In The Challenger Sale, Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson share the secret to sales success: don't just build relationships with customers. Challenge them What's the secret to sales success? If you're like most business leaders, you'd say it's fundamentally about relationships - and you'd be wrong. The best salespeople don't just build relationships with customers. They challenge them. Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson, and their colleagues at CEB have studied the performance of thousands of sales reps worldwide. And what they discovered may be the biggest shock to conventional sales wisdom in decades. The Challenger Sale argues that classic relationship-building is the wrong approach. Every sales rep in the world falls into one of five distinct profiles, and while all of these types of reps can deliver average performance, only one - the Challenger - delivers consistently high performance. Instead of bludgeoning customers with facts and features, Challengers approach customers with insights about how they can save or make money. They tailor their message to the customer's specific needs. They are assertive, pushing back when necessary and taking control of the sale. Any sales rep, once equipped with the right tools, can drive higher levels of customer loyalty and, ultimately, greater growth. Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson are managing directors with CEB's Sales Executive Council in Washington, D.C. www.executiveboard.com www.thechallengersale.com

THE BESTSELLING SALES CLASSIC WITH 1 MILLION COPIES SOLD

What's the secret to sales success? If you're like most business leaders, you'd say it's fundamentally about relationships - and you'd be wrong. The best salespeople don't just build relationships with customers. They challenge them.

The need to understand what top-performing reps are doing that their average performing colleagues are not is what drove Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson, and their colleagues at Corporate Executive Board, to investigate the skills, behaviours, knowledge, and attitudes that matter most for high performance. And what they discovered may be the biggest shock to conventional sales wisdom in decades.

Based on an exhaustive study of thousands of sales reps across multiple industries and geographies, The Challenger Sale argues that classic relationship building is a losing approach, especially when it comes to selling complex, large-scale business-to-business solutions. The authors' study found that every sales rep in the world falls into one of five distinct profiles, and while all of these types of reps can deliver average sales performance, only one - the Challenger - delivers consistently high performance.

'Read it, think about it, implement it. You, and your organization, will be glad you did'
Professor Neil Rackham, author of SPIN Selling

'The Challenger Sale breaks the winning elements of this powerful approach into a set of teachable skills that can take even a top sales team to a new level of results delivery'
Dan James, former chief sales officer, DuPont

Autorentext

Matthew Dixon is a managing director with the sales and marketing practice of the Corporate Executive Board in Washington, DC.He holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh.

Brent Adamson is Senior Director of Member Advisory Services for the Sales, Marketing, and Communications Practice at the Corporate Executive Board.Brent joined CEB from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, where he received his MBA.

Zusammenfassung

In The Challenger Sale, Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson share the ****secret to sales success: don't just build relationships with customers. Challenge them

What's the secret to sales success? If you're like most business leaders, you'd say it's fundamentally about relationships - and you'd be wrong. The best salespeople don't just build relationships with customers. They challenge them.

Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson, and their colleagues at CEB have studied the performance of thousands of sales reps worldwide. And what they discovered may be the biggest shock to conventional sales wisdom in decades.

The Challenger Sale argues that classic relationship-building is the wrong approach. Every sales rep in the world falls into one of five distinct profiles, and while all of these types of reps can deliver average performance, only one - the Challenger - delivers consistently high performance.

Instead of bludgeoning customers with facts and features, Challengers approach customers with insights about how they can save or make money. They tailor their message to the customer's specific needs. They are assertive, pushing back when necessary and taking control of the sale.

Any sales rep, once equipped with the right tools, can drive higher levels of customer loyalty and, ultimately, greater growth.

**Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson are managing directors with CEB's Sales Executive Council in Washington, D.C.

www.executiveboard.com

www.thechallengersale.com