Matthew dixon sales champions. What and how the best sellers in the world do differently. This is good research.

28.10.2019

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Business Book Description:

Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson challenge traditional sales thinking. After conducting in-depth research on several thousand salespeople in various industries, they debunked the conventional wisdom that in complex selling, those salespeople who build relationships with the client are the most effective and that they form a high-performing team. It turns out that everything is exactly the opposite: it is these sellers who are the least effective. Most best sellers don't just build relationships with customers, they challenge them.

The qualities that make Champions unique can also be nurtured in the mid-range salesperson. Read about how to do this in this book. It will help you identify the Champions in your company, model their approach, implement it in your sales team, and dramatically increase your overall business performance.

Published in Russian for the first time.

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Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson

Sales champions. What and how the best sellers in the world do differently

Published with permission from Andrew Nurnberg Literary Agency

All rights reserved. No part of the electronic version of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including posting on the Internet and corporate networks, for private and public use without the written permission of the copyright owner.

Legal support of the publishing house is provided by the law firm "Vegas-Lex"

– You will learn what qualities distinguish sales champions and how to turn average sellers into outstanding ones

– You will be able to build a truly successful sales team

– You will learn to sell more tomorrow

This book is well complemented by:

SPIN sales

Neil Rackham

sales arithmetic. Vendor Management Guide

Timur Aslanov

Clients for life

Carl Sewell

Turnkey sales department

Sergei Kapustin and Dmitry Krutov

SPIN sales. Practical guide

Neil Rackham

To hell with prices! Create value

Tom Snyder, Kevin Kearns

To the members of every board of directors in the world who, day after day, demand from us ideas worthy of their time and attention

Foreword

The history of sales has developed slowly and consistently, but there have been some real breakthroughs in it that completely changed the direction of this type of activity. But breakthroughs, marked by radical new thinking and exceptional performance improvements, were rare. Over the past century, I can recall only three such cases.

First breakthrough

The first breakthrough began about a hundred years ago - then Insurance companies found that they could double their sales with a simple change in strategy. Prior to this giant leap, insurance policies (as well as many other products—furniture, household items, manufacturing equipment) were sold by salespeople. They signed contracts with clients, and then paid them weekly visits to collect an insurance premium or another payment. When the number of customers exceeded a hundred, the sales person became too busy collecting weekly payments and he was no longer up to new contracts. Then a thought hit someone's genius head, which later morphed into what we now call the hunter-farmer model. Previously, the same person sold policies and collected premiums; these duties are now divided. So there were sellers who are exclusively salespeople and are reinforced by less experienced (and therefore less expensive) collectors who tracked existing customers and collected fees. This idea was incredibly successful and changed the entire insurance industry overnight. The concept quickly spread to other areas, and for the first time sales became “clean”: they were relieved of the burden of collecting payments.

Second breakthrough

We do not know exactly when the idea of dividing into sellers and assemblers was proposed, but we know the exact date of the second grandiose breakthrough. It happened in July 1925 when Edward Strong published The Psychology of Selling. This work dealt with new and very fruitful ideas in sales technology, such as describing the properties and advantages of a product, working with objections, closing a deal, and perhaps the most important point- open and closed questions. Through this book, it became clear that people could be taught to sell better and more effectively, and this was the impetus for the development of sales education.

Now, when we look back from our days so rich in knowledge, much of what Strong wrote about seems naive and even a little awkward. However, he—and those who followed him—changed the face of sales forever. Perhaps Strong's most important contribution to the development of this branch of human activity was the idea that a salesperson does not have to be born at all, that there is a set of certain skills that can be mastered. For 1925, this was an incredibly bold idea. As a result, completely new people entered the trade and, as the stories of those times tell, the efficiency of sales increased dramatically.

Third breakthrough

The third major breakthrough came in the 1970s, when researchers became interested in the idea that the skills and techniques that work for small sales can be very different from those needed for larger, more complex sales. I was lucky to be one of the participants in this revolution. In the 1970s I headed a big research project, which tracked the work of 10,000 people in 23 countries. We observed employees and their sales proposals, reviewing more than 35,000 options in the end, and analyzed why some of them turned out to be more successful than others in complex sales. The project lasted twelve years, and several works were published as a result of its results, the first of which was the book SPIN Selling. Thus began what we now call the era of consultative selling. It was a breakthrough because more sophisticated models of complex sales appeared and as a result, as with previous breakthroughs, the performance increased significantly.

There have been many small improvements in sales technique over the past thirty years, but what we might call game-changing breakthroughs has yet to be seen. Yes, such concepts as sales automation, sales funnel and the concept of CRM - customer relationship management have appeared. Technology has begun to play an increasingly important role. With the advent of the Internet, there have been huge changes in transactional sales. But all of these changes were by no means revolutionary, often questionable in terms of effectiveness, and none of them, in my opinion, can be considered a breakthrough in the full sense of the word - a change that would allow selling in a completely new way and more efficiently.

