To understand what sets apart this special group of sales
reps, the Sales Executive Council launched a global study of sales rep
productivity three years ago involving more than 6,000 reps across nearly 100
companies in multiple industries.
What they found is
that every sales professional falls into one of five distinct profiles:
1-
Relationship
Builders focus on developing strong personal and professional relationships
and advocates across the customer organization. They are generous with their
time, strive to meet customers' every need, and work hard to resolve tensions
in the commercial relationship.
2-
Hard
Workers show up early, stay late, and always go the extra mile. They'll
make more calls in an hour and conduct more visits in a week than just about
anyone else on the team.
3-
Lone
Wolves are the deeply self-confident, the rule-breaking cowboys of the
sales force who do things their way or not at all.
4-
Reactive
Problem Solvers are, from the customers' standpoint, highly reliable and
detail-oriented. They focus on post-sales follow-up, ensuring that service
issues related to implementation and execution are addressed quickly and
thoroughly.
5-
Challengers
use their deep understanding of their customers' business to push their
thinking and take control of the sales conversation. They're not afraid to
share even potentially controversial views and are assertive — with both their
customers and bosses.
What is documented is that Challengers dramatically out-perform the other profiles,
particularly Relationship Builders. When
we look at average reps, we find a fairly even distribution across all five of
these profiles. But while there may be five ways to be average, there's only
one way to be a star. They found that Challenger reps dominate the high-performer
population, making up close to 40% of all-star reps.
What makes the
Challenger approach different?
- Challengers teach their customers. They focus the sales
conversation not on features and benefits but on insight, bringing a unique perspective
on the customer's business. They come to the table with new ideas for their
customers that can make money or save money — often opportunities the customer
hadn't realized even existed.
- Challengers tailor their sales message to the customer
They have a finely tuned sense of individual customer objectives and value
drivers and use this knowledge to effectively position their sales pitch to
different types of customer stakeholders within the organization.
- Challengers take control of the sale. While not
aggressive, they are certainly assertive. They are comfortable with tension and
are unlikely to acquiesce to every customer demand. When necessary, they can
press customers a bit — not just in terms of their thinking but around things
like price.
- In the end, Challengers win the sale, but it's almost more
eye-opening who loses. Relationship Builders come in dead last, accounting for
only 7% of all high performers.
Why are Relationship Builders dead last? What can be concluded is the nature
of the relationship is what matters. Challengers
win by pushing customers to think differently, using insight to create
constructive tension in the sale. Relationship
Builders, on the other hand, focus on relieving tension by giving in to the
customer's every demand. Where Challengers
push customers outside their comfort zone, Relationship
Builders are focused on being accepted into it. They focus on building
strong personal relationships across the customer organization, being likable
and generous with their time. The Relationship
Builder adopts a service mentality. While the Challenger is focused on customer value, the Relationship Builder
is more concerned with convenience.
Conclusion:
The bottom line — Challengers
win and Relationship Builders lose —
is one that sales leaders often find deeply troubling, because their
organizations have placed by far their biggest bet on recruiting, developing,
and rewarding Relationship Builders, the profile least likely to win.
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