Do you remember the book the Challenger Sale? The book that got everyone fired up because they said relationships wasn’t the most important skill in selling? Well, the boys are at it again and I got to interview them.
The authors of the Challenger Sale just launched the Challenger Customer and it’s already a Wall Street Journal bestseller (#2). Like the Challenger Sale, The Challenger Customer is based on reams of data that suggest the selling technics we are using to sell into companies today are wrong.
Damn! They did it again
The key surprises:
- There are now 5.4 players in the average sale. That’s 5.4 people you have to convince to buy.
- Deals are only 37% of the way through the sales cycle before internal conflict peaks and kills the deal.
- Bringing the RIGHT stakeholders together to learn before they buy boosts their willingness to pay a premium by 70%
- There are 7 clear buying personas in your customer
- The Go-Getter
- The Teacher
- The Skeptic
- The Guide
- The Friend
- The Climber
- The Blocker
- (and you have to know who each one and who you’re dealing with)
This episode of The Word is a MUST see. There is more sales information packed into this than you can imagine.
What the CEB has learned will have a profound effect on how sales teams build and execute deal strategies from here on.
Check out and let me know what you think.