Putting the Challenger Sale to Work (SIX)

 

Making a Challenger Sales Presentation or NOT?

I love Flip Charts the fresh white surface, the smell of the permanent marker Pens! If you have been to one of my “Early Closing” days, then you know the room fills with Flip-chart pages 20 or more blue tacked to walls, windows and doors. Flip charts filled with 3M post its which are sorted, listed grouped as we identify HOW we will win the sale, and WHAT we have to do to win it!

I do not like “Whiteboards” so much, you cannot bring them with you,
and you are not allowed to take them away after you finish!

The content is temporary, like their Dry Marker Pens (more Dry than Marker) with almost no smell.
The main use I put whiteboards to is as a Projection Screen for presentations, and they are not very good at that either.
They always have a glaring, reflective “hot-spot” which prevents the viewer from seeing the best bit!

It has been with some interest that I have watched the FAD of “Sales White-boarding” grow.
Like all FADS, numerous people claim its invention. Moreover, even more “licenced”
or “accredited” to run a “White Board Sales School” Training Courses.

There is a wide range of Claims for “white boarding”, the basic claim is it’s “better” than PowerPoint.
Additional claims are its memorable, creative, flexible and persuasive.

The CLAIMED out comes of white boarding are SHORTER Selling Cycles, BETTER Sales Margins and
more acceptable to C level Buyers. Most Firms would want these.

What is the reality?    Have a look at this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_CAZkris4Q

Are their Claims met?    Is it ´operator error´ or is it the concept?

Let us compare this to a simple PowerPoint Presentation on a similar subject.

http://www2.bt.com/static/i/media/pdf/secure_internet_teleworker_presentation.pdf

There is a “script”, which the presenters are trained to “tailor” to their audience.
If it is no better, it is certainly no worse.

 

Let us look at some static images

   then this one      

 

Which is a C-level graphic, which is a play ground doodle?

 

These are two BLOG graphics from one of my favourite bloggers, a really smart guy…….

     or   

 

 

 

Many smart people are being mesmerised by this approach,

especially in MARKETING, but MOST Sales people CANNOT use it effectively,

only a very few who do use it, use it even fairly well.

 

What you did………

         what you tried to do…….  

 

My conclusion: if you have an arty degree,

especially in the graphic arts this tool may help you.

If you do NOT have any talent in lettering or drawing,
if you always lose at Pictionary,
then remember the Saying

“A fool with a tool is still a fool!” (Thanks Tamara)

 

What does all this have to do with Challenger Selling?

I have watched a series of great opportunities being blown due to inappropriate amateurish,
even childish efforts to whiteboard.  And, at the same time as the CMO is sending
more and more people of for “Training” in the ART.

Buy a copy of “The Challenger Sale” for your Salespeople instead, it’s cheaper,
the outcomes are SHORTER Selling Cycles, BETTER Sales Margins and
more “Challenging Selling” is a lot more acceptable to C level Buyers, than DOODLES.

If your PowerPoint Skills are poor, then get trained.

If your PowerPoint Presentations are boring or extra-long then buy the book “Beyond Bullet points”,
and realise the power of Great Storytelling, together with great graphics
in a really SALES PROFESSIONAL way.

 

In Challenger Selling,
you do a lot of hard work to earn your Presentation Opportunities,
DO NOT BLOW IT,
Tailor and Control it instead.

Putting the Challenger Sale to Work (Five)

 

A USP is NOT
a Challenger Insight

 

The CEB research clearly shows that Challenger Insights work.

However, few Salespeople are actually using them!

 

Let´s review briefly, what USP´s are:

“The Unique Selling Proposition (a.k.a. Unique Selling Point, or USP) is a marketing concept
that was first proposed as a theory to understand a pattern among successful advertising campaigns
of the early 1940s. It states that such campaigns made unique propositions to the customer and
that this convinced them to switch brands.

Wikipedia

Marketing produces USP´s by the gazillion:

Faster, bigger, smaller, easier, cheaper, and on and on!

HOWEVER, do they work?

  USP:

The Gas ‘free’ car

 

 

We have known for years, in Sales, that USP´s DO NOT SELL.

Rackham’s Research published as SPIN Selling devotes a chapter to it (Ch.9)

“The Myth and Magic” of the Initial Benefit Statement
and the USP in “Opening the Sale” is just another rod on Sale’s back!

“It’s the fastest on the Market!” offers the novice Salesperson.

“We do NOT need more SPEED, we need more reliability,
and faster usually means LESS RELIABILITY!” Retorts the cynical Customer.

This really is stepping off on the wrong foot,
from push “benefit” to Customer Objection in less than 10 seconds!

