what is the challenger

WHAT IS THE CHALLENGER APPROACH?It’s recognizing that 53% of customer loyalty is driven by the sales experience –which contributes more to loyalty than brand, price, service, or even the product COMBINED.

Challengers provide their customers a differentiated sales experience by doing three distinct things: delivering the right message, having the right skills, and selling to the right people.

The Right Message

Commercial Insight teaches the customer something new about their business, uncovers an unknown problem, and creates an innovative opportunity.

The Right Skills

Challengers Teach with Insight. They Tailor messages to the customer’s unique needs; and they Take Control of the decision-making journey.

The Right Buyers

Challengers partner with a key customer stakeholder, known as a Mobilizer, to champion the insight, build consensus, and move deals forward.

CHALLENGER™SALES

EXPERIENCES

Right Skills

RightMessage

Right Buyers

WHO IS CHALLENGER?

challengerinc.comWIN THE COMPLEX SALE

Learn more at challengerinc.comWIN THE COMPLEX SALE

We are a global leader in training, technology, and consulting to win today’s complex sale. Our live, virtual and digital solutions support sales and marketing, and customer service professionals, leading to significant performance improvements and financial results.

Each sales and marketing program we provide is supported by ongoing research and backed by our best-selling books, The Challenger Sale and The Challenger Customer.

https://www.challengerinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Challenger-Selling-The-Right-Skills.pdf

https://www.challengerinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Challenger-Selling-The-Right-Customers.pdf

https://www.challengerinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Challenger-Selling-The-Right-Message.pdf

https://www.challengerinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Challenger-Selling-The-Right-Skills.pdf

https://www.challengerinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Challenger-Selling-The-Right-Customers.pdf

HOW DO YOU IMPLEMENT CHALLENGER?Begin with Challenger ActivationTM . This tech-enabled platform serves as the centerpiece of your Challenger strategy. You can optimize your implementation through Challenger’s additional training, workshop and coaching options.

To further embed the Challenger approach, we offer first-hand insight, training and coaching. These programs include:

Inside Challenger ActivationTM

Instructor-Led Training and Workshops

Expert Advice from a team of Challenger consultants who guide your transformation journey

Enterprise-Wide eLearning curriculum, tools, templates, and resources for every role and sales stage

Diagnostics and Assessments measure skill and coaching effectiveness and track progress

Networking and Collaboration that comes from a community of those on a similar journey who share best practices and network

Live or Virtual Facilitation delivered by our global bench of Challenger Advisors

Guided Practice & Application with real-life, scenario-based training experiences using blended and adult learning principles

Market-Ready Outputs that are fully-built commercial Insights and deal strategies

RIGHT MESSAGE

RIGHTSKILLS

RIGHTBUYERS

CHALLENGER™ ACTIVATION INSTRUCTOR-LED TRAINING & WORKSHOPS

> Insight Designer Tool> Commercial Insight Resource Library> Insight Reviews and Consultant

Feedback

> Challenger Selling Foundations eLearning

> Challenger Deal Drills> Skills Application Plans

> Challenger Playbooks> Buyer Journey Mapping Resources> Stakeholder Identification Toolkit

> Disruptive Commercial Messaging introduction to the building blocks of disruptive commercial messaging and how to embed insight-led messages into marketing and sales content.

> Building Commercial Insight Build three field-ready Commercial Insights to be used when targeting high-priority customer segments.

> Foundational Selling Skills Sellers learn and practice the core Challenger sales skills to disrupt the customer status quo.

> Demand Creation Sellers refine Commercial Teaching skills and improve their ability to disrupt the status quo, create demand, and make a case for change.

> Pipeline Acceleration Teams of sellers and managers roll up their sleeves and apply Challenger skills to specific deals in order to “unstick” them.

> Complex Deal Management Sellers identify the stakeholders who are most likely to drive change in a buying group

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WHY DO YOU NEED CHALLENGER NOW?Today’s buyers behave differently than they did just a few months ago. They are distracted, constrained and risk averse. Traditional sales approaches won’t engage them and won’t deliver expected results.