The Procurement Revolution

It is curious that the breakthrough did take place, but on the other side of the trade interaction. The real revolution has taken place in procurement. In the 1980s, work in this area was a personnel dead end, but now procurement has become a significant strategic strength. Armed with actionable methodologies such as supplier segmentation strategies and sophisticated supply chain management models, purchasing required a fundamental change in sales thinking.

I waited, looking for signs of how the sales industry would react to changes in the purchasing industry. If there was to be another breakthrough in sales, I thought, it must be a reaction to the purchasing revolution. It was like waiting for an imminent earthquake. You know it's going to happen, but you can't predict exactly when - you just feel that it's going to happen, it's about to happen. But nothing of the sort happened.

Fourth breakthrough?

All of the above brings me to Sales Champions and the work of the Sales Executive Council (SEC). It is too early to say that this is the breakthrough that we have been waiting for so long. Time will tell. But at first glance, this study has every indication that it could be a game-changer. First of all, as in other cases, it challenges traditional ideas. However, we need something more, because there are a lot of crazy ideas that violate established ideas in the world. What makes this study different from and similar to other breakthroughs is that as soon as sales executives delve into its content, they say, “Of course! It all seems illogical, but it makes sense! How did I not think of this before?! The logic that you will find in Sales Champions leads to the inevitable conclusion: this is an example of a completely different way of thinking, but it works.

I don't intend to spoil your appetite with retelling of details or climaxes. I will just explain why this study seems to me the most important step in understanding the art of selling in recent years and why it deserves to be proudly called a "breakthrough".

This is good research.

The study is very solid, and believe me, I don’t give such compliments so easily. Many so-called sales studies have methodological holes so big that you could fly an airliner through them. We live in an age where every consultant and every writer is quick to claim they have done “research” to prove the effectiveness of what they are selling. Once upon a time, having research ensured that what was written would be believed; now it is rather a guarantee of losing trust. Buyers are healthy cynics about unsubstantiated claims of all sorts that masquerade as research: “Study has shown that after completing our training program, sales more than double” or “In our study, we found that when salespeople use our model seven types of buyers, customer satisfaction increases by 72%. Such claims are not supported by any evidence and greatly undermine the credibility of the present studies.

I was at a conference in Australia when I first heard that the SEC had an amazing new sales performance study.

I must admit that although I have always respected the SEC and knew that their methodology is very reliable, I still lost faith in the studies to such an extent that I thought: “Well, this will surely turn out to be another disappointment.” Back at my office in Virginia, I invited the research team to spend a day with me, and we went over their methodology with a fine-tooth comb. I confess that I was sure in advance that I would certainly find serious omissions in their work. In particular, I was concerned about two things:

1. The division of all sellers into five categories. The study said that every salesperson falls into one of five well-defined types:

hard worker

Relationship Builder

Lone wolf

Problem Solver

This classification seemed naive and dubious to me. What were you guided by, I asked the authors, when you made a distinction into five types? Why not seven? Or, shall we say, ten? But they were able to show that these categories were not taken from the ceiling, but arose as a result of extensive and in-depth statistical analysis. In addition, unlike many researchers, they understood that these five categories are behavioral patterns, not narrowly defined personality types. I was pleased: they successfully passed my first test.

2. The trap of comparing leaders and losers. A huge number of sales performance studies compare high performers with those who are nowhere near as effective. At the beginning of my activity, I also sinned in the same way. As a result, I learned a lot of interesting things about losers. When you ask people to compare rock stars to those who have not been very successful in the music world, it turns out that they are able to sort out failures with truly surgical precision, but at the same time they are not able to determine what exactly turns a musician into a star. . I soon realized myself that I had a good idea of why the results are poor - but that's all. For the study to make sense, I had to compare high-performing salespeople with average employees, with the bulk. And I was delighted when I discovered that the SEC team followed this approach in their study.

The study is based on a convincing representative sample

Most studies are based on small samples - from 50 to 80 participants from three to four companies are analyzed. Larger surveys are difficult to carry out, and they are much more expensive. In my own research, I used more than a thousand samples, not because I suffered from megalomania, but because real sales data are often erroneous. They contain a lot of errors, and in order to achieve statistically significant results, a huge amount of information had to be processed. The initial sample in this study was 700 units, and by the end it had grown to 6,000. That's impressive - by any standards. But even more impressive is that the study covered 90 companies. With such a large sample, many of the factors that would normally prevent a study from being applied to sales in their entirety can be discarded. The discoveries made by the SEC do not concern any particular company or particular area. They are applicable to the entire field, and this is very important.

