Book Review: The Challenger Sale

In their new book, The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation, Matthew Dixon and Brent Adam challenge traditional sales theory at its very core.  According to their study, the generally accepted view -- that in complex selling so-called Relationship Sellers are the key to building a high performance sales team -- is 100 percent wrong.

In fact, they argue, of the five types of salespeople they identified -- the Hard Worker; the Relationship Builder, the Lone Wolf, the Problem Solver, and the Challenger -- the Relationship Builder was the worst performer by far. (I'll explain more about these five types in just a moment.)

Not buying it?

Well, they have some pretty good support -- Neil Rackham for one.  Now although  Rackham hasn’t reached the level of deity (or not yet, anyway), having him write the foreword to the book and endorse the authors' conclusion has to make one sit up and take the book seriously.

The Challenger Sale is based on a study of over 6,000 sales reps from across the globe and “representing every major industry, geography, and go-to-market model.”  The study is based on a survey of 45 sales-rep attributes which include attitudes, skills and behaviors, activities, and knowledge.

The study broke the various sellers they found into five types:

The Hard Worker is the sales rep “that shows up early, stays late, and is always willing to put in the extra effort.” 

The Relationship Builder “is all about building and nurturing strong personal and professional relationships and advocates across the customer organization.”

The Lone Wolf is deeply self-confident and follow their instincts, not the company rules

The Problem Solver is “highly reliable and very detail-oriented.”  They make sure all the promises have been kept, and they focus on follow-up.

The Challenger has "a deep understanding of the customer’s business and use that understanding to challenge the customer’s thinking and teach them something new about how their company operates.”

When the authors examined each of these groups in terms of production, they discovered no significant difference between the five groups when they looked at average sellers.  In other words, anyone can be an average seller. 

However, when they examined the top sellers in organizations they discovered a huge difference. The Challenger model created by far the most top performers while the Relationship Builder model was left in the dust by the other four models.

In percentage terms, the authors discovered that the Challenger model includd 39 percent of all the top producers.  The Relationship Builder model stumbled in at only 7 percent of all top producers.  (The Lone Wolf model came in at 25 percent, The Hard Worker at 17 percent, and The Problem Solver at 12 percent.)

What does a Challenger sales rep do that is so different than the Relationship Builder?  While the Relationship Builder wants to create deep, strong, and warm relationships that defuse any tension, the Challenger seeks to create and build what the authors call constructive tension

According to Dixon and Adamson, the Challenger is “defined by the ability to do three things—teach, tailor, and take control—and to do this in the context of creative tension.”

The Challenger:

Teaches: “The thing that really sets Challenger reps apart is their ability to teach customers something new and valuable about how to compete in their market.”  It is about giving the customer a new and unique perspective.

Tailors: “While teaching is the defining attribute of being a Challenger, the ability to tailor the teaching message to different types of customers—as well as to different individuals within the customer organization—is what makes the pitch resonate with the customer. . . . Tailoring relies on the rep’s knowledge of the specific business priorities of whomever he or she is talking to—the specific outcomes they value most, the results they’re on the hook to deliver for their company.”

Takes Control: They show the ability to assert and maintain control over the sale. “This is all about the rep’s ability and willingness to stand their ground when the customer begins to push back.”

The good news is the authors say that the typical Challenger isn’t born a Challenger. He or she learns the skills that make them Challengers, so any seller can learn to be a Challenger, at least to some extent.

This, for many sellers and sales leaders, is the exact opposite of what they’ve been taught.  That traditional warm, fuzzy, relationship-building, "give ‘em all the time in the world" selling style, the authors say, is dead and gone.

They do, however, have a consolation prize for the relationship lovers: Challengers have strong relationship-building skills as a supplement to their Challenger selling skills.

Have I bought the Challenger model hook, line, and sinker?  Nope, not yet anyway.  But I’d be foolish not to take a good, long hard look at it when Neil Rackham buys into it. 

That's why I think it's a good idea for you take a good look, too, when the book is released.  The release date is November 11. Head on over to Amazon or Barnes and Noble and put your order in. You’ll find it not only interesting, but it will challenge a great deal of what you think you know about salespeople.