In this more complicated environment, it’s not what you sell, but how you sell.

The data show that Challenger sellers outperform. Having more Challengers in your organization leads to better win rates, larger deal sizes, shorter cycle times and increased revenue.

In fact, organizations that engage with Challenger see a 15x median return in top line revenue within 90-120 days.

32%

YoY Revenue ImpactPipeline Impact

15%

26%

Win Rate

Win Rate

248%

28%

47%

n= 57 companiesSource: Challenger Impact Study

“As a company that knows firsthand the common pitfalls of virtual demonstrations, we were thrilled with how our Challenger Advisor kept everybody engaged throughout the session. Our team felt like we had just experienced the future of training in this virtual environment.”

Tracey Gatland, Managing Director, GRAPHISOFT

“Integrating Challenger through Sales, Marketing, and Service helps us have a common understanding of how we approach our industry and has differentiated us. After our first full year with Challenger, we’re even more excited for the future.”

Barry Swihart, Senior VP of Sales,Odysseyware

What Our Customers Say

Click to experience our client success stories first-hand

Learn more at challengerinc.comWIN THE COMPLEX SALE

Deal Velocity

https://s.tiled.co/0xSnX65/the-challenger-experience

TAKE A CLOSER LOOK

THE RIGHT MESSAGETHE RIGHT SKILLSTHE RIGHT BUYERS

2020’s customers will buy with much greater caution and care, just as they did during the last economic downturn of 2008-09. Both then and now, decision makers and influencers are rewriting the purchasing playbook. If you don’t adjust your message and how it’s delivered, you’ll struggle to capture attention, create opportunities and close business.

THE RIGHT SALES MESSAGEDon’t ask customers what they need, teach them what they need to fix.

Product-Based “We have an extensive set of

products. There are offerings to fit nearly all of your needs in this

area.”

“Is this essential?”

Question-Based“Help me understand what’s

causing the most disruption in your business right now. What

keeps you up at night?”

“Do I have time for this?”

Insight-Based“We can solve a problem that

has been costing your business more than you may

realize.”

“Should I reconsider my approach?”

Consider first what your sales experience feels like today:

Today’s most common status quo is to do nothing, to delay, to push back. The default is to not buy. That’s the mind set you need to change, or you’ll get the first two responses above. Use the chart below and ask yourself the hard questions “does/is my message…?” for each of the columns. If you only answer “yes” to the four on the right, you have work to do. Your message may be good, but it doesn’t stand out and it likely work the way you need it to.

Drivers of Changing a Buyer’s Direction

Teach Something

New

0.446

Provide a Compelling Reason to Take

Action

0.302

Provide a Smart or Expert Perspective

0.013Easy to

Understand

(0.047)

Contain Interesting Facts

or Anecdotes

(0.096)

Accessible or Quick to Find

(0.132)

Statistically Significant Drivers

Non-Statistically Significant Drivers

Mag

nitu

de o

f D

rive

r Im

pact

n = 545.


How does today’s customer likely react?:

Customers are most likely to rethink their current course and reset buying criteria, only when confronted with surprising information about their business and a compelling case for change based on the cost of inaction .

COMMERCIAL INSIGHT IS MORE THAN THOUGHT LEADERSHIP.

Much of what sellers and marketers mistake for commercial insight today falls into the much broader, and arguably less valuable, category of “thought leadership”. To be clear, this is newsworthy, incremental information that customers won’t discover on their own. But thought leadership doesn’t drive action.

Why, because it’s intended to make you, not the customer, look smart. Customers don’t change for you. They change when they start thinking differently about themselves.

Consider the content you share with customers. Where might it be classified on the chart below? How much of it would not only pass as “frame-breaking”? How much leads back to you exclusively?

Hierarchy of Information Conveyed Through Sales Messages

General InformationGeneral Discussion

Accepted InformationBe Credible/RelevantThought LeadershipBe Newsworthy

InsightBe Frame-BreakingCommercialInsight

Lead to Supplier Messages built on Commercial Insight lead back to the supplier exclusively.

