The Challenger Sale is all about sales productivity and what traits make the best sales professionals. The authors categorize different types of sales personalities and what differentiates each group. Ultimately, there is a group that consistently produce higher sales performance.
The Challenger Seller
As the title aptly references, the group that consistently performs is the challenger seller profile. These individuals approach selling in a way that provides value to clients through education. They focus on providing alternative viewpoints to business problems.
While it is likely most salespeople exhibit many of the profile traits the key to being successful comes to find new ways for clients to view the world. The challenger sale is about bringing valuable insights to every interaction. In addition, helping a client understand what could impact them in the future that they may not have considered.
Other Sales Profiles
Other sales profiles focus on highlighting product features, asking lots of questions, or building relationships. While these are valuable skills they do not consistently lead to high performance.
Another popular sales style is the lone wolf. These individuals are the stereotypical no process, tend to not listen to leadership, and somehow manage to hit their numbers. Those are the lone wolves who are celebrated. Yet, most lone wolves are the exception versus the rule.
The Challenger Sale
Finally, the challenger seller seeks to educate, question, and bring new insights to current and future problems.
I finished the Challenger Sale in mid-late August and am writing this in mid- October. While the details of the book have faded the overarching theme is very straightforward. Good sales reps bring value through insights to every conversation. The best salespeople are willing to create tension with prospects as they question assumptions with useful alternatives.
Bringing value and helping your clients is what the challenger sale is all about. Helping customers see their business in a different way builds trust and creates value beyond the product. Thus the challenger seller embodies these traits to become a trusted advisor.
In conclusion if you run a business or are in sales reading the challenger sale will provide you with a new lens to think about how you engage your customers. It will inform your marketing to ask questions and find commercial insights that apply directly to your industry.
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