Book "Champions of sales": how to master the challenge-selling. Sales champions

Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson

How are outstanding salespeople different from average salespeople? What qualities distinguish the best salespeople, and what do the "champions" of sales do? How to turn average sellers into outstanding ones?

Champion Sales Model

The first thing we did was conduct a factor analysis of the data obtained. The analysis clearly indicated that certain characteristics tend to occur together. Thus, the 44 tested indicators were divided into five groups, each of which contained different combinations of characteristics. If a salesperson performed well on one of the traits in one of the groups, they were more likely to perform well on all other dimensions as well.

The figure shows five types of sellers, as well as grouped variables. These groups are not necessarily mutually exclusive. In our study, every sales rep had at least a baseline of the traits against which we tested them. For example, all salespeople, albeit to varying degrees, followed a formal sales process. All salespeople, however minimally acceptable, had knowledge of the product they were offering and the industry in which their client was operating. But the salesperson's approach to the customer was defined by a specific subset of these characteristics.

The five types of sellers didn't come about because we arbitrarily chose to group the data, nor because it reflects our world view. This is the result of our research. The five types are the result of a statistical analysis that best describes the five most common categories. And, interestingly, they were relatively evenly distributed across our sample.

But surprising as it was to find that every single sales rep fell into one of the five categories, our second finding was even more surprising. When you look at the actual sales results of each seller in the five categories, you will find that one of them is clearly head and shoulders above the rest, while another is hopelessly behind all the others. So who is the winner? The results we found differed from the generally accepted opinion. Most sales executives will frankly tell you that their biggest bet would be on the type we found least likely to win. Intrigued? Here's your answer: the Champion won, and by a significant margin. Take a look at the drawing.

Comparing the five types of reps with actual sales results, we first separated the averages from the stars and analyzed their performance individually. To determine the stars, we asked the companies that participated in the study to tell us which of their representatives in the sample were in the top 20 sales results (the results were compared with the target parameters to determine this 20). After we have categorized all sales reps according to their performance, we have divided into five types within each group. What we found amazed us.

Firstly, the middle players - the main composition of the team - were distributed fairly evenly among five types. Neither type was dominant. It turns out that average employees are average not because they gravitate towards any type; They are average because they are average. They show up in all five categories and achieve average results in each. In other words, to achieve average results, there is not one way, but five.

But when you look at the distribution of stars across the same five types, you see a completely different picture. While there are five different ways to reach the average, only one leads to the championship title. And almost 40% of all high-performing salespeople in our study follow this path.

You remember that the Champion is a sales rep who likes to bet that he uses his deep understanding of the clients' business not just to provide services to them, but to educate them, push them to new thinking, which allows clients to look at their work in a different way. ?

So what makes Champions different from others? In our analysis, 6 out of 44 test subjects demonstrated the following champion qualities:

• Offers the client a unique perspective.
• Possesses excellent two-way communication skills.
• Knows what constitutes the cost for this particular client.
• Can identify key economic indicators of the client's business.
• Feels comfortable when discussing money matters.
• Able to put pressure on the client.

At first glance, this list may seem like a strange mixture of unrelated qualities. In general, when we first put together all of the test characteristics, it was highly unlikely that anyone would choose these six as the key components that define the stars. However, this is what the analysis showed. Each of these qualities represents a specific parameter in which the Champion is significantly superior to the bulk of his peers.

Thus, if we divide these qualities into three categories, we get a clear description of the Champion:

• With a unique perspective and perspective on the client's business and the ability to communicate effectively, Sales Champions are capable of teaching for change.
• Because Champions have an excellent grasp of the key economics of the client's business and the drivers of value, they are able to tailor the offer to deliver the right message to the right person in the client's company.
• Finally, Champions are comfortable discussing money matters and are able to put some pressure on the client if necessary. Thus, the Champions control the sale.

The defining qualities of a Champion are the ability to teach, adapt and control. These are the foundations of what we have decided to call the champion sales model.

Current page: 1 (total book has 18 pages) [accessible reading excerpt: 5 pages]

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

© The Corporate Executive Board Company, 2011

© Translation into Russian, edition in Russian, design. LLC "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber", 2014

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"

© The electronic version of the book was prepared by LitRes

– 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 that have 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 when insurance companies discovered 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 employee 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 1
Edward Strong (1884–1963) was an American scientist, one of the founders of applied psychology and a pioneer in the study of advertising, the author of a well-known test for measuring attitudes towards professions. Note. transl.

