In class this week, Evan Adams returned again to give us his valuable perspective as a sales professional. I really enjoyed hearing about the different personalities of salespeople because it helped me see what qualities about myself I could embrace to reach customers and sell effectively. After the lecture I asked myself, “what other ways do authors and sales professionals divide and classify types of salespeople?” This discussion of various philosophies of sales brought me to a few articles that provide us with different dimensions to view our sales ability. On these spectra, anyone can see their value and where they could improve.
Just to recap, here are The Challenger Sale‘s 5 salespeople we discussed in class.
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- Hard worker
- Value – Make more calls and put more effort into their sale than anyone.
- Problem – doesn’t ask why they are pushing themselves, they just do it.
- Relationship builder
- Value – “Whatever you’ll need, I’ll make it happen.”
- Problem – optimize not towards results, but to people.
- Lone wolf
- Self Confident. Follow instincts and not the sales process.
- Problem – their success is their confidence.
- The problem solver
- Reliable. Detail oriented. All promises made are kept. Always solve the problem at hand before moving on to new sales.
- Problem – stuck in caring about client satisfaction, forgets why they are selling at all.
- The challenger * ANYONE CAN GIVE CLIENT WHAT THEY ASK FOR *
- Value – Most persuasive, takes control of the entire sales dialogue. Become apart of solving their problem. Partner with the customer as a consultant, protects themselves from churn. 40% of top performers are challengers.
- Problem – Less effective at low complexity sales.
- Hard worker
Mike Brooks from Sales Gravy, wrote an article asking “What kind of closer are you?”
- Brooks describes two different approaches to making the sale: the serious closer and the “of service” closer. Between the two, Brooks advocates heavily for an approach that attempts at all times to be of service.
- Serious – He admits that he himself spent a great deal of time driving past the finish line to beat his quotas every time. Overcoming expectations and finishing sales became his self confidence. These sentiments of the serious closer are closely related to the traits of the lone wolf, who drives for success alone. The serious closer also reminds me of the the hard worker that works against his own well-being to ensure success.
- “Of Service” – Brooks contrasts this mindset to seeking the best for the customer. While the title of this closer may seem more like a problem solver or a relationship builder, I think it also resembles the Challenger when fully described. Brooks writes,
- “Today I’m more concerned with finding people and companies I’m a good fit for and then looking for the maximum ways of being of service to them. I’m more interested in helping today than I am in closing at any expense.”
- Seeking out a ‘good fit’ for the players interacting with your product involves pushing them to engage with the agenda in a sales presentation. The challenger has to be attuned to the customer’s needs in order to serve them. ,..
testacr22
I think of myself as having selling characteristics most like the Hard Worker and the Problem Solver but the Challenger’s approach sounds the most dedicated to the needs of the customer. I like how the Challenger is more focused on making sure the customer gets exactly what they want even if it means potentially losing a sale. In this way, the Challenger’s approach makes the selling experience feel much more natural and far less like a salesman trying to take your money.
I really like your addition to Adamson’s and Dixon’s concepts in the Challenger Sale. I love looking for complementary works to relate to anything I’m learning so this article really helps!