The goal of a commercial message, whether delivered in conversation or at arm’s length via digital channels, is to teach a prospect about unknown or underappreciated needs that lead back to your unique differentiators. Messages with those three pieces brought together can make a world of difference in your sales performance. If you don’t have them, we’d like to help you get them.

The only way to get customers to think

differently about you is to first get them to think

differently aboutthemselves.

Challenger is the global leader in training and consulting to win today’s complex sale. Our live, virtual and digital solutions support sales and marketing, and customer service

professionals, leading to significant performance improvements and financial results. Each program we provide is supported by ongoing research and backed by our best-selling

books, The Challenger Sale, The Challenger Customer, and The Effortless Experience. Learn more at challengerinc.com

WIN THE COMPLEX

SALE

It’s likely that much of your closed business in 2020 now comes from a small portion of your top performing reps. In fact, Challenger learned in 2008-09 that top performers are nearly 3x as productive as average performers in highly complex selling environments. The secret is to identify what your star performers do well right now and scale it across your team. What would that ‘move the middle’ exercise be worth to you?

THE RIGHT SALES SKILLSWhy today’s ‘Relationship Builders’ struggle to sell.

Our research shows there are primarily five types of sales reps. Chances are you’ve got some of all of these across your organization.

Can you guess who wins and who loses when the market gets difficult? It turns out the inclination to “go out and build deeper social relationships” with customers leads to very little in complex selling environments. Customers aren’t looking for a relationships right now. They’re looking for ideas. The ‘Relationship Builder’ is least likely to be a high-performer in complex sales environments (only 4% of our high-performer study population fit this profile). The Challenger, on the other hand, is a much different story.


54%39%

25%

12%

7%

17%

7%

10%

4%

25%

The Challenger

The Lone Wolf

The Hard Worker

The Problem Solver

The Relationship Builder

All Selling Environments

Percentage of High-Performing Sales ProfessionalsThe Relationship Builder is highly unlikely to succeed in a complex sales environment.

The Challenger is very likely to succeed in a complex sales environment.

• Strong Process Management Skills• Doesn’t Give Up Easily• Self Motivated• Interested in Feedback &

Development

The Hard Worker• Builds Advocates in Customer

Organization• Generous in Giving Time to Help

Others• Good Interpersonal Skills

The Relationship Builder• Reliably Responds To Internal &

External Stakeholders• Ensures That All Problems Are

Solved• Detail Oriented

The Problem Solver

• Follows Own Instincts• Self Assured• Difficult To Control

The Lone Wolf• Personalizes Sales Message• Delivers New Insight to Customers• Knows How to Drive the Customer

to a Decision

The Challenger

Complex Selling

CHALLENGERS PROVIDE UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE.

So what exactly makes someone a Challenger?

As the name suggests, Challengers have a different view of the world,they have a profound understanding of customer needs, and love to debate and push the customer to think differently about their business. Their conversations always lead with insight, not with thesolution they intend to sell.

Challengers win by maintaining an environment of constructive tension across the sale (precisely the opposite inclination for most average performing sellers, particularly the Relationship Builder). This healthy tension is the product of their ability to teach for differentiation, tailor for resonance, and take control of the sale by pressing the customer when needed.

A Challenger’s unique ability to make business, rather than just find it, is what sets them apart. And in a world where findable business has all but vanished, if you’re looking to grow, you will need Challenger reps to do it.

Contact us to learn more about how to build and scale the skills and behaviors of top performers across your team.

“The salesperson of the past asked a lot of

probing questions and tried to apply their solutions to

unmet needs. Challengers provideinsight to customers

rather than try to gain insight from them.”

Keith Clements VP US Sales,

Denstply Sirona




WIN THE COMPLEX

SALE

Shift behavior to compel the customer to

take action.

Deliver commercialinsight in a rational and emotionally compelling

way.

Customize the sales message to individual priorities and goals of

the customer.

Guide the customer through the buying process, reinforcing value and verifying

movement.

