I started reading this book called:

"The Challenger Sale".

Its premise is around taking control of the conversation with the customer.

And what type of seller you should be to increase your chances of closing bigger deals.

I'm 50 pages in.

So far this book has intrigued me more than I thought.

Those open loops are working well.

But it's more than the structure keeping me reading.

The book talks about the discovery of 5 types of sales reps... after researching tens of thousands of calls and sales data from hundreds of different companies over the past few decades. (The book released in 2011):

The Hard Worker
The Challenger
The Relationship Builder
The Lone Wolf
The Reactive Problem Solver

From the names alone...

Can you guess which of these five is the best performing sales rep ? And which is the worst ?

I'll summarize each one then give you the answers below.

1) The Hard Worker: Always does the extra effort. Self-motivated. Seeks feedback to improve his skills.

2) The Challenger: Has different views of the world. Understand's the customer's business. Debates and pushes the customer.

3) The Relationship Builder: Builds and nurtures relationships. They're generous with their time to meet the customer's needs.

4) The Lone Wolf: They follow their instincts instead of the rules. They do things their way and don't have organized systems like other sales reps.

5) The Reactive Problem Solver: Focuses on details and customer satisfaction. They ensure the promise of the service is kept after they made the sale. They follow up with the customers to solve any problems (even though the business already has a customer support team).

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Looking at these different types...

You'll notice each one has a main characteristic.

They all sell. But in general one of them outperforms the rest and massively beats the lowest type.

The highest performing sales type is:

The Challenger.
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The worst peforming sales type is:

The Relationship Builder.

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The author highlights different studies and charts in the book to show the comparison.

One chart showed the Challenger had a 39% rating for high perfomers compared to normal perfomers.

And the Relationship Builder only had a 7% rating.

The other three types consisted of the remaining 54%.

The order was:

Challenger (39%) > Lone Wolf (25%) > Hard Worker (17%) > Reactive Problem Solver (12%) > Relationship Builder (7%)

He also mentions how companies tend to focus on the Relationship Builder...unaware that it's hurting their sales.

Every business needs a good relationship with their customers.

But relationship builders do everything they can to meet the customer's needs. This often puts the customer in control.

The seller spends time cooling tension. They make it convenient for the customer.

They do this professionally of course.

Then the sale gets harder to close because the selling environment settles down.

Customers leave the call on good terms. Yet you lose the sale.

Meanwhile...

The Challenger:

Teaches the customer with unique viewpoints and uses two-way communcation skills.

Tailors the service through what he knows will be valuable for the customer's business.

Takes control of the conversation and is comfortable discussing money while applying some pressure.

This leads to a more likely sale since the customer now thinks differently about their business.

They see the gaps. They understand the value in the service.

Then they buy confidently.

I'm not a closer.

So this breakdown of each sales rep helped me understand how unique every process is.

And this doesn't mean it's impossible for a relationship builder to have the best performing results in a business.

These are general stats.

You'll always find exceptions...

Just like how 7% of Relationship Builders were top performers in that study I shared.

Low number compared to The Challenger. Yet still working for the small group.

The point is to focus on having more Challengers on the sales team for greater sales.

The book is almost 15 years old.

While the industry has changed since then... the fundamentals are the same.

I'm enjoying the book.

I'm upgrading my sales skills this year and this book is a strong start.

I'll share more about it if I find another cool topic for an email.

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And with that...
I'm off.