The Challenger Sale

THE DECLINE OF RELATIONSHIP SELLING
How can we explain these counterintuitive findings? In the book, Matt
Dixon and Brent Adamson build a very persuasive case. Let me add my
own two cents’ worth to what they say. Conventional wisdom has long held
that selling is about relationships and that in complex sales, relationships

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are the underpinning of all sales success. Yet over the last ten years there
have been some disturbing hints that relationship-based selling may be less
effective than it used to be. My own studies of what customers value from
salespeople would be a good example. When we asked 1,100 customers
what they valued in salespeople, we were surprised at how few times they
mentioned relationships. It seems that the old advice, “Build relationships
first and then sales will follow,” no longer holds true. That’s not to say that
relationships are unimportant. I think a better explanation is that the
relationship and the purchasing decision have become decoupled. Today
you’ll often hear customers say, “I have a great relationship with this sales
rep but I buy from her competition because they provide better value.”
Personally, I believe that a customer relationship is the 
result
and not the
cause of successful selling. It is a reward that the salesperson earns by
creating customer value. If you help customers think differently and bring
them new ideas—which is what the Challenger rep does—then you earn the
right to a relationship.
THE CHALLENGE OF CHALLENGE
At the heart of this book is the demonstrated superiority of Challengers in
terms of customer impact and therefore sales results. Many people are taken
aback by this finding—and I suspect some readers will feel the same. But
while the articulation of the Challenger idea is new, the evidence has been
visible all around us. Surveys of customers consistently show that they put
the highest value on salespeople who make them think, who bring new
ideas, who find creative and innovative ways to help the customer’s
business. In recent years, customers have been demanding more depth and
expertise. They expect salespeople to teach them things they don’t know.
These are the core skills of Challengers. They are the skills of the future,
and any sales force that ignores the message of this book does so at its peril.
I’ve been in the business of sales innovation all my professional life, so
I don’t anticipate that the publication of this important research will bring
an instant revolution. Change is slow and painful. But I do know this: There
will be a few companies that will take the findings that are laid out here and

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will implement them well. Those companies will reap huge gains and
significant competitive advantage from building Challenge into their sales
force. As CEB research shows, we live in an era when product innovation
alone cannot be the basis for corporate success. How you sell has become
more important than what you sell. An effective sales force is a more
sustainable competitive advantage than a great product stream. This book
gives you a well-articulated blueprint for building a winning sales force.
My advice is this: Read it, think about it, implement it. You, and your
organization, will be glad that you did.
Professor Neil Rackham 
Author of 
SPIN Selling

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