The Challenger Sale: A Consumer Behavior Marketing Book Report

This report summarizes the book 'The Challenger Sale,' focusing on its sales model and impact on consumer behavior. It highlights the Challenger sales model's emphasis on teaching, tailoring, and taking control of customer conversations, contrasting it with traditional relationship-building approaches. The report discusses the challenges faced by salespeople in today's empowered customer environment and identifies key success factors, including disrupting customer assumptions and building constructive tension. Performance indicators for salespeople are outlined, such as complex sales, financial outcomes, customer satisfaction, and conversion ratios. The analysis emphasizes the importance of skills and organizational capabilities in effectively challenging customers and achieving higher sales. The report concludes by identifying key messages from the book, personal learnings, and perceived weaknesses, offering recommendations for applying the Challenger Sales Model in practice. Desklib provides solved assignments and past papers for students.

Marketing Consumer
Behavior

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Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...................................................................................................................1
Selling process.......................................................................................................................................2
Nature of selling and buying..............................................................................................................2
The challenger sales model................................................................................................................2
Accomplishing the goals....................................................................................................................2
Evaluating Salesperson..........................................................................................................................3
Key challenges salesperson face........................................................................................................3
Some of the keys to success for salesperson......................................................................................3
Potential indicators of performance and how salesperson must be evaluated....................................4
What I Learned......................................................................................................................................5
Important message that author wants to convey................................................................................5
Top things that can be learned from this book...................................................................................5
Weakest Points about the book..........................................................................................................6
Recommendation...................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES......................................................................................................................................7

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In the competitive environment of today’s business, it is important to ensure that companies
apply sales model that help in the growth of the organisation by ensuring higher growth in
sales. The Challenger sale model is a book that describes the way in which the companies can
implement a selling model that can help in increasing the growth of the sales of the company.
This report will describe the way in which the selling model when applied helped company to
have growth in the market share in the twelve months. After reading the book it is found out
that applying model and improving the sales of the company cannot be done overnight. The
Challenger Selling Model is understood as a commercial transformation and putting it right
needs significant alterations to way in which marketing and sales interact as well as the type
of methods a company uses. It also depends on the type of people a company recruits and the
type of training that is delivered to them. It also depends on the way they are managed within
the firm. Putting everything right can be challenge for the firm as transformation needs
rigorous efforts from all the stakeholders. The challenge selling model is a new operating
system for any firm rather than being another feature to existing system. It is all about how
the employees of the organisation interact with customers better than competitor’s do.
In this book there are examples where there is profiling of how the model can achieve higher
sales. It also explains the way in which relationship with consumers helps an organisation to
improve their sales. It is essential that the conversation between customers and employees of
the company must be based facts, features and should focus on benefits. The overall approach
of the company is to enhance the skills of the consumers in the sales departments so that they
can add value to the offering and hence can achieve higher sales. In this book, research
revealed that every business to business sales representatives lies in five different profiles
which includes the hard worker, the lone wolf, the relationship builder, the challenger and the
problem solver. The challengers Approach to sales are highly linked with the actual sales
performance among higher performers.
The Challenger Sales Model is an approach to sales where the seller actively teaches their
prospect, tailors their process of sales and the way in which they take control of the client’s
conversation. The challengers Sales Model suggests that everyone can become a Challenger
if they are able to incorporate right combination of skills. In this report this model will be
explained in details.

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Selling process
Nature of selling and buying
The effectiveness of the sales process can be described by the nature of sales and the buying
behaviour of the people. In this book the nature of sales that is illustrated is the relationship
building. It suggests that it doesn’t matter what sales representative sell but it matters how
they sell. It is not the quality of the product that matters but the value of sales person’s insight
that a company delivers as a part of the sales interaction itself. Making good relationship with
the consumers can help in achieving higher sales but challenging the customers can make a
huge difference. Explaining the nature of buying, author suggests that firm does not require
sales representative as earlier. Customers do not contact sales representative till 57% of the
sales process is already done. This is also because the customers have become empowered,
reluctant and risk-avoiding. They carry-on with their own research and have made their own
criteria for making a purchase.
The challenger sales model
It is an approach to sales which revolves around the way in which Challenger tailors, teaches
and takes control. This model believes in giving appropriate training, coaching and sales
tools. All sales representatives even the ones that are falling into the other four categories can
take control of the conversation with consumers like a challenger. This sales model consists
of fundamental principles acting as the foundation for the cited sales model.
 Challengers are made and not born: It is not that challengers are just born, most of the
time they are made with their own or company’s efforts.
 Skill matters: This model also suggests that it is the combination of skills that matters
the most. For achieving higher sales a representative must have different kinds of
skills.
 Challenging reason: It is not just the skills of the representative but the organisation’s
capacity that can help in challenging the customers (Read.amazon.in, 2019).
 It takes time: Creating and building a group of Challenger sales force is a long term
process and it is a journey. It cannot be achieved with an overnight effort rather it
needs a long term process.
Accomplishing the goals
This model provides an approach where the sales representatives have to be given training
that helps in gaining the control of the sales function. When appropriate training is provided
to the consumers, they are easily able to perform better. This performance of theirs helps in
achieving maximum sales which ultimately enhances the overall effectiveness of the
organisation. Improved performance always helps the employees to work in the desired path
which leads to achieving the goals. Goals are also achieved by the fact that for becoming a
challenger rigorous effort need to be made by the sales representative (Mares, 2019). This
improves the skills of the employees which are having direct impact on the quality and
productivity of the employees hence companies also focuses on improving the skills or a
combination of skills. This model also suggests a company to improve its capabilities rather

