8:00am-5:00pm EDT
Monday - Friday
8:00am-5:00pm EDT
Monday - Friday
If you’re a sales rep, there’s a good chance that you’ve been told to read The Challenger Sale. The now-classic business book breaks down the five different types of sales reps and teaches readers to emulate high-performing reps known as “Challengers.” At its core, Challengers drive sales for complex, business-to-business solutions through the following practices:
One of our partners, Barbara Schwartz with ROI Selling, wrote a post exploring the attributes of Challengers and how they help sales reps be successful. Let’s revisit her findings to learn how to make every sales rep a Challenger.
In short, Challengers have success. The Challenger Sale is based on one of the largest studies ever conducted in the sales field. Authors Brent Adamson, Matthew Dixon, and their colleagues at CEB Inc studied thousands of sales reps across multiple industries and geographies to identify the different types of sales reps and which one had the most success. Ultimately, The Challenger Sale identifies five types of sales reps.
Each of these five has distinct qualities that make them good sales reps, but The Challenger definitively stood above the rest. According to Schwartz, “almost 40% of star performers fall into the Challenger category, as do 23% of core performers.” Given that Schwartz defines star performers and reps in the top 20% and theorizes that core performers achieve at least 80% of quota or better, that’s a great target for sales reps.
Knowing that Challengers are statistically more likely to have success, it’s important to know exactly why that is. The Challenger Sale identified six significant attributes that help make someone a Challenger.
According to Schwartz, most reps have varying levels of all the Challenger attributes identified. The true Challengers are able to combine those skills to improve sales success. Of course, it’s important to note that Challengers are not born, they’re made.
The right training and coaching can help sales reps embrace these key principles and develop their skills across the board. Sales reps can also benefit from different tools to help them maximize their Challenger attributes. For example, the best software for sales reps can help them build strong business cases and enjoy success.
Simply put, time is money. It is important for sales reps to not only build their sales cases, but also become more efficient as well. Tribute’s TrulinX business management platform gives sales reps in the industrial distribution industry the tools they need to improve the ability to serve their customers.
TrulinX is a specialized software that provides value-added and system integration services for industrial distributors and fabricators of fluid power, motion control, fluid handling, hose & accessory, instrumentation & process control, and pump products. Our software allows sales reps to save time and provide more competitive offers for customers thanks to a variety of key features.
Ready to maximize your Challenger attributes with specialized business management software? To learn more about the TrulinX software or to speak with one of our team members, give us a call today at 800-874-2883 or contact us directly.
Leave a comment