About this item
What's the secret to sales success? If you're like most business leaders, you'd say it's fundamentally about relationships-and you'd be wrong. The best salespeople don't just build relationships with customers. They challenge them. The need to understand what top-performing reps are doing that their average performing colleagues are not drove Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson, and their colleagues at Corporate Executive Board to investigate the skills, behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes that matter most for high performance. And what they discovered may be the biggest shock to conventional sales wisdom in decades.Based on an exhaustive study of thousands of sales reps across multiple industries and geographies, The Challenger Sale argues that classic relationship building is a losing approach, especially when it comes to selling complex, large-scale business-to-business solutions. The authors' study found that every sales rep in the world falls into one of five distinct profiles, and while all of these types of reps can deliver average sales performance, only one-the Challenger- delivers consistently high performance.Instead of bludgeoning customers with endless facts and features about their company and products, Challengers approach customers with unique insights about how they can save or make money. They tailor their sales message to the customer's specific needs and objectives. Rather than acquiescing to the customer's every demand or objection, they are assertive, pushing back when necessary and taking control of the sale.The things that make Challengers unique are replicable and teachable to the average sales rep. Once you understand how to identify the Challengers in your organization, you can model their approach and embed it throughout your sales force. The authors explain how almost any average-performing rep, once equipped with the right tools, can successfully reframe customers' expectations and deliver a distinctive purchase experience that drives higher levels of customer loyalty and, ultimately, greater growth.
About the Author
Matt Dixon is Group Leader of the Financial Services and Customer Contact Practices of CEB (NYSE: CEB) in Arlington, VA. He is a sought-after speaker and advisor to corporate leadership teams around the world on topics ranging from sales and marketing effectiveness to customer service and customer experience differentiation.
In addition to his management responsibilities at CEB, Matt is a noted business writer. His first book, The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation (Penguin, November 2011) , was a #1 Amazon as well as Wall Street Journal bestseller. He's been published numerous times in the Harvard Business Review¬¬ with articles such as "Kick-Ass Customer Service" (January-February 2017) , "Dismantling the Sales Machine" (November 2013) , "The End of Solution Sales" (July-August 2012) and "Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers" (July-August 2010) . His two most recent books are The Effortless Experience: Conquering the New Battleground for Customer Loyalty, (Penguin, September 2013) and The Challenger Customer: Selling to the Hidden Influencer Who Can Multiply Your Results (Penguin, September 2015) .
Matt holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh as well as a B.A. in International Studies from Mount Saint Mary's University in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
Visit Matt on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/profile/edit? trk=hb_tab_pro_top or follow him on Twitter at @matthewxdixon
