The Challenger Sale

by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson

What's the secret to sales success? If you're like most business leaders, you'd say it's fundamentally about relationships-and you'd be wrong. The best salespeople don't just build relationships with customers. They challenge them. The need to understand what top-performing reps are doing that their average performing colleagues are not drove Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson, and their colleagues at Corporate Executive Board to investigate the skills, behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes that matter most for high performance. And what they discovered may be the biggest shock to conventional sales wisdom in decades.Based on an exhaustive study of thousands of sales reps across multiple industries and geographies,The Challenger Sale argues that classic relationship building is a losing approach, especially when it comes to selling complex, large-scale business-to-business solutions. The authors' study found that every sales rep in the world falls into one of five distinct profiles, and while all of these types of reps can deliver average sales performance, only one-the Challenger- delivers consistently high performance.Instead of bludgeoning customers with endless facts and features about their company and products, Challengers approach customers with unique insights about how they can save or make money. They tailor their sales message to the customer's specific needs and objectives. Rather than acquiescing to the customer's every demand or objection, they are assertive, pushing back when necessary and taking control of the sale.The things that make Challengers unique are replicable and teachable to the average sales rep. Once you understand how to identify the Challengers in your organization, you can model their approach and embed it throughout your sales force. The authors explain how almost any average-performing rep, once equipped with the right tools, can successfully reframe customers' expectations and deliver a distinctive purchase experience that drives higher levels of customer loyalty and, ultimately, greater growth.

OUR ICEBERG IS MELTING by JOHN KOTTER

In our book < Idea to Impact > we included as our favorite read Our Iceberg Is Melting, by John P. Kotter because of its effective description of the delicate dance that is necessary in order to navigate the hierarchy of power and leadership while getting acknowledgment and permission to initiate change. it is a simple story about doing well under the stress and uncertainty of rapid change.

On an iceberg near the coast of Antarctica, group of beautiful emperor pen­guins live as they have for many years. Then one curious bird discovers a potentially devastating problem threatening their home—and almost no one listens to him.

The characters in the story—Fred, Alice, Louis, Buddy, the Professor, and NoNo—are like people you probably recognize in your own organization, including yourself. Their tale is one of resistance to change and heroic action, seemingly intractable obstacles and clever tactics for dealing with those obstacles. The penguins offer an inspiring model as we all struggle to adapt to new circumstances.

Our Iceberg Is Melting is based on John Kotter's pioneer­ing research into the eight steps that can produce needed change in any sort of group. After finishing the story, you'll have a powerful framework for influencing your own team, no matter how big or small.

ZONE TO WIN by Geoffrey Moore

In our book < Idea to Impact > we included a description of Geoffrey Moore’s four zones as a foundation for understanding a business lifecycle. Unless you are the one who innovates and disrupts markets, you are forced to respond to waves of innovation from others with waves of transformation just to stay competitive. It’s rarely the whole business that needs to be transformed, however—usually it is just one area or another that is impacted.

Silicon Valley legend Geoffrey A. Moore describes this business lifecycle in his book Zone to Win: Organizing to Compete in an Age of Disruption

Any surfer knows that you’ve got to catch a wave at just the right moment. The same holds for companies. To grow, they need to catch the next wave of innovation before a competitor does.

In fact, the best way for a company to grow rapidly is to introduce a new product or service that turns an industry on its head: consider the innovations of online marketing, cloud computing or electric vehicles.

Being an innovative market leader can be extremely profitable, often yielding 20 percent revenue growth over the first five to seven years after a new product or service is introduced.

On the other hand, if you miss the wave, there’s no way to catch it later. You’re best off searching for another swell later on!

Companies that experience continuous growth are experts at catching innovation waves. For instance, Apple caught not one but three waves in the last ten years: digital music, smartphones, and tablets. In doing so, the company completely transformed the market for mobile technology.

If you want to learn more we recommend reading <Geoffrey’s book>