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than forcing sales force to perform better. Without this, it is not possible to challenge the
customers and turn them into the actual purchaser which is the ultimate goal of any company.
As higher sales are achieved by the individuals using this model hence they are able to
achieve their personal goals. This is necessary for own growth and is also crucial for
achieving the goals they have made in the future. Since the skills of the employees’ increases
hence they are able to assist the customers. This helps the customers to resolve their queries
which increase their scope for making a purchase. It is ultimately helping the consumers to
make a better deal and hence understanding the product and services. Better understanding of
products and service help the customers in making the best purchase while comparing all the
products in the market. Skilled sales representative smoothen the process of sales for the
consumers which reduce the challenges they face in the overall buying process.
Evaluating Salesperson
Key challenges salesperson face
In today’s time customers are highly empowered as they have technological mediums. Due to
this and change in the model of business, there are several challenges emerging in front of the
salesperson. For dealing with these challenges, it is crucial that company applies best model
for sales.
 Own research: Customers these days conduct their own research and come to a
conclusion for making a purchase. Taking the help of technology improves their reach
and hence helps them in doing a better research. Persuading these customers to
achieve higher sales might not be easy as they make their mind-set on their own.
Many a time it is seen that in spite of the efforts by sales person client do not
complete the sales process and leave the process in between.
 Identifying the need of individual customers: It is difficult for the companies to
identify the individual needs of the consumers. Most of the time the intentions of the
consumers remain unclear.
 Coming to common understanding: Since the understanding of the sales
representative and the consumers are different hence most of the time, they are not
able to come to a common understanding. This problem becomes greater when the
clients and sales representatives are not on the same cultural backgrounds.
Some of the keys to success for salesperson
It is most likely seen that employees that are using challengers approach are performing twice
when compared with other employees undertaking other approach.
Disrupting consumer’s assumptions: As discussed earlier, modern day customers conduct
their own research. Based on this research, they generate a particular type of assumption.
Working on removing these assumptions by creating disruption is very much important. Sales
representative must choose an intellectual way to remove this assumption so as to market
their own product in a brand new manner so as to achieve maximum sales.

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Building constructive tension: For success of the organisation, it is essential to teach, tailor
and take control of the conversation and the sales process. This helps them in building a
constructive tension where the clients get forced to make a purchase. A sales person must
portray or really have the better understanding of the life of the customers than what
customer has about their own life. This helps them in creating a relationship with the clients
which is essential for converting people into the actual buyers. This also understanding the
individual needs and hence force them to think differently about their product which helps
them to sell more effectively.
Potential indicators of performance and how salesperson must be evaluated
There are several indicators that a company must use in order to evaluate the performance of
the sales representative. Some of the indicators are as follows:
 Making complex sale: One of the basis criteria using which this company can
evaluate their sales person is that how much complex sales they have made during the
observation period. This must be criteria as it helps the organisation in adding the
sales margin which was even not expected.
 Financial outcomes: How much is the value of money for which they have made their
sales. The overall financial outcome is what companies desires for them and if the
overall value is higher than the sales manager has performed well. More the sales
volume more is the chance to achieve financial outcomes.
 Customer satisfaction: The type of customer feedback that is received by the sales
person is an important criteria based on which sales person needs to be evaluated. The
positive remarks by the company acts as an important metric based on which their
performance can be evaluated. Higher the customer satisfaction means greater
performance from the side of the salesperson (Dixon and Adamson. 2011).
 Conversion ratio: How much deals are closed by the sales person in the total prospects
is an essential criterion for evaluating the performance of the sales representative. The
challenger always has a higher percentage of conversion.
 Qualitative indicators: While analysing the sales performance of sales representative
this book suggests that there must be use of quality parameters. Higher the quality
delivered by the sales person higher is his or her performance. Quality must be criteria
as sometimes customers purchases any product but most likely they are not willing to
make the purchase next time. A quality interaction with the customers helps the
company to make the long term partners. This increases the chances of sales for the
next time (Adamson, et al. 2015).
The evaluation of the sales representative must be on the basis of the above mentioned
indicators. For measuring and monitoring these parameters, company must take use of
technology at the same time the sales calls and conversations with the clients must be
recorded. There must be a pre-defined parameter based on which these evaluations must be
done.

