Publisher Description
Four years ago, the bestselling authors of The Challenger Sale overturned decades of conventional wisdom with a bold new approach to sales. Now their latest research reveals something even more surprising: Being a Challenger seller isn’t enough. Your success or failure also depends on who you challenge.
Picture your ideal customer: friendly, eager to meet, ready to coach you through the sale and champion your products and services across the organization. It turns out that’s the last person you need.
Most marketing and sales teams go after low-hanging fruit: buyers who are eager and have clearly articulated needs. That’s simply human nature; it’s much easier to build a relationship with someone who always makes time for you, engages with your content, and listens attentively. But according to brand-new CEB research—based on data from thousands of B2B marketers, sellers, and buyers around the world—the highest-performing teams focus their time on potential customers who are far more skeptical, far less interested in meeting, and ultimately agnostic as to who wins the deal. How could this be?
The authors of The Challenger Customer reveal that high-performing B2B teams grasp something that their average-performing peers don’t: Now that big, complex deals increasingly require consensus among a wide range of players across the organization, the limiting factor is rarely the salesperson’s inability to get an individual stakeholder to agree to a solution. More often it’s that the stakeholders inside the company can’t even agree with one another about what the problem is.
It turns out only a very specific type of customer stakeholder has the credibility, persuasive skill, and will to effectively challenge his or her colleagues to pursue anything more ambitious than the status quo. These customers get deals to the finish line far more often than friendlier stakeholders who seem so receptive at first. In other words, Challenger sellers do best when they target Challenger customers.
The Challenger Customer unveils research-based tools that will help you distinguish the "Talkers" from the "Mobilizers" in any organization. It also provides a blueprint for finding them, engaging them with disruptive insight, and equipping them to effectively challenge their own organization.
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About the Authors
Brent Adamson is well known for his passion for “productive disruption.” Brent is a sought-after speaker and facilitator, with more than twenty years of experience as a professional researcher, teacher, and trainer. Brent is a frequent contributor on sales topics on Harvard Business Review’s blog and the CEB sales blog, as well as being published in Bloomberg, Businessweek, and Selling Power. A native of Omaha, Nebraska, Brent joined CEB from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business where he received his MBA with distinction. In addition to his MBA, Brent holds a BA with distinction in political science from the University of Michigan along with MAs in political science and German, and a PhD in applied linguistics from the University of Texas. Brent resides in Leesburg, Virginia, with his wife and two daughters.
Matthew Dixon is an executive director at CEB, a leading member-based advisory company. He has presented to hundreds of senior executives and management teams around the world, including those of many Fortune 500 companies, on issues ranging from customer service strategy to sales productivity. In addition to The Challenger Sale, his work has been published in the Harvard Business Review. Dixon holds a PhD from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh and currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife and four children.
Pat Spenner is a managing director in the Sales and Marketing Practice of CEB. He is a frequent contributor to Forbes and the Harvard Business Review.
Nick Toman is a managing director in the Sales and Marketing Practice of CEB. He is a coauthor of The Effortless Experience and is a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review.
About Steve Kramer
Steve Kramer is a prolific voice actor. Known for his work in anime, he has voiced characters in various Power Rangers series, including the voice of Darkonda in Power Rangers in Space.