The Challenger Sale

5
TEACHING FOR
DIFFERENTIATION (PART 2):
HOW TO BUILD INSIGHT-LED
CONVERSATIONS
ONCE YOU’VE AGREED 
on the unique benefits that clearly set you
apart from the competition and you’ve identified a set of compelling
insights that teach customers a new way to compete more effectively, how
do you put it all together? Well, if you were to map a world-class teaching
conversation—or teaching “pitch”—you’d find it moves through six
discrete steps, each building directly to the next.
But before we get to the steps themselves, it’s important to note the very
strong emotional component of a well-designed teaching pitch. Frankly, this
isn’t so much about delivering a formal presentation as it’s about telling a
compelling story. Along the way, there should be some real drama, perhaps
a bit of suspense, and maybe even a surprise or two. Ultimately, the goal is
to take customers on a roller-coaster ride, leading first to a rather dark place
before showing them the light at the end of the tunnel. And that light, of
course, is your solution.
A PURPOSEFUL CHOREOGRAPHY

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If you’re going to successfully convince reluctant customers to not only
think differently, but act differently—in what is almost definitionally going
to be a disruptive manner—then it’s not enough for your teaching pitch to
simply convey a “compelling business case” with data, charts, and graphs.
No one ever sold anything off a spreadsheet alone. Done well, a teaching
pitch makes customers feel sort of sick about all the money they’re wasting,
or revenue they’re missing, or risk they’re unknowingly exposed to. But if
your story fails to engage both sides of the brain simultaneously—the
rational and the emotional—it’s too easy for your customer to make no
decision even over a good decision, as logic alone is rarely enough to
overcome the status quo. Disruptive change is as much about following
your gut as it is about following your head.
So with that in mind, let’s review the six steps of a world-class teaching
pitch.
Source: CEB, CEB Sales Leadership Council, 2011.