Labcast: The Problem with the Challenger Sales Model

In November 2011, Matt Dixon and Brent Adamson published The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation, the best-selling book based on the premise that sales success isn’t just about building relationships with customers. It’s also about challenging those customers.
To write the book, Dixon and Adamson studied thousands of sales reps across an array of industries around the country. They ultimately concluded that relationship building in and of itself doesn’t work, particularly when selling large, sophisticated business-to-business solutions.
The better approach, the authors maintain, is to bring customers unique insights about how they can save or, better yet, make money. Those insights should be tailored to the customer’s specific needs and objectives. The book goes on to say that rather than give in to the customer’s every demand or objection, sellers should be assertive, push back when necessary, and take control of the sale.
The book has been met with both praise and criticism. In a recent article for Inc. entitled “The Challenger Sale: Not Very Challenging,” for example, Geoffrey James takes issue with the book, stating that it simply “repackages old ideas in a new wrapper.” Though others have surfaced similar concerns, the book’s popularity and influence remains strong.
In this week’s Labcast, Dave Brock, the president of Partners in EXCELLENCE, a boutique consulting and services company that helps its clients with a variety of business and sales strategies, offers his view of the of strengths and weaknesses of the challenger sales model.
Brock argues that the challenger sales model shouldn’t just be a sales initiative, but rather a company-wide initiative that incorporates other functional areas, including marketing, product, and strategy. He also points out what he sees as a major flaw in the book — a lack of clarity on what to do once you’ve bought into the idea of the challenger sale. In addition, he stresses the import of establishing credibility, without which challenging your customers will never work.
To learn more about the challenger sales model, listen to the full podcast by clicking on the link below:
Labcast 103_ Dave Brock Takes Issue with The Challenger Sales Model
Photo by: Smoked Ice