Jim Keenan, founder of A Sales Guy consulting (asalesguy.com), believes in the challenger sales approach touted in the best-selling book of the same name (“The Challenger Sale” by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson). Keenan says there are three key areas where your reps can challenge customers:
The problem (and the customer’s view of the problem) – The more able your sales reps are to provide greater insight, teachings, background and assessment insight on the problem the prospect or customer is facing the better. As much as customers like to believe they understand their challenges and problems, there are always things they’ve missed, impacts they didn’t consider, fallout they were not anticipating.
The solution – Challenging a customer on how she is solving a problem is a functional selling approach. Solutions can be complex. They are often rarely thought out to the very end, and in almost every case there is a downside. No matter how good a solution is, there is always room for debate and challenging.
The Sales Process – Customers and prospects don’t always address the decision process very well; they don’t prioritize well; they don’t capitalize on evaluation opportunities correctly. They put too much importance on the wrong things and not enough emphasis on the right things. Salespeople have plenty of opportunity to challenge how their customers and prospects are moving through the buying process.
