. Were they lucky? Were they just born with it? And most importantly, could one possibly capture that magic, bottle it, and export it to everyone else? For many companies, their very survival depended on the answer. While others struggled to close even the smallest of deals, these individuals were bringing in the kind of business most reps could only dream of, even in a good economy. Staring directly into the face of the toughest sales environment in decades, a small but uniquely gifted number of sales reps were still selling. Yet, some fortunate VPs of Sales stood grinning through it all. And for most heads of sales, they were an absolute nightmare. For anyone in business, times were tough.
In America, and around the world, all business-to-business commerce had seemingly ground to a halt. Credit was scarce, and cash even scarcer.
In the unforgettable early months of 2009, as the bottom fell out of the global economy, business-to-business sales leaders around the world faced an epic set of problems. The Challenger Sale Taking Control of the Customer Conversation By Matthew Dixon & Brent Adamson
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