Challenger Sales

Ann Arbor SPARK

Ted Dacko
Arbor Dakota 1
[email protected]
 What is our mission?

Get you to think about the challenges and

approaches to selling a new and disruptive
product, create new market opportunity and
potentially displace larger, more established and
entrenched competitors

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 We…..

are revolutionizing our market. We are doing

something that no one has ever done. We have no
competition. There is no one like us. We will
displace incumbents and dominate our market
with our disruptive technology.

Said almost every entrepreneur ever.

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 Website

This is what we do, this is how we do it. Our

product…Our product….Our product….

Said almost every website ever.

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Then…

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The Reality

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 Market
Penetration and
Growth
Is Difficult

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 You
• Have precious time
• Have precious money
• May not be comfortable with sales
• Understand this issue too well
• Use terminology that the buyer may not even
understand
• Love your product. I mean you love your product
• Probably don’t have a buyers perspective
• Don’t know how to control the decision process or
the buying criteria

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 You Must
• Get the buyer to pay attention to your message
• Get the buyer to admit pain
• Get the buyer to agree to do something about the
pain
• Get the buyer to understand that your approach is
not a short-term fad
• Get them to accept that change is better than the
status quo
• Get the buyer to agree that solving the problem now
is better than waiting
• Mitigate risk
• Get the buyer to agree to buy without a great deal of
proof, market awareness, customer reference
stories……
• Convince the buyer that you have a long-term vision
and that you will be around to9 execute on it
 Poll

Are you having issues with getting customers?

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 Sales is…..

helping a potential customer understand that they

have a problem that can be solved “by you” which
will enhance their business and provide a positive
return and then guiding them through a mutually
agreeable buying/decision process that gets them
over fear of change and mitigates risk.

Problem Solution

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 Reasons People Don’t Believe
• You are new and generally unproven
• They don’t even hear the message
• Goes against their beliefs
• Goes against the current norm
• They think they know more than you
• They are skeptics in general
• …
E

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Challenger

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 Poll

Which of the profiles do you most identify with?

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Challenger

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 Challenger

The same holds true for early-stage sales

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One of the principles of Sales is “Power buys from Power” — but
many never understand this important lesson…

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Leverage Constructive Tension With 3 Skills

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Challenger

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Buyers

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 Change
• Known solution which is probably, basically
working
• Lose features/gain features?
• Lose comfort
• Change workflow
• Retrain employees
• People will be threatened
• Need to spend unbudgeted money E

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 Risk
• What if this doesn’t work?
• Career implications
• Job implications
• Will the vendor be there for me?
• What if this is a fad?
• People will be threatened

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The More Critical The Product….

R is
kT
o le
ra n
ce

Importance
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 Reduce Buyer Risk
• Identify your ideal customer buying criteria and focus
on it
• Look for early opportunities and service the hell out of
them
• Develop and sell case studies and testimonials
• Keep your customers happy, evangelical (Net Promoter
Score)
• Ask buyers if they have ever purchased a product from
a new company and how it went
• Use storytelling and focus on customer pain points
• Justify your product with Justification Toolkit
• Offer money back guarantee on outcomes or ROI

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 Likely Buyer Objections
Cognitive
Does you prospect understand the pain, the product, the benefits?

Motivational

Is this a priority? Do they care?

Does this interrupt their current workflow?

Resource

Do they have the time, the money, the people, the skills?

Political

Is there an internal reason that they can’t buy from you?

Feature

Is there some feature or function that they absolutely need that you don’t offer?

Risk

Is there some risk that you pose for the company or buyer (either risk to their career or job junction)?

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Challenger

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 Teach
• Buyers what problems they have and what it would
take to solve them
• What a good, fair evaluation process is
• Your differentiation and why it should be their
decision criteria (use Strategy Canvas)
• What benefits they will derive
• How to justify your solution
• What you will do and they need to do in the
evaluation and implementation process (SOW)
• Your Champion how to deal with a potential saboteur

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 Tailor
• Your communications to their agreed upon
needs/issues
• Your communications to their specific objections
• Your references (size, industry, what they need to
know from a reference)
• Your proposal to what they need and the agreed
upon deliverables, time frames and price point
• Your pricing to the specific needs of your buyer using
volume and time commitment discounts or other
creative means

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 Control
• The decision criteria
• The buying or evaluation process
• Product Positioning
• Brand image
• Your references and reference process. Do not provide a reference unless
the buyer agrees that if the reference call goes well, they will become a
customer
• Any pilot trial. Have quantifiable metrics and time frames in place. if
these are met, the buyer will automatically convert to a paying
customer. The buyer must also commit resources to the pilot (money and
effort)
• Try to do a preemptive strike on potential objections if possible.
• The justification process. Buyers will meet to determine if they are going
to buy your product and you won't be there. Prepare a formal
Justification Toolkit to help them through this process. Keep them
focused on what you told them throughout.
• Your invested time. Do not just give and give. Only provide time if it
relates to moving the opportunity forward as agreed upon by both parties
• The contract process by separating out the business terms from the legal
terms. Do not allow the lawyers to negotiate
29 the business terms
 Control

The vendor that controls the buying process and the

decision criteria wins

Every Single Time!!!!

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 Control

Or lose to

Dacko’s Sales
Newton's First Law of Motion states that a body at rest will
remain at rest unless an outside force acts on it.

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 Poll

Do you think that you can learn the ability to control

the things we just discussed?

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Goal – The Strategy Canvas

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ERRC

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36
Have You Heard Of or Been to Cirque du Solei?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkF_yStN4pw

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 Cirque du Soleil

ELIMINATE RAISE
Star performers Unique venue
Animal shows
Aisle concession sales
Multiple show arenas

REDUCE CREATE
Fun and humor Theme
Thrill and danger Refined environment
Multiple productions
Artistic music and dance

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Cirque du Soleil

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Blue Ocean Tools

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 Poll

Do you think that you have a Blue Ocean Product or

Opportunity?

