Brent Adamson is a former Harvard professor turned Wall Street Journal award-winning author and sales researcher. He co-authored "The Challenger Sale" and "The Challenger Customer" with my former guest Matt Dixon, and these days is challenging us to concentrate on making products easy to buy, not easy to sell.
Here are some of the highlights of our discussion:
1. The Challenger Sale shook up the world of sales, but The Challenger Customer was the inevitable follow upThey did further research after the first book and identified a new protagonist, the "Mobilizer", who can be your best advocate within the company (but not a champion!)
2. It takes 5.4 people within an organisation to make a purchase decision & the number's risingIt's getting more & more complicated selling into organisations, and the buying journey has become like spaghetti. Finding the "economic buyer" is no longer enough to land the sale.
3. There's a difference between emerging demand and established demandIf you're going after established demand and known solutions you're going to get dragged into a price-based bake-off. Challengers find unknown pains, challenge the status quo & break the frame
4. Some customers don't even know how to buy any solution, let alone your solutionBuyer journeys are complex & some customers can be surprised when things get held up. But you're not, you've seen it all before! Give them the info they need to help close the sale from their side.
5. It's not good enough to just be insightful anymore, The smartness arms race ended in a drawBeing really insightful is table stakes. You need to be able to help your customers frame their decision and give them confidence in the decisions they're making for their company.
.. And much more!
Check out Matt's episodeI interviewed Brent's co-author and co-conspirator Matt Dixon about his work and how customer indecision is a critical problem for B2B sales. Check out the episode here.
Buy "The Challenger Sale"Check it out on Amazon.
Buy "The Challenger Customer"
Check it out on Amazon.
Contact BrentYou can hit Brent up on LinkedIn.
Taking Recruitment into the Future with AI and Embracing the Metaverse (with Shaun Smith-Taylor, Co-Founder @ MyProductPath)
Beyond the Challenger Sale Part 1: JOLTING Customers out of ”No Decision” (with Matt Dixon, Author ”The Challenger Sale” & ”The JOLT Effect”)
Survive the Feature Factory by Applying Product Thinking to Product Thinking (with John Cutler, Product Evangelist & Coach @ Amplitude)
Data-Informed Decision Making and the Three Cs of Product Management (with Roger Snyder, VP of Products & Services @ 280 Group)
The Role of Product Management on Truly Agile Development Teams (with Allen Holub, Software Architect, Consultant & Outspoken Twitter Agilist)
Banishing Cynicism and Empowering Yourself as a Product Leader (with Claire Vo, CPO @ Color & Impending TikTok Influencer)
From Product Leadership to CEO and Saving the World from Stupid Smart Stuff (with Yana Welinder, CEO & Co-Founder @ Kraftful)
Closing the Gender Pay Gap and Hiring Diverse Product Teams (with Chris Mason, Co-Founder @ Intelligent People)
Treating Your Career as a Product and Landing that Next Big Job (with Sarah Doody, founder @ Career Strategy Lab)
Measurably Improving Managers to Help People do Great Work... and be Totally Psyched Doing It (with Russ Laraway, author ”When They Win, You Win”)
Getting Customers to LOVE your Product with Great Product Marketing (with Martina Lauchengco, author ”Loved”)
Build Products Businesses Want with the Lean B2B Pyramid (with Étienne Garbugli, Author ”Lean B2B”, ”Find your Market” and ”Solving Product”)
Coming Out as Transgender at Work and How We Can All Be Better Allies (with Saielle DaSilva, Director of User Experience @ Cazoo)
Your Product is a Joke - How to use Improv Comedy Principles in Product Management (with Amogh Sarda, Co-founder @ Eesel)
Diving into the Deep End as a Woman in Product (with Darby Maloney, Product Manager @ Divvy & Occasional Swimming Pool User)
Mapping your Way to B2B Product Success (with Daniel Elizalde, author ”The B2B Innovator’s Map”)
Betting on the Value of Product Design at the Organisational Poker Table (with Andy Budd, Executive & Design Leadership Coach & Founder @ Clearleft)
Solving the Innovator’s Dilemma with Compassion Driven Innovation (with Nicole Reineke, VP Innovation @ Iron Mountain & Co-Author ”Compassion Driven Innovation”)
Moving Beyond Survival and Paying Off Your Vision Debt (with Radhika Dutt, author ”Radical Product Thinking”)
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