The study did not give the expected results

I am always wary of research that gives exactly the results that its organizers need. Researchers, like all people, have their own prejudices and prejudices. If they know in advance what they are going to find, then, of course, they will find it! I was pleasantly surprised to hear that the researchers themselves were shocked when they found that the results they got were practically the opposite of what they had hoped for. This is a very healthy sign, one of the characteristics of really serious research. Take another look at these five types:

hard worker

Relationship Builder

Lone wolf

Problem Solver

Most sales directors, if they had to choose one of these five types to form a team, would settle for the Relationship Builder. This is what the researchers expected to find as a result of their work. No matter how! Research has shown that Relationship Builders are not prone to high performance at all. And the Champions, on the contrary, demonstrate top scores. Champions who are so difficult to manage, who have not easy relationships with both clients and management. As you will learn later in this book, the Champions won not by a small margin, but by a very significant one. And in complex sales, this gap turned out to be even more significant.

Reducing the number of advisory sales

How can we explain these illogical discoveries? Matt Dixon and Brent Adamson build a very convincing system of evidence in the book. Let me add a couple of phrases to what they said. There is a common belief that the sales process is based on relationships, and in complex sales, relationships are the key to success. However, over the past ten years, we have seen worrying signs that advisory sales become less efficient. My observations of what customers value in salespeople can help good example. After surveying 1,100 clients, we were surprised to find that only a few of them mention relationships. It seems that the old adage “build relationships first, and then you can sell” doesn’t work anymore. This does not mean that relationships are not important. In my opinion, it would be more correct to say that the old link "relationship - purchase decision" has broken up. Today, you often hear customers say, "I have a great relationship with this rep, but I'm buying from a competitor because I'm more comfortable with the price." Personally, I believe that the relationship with the client is result and not the reason for a successful sale. This is the reward given to the seller who has created customer value. If you help clients learn new mindsets, if you spark new ideas in them—and that's what Champions do—then you earn the right to a relationship.

Challenge for Champions

The purpose of this book is to demonstrate how excellent the Champion's ability to influence the client is, and therefore how effective he is. This comes as a surprise to many, and I suspect a significant portion of readers will be shocked. But although the idea of the Champion is new, we have been seeing manifestations of it for some time. Surveys consistently show that customers prefer sellers that make them think, bring new ideas, and offer creative and innovative ways of doing business. Recently, customers have begun to demand from sellers more insight into the problem and more knowledge. They hope the salesperson will teach them something they don't know themselves. And this is the main skill of the Champion. The future belongs to such skills, and any trade company that ignores the main message of this book is doomed to failure.

I've been innovating in sales all my life, so I don't expect a revolution to happen immediately after the publication of this important study. Change happens gradually, and it can be painful. But I know for sure that there will certainly be companies that will be able to perceive and properly implement the ideas outlined here. These companies, having found among their sales representatives real Champions (or by raising them) will have a bountiful harvest and achieve significant competitive advantage. As the SEC study demonstrates, we live in an age where manufacturing innovation alone cannot be the key to success. The way we sell has become far more important than that exactly what we are selling. An efficient sales force is a much more significant advantage in competition than product flow. This book offers a well-articulated blueprint for how to build a truly successful sales force. Take my advice: read, think carefully, and implement. You'll see, you'll be glad you did it, and your company will too.

...

Neil Rackham,Author of SPIN Selling

Introduction

A look into an amazing future

In those unforgettable first months of 2009, when world economy sinking rapidly, B2B sales executives around the world faced a challenge of truly epic proportions, as well as a puzzle that seemed unsolvable.

All of the clients disappeared overnight. Trading operations have been suspended. Loans were practically not issued, and there was no need to even talk about cash payments. Hard times have come for all businessmen. And the heads of sales departments were in a real nightmare. Just imagine: you get up in the morning, gather your army and send it to a battle in which victory cannot be expected - and you know this for sure. And so from day to day. You order your warriors to find money where it is impossible to find it. In fact, selling has always been like a battle, because those who do it invariably have to deal with serious resistance. But this time it was different. It's one thing to try to sell something to a stubborn, nervously bucking customer. It's quite another thing to try to sell to customers who simply don't exist. This is exactly what happened in early 2009.

But at the same time, truly mysterious and even mysterious stories sometimes happened. Environment for confinement trade deals it has not been so unfavorable for a long time - but what is there, it was almost the most unfavorable for the entire foreseeable period! - however, some especially gifted sales representatives still succeeded something to sell! In fact, they managed to sell not "something" - they sold a lot. While others fought for the tiniest of deals, these outstanding personalities made contracts that many could only dream of in the most favorable times. Was it luck? Or were these characters born with such abilities? And the most important question: how to grab this magic, how to bottle it, cork it tightly and distribute it to those who were not born sorcerers? The survival of many companies depended on the answer to this question.

