http://fourquadrant.com/the-challenger-sale-taking-control-of-the-customer-conversation/ The Challenger Sale – Taking Control of the Customer Conversation The Challenger Sale gives sales representatives the insights, knowledge and tools to take control of the customer conversation. In contrast to popular opinion and practice, The Challenger Sale maintains, through its vast research, that the secret to sales success is not relationship selling — especially when it comes to selling large, complex, expensive B2B solutions. The most successful sales representatives challenge customers to think differently by approaching problems differently and offering unique solutions. Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson, and their colleagues at Corporate Executive Board (CEB) invested a great deal of time and energy into researching the skills, behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes correlated to high-performance sales representatives. Their findings have been a disruptive shock to selling because they are inconsistent with conventional sales wisdom. The most successful complex sales reps lead with a challenge — and relationship selling is merely a by-product. The CEB findings are based on an exhaustive study of thousands of sales reps across multiple industries and geographies over an extended period of time. The result allows for cross tabulation – a statistical process that summarizes categorical data to create a contingency table. In short, when one drills down on a specific set of criteria, the sample size is rich enough to provide statistically relevant results that can be projected. The Challenger Sale begins by describing three sales breakthroughs which have occurred in the last century. Download go to market planning templates at http://www.fourquadrant.com/products/

1. Go to Market Strategy !
The Challenger Sale!
Taking control of the customer conversation!
Read the Full Article!
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2. High Performers!
!
Every organization’s top performing
sales reps should be embraced and
rewarded. The goal should not be
preventing them from earning a
compensation level commensurate with
the revenue contribution they made to
the organization. !

3. Rise of Third Party
Consultants!
!
Customers frequently employ third
party consultants to extract maximum
value from the solution. Usually these
consultants have worked for the vendor
or in an organization where the product
was deployed. !

4. The Psychology of Selling,
E.K. Strong!
!
The second breakthrough in selling
occurred as a result of research
published by E. K. Strong in 1925 – The
Psychology of Selling. Sales techniques
centered on highlighting features and
benefits, objection handling, the use of
open and closed-ended questions and
techniques for closing.!

5. Consensus Based Sale!
!
In the last decade, there has been a
great deal of uncertainty about the
economy and job security. Few
senior level executives today exhibit
cavalier attitudes or are willing to go
out on a limb by themselves to make
a six or seven digit purchase!

6. The Challenger Sale
!
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!
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