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What I Learned
Important message that author wants to convey
While reading the books there are various things that author wants to convey. Three to five
important message that author wants to convey are:
The nature of selling and buying has changed and this change in the nature of selling and
buying has compelled the company to train their sales personnel in a manner that they might
be able to twice their sales performance. Sales representatives must sell their product better
than how their competitor’s do. Modern day sales representatives are facing many types of
challenges, this include own research, Identifying the need of individual customers and
Coming to common understanding. Sales can be increased by building more challengers in
their sales workforce. This can be done by implementing the best model for sales.
Sales person must be able to compile, integrate and transform the data into actionable insights
which helps them in improving both engagement and targeting. The clients of the company
must be able to utilise the information in a better manner (Rapp, et al. 2014). Sales
representative must remove the assumptions in the minds of the customers so as to persuade
them to make the purchase. It helps in accomplishing the goals of the organisation, individual
and the customers.
Sales representative need to improve the way in which they deal with the customers as it
helps in building the long term relationship with the clients. Disrupting customer’s
assumption and building constructive tension will help the company in converting potential
sales to actual sales.
Top things that can be learned from this book
The nature of sales and buying has changed and to become effective sales person in the
market, it is necessary to improvise the way sales are made by the sales representatives.
Companies should focus on the model that helps in increasing the effectiveness of the
employees. In this they need to provide training to their sales personals so as to ensure that
they do conversation with people that is effective and has positive approach. Only disruptive
sale can help an organisation to achieve higher sales.
It is not that just the sales representative will be able to increase the sales of the company. It
is essential that organisation improves its ability so as to achieve higher sales. At the same
time company needs to create more numbers of challengers as it will help them in achieving
desired sales growth. Identifying the exact need of the customers is essential for having a
healthy communication with them. This helps a firm in gaining long term relationship with
the consumers (Dixon and John 2012).
Without removing the pre-assumptions in the minds of the people, forcing them to make new
sales cannot be easy. It is also essential that a sales person knows their clients better than the
client knows themselves. This is essential for removing the doubts in the minds of clients so
that they can make purchase. In this the role of communication becomes even bigger. By
adopting challenger model an individual can easily be able to enhance their sales

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performance and for that they need to adopt solution-oriented or value-based sales approach.
Always shift the discussion from price to value (Isaac, Abraham and Richards. 2019).
Weakest Points about the book
First weakest point about the book is that it does not illustrate how the training will be given
to the sales representative that lags in specific kind of skills.
The book is unable to explain the dilemmas in the minds of sales representatives and the
customers and the way sales reps can be kept motivated is also missing.
Recommendation
It is recommended sales personnel to read this book because it will give a very new
understanding about the way in which sales performance can be increased. This book needs
to be sold in every organisation as a part of the training module so that employees can
understand the new kinds of challenges in the sales. Most of the sales reps forget their sales
training in one to two months hence reading this book will help them in finding innovative
ways to achieve higher sales. I would suggest them to understand the disruptive sales by
using diplomacy and customer centric content. I would also suggest this book so that they can
link their strategies and execution. Sales reps need to give more time on planning before
execution.

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REFERENCES
Adamson, Brent, et al. The Challenger Customer: Selling to the Hidden Influencer Who Can
Multiply Your Results. Portfolio, 2015.
Dixon, Andrea L., and John (Jeff) F. Tanner Jr. "Transforming selling: why it is time to think
differently about sales research." Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management 32.1
(2012): 9-13.
Dixon, Matthew, and Brent Adamson. The challenger sale: Taking control of the customer
conversation. Penguin, 2011.
Isaac, Mathew S., Ajay T. Abraham, and Elaine Y. Richards. "Implementing the Challenger
Sales Model at Cars. com: a case study." Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing 34.2
(2019): 291-302.
Mares, J. (2019). A 5-Minute Summary Of "The Challenger Sale" Book Your Boss Told You
To Read. [online] Blog.hubspot.com. Available at: https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/challenger-
sale-summary#ChallengerSaleForm [Accessed 3 Apr. 2019].
Rapp, Adam, et al. "Salespeople as knowledge brokers: a review and critique of the
challenger sales model." Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management 34.4 (2014): 245-
259.
Read.amazon.in. (2019). Cloud Reader. [online] Available at: https://read.amazon.in/
[Accessed 3 Apr. 2019].