It was in these circumstances that the Sales Executive Council (SEC), a program within the Corporate Executive Board, embarked on a study that has proven to be one of the most important in the field of sales rep productivity in decades. Participants of our program are heads of sales departments of the largest and famous companies of the world – set us the task of determining what exactly distinguishes these incredibly successful sellers from all others. We have studied this issue for almost four years, covering several dozen companies and several thousand sales representatives, and as a result came to three fundamental conclusions that completely changed the rules of trade and forced B2B sales managers to rethink their views.

We made the first discovery where at first we were not going to even look. It turned out that almost all B2B sales representatives can be divided into five clear categories, depending on their skills and behavioral patterns that determine the system of interaction with customers. Well, it's interesting in itself - to try to determine what type you yourself and your colleagues are. These five types have proven to be an incredibly handy way of dividing the world into a manageable set of diverse sales methods.

The second conclusion turned everything upside down. If you take these five patterns—five types—and compare them to real-world performance, you'll see that there is one clear winner and one clear loser among salespeople, one clearly outperforming the other four, and one clearly outperforming the other four. . And these results could not but cause bewilderment and even anxiety. When we showed them to sales executives, we encountered the same reaction: the results were quite shocking, because executives were betting the most on exactly the type that turned out to be the loser. It was this conclusion that shattered the imagination of many about a sales representative who would help them survive in harsh times.

And here we come to the third discovery, which seems to be the most explosive. Digging deeper, we discovered something quite amazing. We started the study four years ago, when the economy was in full decline, and the goal was to find a recipe that would help sales representatives emerge victorious in the current difficult conditions. But all the data pointed to something much more important and valuable. The type of sales rep that most often won won not because that the economy was in decline - he won regardless from her condition. These salespeople won because they knew how to deal with complex sales, not because they were like fish in water in a difficult economic environment. In other words, when we solved the puzzle of high performance during the economic downturn, the solution was bigger than anyone thought. Your best sales reps are the ones who got you through hard times, are not just the heroes of today. They are the heroes of tomorrow because they are the ones best suited to drive sales and generate customer value in any economic environment. So as a result, we managed to find a recipe with which you can create a truly successful salesperson.

We called such sellers Champions. This is a story about them.

What type of sales representative are you?

The Sales Executive Council, or SEC, a division of the international consultancy Corporate Executive Board (CEB), conducted a study on the impact of the 2009 crisis on B2B salespeople. In the course of the study, it turned out that sales professionals can be divided into five categories:
1. "Hardworkers". They make the most phone calls, meet with potential customers more often, send out more commercial offers than other representatives.
2. Relationship builders. Strive to meet customer needs. Strong relationships are the most important thing for them.
3. "Lone wolves". They are self-confident and do everything in their own way. Managers are usually dissatisfied with them, but they are in no hurry to dismiss them: they work efficiently.

4. "Problem solvers". They would do great in the service department. For them, the main thing is that the client is satisfied.
5. "Champions". Knowing everything about the client's business and field of activity, they help him to operate more efficiently and generate higher income - in part through purchases made from these same sellers. Discussing something with them is a pleasure, while they know how to make the client look at the problem in a new way.
The study revealed that it was the “champions” who consistently provide companies with the largest share of sales. This conclusion goes against the conventional wisdom that the best B2B salespeople are the ones who are the best at building customer relationships. “Champions” also build relationships, but this is only one aspect of their work. They know that customer loyalty depends primarily not on the product, but on how you sell it. A study conducted by CEB showed that customer loyalty in the B2B sector is 53% dependent on the sales process itself.

“Selling Solutions”

Most sales representatives in the B2B sector work according to the sales assistant method; the meaning of this approach is that the seller should develop such offer which will help the client to solve his problems. The strategy of "selling solutions" obliges sellers to combine goods and services in accordance with the needs of specific customers; thus, the supplier company has the opportunity to overtake competitors. Selling solutions also avoids the commoditization of goods and services and maintains a certain price level. Of course, in order to offer the buyer effective solution, it is necessary to study his needs well. Necessary information sales managers usually get by interviewing customers. However, the latter do not like to waste time talking to annoying salespeople, especially when they are asked about something they do not know themselves. The “champion salesperson” is well aware of one extremely important pattern: customers do not always know what they need. In addition, customers, especially those who are habitually skeptical, may doubt that a solution offered by an "outsider" - a seller with only a superficial knowledge of their business - will suit them. At the same time, if the sales representative tries to poll several internal stakeholders, they can spend a lot of time communicating, which the company - a potential client does not want to allow.
Purchasing Solutions - difficult process. Not surprisingly, customers want to share some of the risk with their suppliers. If the product offered by the seller does not help the buyer solve his problem, the buyer will try to hold the supplier accountable. Therefore, the commercial proposal should be drawn up with this possibility in mind. In addition, the customer often requires a custom-designed solution, which is not cheap for the seller. Customers often turn to third-party consultants to “make the most out of their buying decision.” Such actions also reduce the profitability of the transaction for the seller.

