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Introduction of features & benefits The evolution of selling 2 No model Separation of sales & acct. mgmt. Solution selling?

The Emergence of the Challenger Selling Style

Sales Executive Council* went in search of answers Initiates landmark selling effectiveness study in 2007 Surveyed 90 companies Sampling balanced by industry and geography Model built on analysis of 6,000 sales reps Assessment of rep skills completed by sales managers 4 * The Corporate Executive Board’s Sales Executive Council is a global network of 600+ organizations that participate in sales research designed to identify global best practices

Central question: What selling approach is most effective in down economy? Dependent Variable Sales vs. target Independent Variables Attitudes Skills/ behaviors Activities Knowledge 5 The Challenger Sale, 2011, Mathew Dixon and Brent Adamson

Regressed 44 different sales rep attributes against objective sales performance 6

SEC then employed factor analysis to identify the attributes that traveled together Factor analysis is a statistical methodology for grouping a large number of variables into a smaller set of categories in which variables co-present and move together Ecosystem example: –Variables like intense heat, sand, arid conditions, scorpions and cacti tend to co-present in nature –People have given this category the name ‘desert’ 7 The Challenger Sale, 2011, Mathew Dixon and Brent Adamson

The 44 attributes tested fell into five distinct groups 8 The Challenger Sale, 2011, Mathew Dixon and Brent Adamson

SEC* then stratified reps into quintiles to assess differences in performance 9 * Sales Executive Council Highest performers Average performers Lowest performers The Challenger Sale, 2011, Mathew Dixon and Brent Adamson

Average performers distributed relatively evenly among different selling styles 10 % average performing quintile The Challenger Sale, 2011, Mathew Dixon and Brent Adamson

Highest performing quintile dominated by Challengers 11 % top performing quintile The Challenger Sale, 2011, Mathew Dixon and Brent Adamson

Challenger dominance even greater in high complexity selling environments 12 % top performing quintile * High complexity defined as selling diverse bundles of products and solutions over longer selling cycles The Challenger Sale, 2011, Mathew Dixon and Brent Adamson

So what sets Challengers apart from others? Offer customers unique and valuable insights Have strong two-way communication skills Knows the individual customer’s value drivers Can identify economic drivers of customers’ businesses Are comfortable discussing money Can pressure their customers to take action 13 Teach Tailor Take control So what sets Challengers apart from others? 6 attributes are statistically different for Challengers The Challenger Sale, 2011, Mathew Dixon and Brent Adamson

Summary In 2007, the Sales Executive Council initiated a landmark study to understand the selling styles that are most effective in a down economy Their research revealed that one selling style, the Challenger, significantly outperformed all others Challengers outperform their peers by an even wider margin as the complexity of the selling process increases What distinguishes Challengers from other reps is their ability to teach customers things they don’t already know, tailor their offerings to different stakeholders involved in the buying process and push customers to take action when they identify better solutions 14