Winning as a challenger brand

“Big results require big ambitions.” 

Heraclitus was definitely onto something when he pronounced this in the 6th century BC. What he might have added is that you also need a big strategy for how to achieve them. 

And so it is with B2B technology. 

If you have the ambition and the products to really shake things up in a fairly settled market, then you’re a challenger brand. However, many new, disruptive challenger brands competing for customer attention are ones with fewer resources and a smaller reach. There’s an added complication: big-ticket enterprise customers have become more reluctant than ever to be sold to. Their sales cycles are longer, and they’re way more informed nowadays: with myriad online resources available, they’re well equipped to bring themselves up to speed with available solutions. 

Because of their non-incumbent status, challenger brands are forced to think outside the box with their sales and marketing strategies. 

That fresh-to-market feeling  

So, you have a brand new B2B tech product – a SaaS platform, painstakingly assembled by your team. It’s good – you know it, but it won’t sell itself. That’s your job. What if there was a proven approach that could help you mix it with the big players? 

Enter the Challenger Sale method. 

The Challenger Sale is a book written by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson that has gathered an enduring status and following since it was published. 

Dixon and Adamson conducted extensive research of sales processes, particularly for big-ticket B2B products. What they discovered changed the way many people think about what makes a successful sales process. They found that the most successful salespeople in this arena are not in fact the long-term relationship builders. Nor are they the benefits-selling elevator-pitch types. 

Challengers shift the focus away from merely selling a product to teaching their customers new things and adding value. They engage their customers in frank, early dialogue around their needs and bring fresh perspectives. They help their customers to solve complex problems, instead of just making a sale. Rather than adapting to customer needs, they shape them. As the book puts it: 

“What sets the best suppliers apart is not the quality of their products, but the value of their insight – new ideas to help customers either make money or save money in ways they didn’t even know were possible.” 

A challenger aims to offer a new perspective to the buyer (teach them something new), tailor the sales pitch to the customer (position your product as the solution), then take control of the conversation (close the deal). 

Customers no longer want to waste valuable time sitting through drawn-out sales sessions, with suppliers talking endlessly about how good their products are. 

That’s why the Challenger Sale approach works, and is a proven, trusted method. It aligns with the inherent preference of customers to form their own opinion, allowing them to learn and discover the solution in their own way.  

The Challenger Sale in five simple steps 

At the heart of the method is educating your customer and teaching them how to solve their problem. The process can be broken into five steps: 

Step 1: Understand 

The first stage is to feel your customer’s pain. You have to understand as much as you can about what their needs are, their priorities and their desired outcomes. Asking questions is important, but doing your homework first is every bit as much so. 

Step 2: Reframe 

Now it’s time to get your customer to think differently about the problem. In this step you break down preconceived assumptions and challenge your customer to consider new ways of thinking. It’s about identifying gaps in their understanding of their own issues, and opening them up to the possibility of a solution. 

Step 3: Humanise 

Once you’ve broken down your customer’s assumptions of what’s (not) possible, now you need to trigger an emotional response – but importantly, grounded securely in data and credibility. This stage is about showing you really understand the human challenge that needs addressing, and can work with them to create a different future. 

Step 4: Educate 

This is when your urge to sell is tested to its limit. Educating your customer here doesn’t mean launching into your pitch – instead, it’s about showing the customer how to solve the problem. By breaking down and re-constructing their assumptions about it, you’re preparing them to discover the solution in their own way. 

Step 5: Showcase 

Finally, your chance to shine. It’s only once you’ve laid all the above groundwork that you can present your product and deliver in-depth sales demos to unveil the answer in all its glory.  

Win friends and influence people 

Of course, the Challenger Sale method needs to be used in context, and it’s not all you need to do as a challenger brand. For example, you’ll still need to work on things like differentiation – showing why what you offer is different to anything else out there in the market. 

But rigorous data supports the idea that educating customers trumps relationship-building every time. We believe the Challenger Sale approach can be instrumental in helping you get your B2B tech product off the ground, particularly if you have killer creative marketing ideas on your side to set the scene for you.