“We do not want your USP of speed;
we believe that might damage the reliability that we really need.”

The brochures promote SPEED, the adverts promote SPEED,
and the Call-centre is calling trying to book appointments for salespeople to talk about SPEED.
It is another failed Marketing Campaign, but Sales is going to get the blame.

“They didn't sell the USP: SPEED!” laments the CMO.

 

Opening the Sale refresher
http://brianmaciver.blogspot.com.es/2012/02/three-great-selling-skills-that-really.html

 

How do we construct these Challenger Insights?

From the MARKET, not MARKETING!

Get together with some customers, product specialists and ….

OK some marketing people
(but have an equal number of Salespeople present).

DO NOT let Marketing seize the White Board
or write-up the minutes of the meeting.

Have a Customer Engagement;

see their world through their eyes.

Ask Customers to design your next product,
or to modify your existing products.

Find out where “Speed”, size, or cost etc. is on their priority list.

From the meeting develop and test a variety of “insights”,
this is the beginning of Challenger Insights. (And the end of the USP! fiasco)

 

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Putting the Challenger Sale to Work (Four)– INSIGHTS

 

Challenger Selling is when a Salesperson uses a Business Insight to Challenge a Customer which enables a process of discovering and developing Vales with the Customer. The Value Proposition, made by a Challenger Salesperson, is constructed from the Customer Identified Value and the Salesperson’s Capability to deploy and deliver these Values to the Customers organisation.

It is not easy.

In fact, some of my Clients are finding it difficult to even get started.
Here is a solution which BMAC Consultants have successfully deployed to Big Software. Their basic difficulty was: “What is the “insight” we deliver which leads our existing Customers to re-deploy Enterprise Software into The Cloud?”

Well I am not going to tell you their insights;
they are confidential.

 

 

But, I will tell you how BMAC Consultants solved their problem!

We introduced “The Five O’clock Club.”

“The Five O’clock Club” is a meeting place for Sales, Marketing and Product on a weekly basis.
They meet usually on Wednesdays or Thursdays at Five o’clock. The core group are ‘volunteers’, one salesperson, one marketing person and one product person. To get ‘volunteers’ you need to invite people along to the first few meetings.

BMAC does this with beer and snacks!

 

 

 

You pose the problem “What insights can we offer our Customers which will support a selling cycle taking them from Enterprise software to Cloud based software?”
Then use a variety of brainstorming techniques with the talent in the room.
BMAC facilitate these, but you could use the ideas from “a whack on the side of the head!”

OK, by now ‘the question’ has transformed into a range of completely different “questions”,
about us, our competition, our customers, their competition, our capabilities,
our ability to deploy and deliver value that Customers WANT.

 

 

That is when BMAC turnover the whole process to the Core Five O’clock Group,
by now you have volunteers and their substitutes!
They can invite guests (including Customers)
and now they pay for their own beer!

 

Officially the meeting ends at six o o’clock,
but you will find that sometimes they run longer, don’t disturb them.
Look at their output, let them bulletproof their own ideas,
don’t be an “idea crusher.”

The groups which really zing are based on:

Account Manager, Marketing Executive and Product Support Specialist.

If Sales Managers, Marketing Managers and Product Managers want to “generate insights”,
they do NOT have to wait for Thursday at five O’clock that is their DAY job,
they can do it any time they want.

However, DO NOT STOP The Five O’clock Club.

This is a low cost, Customer (and Segment) based insights machine. You will find that more than enough Insights are being generated AND time wasting “internally generated insights” are discarded before they are communicated to disinterested Customers.

If you would like more details on a Five O’clock Club e-mail brian.maciver@gmail.com

 

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Putting Challenger Selling to Work–THREE

 

At A Glance - First Impressions

in Challenger Selling

 

 

The Sciences of Behavioural Economics have many lessons to offer Salespeople who are interested in Human Behaviour
and particularly in Decision Making.

I have never seen any science behind the many schools of “Body language”,
nor proof supporting their “Claims” of 90% of communication is visual (or 80% or 70%), based on Visual “Signals”.

 

There is, however, a piece of Scientific Research
which demonstrates First impressions – at a glance.

 

 

This study by Alex Todorov (Princeton)
which seeks to explain the human “ability” of
“Rapid Judgement”. The judgement is of the
“Safety or Danger of a Stranger”.

The accuracy of this ability is far from accurate.

Yet, it is an inherent “skill” from our long ago ancestors where this judgement was life or death. Todorov’s experiment proved “rapid judgement” to be universal, multi-national and multi-cultural.

 

 

 

What does this mean for Salespeople?

The “First Impression” is of particular importance for The Challenger Seller.