Published The Psychology of Sales. This work dealt with new and very fruitful ideas of sales technology, such as describing the properties and advantages of a product, working with objections, closing a deal, and, perhaps most importantly, open and closed questions. 2
An open question suggests an answer in an arbitrary form; closed - offers to choose an answer from the proposed list. Note. ed.

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 led a large research project that 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 based on its results, the first of which was the book "SPIN sales" 3
Rackham N. SPIN sales. Moscow: Mann, Ivanov i Ferber, 2013. Note. transl.

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 have 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 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 force. 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 show. 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-mindedly cynical about all sorts of unsubstantiated claims 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 research 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 between 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 haven't 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 it is that 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 the best results. 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 troubling signs that advisory selling is becoming less effective. My observations of what customers value in salespeople are a good example of this. 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. Such skills are the future, and any trading company that ignores the message of this book is doomed to fail.

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, by finding (or raising) real Champions among their sales representatives, will reap a bountiful harvest and achieve significant competitive advantages. As the SEC study demonstrates, we live in an age where manufacturing innovation alone cannot be the key to success. How we sell has become more important than what we sell. An efficient sales force is a far more significant competitive advantage 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,

Introduction
A look into an amazing future

During those unforgettable first months of 2009, when the global economy was rapidly sinking, B2B sales executives 4
B2B (English business-to-business) - inter-corporate commercial operations, sales to corporate clients. Note. transl.

Around the world, a problem of truly epic proportions was faced, as well as a mystery 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. The situation for concluding trade deals 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 is in these circumstances that the Sales Executive Council (SEC), a program within the Corporate Executive Board 5
The Corporate Executive Board Company is an American research company serving large businesses around the world. Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Arlington. Note. transl.

— embarked on a study that has proven to be one of the most important in the field of sales rep productivity in the past few decades. Our program participants, who are the heads of sales departments of the world's largest and most famous companies, challenged us to determine what exactly distinguishes these incredibly successful salespeople 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 actual performance, you will see that there is one clear winner and one clear loser among salespeople: one clearly outperforms the other four, and one clearly outperforms the other four. . And these results could not but cause bewilderment and even anxiety. When we showed them to sales executives, we got the same reaction: the results were quite shocking, because the executives were betting the most on the type that turned out to be the losers. 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—the ones who got you through the 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.

In 2009, the economy was sinking, and the consulting company Corporate Executive Board decided to find out: how to stay afloat? Managers of 90 companies were interviewed and the work of 6,000 salespeople was evaluated. As a result, the book "Champions of Sales" was born - a textbook for salesmen of a new generation. We have read it and selected the most important for you.

Everything is not what it seems - why do you need a champion sales model?

In the book Sales Champions Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson all sellers are divided into 5 types:

1. Hard workers. They work like hell, put in twice as much effort as their colleagues.
2. Relationship builders. They try to get along with everyone, always come to the rescue, in a word, put the relationship with the client in the first place.
3. lone wolves. They never follow protocol, they never report, they never work as a team. They act instinctively. They would have been fired long ago if they weren't so good at what they do.
4. Problem solvers. They are more customer-focused than sales-focused, but not to the same degree as relationship builders. We try not to leave any problem unresolved.
5. Champions (or Challengers). Sales people with a deep understanding of the client, who love to argue, have their own views and push the client to a solution. They challenge and reach the goal.

It would seem that from the point of view of the leader, the best manager is the Relationship Builder. But while gathering material for the book, Dixon and Adamson did some research and found: Builders outperform Champions in terms of deals!

The authors of the book went further and asked the leaders of the “experimental” companies to identify among their sellers the so-called “stars” - sellers with higher transaction rates. The rest of the salespeople fell into the category of "average". At the same time, both “stars” and “middle peasants” are found among salesmen of each type. Interestingly, the number of "middle peasants" was distributed approximately equally among different types of sales representatives. But Champions took the leading position in terms of the number of "stars".

Dixon and Adams' surprising discovery upends sales habits. It turns out that there is no need to impose a product and rub in the trust of the client. You need to choose the path of the Champions - this is the challenge sales technique. Fortunately, a team of sales champions can be built from the managers you already have. Now we will tell you how to do it.