New "champions"

Studies have shown that the difference in performance between the best and average sales representatives is 59% for transactional sales; when selling solutions, this gap reaches 200%. That's why B2B companies are looking to staff their workforce with "champions": about 40% of companies fall into this category, according to the SEC. the best specialists for corporate sales. The next most successful group are the “lone wolves”. However, most managers are reluctant to hire them because they are difficult to manage. Of the five types of B2B sales professionals identified, relationship builders are the least effective at selling complex solutions and closing deals with new partners. According to the SEC, only 7% of the most successful sales representatives fall into this category.
“Champions of sales” help the client to approach the buying process in a new way. They are especially successful with buyers who themselves have not yet figured out what they need, or are not at all sure that they should buy something. “Champion” will easily support a conversation on financial topics and answer all questions about the transaction budget. Such sellers understand what is especially important for the client, and are not afraid to put pressure on him if necessary. Champions outperform other salespeople in many ways and perform equally well in recessions and booms. These professionals have three main features. Champion Sellers:
1. Use communication with customers to give them useful and up-to-date information about the market; are thoroughly aware of the specific aspects of the clients' business and are able to conduct a constructive dialogue.
2. They know how to evoke a response, because they understand what values are most significant for each of the clients; know how to create an attractive individual offer and how to submit it potential client.
3. Not afraid to take control of the deal; skillfully object to clients, can ask them “uncomfortable” questions; push clients to close the deal and readily discuss the financial aspects of the deal.

“Customer Training”

Customers don't want to waste time answering sales reps' questions about what they care about the most. They want the sales person to know in advance what their problems are and provide them with thoughtful, thoughtful solutions. Clients don't want to enlighten anyone: they want to be enlightened. Therefore, "sales champions" use the information collected and systematized by the marketing department of their company for "commercial education" of the client. “Business training” motivates the buyer and helps him improve his performance through the use of the goods or services offered by the seller, which is exactly what B2B sales professionals should see as their goal. There are four basic rules of “commercial learning”:
1. “Take the conversation to your unique strengths.” Your educational work should lead the client to the idea that your idea is beautiful, and he must, by all means, implement it. And then it's time to move on to the next stage of learning - to tell how your product will help the client achieve their goal.
2. "Question the client's attitudes." Reframing your client's mindset. Let him exclaim: “Wow, I have never looked at these problems from this point of view before!”
3. "Push to action." Present ROI in a way that focuses the client's attention on the amounts they will lose if they don't take action. Let him feel that the problem that has arisen needs to be solved as soon as possible.
4. "Segment your customers." Your company should provide its sales representatives with options for pre-designed solutions (how to solve customer problems), as well as a list of questions by asking which the seller will be able to understand which solution is suitable for this client.
“Commercial training” is carried out in six stages:
1. "Warming up". After mutual introductions, provide the client with information about the problems that, as you know, usually face companies in his industry.
2. "Rethinking". Having characterized the key points, direct the interlocutor's thought in a new direction. Let him take a fresh look at these problems.
3. "Rational immersion." Present to the client data on the funds that his company may be losing due to unwillingness to change the usual working patterns - in other words, due to the fact that he still does not use your product. Give the client as much information as possible: let him feel that he is drowning in it.
4. "Emotional impact." Tell a story that connects the client emotionally to this scary information. The ideal response to your presentation would be: “Yes, this happens to us all the time. And it's unbearable."
5. "New way". You have convincingly formulated the problem - now it is time to propose possible ways to solve it. Focus not on your products or services, but on the benefit that the client will receive if he takes urgent action to improve the situation.
6. "Your decision." Explain why your end-to-end solution (product or service) is better than others to help the client cope with his problem.

“Adaptation of messages”

The management of the client company makes large purchases only after reaching a consensus on this issue. Sellers in the B2B sector must enlist the support of not only official who is directly responsible for making the decision, but also all interested parties who must approve it. To ensure that support, tell each of them what they want to hear. Try to find individual arguments for everyone. The sales team needs to prepare their “champion” well for the showdown with internal stakeholders client company. It must be provided with specially selected information that answers the following questions: “What are the trends in this industry?”; “What are the buyer’s competitors working on?”; “What new regulatory measures can be expected from the government?”