This is because early in the Seller Process (regardless of the Buyer Process)
the Challenger delivers an “insight of value” to the Buyer.

“How” the Buyer both receives and perceives this “insight of value” is greatly influenced by the First Impression given by the Seller.
In the study by Toderov “At a Glance” (Cognitive miser) the buyer will form a first impression composed of
“Dominance and Trustworthiness”.  These twin characteristics are based on face shape and smile.

Further influences MAY be Posture, Movement, Voice, Firmness of Handshake and their Deodorant or Cologne.

The Buyer will make an automatic “rapid judgement” at a fundamental level.

How do Salespeople cope with this?

In observations of successful Challenger Sellers their “insight of value”
is held back for between 10-15 minutes.

Challenger Sellers who deliver their “insight” earlier in the meeting,
particularly as their “Initial Statement”, have a much lower success rate
(measured by rejection of the insight).

Yet, if the same or similar insight offered later in the meeting
then it has a far greater degree of acceptance.

Recommendations.

1. Recognise the importance of first impressions.
    You can influence this by dress, posture, smile, handshake, voice and deodorant/cologne.

2. DELAY, your “insight of value” for at least 10 to 15 Minutes, use this time to be Buyer Centric,
    express interest in them, their role and their company.

3. Offer your “insight of value” in an assertive way (review the challenger sale and other work to be clear about
   Aggressive and Meek behaviours, as both reduce your sales effectiveness)

4. Use Evidence Based Selling Skills;
the TV program “Lie to Me” is entertainment, not a reality show.
The Lightman Institute is not real; it’s a speculative flight of fancy.
The “real” Dr. Lightman is Dr. Paul Ekman, who’s acclaimed work is presently under critical review,
but currently he refuses to allow peer review or publication http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ekman (read criticisms)

Putting Challenger Selling to Work–TWO

 

Value Creation is a False Premise.

 

Value “Creation” is a misnomer,
which places unnecessary stress on Salespeople
and disrupts the TRUE Value Generating Process.

Value “Creation” causes companies, Marketing and Sales,to look for “Value” inside their product

“What is our Value?”

This leads to dysfunctional Sales behaviour, TELLING Customers about their “created” Value.
This is no different than Feature/Function pitches, so held in contempt by the “Gurus” who promote Value Creation.

Before Columbus visited the Americas, they existed!
Columbus did not “create” the Americas;
he simply filled a void in his own Knowledge.

The fallacy of the “undiscovered” Country:

“Urtho and Aena looked on in bewilderment as the men in the Iron Shirts left their boats
and planted sticks with cloth attached on the beach.”

For Columbus it was a personal (not a Universal) discovery.
His on-going visits discovered and developed his knowledge,
while the void of his own ignorance shrank.

The Spanish had not found South America, they had arrived as uninvited guests, “gate-crashers”.  Today landing without Passport, Visa and travel documents in good shape, they would have been deported, as undesirable aliens, back to their country of origin.

Yet Popular Sales Myths persist: 

the “undiscovered” Problem,

the “created” Customer Need or Value “Creation”.

Seen from the Customer´s point of view,
these can appear as an arrogance bordering on stupidity.

None are probable, all are highly unlikely!

 

 

The role of the Challenger Salesperson is to perceive POTENTIAL Value first,
then to MANIFEST the Value WITH the Customer.
This is “Latent” Value, i.e. Value which is already PRESENT but NOT Perceived.

 

How can we Add-Value to the Customer´s Value Generation Process?

 

The “Catalyst”, which enables latent value to become known, is the Salesperson.
The Challenger Salesperson enables the LATENT VALUE to become apparent,
and clearly revealed in the MIND of the Customer.

 

Salespeople are the VITAL part of
the MANFISTATION of LATENT VALUE.

The role of The Challenger Salesperson is
to perceive LATENT Value inside the Customer´s Value Generating Process,
then to make visible this value.

Together the Salesperson AND the Customer can discover
further Potential Value and DEVELOP this Value together.

 

The correct approach is VALUE CONSTRUCTION .

 

Discover – Develop – Deploy Change – Deliver Value.

Putting Challenger Selling to Work–One

 

Top Performer Challenger Salespeople BEHAVE differently from Average (or Core) Challenger Salespeople. What is it that Challengers DO which either holds them back or makes them more successful?

One of the differences is in HOW they Challenge the Customer!

 

 

I have just reviewed a quantity of recorded sales calls.
I was running Behavioural Analysis on BOTH the Customer and the Salesperson.
Running the recordings both Forwards and Backwards

i.e. WHAT did the Sales person say to CAUSE the Customers response and

HOW did the Customer Response ENABLE the Challenger Process.