Teach for Differentiation

Tailor forResonance

Take Control

Constructive Tension

Defining Attributes of the Challenger Seller Profile

The average seller usually targets customer stakeholders who are easy to find and willing to take calls. But are these the kinds of people that get deals done? No, and certainly not in 2020. On the other hand, high-performers look for customers who mobilize an idea and build consensus around it in their organization. It’s a special breed of customer stakeholder, and one that takes skill to find.

THE RIGHT BUYERSHigh-performing sellers don’t just sell to anyone.

2020’s buying groups are harder to bring together than ever before. Each of the following trends make it harder than ever before to get that collective yes.

With the rapid increase in both number and diversity of individuals involved in a typical purchase, it was no surprise to hear sales leaders complain of increased cost of sale, longer cycle times, stalled deals and smaller deal sizes - even before the global economic disruption brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak.

While average performing sellers track down each stakeholder to win them over individually (very difficult to do in 2020), high-performing sellers have found a better way – they find the right stakeholder and partner with this individual to sell internally and win the others. This stakeholder, who may be sometimes skeptical and harder to find, is nonetheless exactly the kind of partner sellers need to build consensus and move deals forward. This is the Mobilizer.


The average buying group has 11 members and is expected to

stay that way

More People Involved

52% of commercial leaders report significant budget cuts

in 2020

Budget Cuts

92% of businesses have asked employees to work remotely

Remote Work

51% of Buyers are ‘Willing to Buy’ but not ‘Willing to

Advocate’

Risk Aversion

Group conflict peaks at 37% of the way through the purchase

process

Diverse Perspectives

SEVEN FLAVORS OF CUSTOMER STAKEHOLDERS

We analyzed over 700 customer stakeholders across hundreds of organizations and found they fit into seven discrete profiles based on attributes, traits, perspectives and, importantly, their ability to drive concrete action around a large-scale corporate purchase or initiative.

Mobilizers (the Go-Getter, the Teacher, and the Skeptic) on the chart below, are excellent at driving consensus-based change. Although different in style, they are similarly effective at making things happen. Talkers (the Guide, the Friend, and the Climber) have relatively little impact on organizational change. While nice to talk to, engaging them won’t provide a solid return on effort.

Challenger sellers run a completely different playbook in this complex customer landscape – they identify and engage Mobilizers to help them build consensus – while average performing sellers spend time with Talkers, or those most eager to spend time with them.

Contact us to learn more about building a playbook to identify and engage customer Mobilizers and win today’s complex and consensus-based sale.

Engaging Mobilizers drives a 31% increase in

likelihood of being a high-performing seller.




WIN THE COMPLEX

SALE

Effectiveness of Customer Stakeholder Profiles at Driving Organizational ActionIndexed

The Guide

0.23x

The Skeptic

0.66x

The Teacher

0.89x

The Go-Getter

1.0x

The Blocker

-0.95x

The Climber

-0.22x

The Friend

-0.20x

Highly UnlikelyLi

kelih

ood

to D

rive

O

rgan

izat

iona

l Act

ion

Highly Likely

“Mobilizers” “Talkers” “Blockers”

Our StoryIn 2008, during the height of the global financial meltdown, sales leaders found themselves in a crisis. Sellers weren’t selling, buyers weren’t buying. No one was sure how to fix it.

Until Challenger.

We conducted one of the largest sales studies ever, and our research showed clearly: There is a core set of skills and behaviors that make certain sellers over 4x more likelyto be high-performers in complex environments. We named this seller the Challenger, and our approach was born.

Our findings led to two best-selling books, The Challenger Sale and The Challenger Customer. Since then, Challenger the company has implemented this approach in hundreds of clients around the world and transformed the behavior of many thousands of sellers, driving exceptional growth, meaningful performance improvements, and creating billions in additional revenue.

WISDOMTO WIN

© 2020 Challenger Performance Optimization, Inc.

Ready to start?

Call +1 833-827-4260 or contact us at challengerinc.com/challengeaccepted

what is the challenger

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