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 Characteristics of Challengers
• Not afraid to challenge
• Ask very hard questions and force answers
• Are planners and can both stick to a plan and hold
buyers accountable to the plan
• Not afraid to discuss money
• Can put themselves on equal footing with buyer, not
at subordinate level
• Can read the room

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 Leverage Constructive Tension
• Challengers give insights to reframe how clients think
about their business
• Challengers don't take industry conditions as given
• Challengers stand firm and push back on client
requests or demands in a non-aggressive way
• Challengers offer insights and hypotheses to address
client risk aversion and move them forward

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 Benefits to You
• Higher close rate
• Shorter sales cycle
• Won't waste time with buyers who will
never close
• Faster growth
• Reduce sales expense
• Better chance of funding
• Better chance of company success

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 Challenger
• Challengers pursue both profit and purpose
• Challengers are brave
• Challengers question the status quo
• Challengers surround themselves with
Challengers
• Challengers make it work with the resources
they have
• Challengers can be difficult interview
candidates

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 Challengers
(my observations)
• Focus on customer problems, not their product
• Constantly defend their market position and
differentiation as they relate to the customer
problems
• Control the sales process
• Constantly qualify (on decision criteria, decision
process, authority, money, time frame…)
• Are great poker players (read the room)
• Anticipate objections
• Never just listens to what the prospect says, but
observes what the prospect does
• Are extremely professional at being a challenger

But wait. I’m confused

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 Keys
• Lay out your differentiation and get them to agree to that
as the buying criteria. Use the Blue Ocean Strategy
concept of the Strategy Canvas to visually demonstrate
your differentiation and why it is best for this customer.
• Lay out the evaluation process and get them to agree to
it. Make sure that they understand that at the end of the
defined process, we expect (and they commit to) a
decision. You can accomplish this in the opening
Discovery Call.
• Hold the buyer accountable to agreed-upon timeframes
for things, especially the implementation or "go-live"
date.
• Know the potential objections that you are likely to
encounter and do a preemptive strike on them. Have
materials to counter if they still surface
• Focus on their problems and your value proposition, not
your product
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 Keys
• Constantly qualify on need, intention, decision criteria,
method of evaluation, time frame, money authority
• Control the process. Buyers buy from power and from
people who seem to know what they are doing
• Teach, tailor and take control (see below)
• Gain a group consensus by managing buyer committee
members through leadership (trust, respect, knowledge)
• Watch what buyers do, don't listen to what they say
• Be constantly aware of "no decision". Time kills all deals

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 Steps To Take as a Challenger
• Analyze the market to identify the truths of your industry and your
competitors’ position in that landscape. Scrutinize everything from
their packaging and quality to delivery, customer service, social
media communication, jobs, and product availability. As you do,
consider the following questions: - If we had to start from scratch,
releasing ourselves from constraints, how would we address the
current customer pain points?- Who are we serving and who are
we ignoring or leaving behind? How can we better serve them?-
What would need to be true in order for us to deliver a product or
service at half the cost or twice the quantity, or with considerably
less packaging?
• As part of this industry analysis put special attention on your own
brand. Explore customer reviews, both positive and negative, and
embark on a process of social listening to see what people are
saying about your brand online.
• Buy your product or service as a customer, following the journey
they would take so you can question whether it can be done
better. Ask others in your network to follow suit, with an emphasis
on diversity of opinion
• Do the same with your competitors.
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• Spend a week working with your customer service team.
 Can You Learn To Be a Challenger?
• Most people, who are not natural challengers, evolve
to this type after getting tired of losing. They get
frustrated with buyers and finally begin to challenge
out of desperation
• Learn to manage potential customers like you do
your children.
• Learn the mentality of being on equal footing/level
with your buyer?
• Treat your time as a precious commodity

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 Hiring a
Challenger Salesperson

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 Poll

Have you ever hired a salesperson before?

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Hiring a Challenger – Interview Questions
The following are key Challenger competencies along
with several examples of sales hiring questions to
determine how well a sales rep candidate measures up.
Use these Challenger sale questions to find the best
Challenger sales rep.

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Hiring a Challenger – Interview Questions
Offers unique perspective
• Key questions: How do you typically open a sales
conversation? Describe a time when you got a customer to
think differently about a need or problem.
Drives two-way communications
• Key questions: How do you get customers to talk about
their priorities? Describe a time when you brought up an
unstated customer need.
Knows customer value drivers
• Key questions: What’s your process for gaining buy-in from
stakeholders? How do you decide what is and isn’t
important to a decision-maker?

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Hiring a Challenger – Interview Questions
Can identify economic drivers
• Key questions: What resources do you use to learn about
the customer’s business environment? Give an example of
a new customer opportunity you identified.
Comfortable discussing money
• Key questions: Describe a time when you successfully
pushed through a price increase. How do you respond to a
demand for a discount?
Able to push the customer
• Key questions: Describe an instance where you moved a
stalled deal forward? How do you build consensus among
everyone involved in a deal?

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 Challenge Key Personality Traits
• Independent and self-sufficient
• Fierce and confident look
• Determination and stamina
• Very energetic and busy
• Fiery passions and power
• Stubborn and headstrong
• Serious about control over environment
• Need to win. Don’t want to be second

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 Poll

Do you believe that you are or can become a

Challenger?

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 Differentiation Is Essential

Challenge

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Questions?

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 Challenger Sales
Ann Arbor SPARK

Ted Dacko
Arbor Dakota 61
[email protected]