Let me share with you an Insight gathered from the recordings.

Some of the BEST Customer responses, which enable a Challenger Process,

Teach, Tailor, and Take Control were questions 
prefixed by the Salesperson with the word “HOW” in their question.

 

“How” is a very challenging question!

• HOW do you do that currently...HOW would you like it to do it in the future?
• HOW does that work...HOW should it work?
• HOW could it add more value?

Some of the WORST Customer responses were to Sales Questions prefixed with WHY.

• WHY do you do it that way?
• WHY have you not considered making Changes?
• And “any Customer Statement” then the Sales person responded WHY?

WHY, seems to put Customers into a defensive “Justification” mode,
explaining WHY they do things.

HOW, seems to put Customers into an open “Explanation” mode,
HOW things are (or How things work)

The Power of “HOW” was published in 1987 by Miller & Heiman in:
“Conceptual Selling” (P. 119), in a slightly different context.

 

Sales Challengers should be aware of HOW

it can increase their effectiveness.

Sales Challengers should be aware of WHY

they might struggle!

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Three Times when a Salesperson MUST involve their Sales Manager.

 

1. Before a “walk-away” from an Opportunity

 

2. Before “No-bidding” an Opportunity

 

3. Before recommending a Competitor for an Opportunity

 

 

 

 

Over the last 3 years, all of these issues have arisen with BMAC Clients

and what was missing was the conversation between the Salesperson and the Sales Manager.

 

No Salesperson is allowed to take these decisions on their own, ever!

 

These three Decisions are Joint Decisions where the Salesperson “recommends”
but the Sales Manager “decides”.

 

This more than just a “sanity check”, it is good Business practices. Taking the Decision on your own is not only Bad practice; it can lead to your dismissal.

 

 

1. The walk-away.

Learning when to walk away from an Opportunity is a key skill common to all Top Sales performers (and Professional Gamblers).
It’s a complex formula of Cost/Reward based on you “Likelihood to Win” the deal. If the odds are stacked against you, then it makes no sense to throw good money after bad. The common failure of Poor Sales Performers is to waste huge amounts of time on “No Hopers”, because they have a near empty Pipe line!
The walk away review with the sales manager should involve a Joint Customer visit, to confirm the facts. A bold move is to inform the Customer of your intended walk away and your reasons for it. Again, this should happen if it needs to, but it should not happen on a whim! 

Sometimes we have to change the Salesperson and reallocate the account.

2. No-Bidding an opportunity.

This should be done during a “special” Opportunity review. It is based on risk/reward, pursuing “no-hopers” COSTS our Company money for no reason, no reward!  Bids are expensive processes, the biggest cost is the other business lost while using key resources on the bid! It is reasonable to expect a win possibility of better than 50% before bidding an opportunity. The no bid special review occupies the 20%-50%, range. Below 20%, why are you bidding? The no-bid decision should be reviewed with both the Manager and the Customer. Strangely, the no-bid announcement can have a dramatic effect on the Prospect, increasing the likelihood to win greatly!

Again, the Sales Manager may have to reallocate the opportunity to another Salesperson if there is a particular need for Skill or Knowledge which would bring the opportunity to a “likely to win” status.

 

3. Recommending a Competitor.

(This would be a Firm which competes with you directly in the same Product/Market, not a Complimentary Product which you don’t have!) For many of my Clients this is NOT allowed. However, during the last decade, the rise of the “Trusted Advisor” has led to this occurring more and more often. There are two reasons, why salespeople may recommend a Competitor. The first is in a reasoned way, in the hope of winning TRUST and credibility with the Prospect which will pay off in a big way later. The second reason is because the Sales person is CRAZY. Both are really good reasons for NOT taking this decision on your own, but involving your Sales Manager to review your recommendation and for the Manager to agree or disagree, i.e. The Sales Manager makes the final decision. A key question which must be discussed internally is “What if I am wrong?” The consequences of giving your Competitor Account access AND your endorsement may have devastating and long term consequences. If the Competitor performs well, you could find yourself “locked-out” for years; if your Competitor performs poorly you may share the blame, thanks to your Recommendation! Lose, lose!

BMAC Consultants believes this is ALWAYS wrong.
If you are using it as a “technique” to gain trust, ultimately the prospect will realise you are manipulative. If you are foolish or crazy then you are likely to lose your job.

 

DON’T DO IT.

No-bid, or Walk-away.......
come back to fight another day!

 

Further thoughts on difficulties with Trusted Advisors:

http://brianmaciver.blogspot.com.es/2011/12/dont-trust-trusted-advisor.html

 

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