How you sell has become more important than what you sell.
If you’re going to win going forward, you’ve got to equip reps to generate new demand in a world of reluctant, risk-averse customers.
(Challengers have) a deep understanding of the customer’s business and use that understanding to push the customer’s thinking and teach them something new about how their company can compete more effectively.
A Challenger is really defined by the ability to do three things: teach, tailor, and take control.
As the Challenger is focused on pushing the customer out of their comfort zone, the Relationship Builder is focused on being accepted into it.
While the Challenger is focused on customer value, the Relationship Builder is more concerned with customer convenience.
The world of solution selling is almost definitionally about a disruptive sale.
If you’re on the journey to more of a value-based or solutions-oriented sales approach, then your ability to challenge customers is absolutely vital for your success going forward.
In a time when consensus is more important than ever to get the deal done, it’s no surprise that the rep who wins in this environment is the one who can effectively tailor the message to a wide range of customer stakeholders in order to build that consensus.
The key, of course, is to do this with control, diplomacy, and empathy.
Shift the discussion from price to value.
Challengers aren’t so much world-class investigators as they are world-class teachers. They win not by understanding their customers’ world as well as the customers know it themselves, but by actually knowing their customers’ world better than their customers know it themselves, teaching them what they don’t know but should.
Selling a well-branded, highly differentiated product, supported by higher-than-industry-average service will undoubtedly get you more loyalty.
read the full story below and other links about this Sales persona Including the book that defined it.
https://www.heinzmarketing.com/2013/01/the-challenger-sale-in-less-than-10-minutes/