idea

Challenger is a sales methodology which consists in coming with a challenging value proposition, and creating constructive tension with the customer, showing them where they should be, and asking them why they are not going there already.

Be a partner to your customers and demonstrate that the pain of changing is lower than the pain of staying the same. Study their industry and company, and bring insights on changes to the industry, the org's goal, and the actions your contact need to take. Find what the customer's missing objective is. Tailor the message for the customer to recognize themselves in it, preventing them from discarding it. Use customer verifiers to back what customer says with data^[5]: facts that are clearly observable and customer centric (e.g. a meeting took place or customer built a PoC).

Create constructive tension^[2] with the customer by challenging their status quo, pointing their own dissonance, and provoking thoughts. This requires to have a tailored insight into the customer's industry, their position in it, and the situation of their company.

On average it takes 7 stakeholders to take decisions. Identify the stakeholders making the decisions and tailor the message and the delivery to them - there are 7 profiles^[1], between mobilizers who influence others in one way or another, talkers who can help you or help themselves, and blockers who are against it. Blockers are the biggest threat and need focus. Understand what is blocking (pro competition, anti-you, or pro-status quo) and tailer to them^[3].

The challenger message is delivered in 3 steps called the choreography^[4]: Reframe: change the way of thinking of the business through insights, impact: cost of inaction, value: how you can help.

links

Probably a good thing to understand people's motivation to sell them anything

Negotiating a car talks about the other side of the fence.

Blockers might have assumptions, preconceptions, all of which are Biases. Understanding these might help.

Showing the cost of inaction is somewhat similar to the concept of measuring Cost of delay

references

training notes

Week 1

Profiles:

Hard worker - do long hours
Relationship builder
Lone wolf
Reactive problem solver
Challenger
- Debate
- Press customers a little
- Force people to think from different perspective
- Respectfully
- 40% of top performers
- Teach, tailor, take control, build constructive tension

[5]: Be in sync with the customer

Customer verifier
- Customer centric (on customer's checklist)
- Clearly Observable - not open to interpretation (Meeting took place)
- Binary (yes / no)
Assertiveness - be good partners. The pain of not changing is greater than the pain of changing

Tailor the message for resonance

Lenses to tailor message
- Industry
- Company
- Their role
- Individual
Tailor by what's the personal interest of the interlocutor

Be prepared for conversations

333 rule to check you're prepared, list:

3 changes in the industry
3 organizations' goals
3 actions contact is taking to achieve those goals

=> You want to find what's the company objective that they're missing.

Saving money | making money | reduce risk

Tailoring is the same idea presented differently

Find KPI: just find what CEO / Executive said about what they trying to achieve

Test - tell a KPI and see if it's still relevant

Conclusion

Through a deep understanding of the economic drivers of the customer’s industry and how each individual stakeholder fits into the overall business, Challengers tailor messaging to address the specific quantifiable results that each individual customer wants to achieve.

It's harder for customers to dismiss your message when they recognize themselves, and their situation, from a new perspective.

Tailor your message to capture their attention. 

Week 2 - Constructive tension

[2]: Ask powerful questions - "That's interesting, most of our customers do something else, why are you different"

Powerful questions are

broad and
targeted
thought provoking
Visual

"Imagine 6 months from now, what you'll explain to your boss what you could have done today"

Be comfortable with "awkward silences"

Build an insight

Understand customer current state, research the industry
Prepare insight - identify the gap, determine what the impact is, lead from impact to you
Assess insight: will it lead them to act, to you, to think

Use anxiety about current situation to drive a change.

Tell / Ask - Solution / Problem

	Problem	Solution
Tell	Teaching / Mentoring	Coaching
Ask	Analyzing	Diagnosing

Maintain | You'd be surprised | What is putting you ahead

Week 3

[1]: 7 Stakeholder profiles:

Mobilizers:

Go getter - deliver more than expected
Skeptic
Teacher

Talkers:

Friend -
Guide - add info
Climber - personally grow

and Blockers

7 stakeholders to take decisions

Usually agree on price. This is not good
Find common vision to create business opportunity between all stakeholders

Mobilizers are captivated by insights. If you provoke them and

they react by skepticism -> mobilizer.
React by noding -> Unlikely to act

Talkers and blockers tend to be self-centered -> me more than we.

[4]: 3 steps in a challenger choreography:

Share Reframe - think differently about your business
Introduce Impact - demonstrate cost of inaction
Reveal Value (only after the customer has acknowledged the issue) - How you can help, differentiate

Story telling: anecdotal, and case study

Week 4

If sale seems to stall, get back to verifiers and come back a few steps with customer.

Top 5 ways to orchestrate like a Challenger:

Ensure the full internal and/or partner vTeam are aligned on your customer or decision maker's current state, the cost of inaction, and the quantification of the impact of the solution
In every conversation, stay aligned on the customer verifiers – share them and ensure you’re aligned on the customer or contact's stage in their decision process, and their next action
Bring in the right people across Microsoft to help get to the Mobilizers for every project and initiative.
Create customer insights together across your internal and/or partner vTeams. Outline the Challenger conversation choreography together and share the results of prior conversations
Orchestrating like a Challenger means you are provocative, both internally and externally, leveraging every person, program, and asset available to drive customer success.

4 communication styles:

Analytic- Let me think about it
Amiable - Let's meet to discuss that
Expressive - Let me tell you about that
Driver - Let's take action