beyond the challenge

BEYOND THE CHALLENGE: Scaling Challenger Selling Skills to Drive Breakthrough Results

Across Your Organization

Enabling our clients to ascend to new heights of performance

1 ©SOAR Performance Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

John Thackston is the Vice President of Client Engagements and Co-Founder of SOAR Performance Group. John is responsible for ensuring the success of our clients through effective client relationship development and program management.

AUTHOR: John Thackston


Introduction……………………………………...4 Why Be A Challenger?.....................................5 The Three T’s………………...……….….….....9 The Three C’s………………………………….12 What Next?.....................................................16 About SOAR Performance Group……………17 Recommended Reading………………………18

TABLE OF CONTENTS


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INTRODUCTION

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Sales professionals need to engage differently in this age of easily accessible information. In the current selling environment, created by the intersection of the internet age and the great recession, customers are focused on shifting strategies from business optimization to accelerating growth. The Corporate Executive Board’s The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation (2011) uses research to present new ideas about requirements for individual success in today’s sales environment.

Beyond the individual, organizations must find ways to effectively scale the Challenger skills across sales teams in order to accelerate organic growth. This is where this e-book will be of value to you as an executive leader in your organization.

©SOAR Performance Group, Inc. All rights reserved.




“53 percent of B2B customer loyalty is a product of how you sell, not what you sell.”

The sales experience is more important now than ever before. Information transparency has raised customer expectations. Buyers today have rapid access to:

Source: The Challenger Sale, 2011

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1. More information 2. More alternatives 3. Comparisons between alternatives

CHAPTER 1: Why Be A Challenger?





In a study of 700 sales representatives conducted by The Corporate Executive Board (CEB), Challengers made up 27% of all representatives. In a standard sales environment, they made up 39% of all high performers. In a complex sales environment, challengers made up 54% of the total high performers.

Beyond the Challenge

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Source: The Challenger Sale, 2011

Challengers are 4.5 times more likely to be high performers.





Central to the Challenger skills as defined by CEB are the Three T’s: Teach, Tailor and Take Control. These skills are used to create an environment of constructive tension, causing the customer to think differently about their business. While the 3 T’s are critical skills for an individual to acquire, SOAR has developed a set of conditions to use together with CEB’s 3 T’s in order to scale the Challenger skills across an entire organization.


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Introducing SOAR’s 3 C’s: 1.Connection

2.Conversation 3.Community






CHAPTER 2: The Three T’s

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Differentiating your organization • Requires bringing insight: teaching the customer how to compete

more effectively, which initiates longstanding customer loyalty

Resonating with the customer • Requires research: knowing the customer’s business aspirations

and environment so you can offer relevant insights, speaking directly to their concerns

Maximizing profit for both parties • Requires creating value: Standing firm when the customer

pushes back on price—reminding them of the value of the solution • Requires creating momentum: Encouraging customers to make a

decision on the deal so it keeps moving forward

TEACH

TAILOR

TAKE CONTROL





The Three T’s of the Challenger Sale approach are effective skills, but they need the right conditions to be truly successful. What more does it take to increase customer loyalty and differentiate yourself and your sales team as Challengers? The Three C’s: Connection, Conversation, and Community

What more does it take? The Three C’s: Connection, Conversation, Community.”







Utilizing the Three T’s of the CEB’s Challenger Sale in combination with the

Three C’s of SOAR will enable you to scale Challenger selling skills across your

organization, leading to predictable, repeatable, and breakthrough results for

your organization.






Tailor

Take Control

Teach


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Conversation

Community

Connection

Individual

Team





CHAPTER 3: The Three C’s

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Conversation

Community

Connection






1. CONNECTION • Connecting to your customer

– Requires strong business acumen: the ability to understand how a customer’s business operates and how your offerings will create value for the customer

– Requires insight: the ability to connect your value to the customer’s specific business environment and situation

• Connecting to your business – Requires knowledge: of your existing sales process,

the sales skills currently within your organization, coaching and sales tools being used in the field






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• Communicating insights – Requires interacting at all

levels: up, down and across the customer organization

– Requires skills: to engage in high impact, insight-driven conversations throughout the customer organization

2. CONVERSATION

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INSIGHT

Executives

Department

Individual Contributors

Department






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• Creating community within your organization – Requires engaging different groups: rallying them

around the approach and involving them in the ongoing development of insights.

– Requires collaboration: using the knowledge of and information gathered by each group to add value for the customer.

3. COMMUNITY





WHAT NEXT?

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Find out how prepared your sales organization is to go Beyond the Challenge and drive breakthrough results for your customers and your organization. The survey is available at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SoarBeyondTheChallenge

Take the





https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SoarBeyondTheChallenge

ABOUT

SOAR is a customer focused sales consultancy

headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia that applies an analytic and fact based approach to sales performance improvement.






Recommended Reading

1. Dixon, Matthew and Brent Adamson. The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation. New York: Penguin Group, 2011. Print.



