By Nicolas Zimmerman, Editor-in-Chief, SAMA
To challenge or not to challenge? That is the question.
Ever since CEB published its seminal book “The Challenger Sale,” the challenger paradigm has reigned supreme. It has been taken as gospel that the best way to win more deals is to disrupt the status quo by taking control of customer conversations and introducing new, provocative ideas. (On the other hand, SAMA has always considered the idea of “taking control” of your customer to be misguided at best, disastrous at worst.)
Corporate Visions has been at the vanguard of partnering with academics on research designed to test whether challenging actually does what it’s supposed to — and if so, under what conditions. In other words, challenging may work when you’re trying to convince a prospect to move business to you. But does it also work when you’re trying to convince existing customers to:
- Stay with you?
- Pay more for your products/services?
- Do more business with you?
- Forgive you for a lapse in service?
(Sneak preview: The answer is NO.)
If you missed the SAMA/CVI next-practice symposium Feb. 12 in Chicago, first of all: Shame on you. But second of all: You’re in luck, because I’m going to lay out many of the key takeaways here. Read on…
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