Deal management

You should guide the deal not only at the final stage, when you need to bring it to close. "Seller-champion" controls the progress of the process at all its stages. It comes from the assumption that the client may not be experienced in complex B2B transactions. Therefore, the sales representative educates the customer on the purchase of the solution.
Many executives might argue that letting a sales rep control the deal will cause the sales rep to be too active and alienate the customer. In fact, most sellers are too passive. They prefer to indulge the client in everything, while “sales champions” are able to create “constructive tension” in relations with him. By teaching most B2B sales professionals how to manage a deal, their productivity can be greatly improved. The ability to not be afraid of uncertainty will also benefit the cause. It is not necessary to extract the final decision from the client at any cost. “Champions” feel great in a state of uncertainty. They manage to give each stage of the process a special value: for example, helping the client to take a fresh look at an existing problem.

How to hire “sales champions”

If you decide to strengthen your sales team with real “champions”, consider the following:
Find "champions" among your employees. In every sales representative hidden "champion" quality. Help your subordinates to reveal them.
The combination of skills is important. The mere ability to tailor an offer to a specific client or “train” him is not enough to make a serious deal in the B2B market. At the same time, if the seller, who does not know how to do this, tries to control the course of the transaction, this will only cause irritation in the client. Only with all the necessary skills, a sales representative can become a “sales champion”.
“Championship” is inherent in the company, not its sales representative. Without strong organizational support, such as materials needed to “educate” the customer, B2B salespeople have a hard time.
Sales champions don't just appear out of nowhere. It takes time for your group of sales reps to grow into an army of "sales champions".

How to Manage Sales Staff to Raise “Champions”

The Sales Champion Training program requires highly qualified sales leaders. Such a leader is an excellent salesman himself, a skilled manager and a first-class coach. He does everything necessary to ensure that subordinates succeed. Not all successful employees fit the role of "sales champions", so it is better to hire those candidates who are suitable for this role. Keep in mind that the "champion" approach can be used not only in the sales department, but also in other company structures. Ensure that your sales representatives can always give a convincing answer to the question: “Why should customers buy from us and not from someone else?”

90% of those who have devoted their lives to sales proudly declare: “Over the past twenty years, absolutely nothing has changed in the world of sales!” This begs the question: “Why do some companies today grow rapidly, while others die?” It's simple... The habit of living with excuses without going beyond your "comfort zone" makes it difficult to soberly assess the situation...

Story active sales started about 100 years ago. At that time, there were sellers who were engaged exclusively in sales. The second stage is 1925. This year, the well-known sales technology was born, which was based on knowledge, and closing the deal. Third breakthrough - 1970. The unique system "" saw the light. The last revolution in the world of sales occurred with the onset of the 2009 crisis.

Yes, sometimes it’s hard to admit to those who work in sales and are used to living in a “comfort zone” that their professional knowledge are at the level of 1925, which, it turns out, is not enough to break through today ...

If you have the courage to face the truth and there is a desire to squeeze the maximum sales figures out of yourself and your team, I recommend that you turn your attention to the book " Sales champions by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson. Frankly, this is my first review that I want to start and end at the same time with a call: “To hell with the review, don’t waste time, urgently run to the store, buy yourself this book and start putting what you learned into practice. Who is the first, he is the Champion!!!

What has changed recently in sales...? In order to achieve success in sales today, it is not enough to know only your product and the competitor’s product or be able to identify needs, you must clearly navigate the client’s business and “warm up” him with new ideas and discoveries. Customers want sales representatives to help them see new opportunities, new ways to run their business. Research on behavioral factors prompted the authors of the book to divide sellers into 5 groups:

Champion (seller of today);
Lone wolf;
hard worker;
Relationship builder (this is what most sales coaches teach today);
Problem solver.

Every time has its own heroes. The time of "Relationship Builders" is replaced by the era of "Champions"...

The greatest storm of emotions in me was caused by the authors' view of working with the client's needs. Remember the joy when, at the stage of identifying a need, you heard something like this: “I agree with you! This is the question that haunts me." Everyone thought that this was a victory, but in reality, not quite so ... The fact is that having gone a long way to identify the need, you only confirmed what the client knows even without you ... And for sure he already has certain answer options imposed by your competitors…

What kind of reaction would you like to see? Sales champions» from their clients…? Success is when you hear the following: "Hmm, I could not even imagine that the problem could be solved in this way (or something like that)." This means that you "invented" a new unique need, which the client will be able to satisfy only by accepting your offer.

Surely you are interested in the question: “How to become such a champion or where to find such people in your team…?” This book will help you:

Master the necessary champion qualities for yourself;
Choosing the right team
Organize training for an existing team.

What is the main idea new approach to sales…?

