The Challenger Sale

LESSONS FOR MARKETING LEADERS
Stop Telling the World How “Customer-centric” You Are
More than ever before, suppliers are emphasizing how they put “the
customer first.” The assumption is that if you want to grow coming out of
the recent downturn, you’re going to have to ensure that everything you do
delivers maximum customer value. But there are several ways to be
“customer-centric” that are actually bad for business. Two examples of this
that we hear frequently from our members are (1) discounts and other terms
and conditions that undermine profitability in exchange for little long-term
gain, and (2) assuming an order-taker posture with the customer (i.e., taking
short-term orders when the customer is pushing for them, instead of getting
them to think about longer-term business).
We have heard the term “customer-centricity” so overused that it has
been completely watered down. Just because you involve customers in your
R&D process, for example, does not mean your average sales rep

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understands, as one of our members put it, “what your key customer does
and struggles with for ten hours a day in their office.” That is customer-
centricity in the sales world—and it’s very rare that reps have this.
The bottom line is very simple: If you truly want to build a “customer-
centric” organization, then you’re actually going to have to build an 
insight-
centric
organization—a commercial enterprise specifically designed to
generate new-to-the world insights that teach customers to think differently
not about your products and solutions, but about their business.
There Is No Sidestepping the “Deb Oler Question”
“Why should your customers buy from you instead of your competitors?” If
you can’t answer this question, you don’t have a Challenger Selling Model.
The Challenger approach is about reframing the customer’s worldview,
giving them a new way to think about how to save or make money. There
are lots of ideas for saving and making money that your customers might
value, but most of these aren’t going to link back to capabilities where you
outperform the competition. If you can’t say what differentiates you—why
your customers should buy from you instead of a competitor—you can’t
teach them to value what makes you different.
Every company has 
some
unique differentiator, otherwise they probably
wouldn’t exist. That said, when it comes to the insights that lead to those
unique benefits, there’s no need to start from scratch. Savvy marketing
organizations understand that they have Challengers out in the field right
now teaching customers new insights that can jump-start their own efforts
to build more scalable—and sustainable—Commercial Teaching
capabilities.