6 things that non-sales people can learn from Challenger Sales

Emerging methodology points to behavioral cues for success

The newest methodology making the rounds (there’s always something making the rounds) is a book called The Challenger Sale.  I remember when the original article was written for the Harvard Business Review back in 2009.  It was a summary of research that blew everyone away because of the surprising results.

Listening to the authors being interviewed by the HBR staff back then I was struck by how interesting the research was.  The findings were counterintuitive to some of the ‘sacred cows’ of sales dogma but made perfect contextual sense to those of us with experience in the business world.

The authors then expanded the core research into a full-length book, (which I have recently read), and a full-blown consulting methodology to go implement the behavioral change they describe.

This is the typical lifecycle of these types of ideas.  What starts as a genuine nugget of insight becomes an over-blown methodology play.

Unfortunately sometimes the expansion of the nugget into a practice tends to dissipate the initial power of the core of the idea, but distractions aside the original idea was powerful enough to sustain its altitude over the last few years. The wave seems to be cresting as I have heard this methodology mentioned by 3-4 people independently over the last couple weeks.  Apparently Challenger Sales is the idea of the moment in the corporate world.

What is the ‘big reveal’ that in 2009 kicked off this hype-cycle?  The big reveal is that some of the core assumptions of what makes effective sales behavior are not correct.

The way they figured this out was to use a data study of their clients.  This is really the key because most non-sales people see the sales process as some sort of voodoo that is wholly unquantifiable.  The authors married some rigorous MBA-school quant science with sales behavior and results.  Then derived some insights from the data.

Let’s pause here for the uninitiated and provide some context.  A bit of a sales methodology history lesson is required to put the challenger sale into context.  Broadly, over the last 40 years sales science has moved from a simple product or transactional sale to a complex solution sale.

The original sales methodology was just to show up in front of a prospective customer with your product, explain to them all the features of the product, and ask for the order.  That’s a transactional sale.  This led to the “Sales is a numbers game” theory because the more potential customers you got your product in front of the more sales you got.

In the 1970’s and 80’s some smart folks in the high tech and services world discovered that transactional selling wasn’t all that effective in modern, complex situations and actually tended to commoditize what they were selling.

“Solution Selling” methodologies were born that treated the sales process differently.  Instead of showing up and pitching the product, the sales team would first discover what the customer’s challenges and pains were, then propose a solution to those pains, highlighting the unique benefits and value of their solution in the process.  Only then would they trot out the product and features to support the solution.

Many flavors of solution selling have rolled through the corporate world over the last 40 years and for the most part they were effective in matching up with selling large and complex solutions into large and complex organizations.  Solution selling when done right creates a valuable match between what is being sold and what is needed.

I tell you this because the Challenger Sales folks see the Challenger methodology as the next generation, the successor methodology to Solution Sales.

One of the core assumptions of solution selling is that a ‘Relationship’ focused behavior set by the sales team is key to sales.  The assumption is that you have to ingratiate yourself into the customer organization – make friends and ‘go native’ – and get on the inside to be a successful in solution selling.

This was the first sacred cow that the challenger sale data slaughtered.  The data showed that the relationship focused approach made the sales team more interested in making friends than in challenging the customer.  The data showed that the customer has enough friends, and what the customer really wants is insight.

The data showed that relationship selling clearly performed poorly in comparison.

What behavior set performs well?  You guessed; it the Challenger behavior set.

The Challenger sales person brings insights that the customer has not considered.  The challenger pushes the customer out of their comfort zone.  In this way the Challenger changes the game. The data shows two important things.    First, the customer wants to be challenged and, second, challenging the customer leads to more sales.

The authors are correct in that customers are getting tired of solution sales.  When someone comes in looking to ‘understand their challenges’ or ‘participate in a value exchange’ or ‘do some discovery’ the customers’ spam alert goes off.  They’ve been lead through too many non-value-added solution sales campaigns that were thinly veiled attempts to railroad a product down their throats.

But, what are these Challenger Behaviors and how can non-sales people use them?  A Challenger Sales Person has six specific traits.

1. Offers a unique perspective to the customer.

First is the concept of bringing genuine and useful insights to the prospective customer.  Don’t come to them with products or solutions or company brochures.  Bring them an idea that is challenging. Teach them something.

What a great insight for all of your interactions.  Think about how much better your world would be if you made a point of bringing insights into all your business interactions, all your community and relationship interactions.  Wow! People would be lining up to talk to you!

2. Has strong 2-way communication skills.

Notice something interesting here – these insightful interactions aren’t about you and your problems – they are focused on the other and helping them.  There’s a core lesson for you.

The great challengers are also great communicators and story tellers.  They know how to put the person they are talking to into the story so that the other person internalizes the message.

Can you do this?  Do you practice this behavior in your interactions?

3. Knows the individual customer’s value drivers.

Imagine that? Not only do I bring you insights about your business, not only do I communicate well and put you in the story, I also understand what is important to you.

I wish the people I sit next to on airplanes knew how to do this.  It’s empathy people! – try it on for size and see if helps your relationships.

4. Can identify economic drivers of customer’s business.

This point and the remaining three behaviors are very important and relate to the ‘challenging’ part of a challenger.  Culturally, most people, not all people, but most people are uncomfortable talking about numbers and money.

By being a person who can comfortably talk about business drivers and money – meaning you can discuss data without emotion – you are providing a wonderful service.

You can lead the conversation with people you work with and live with.  You can be the person who converses easily about hard questions and hard topics.  This is a tremendous value added position to be in.  It is a way to help people get what they want by understanding the math behind what they want.

5. Is comfortable discussing money.

Again, there is so much baggage tied up with talking about money that if you can lead your relationships through it you will be a hero.  Money is charged with emotion in our world.  But, it really isn’t.  We are the ones who are charged with emotion.  Money just is what it is.

I have always been impressed with the ease of how great sales people and business people discuss money.  If you can practice this and carry it over into your life it will pay dividends.

Be good at talking about, communicating hard and emotional topics.  You will be a social rock star.

6. Can pressure the customer.

This is what leaders do.  They have the conviction of their position and are not afraid to be insistent.  They lead the discussion and set the tone.  They know that true success lies in discomfort.  They push that edge.

One of my basic rules is that I know I’m having an important conversation if it is uncomfortable.  If everyone agrees, that’s a conversation that isn’t creating any value.

Fight for your principles.  Convince your stakeholders what is right.  Have those conversations that push the edge into discomfort and get things done.

I’m glad the Challenger Sales methodology is getting play because I think that these are behavioral attributes that we all need to think about, not just sales people.