Teach to teach

How is a Sales Champion fundamentally different from other types of sellers? The fact that in communicating with the client he takes the position of not an expert, not a friend, but a teacher. Other sales techniques are taught to learn more about the client's business, to show empathy - Champions are taught to help clients, train them.

The owner of a candy store will be impressed if your salesperson knows the assortment of his store by heart. Perhaps the client will treat your manager better. But only the sale of such an approach will not help.

But if your specialist explains to the confectioner why his cakes fall apart during transportation to the point of sale and explains how your product can help him avoid this - the client is in your pocket!

This approach will also help in the long run. According to a survey of 5,000 customers conducted by the authors of the book, 53% of customer loyalty depends on how the sales process went. While 38% of loyalty depends on the brand and product, and only 9% on the price-quality ratio.

Tip: share all the information about the industry or a particular client with your salespeople. This will help you quickly understand how to help him.

Learn to speak

The champion does not just communicate with the client. He builds a dialogue in such a way as to smoothly lead the interlocutor to the desired solution. Teach your salespeople six simple steps.

Let's say your company manufactures office furniture. The client has recently moved to a new office building, and the manager in a conversation with him must go through 6 steps:

1. Instill confidence. Show your expertise by making a rational comment. For example, point out that the new meeting rooms are not very conducive to teamwork.
2. Show a different point of view. For example, note that effective teamwork takes place in small groups of 3-4 people. The new premises are designed for eight!
3. Indicate the severity of the problem. Give research results that prove that large conference rooms do not contribute to the growth of the number of innovative solutions.
4. Explain how the problem affects the client's business. Teamwork is bad - the innovative component is falling - competitiveness is decreasing.
5. Suggest an idea that can improve the client's situation. In this case, divide large rooms into two smaller ones.
6. Offer a turnkey solution. It is very important not to express it ahead of time. In our example - to offer movable walls to organize space.

Learn to influence the top

“The bottom wants - the top does” - this principle is guided by a manager who has read the book “Champions of Sales”. What does it mean?

Tip: don't aim to convince the director himself. Convince his team that your product is profitable, and he will have no choice but to accept the offer.

But in order to motivate ordinary employees to influence the decision of the management, you need to answer yourself the following questions:

• What exactly do the people you interact with care about?
• What are their economic goals?
• What do they want to achieve?

Then you need to build the offer so that it fits the needs of the person you are interacting with.

Let's get back to moving walls. For example, you explain their benefits to a personnel officer. Yes, the purchase decision will be made by the director. Yes, it is more important for the director to learn about the financial side of the issue. But you are not talking to him. Therefore, you are focusing on something else: the division of space will reduce stress and make employees happier. And now, the personnel officer is already interested.

Tip: prepare a cheat sheet for aspiring Champions that outlines the interests/goals/tasks of workers in different positions in the different industries you work with.

Learn to control the situation

The champion always takes the helm and tries to control sales. But there is a problem: some salespeople are afraid to talk about money or push the client to the final decision.

That's what's interesting. According to a study conducted by BayGroup International, 75% of decision makers believe during negotiations that the other party - the seller - has control over the situation. At the same time, 75% of salespeople believe that the “power” is in the hands of the decision maker!

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...

The history of active sales began approximately 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 for those who work in sales and are used to living in a “comfort zone” to admit that their professional knowledge is 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 a 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:

1. Champion (seller of today);
2. Lone wolf;
3. hard worker;
4. Relationship builder (this is what most sales coaches teach today);
5. 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:

1. Master the necessary champion qualities for yourself;
2. Choosing the right team
3. 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:

1. Look with a “fresh look” at your team and identify the direct dependence of the result on the presence of champion qualities;
2. See the real prospects for the development of your business;
3. See the idea of ​​a new approach to training your team and improving championship skills;
4. 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 still need to reach the sales model that has already begun to falter in the Western economy. As in any book about the future, there are things that are predicted, like submarines in 100,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but there are also things 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 my all-time favorite sales books that changed my life, is actually one of the best parts of the book, especially since it is 22 pages long and replaces the standard rambling called a foreword 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 a high level of 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, these are probably large companies ... then it turns out that the study has nothing to do with medium and small businesses. And if we take into account 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 large business in Russia either.

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 find 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 certainly 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 for 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 how to improve 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 more 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 the client anything new 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 solution. 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 choice,

are a certain variation of the stages of the presentation.

The little 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 techniques. But those who can achieve commercial learning in their company will determine the market not for years, but for decades.