“The only significant opportunity to drive growth incrementally is not in the products you sell, but in the quality of the ideas you offer as part of the sale itself. 53% of B2B business loyalty is the result of how you sell, not what you sell.”

Why These Sales Techniques Should Be Learned…? The thing is that by focusing your attention on those techniques that you don’t know yet, you will get a much higher result than from improving what you know!!!

This book allowed me to:

Look with a “fresh look” at your team and identify the direct dependence of the result on the presence of champion qualities;
See the real prospects for the development of your business;
See the idea of a new approach to training your team and improving championship skills;
Step over to a new step of professional growth.

To understand the importance of using the championship system, you have to answer the question: “Why should customers prefer you over your competitors…? Surely you will start by using formulaic statements like: “We occupy a leading position”, “Our approaches are unique”, “We have been on the market for more than a dozen years”, “We work with many”, “We are the largest, innovative, leading, etc. .d.”... If your answers are about the same, I suggest replacing them all with one option: “We are absolutely the same as everyone else ...” And for all those who are not satisfied with the situation “Stable, this is also not bad”, strongly I highly recommend this excellent book Sales champions».

Thank you for your precious time spent in my company!!!
Let the increase in sales give you pleasure ...
Sincerely, Andrey Zhulay.

We have received a new book from the Mann, Ivanov and Ferber publishing house, Sales Champions, for review.

In a review for I lamented the fact that many of our trainers are based on American sales methods of the 60s. The book "Sales Champions" takes us to the future of Russia in sales in the 2020s. I am absolutely sure that sales in our country will reach the situation described in the Champions, and a gap of 60 years gives a huge advantage to those who can already now apply the technologies described in this book of the future. But, unfortunately, most Russian companies we still need to get to the sales model, which has already begun to falter in the Western economy. As in any book about the future, there are things that are predicted as submarines in 100,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but there are also those that are not entirely clear and cannot be applied, like jet-powered airships. But let's start in order...

The foreword written by Neil Rackham, author of one of the most beloved sales books that has changed my life, is actually one of best parts book, especially since it stretches over 22 pages and replaces the standard tedium called a preface in many books. It inspires and motivates to read. No wonder this man considers himself the founder of the second era of sales. As Neal points out, the main advantage of labor is the study done on a large sample of sales managers. This is noted repeatedly throughout the rest of the story. I consider the study to be only a tool for proving the above theory, but I would not treat the results of the study as a kind of dogma. In my opinion, the evaluation criteria are quite vague and somewhat subjective, as most studies are based on survey results:

“We interviewed hundreds of line sales people in 90 companies around the world. We asked them to describe their three sales representatives from their teams - two privates and one top - according to 44 distinguishing features.

I have the following questions:

1. Who identified these 44 types? In my work, I can identify 2-3 characteristics of a successful sales manager that determine his effectiveness. For example, one sells on high level expertise, another on personal relationships, a third on "don't care," a fourth on perseverance. And by and large, these are the main characteristics that make a manager successful in Russia, why do we need 43 more that a manager can have, but not show results, is not very clear to me.

2. What are 90 companies? Based on the fact that the study was conducted on 6,000 managers, this is for sure large companies… then the study turns out to have nothing to do with medium and small businesses. And given that most of our large businesses are based not on the quality of business processes, but on the access of this business to certain resources, then perhaps these studies are not suitable for big business Russia.

3. Such a global study and at the same time based on the opinions of other managers? Interesting 🙂 Go through our companies and ask managers what traits they consider best in leaders…

That is why I consider these studies do not affect the quality of the information.

Let's get into the detailed analysis:

The beginning of the third era in Rackham sales is associated with a crisis. It was the crisis that forced American society to begin to perceive sales differently. It was the change in sales during the crisis that served as the foundation for the research, since many companies in the crisis faced the need to generate new ideas and search for solutions.

hard worker (21%);

Champion (27%);

Relationship Builder (27%);

Lone wolf (18%);

Problem solver (14%);

Total according to my personal calculations ( 107 %).

Of course, it is a little alarming that such a global study had a sample of 107%, but there is probably some objective explanation for this. Although these boundaries are always difficult. We all know the types of temperament: Choleric, Sanguine, etc. So in its pure form, these types practically do not exist. I suppose that here, too, the boundaries are so blurred that it will be difficult to determine exactly what type of seller a particular person belongs to. That is why I avoid at trainings, contrary to the classical school of sales, the division of clients and managers into types. But for the convenience of parsing information, let's use these definitions.

So, the researchers came to the conclusion that the obvious losers in sales are the “Relationship Builders”, and the leaders are the “Champions of Sales”. This may be surprising, because many believe that someone who knows how to connect with a buyer is an effective manager.

