The book, The Challenger Sale, authored by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson, is getting a lot of buzz from the sales world. It is a good book and one worth reading—with a couple of qualifiers. Read the book with discernment and apply common sense. Otherwise, you might eliminate best practices that still help win business.
The book shares research that supports that the best salespeople are assertive. These salespeople push back on their prospects and customers, challenging them on current approaches and systems. Assertive salespeople are good at questioning their prospects and customers on their current way of thinking. All good things help salespeople sell on value not price.
Here’s where you need to apply discernment. The book asserts that salespeople that sell on relationships and use a consultative sales approach are doomed to much less success than their ‘challenger’ counterparts. In fact, there is an inference that consultative selling is dead.
Assertiveness is an emotional intelligence skill. It is the ability to state what you need nicely and is an important skill in winning business. However, if you have not taken time to build relationships or show empathy during a sales meeting, (both emotional intelligence skills) prospects are not going to buy into your challenging ways. Why? Because they don’t like you! A recent RAIN group study shows that the price of entry to sales is connecting with people. They refer to it as Level 1 in the sales process.
Think about your own life. Most of you at one time or another, have received feedback that you needed to hear—but didn’t want to hear. When you hear feedback from someone you know and trust, you are more likely to hear and make necessary changes.
The same principle applies in business. I run assertive sales meetings and challenge prospects and customers thinking. The reason they listen is because I have taken time to build a relationship and asked questions (consultative selling). I don’t want to assume why they are taking a certain approach or the impact of a specific challenge to their organization. I can challenge prospects and customers because I have a relationship and applied consultative selling skills.
Another concept I liked and agreed with in the Challenger book was that the best salespeople are teachers. This is true because teaching requires a love for life-long learning. Being a teacher means that you have a passion for learning and becoming an expert on your products or services.
Here comes the big HOWEVER. There is a fine line between teaching and product dumping. Salespeople that have not mastered consultative selling skills will move into a product dump, not a teaching moment. If you have not mastered the basic art of asking questions, having a dialogue, you will default to a memorized presentation.
Consultative selling is not dead. Relationships are still important in winning business. Assertiveness is strong selling skill that provokes critical thought and conversation. Teaching creates collaboration and good will between a salesperson and prospect.
Use all of the above to open and land new business opportunities. It doesn’t have to be an either or proposition. When it is, you will lose business.
Click here to receive the RAIN Groups report on What Sales Winners Do Differently. It’s worth the read.
Good Selling!
Colleen Stanley
