You Need to be a “Challenger” if You Want to be a Winner!

June 15, 2009

Relationship builders come in last and challengers finish first.

A fresh report on the types of sales approaches that win and the ones that do the worst reveals results that could come as a surprise to you, but as Yoda says,  “You must unlearn what you have learned. Try not! Do, or do not! There is no try!”

According to the Corporate Executive Board’s Integrated Sales Executive Council (iSEC), the sales persona that is most successful in winning business is “The Challenger.”  The one that performs the poorest is “The Relationship Builder.”

You can download a summary of the report, Replicating the New High Performer.  But, here’s the gist:

“The Challenger” salesperson is a teacher. She brings a unique perspective to the customer, asserts her perspective and insight, takes control of the  process, and tailors the message to the recipient on the customer’s side.

According to iSEC, in order to build more “Challengers,” companies need to get three things right:

1. Messages: You need to arm your reps to bring a unique perspective or point of view to the customer…in order to “teach.”  In other words, you need to have something worth teaching.

2. Tools: You need to give your reps the tools and skills to master the teaching message (per point #1), and you must equip them to tailor that message to different people and executives on the customer side.

3. Training: Your reps need to develop a greater sense of assertiveness (without being aggressive) so they can start taking control of the sales conversation and confidently guide the dialogue.

Corporate Visions is featured in the iSEC report as a provider of teachable messages and delivery skills. They highlight a CVI case study with our Volvo client, and they are wrapping up another one with our ADP client.

Being a Challenger does not mean being arrogant. The emphasis is on teaching the customer something.

When you get in the room with a customer, are you focused on providing a fresh insight? Do you add value to their day?

Or are you focused on your relationships and giving your customer a hug? (Just poking a little fun at one of the popular business books.)

Challenge your customers like a mentor encourages a protégé.  Help them overcome their initial reluctance to be the hero they are called to be.  Be the “Yoda” to their “Luke Skywalker.”  You get the point.

Download a summary of the report, Replicating the New High Performer.

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Lost in Translation, Part II – Context is King

February 18, 2009

Ever heard of the Rosetta Stone? One man spent his entire life unlocking its secrets. We know you don’t have that kind of time, so just watch this video to get up to speed:

It wasn’t until the discovery of this stone in 1799 by Napoleon’s troops that the modern world was able to decipher hieroglyphics. This stone carried the key to finally cracking the hieroglyphic code.

It contained a carved text made up of hieroglyphs along with Egyptian and Greek translations, which enabled scholars who knew Greek and Egyptian to work backwards to finally understand the hieroglyphs.

In some ways, sales people need to be like the Rosetta Stone. They must translate your product and services details into something the customer will understand and care about.

Context is King!

Customers know what they are trying to accomplish, and they understand there are challenges that are causing them pain. They are looking for a partner company to share a unique insight and clearly align their offering with these challenges, demonstrating how they will provide relevant value in meeting the customer’s objectives.

This is called “context.” Without context there can be no translation. Or the translation will be questionable because you are forcing your customer to do the heavy-lifting.

What happens if you leave the translation of your message up to your customer?

  • It’s hard work! It takes a ton of effort to listen to a message that’s all about your company, your product and your technology and try to figure out what that means to me – the customer. People like to hear ideas and answers for their problems; they don’t like to be sold product features and have to intuit how it helps.
  • It’s confusing! Your customer wants to know what they will be able to “do” with your product. What they can “do better” or “do different” in order to succeed.  Forcing them to translate your product features and capabilities into something meaningful can become frustrating and futile.
  • It’s boring! How long can you sit in any conversation listening to someone talk all about themselves before you tune them out?  If you ask the right questions to uncover their pains, issues and challenges, then you can focus your entire message on your customer. Putting your product and your message in their world – in their Story. You’re making it more relevant and more exciting for them.

Language translators didn’t need more hieroglyphs in order to finally come up with a translation. They had thousands of years of hieroglyphs. What they needed was the hieroglyphs to be put into the context of a language that made sense to them.

Similarly, your customers don’t need another company capabilities presentation or credentials dump. They’ve heard the same thing a thousand times. What they need is your company to put your offer into the context of what they need to accomplish.

Does this mean more work for you? Yes! Is it going to be harder to do? Probably!

But know that most of your competitors aren’t taking the time to do this. You have an opportunity to be your customers’ Rosetta Stone.

You’ll not only translate a better message, you’ll win more business by doing it!

— by Mike Miller, Consultant, and Tim Riesterer, SVP of Strategic Consulting & CMO at Corporate Visions Inc.

If you’re in sales, check out The Power of Story webinar to find out more about translating your message into your buyer’s world.
If you’re in marketing, check out the Bridge the Messaging Gap webinar to see how you can translate your 30,000-foot level brand message into a 3-foot level field message that’s ready for your sales team to use.

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