We had a typical "Relationship Builder" and clients talking to him said: "We need a manager like him." But we did not tell clients that this manager was not a salesperson :), he performed a certain function in our company - he was a friend of the client. Sales were made by other people.

Repeatedly I had to deal with "Relationship Builders" who are not sales-oriented. Clients were delighted with them, and managers spoke of them like this: “They are constantly on the phone, but for some reason they don’t sell anything.” Most likely, this is the category in question. Whereas "Champions" are sales-oriented "Relationship Builders" :).

Let's move on to the most important thought of the book. Champion Characteristics.

Research highlights three qualities of a Champion that make him successful:

1. Educate the client in the sales process for change;

2. Adapt the offer to a specific person and a specific situation;

3. Control the sale.

Nothing really new, but well structured.

Learning for change. One of the models of this quality is training marketing, which is gaining momentum in Russia, which consists in the fact that before selling something, you need to offer something to a potential client for free and best of all information. The modern infobusiness is built on this - first, give a subscription, a textbook, a recommendation for free, then sell something. And it turns out a bias, sometimes even more is given for free than later for money, because there should be information for free that makes you buy, and what will be sold later is not so important. This is used by information businessmen, but very rarely used by companies whose business is not related to information. When implementing projects, we consider training to be one of the factors of effective interaction with a potential client. For example, a company in the sawmill industry was helped to prepare training information on setting up machines, and they began to consult on improving the performance of equipment that was already purchased even from others. In a wholesale furniture company, we helped a client design a showroom for a potential client, supplying him not only furniture, but also accessories that decorate the hall and give it a cozy atmosphere. A company that sells down jackets in bulk prepared down care instructions, trained retailers, who in turn trained customers.

The book highlights the signs of sales training:

Commercial training - that is, one that helps the client earn more or save money precisely with the help of the product of the seller's company.

Question the client's attitudes - if you match the client it's great, but if you don't give anything new to the client, he will quickly forget you, and if you give him the opportunity to take a fresh look at your business, he will never forget you.

Push to action - or do not let the client "blur" the decision. I don’t know how this relates to training, but the authors highlight this feature here, although, in my opinion, this item has a place in control over the transaction.

Segment clients - in other words, divide clients into interest groups and prepare materials for group training.

Stages of commercial training:

Benchmarketing;

Rethinking;

Rational immersion;

emotional impact;

New way;

Your decision,

are a certain variation of the stages of the presentation.

The small chapter "Look in the Mirror" is of great importance and touches on one of the most important topics. The difference between a company and others.

It says that companies in demonstration materials, on the website, in presentations stick out themselves, talk about their experience, their customers, individual approach, innovation and other things that tell about themselves. Tell me about the main what will the client get by working with you.

Adapt changes. In fact, this section is a modification of the old classic school of sales. Presentation based on identified needs. The new variation has a deeper approach. And although the author complains that many companies talk too often about an individual approach, he himself brings to the need to prepare individual solutions for clients. And in this approach, the manager must really find an individual solution for the client, but not in terms of pricing, but in terms of choosing a solution. And decisions must be prepared in advance. To do this, the company must have idea generators that prepare solutions.

"Creating an Idea Generator". And here is the main snag in the use of Champions in Russia. Indeed, the implementation of the Champion Model requires a lot of preparation and in almost any business this support is very difficult to achieve. Although I know one company that has implemented a champion approach to sales and this is our company J We came to this model intuitively, but we use most of the Sales Champions: we train our customers before buying, explain how to develop sales, our website is not blurry texts about the common good, but concrete experiences that help our visitors to become better, we adapt solutions for companies and we control the sale. But the owners of the company are personally involved in the sale process, and only after reading the work of Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson, did the understanding come that we stepped into the future and how we can transfer the approach of the owners to our sales managers and to the entire company.

Sales control. This entire section essentially boils down to one thesis. The sales manager should not keep the client in the comfort zone if it allows to make a sale, he should not be afraid to put pressure on the client. But not to manipulate harshly, but to bring the client to the best solution for him. But in order to do this, the manager must have:

Knowing that there is no need to be afraid of this;

Confidence in the correctness of their decisions;

Experience.

And these components can be developed only in the process of interaction with customers. The section on negotiation cards is worthy of attention, we use them in our work, but we certainly got new ideas about the form of preparing these cards.

Based on the results of reading this work, we are faced with the task of not only using the Champions approach in our company, but also transferring it to our clients, implementing this approach for them. The task is very difficult, we understand its difficulty, but thanks to this book we realized that our approach can be applied in any business. The only thing left is for companies to have at least some structured sales, in which case it will be possible to apply this model. Although, based on our experience, 90% of companies need elementary, and not the use of super-efficient methods. But those who can achieve commercial learning in their company will determine the market not for years, but for decades.