The Challenger Sale

SPIN
Selling
and numerous other renowned works in the field, for his time

---

and thoughtful consideration throughout this project. We are honored to be
associated with Neil, the “professor emeritus” of the sales world.
All of our work at CEB is inspired by our members. They direct us to
their most pressing issues, give generously of their time so that we can learn
how these issues manifest for them and their commercial organizations,
allow us to survey their reps, managers, and even customers, and, when
called upon, to profile their best practices and tactics so that other members
might avoid reinventing the wheel.
Within a membership that now spans hundreds of companies and
thousands of individual sales and marketing leaders, we would like to
specifically thank a few of our current and former members for their above-
and-beyond contributions to this research:
Deb Oler, vice president and general manager of Grainger Brand, has
been on the Challenger journey since long before it had a name. Her
organization’s many accomplishments and contributions to the Challenger
Selling Model have been discussed in detail in this book, and Deb herself
has been unfailingly generous with her time since we first stumbled upon
her groundbreaking sales approach in late 2007. A true “guru” in her
profession, she has continued to challenge us to further define the
Challenger model and ask what’s next for B2B sales and marketing.
Kevin Hendrick is senior vice president of sales for ADP’s North
American Employer Service business. A true first mover, Kevin has taken
the Challenger Selling Model and applied it to his organization as quickly
as we’ve been able to turn out the research. The tremendous success he’s
seen with the model aside, Kevin has been an invaluable resource to our
team. Having a member who is so eager to apply the insights from our work
and report back what he’s learned has helped to ensure that this work stays
grounded in the realities of B2B sales and marketing and that its lessons
stay practical, as opposed to simply theoretical.
Finally, we wish to thank Dan James, former CSO of DuPont, who has
been a guiding light for us from day one of this journey. As one of our
leading members, Dan has given countless hours of his own time to help
guide this research and provide feedback on it. While CSO, Dan gave us
access to his reps, managers, and customers. He also agreed to be profiled
for several best practices he and the DuPont team had architected. Since his
retirement from DuPont, Dan has served as one of the principal facilitators

---

of our CEB Challenger and Manager Development programs and has been
an ongoing adviser on this book, conducting numerous interviews, helping
us think through some of the trickier implementation issues in the
Challenger model, and even editing the early manuscript of the book itself.
Speaking of editing, we would be remiss for not acknowledging the
fantastic support of the many talented and dedicated professionals who
helped shepherd this book through each phase of the journey: our agent, Jill
Marsal of Marsal-Lyon; the terrific team at Portfolio, including our very
talented editor, Courtney Young, and her editorial assistant, Eric Meyers;
our very patient graphic designer, Tim Brown; our own excellent marketing
and PR team at CEB, including Rory Channer, Ayesha Kumar-Flaherty, and
Leslie Tullio; and last but not least, Gardiner Morse, senior editor at
Harvard
Business
Review
, for his support in helping us to unveil the
Challenger Selling Model to the broader business community.
The final thank-you is the most important one. This research and this
book would never have been possible were it not for the support and
encouragement of our families. Anybody who has written a book knows
that it’s a big undertaking and that the price for the time it takes to get it
done is often paid by those closest to the author.
Matt’s beautiful and talented wife, Amy, and their four wonderful
children, Aidan, Ethan, Norah, and Clara, showed nothing but patience and
love for their father and helped keep him sane and grounded throughout this
project. His only regret is that 
The
Challenger
Sale
is unlikely to be
included in the 
Magic
Tree
House
series, and thus is likely to go unread by
the Dixon children for the foreseeable future.
Brent can only wonder at his amazing wife, Ute, whose patience knows
no bounds despite being sorely tested at times, and his two beautiful
daughters, Allie and Kiera, who challenge him to see the world anew every
single day. May you grow up to be Challengers in whatever you choose to
do. But first . . . we’re going to Disney World.

---