THE CHALLENGER SALE

The Challenger Sale answers the most pressing question facing the leadership teams of companies right now: Coming out of the downturn, what is the best way to generate new demand? It is harder than it's ever been for reps to sell, especially when it comes to selling complex, large-scale solutions.

Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson's unconventional and provocative conclusion based on an exhaustive quantitative study of business customers as well as sales and marketing organizationsis that classic relationship-building has become less effective.

The reps that sellmost effectively are challenging their customers by delivering unique, customer-focused insight as part of the sale itself. A Sales Executive Council study recently showed that more than half (53%) of what drives business customer loyalty is a function of the sales experience itself. This research showed that customers will reward suppliers who can deliver a unique perspective during the sales process. In other words, the single biggest opportunity for differentiation in the eyes of our customers isn't the products and services we sell, but in the quality of the insight we deliver as part of the sale itself. The authors' team studied more than 3,500 sales reps in multiple industries and geographies. It turns out every sales rep in the world falls into one of five distinct profiles: the hard worker, the problem-solver, the challenger, the relationship-builder and the lone wolf. While most of these profiles can deliver average sales performance, there is only one the challenger that can deliver consistently high performance, especially in complex selling environments. Just as eye-opening, there is one profile that is doomed to fail: the relationship-builder.

The Challenger Sale shows how winning companies equip reps to reframe customers' expectations and, in the process, create a distinctive purchase experience that drives higher levels of customer loyalty and growth for their companies. Told with a compelling combination of counterintuitive insight, powerful data, real-life company examples, and a clear, memorable message, The Challengers is required reading for anybody seeking to drive growth in the post-recession market from CEOs to heads of sales and marketing to frontline sales managers and sales reps themselves.

Matthew Dixon is a managing director with the sales and marketing practice of the Corporate Executive Board in Washington, DC. He holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh.

Brent Adamson is Senior Director of Member Advisory Services for the Sales, Marketing, and Communications Practice at the Corporate Executive Board. Brent joined CEB from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, where he received his MBA in 2003.