The Challenger Sale:Commercial Teaching and Your Sales PresentationBy Charlie Tranen
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The Challenger Sale, from the Corporate Executive Board discovered that successful salespeople challenge their customers by not simply responding to their needs but actually redefining them
The Challenger Sale : Stop Selling, Start Teaching
Provides insight
Helps a customer avoid pitfalls
Offers products and services that the client doesn’t even know exist
This technique is called “Commercial Teaching,” and any teacher will tell you, it’s all about your presentation
A good challenger
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Applying the lessons of The Challenger Sale and Commercial Teaching to your presentation can:
At Propoint, We Believe Well-constructed and Well-designed Presentations Achieve Better Results
Add additional levels of insight and persuasiveness
Be another step toward more memorable presentations
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1. The Warmer Establish relevance2. The Reframe Suggest a new point of view3. Rational Drowning Support your point of view with data4. Emotional Impact Reveal the implications5. The New Way Pitch a solution
The Commercial Teaching Strategy Involves Five Specific Steps
PPG Series: Commercial Teaching and Your Sales PresentationStep 1 — The Warmer
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“I Understand What You’re Going Through.”
You probably don’t spend all day reviewing corporate presentations like we do, but you’ve probably noticed that most presenters love to start by talking about who they are and what they do
Unfortunately, only talking about yourself doesn’t work any better at the beginning of a client meeting than it does on a first date
If you show your audience you understand them, they will start to pay attention
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(No Promises That Any of This Will Help You on First Dates)Here Are Some Pointers on How You May Want to Kick Things Off
Establish Relevance
Make Conversation
Demonstrate Expertise
Start with what they care about. Show you understand by defining some problems they might have
A presentation is not a lecture. Allow the audience to define their problems
The warmer slide shows you understand their position
Stay Focused
Create Curiosity
Use Interactivity
Make it clear you not only understand their problems, but the insight you provide will directly be related
Build suspense. Talk about what they care about, so they will want to hear more
Get the audience talking about their concerns, and you’ll be able to direct the presentation toward insight relevant to them
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The Commercial Teaching approach
might not be as comfortable for you right now as going in and leading with your company’s highlight
reel
Beginning with The Warmer will
demonstrate your understanding of your audience
and get them on your side
There’ll be plenty of time later to show
just how you’ll solve their problems and
then close the deal and improve
their business
PPG Series: Commercial Teaching and Your Sales PresentationStep 2 — The Reframe
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“The Problem Behind Your Problem.”Tell Me Something I Don’t Know
The Reframe is where you break it to your audience that their problems will not be solved with the solutions they’ve requested
Don’t get stuck in the old model of selling solutions and not really challenging them. That’s a world where your client’s commitment is only as solid as the price you offer and the relationship you’ve built
Now that your audience is all warmed up, don’t just respond to their needs, redefine them
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Here Are Some Tips to Build a Successful Reframe:
Stay Relevant
Be Surprising
Show Excitement
Relate to the concerns they found most relevant during the warmer
Truly valuable insight may make their heads spin
Create excitement of learned insight with some dramatic graphics
Keep It Sparse
Deliver with Poise
Provide the new perspective with high level design work
Due to the shock factor, practice presenting your Reframe
PPG Series: Commercial Teaching and Your Sales PresentationStep 3 — Rational Drowning
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Not Just Shocking, Also TrueEstablish Validity
That’s why you need to hold off on the self-promotion a little longer and make sure they are completely sold on the problem before giving them your solution
It’s very easy to get this far and want to immediately start promoting your Product
Just because you laid it out brilliantly, doesn’t mean they’re ready to put money on it yet
The Rational Drowning stage is all about backing up your Reframe with solid data
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Make clear connectionsGuide them
further along the same path by
playing off of the visuals from the
Warmer and the Reframe
Visualize data
Rational drowning is about hard data, use visual metaphors to
represent the information in a memorable way
Some Things to Keep in Mind When Creating Your Rational Drowning Content
Check for understanding
Your audience needs to understand you well
enough to explain your point to others
when you’re not around
Keep it rational
Build trust by engaging the left sides of their brains
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Present information in a visual and engaging format and your expertise will matter far more during the buying process. Customers choose vendors that help improve their strategy and results
The Rational Drowning Step Has Two Purposes
Providing data Providing a clear display of expertise
Let the relationship be the result of selling a better strategy, not the entire basis of the sale
PPG Series: Commercial Teaching and Your Sales PresentationStep 4 — Emotional Impact
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Objects in Mirror Appear Different NowBring the Problem to Life
During a successful Emotional Impact step, your audience will feel personally connected to your presentation. They will conclude it’s no longer an option to continue to do things the same way as before
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Things to Keep in Mind When Building Your Emotional Drowning Slides:
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Tell a Story
Use Infographics
It’s the best way to impart a lesson
Customers remember images so use them to create visual connections and support the story
Relate to Pain
Do Your Homework
The emotional impact comes when you connect your story to the pain they feel every day
Research to anticipate the customer’s challenges and standardize your presentation for relevancy
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For them, this is the darkest point of the presentation. The solution they thought they wanted no longer applies, and they are ready for new ideas
…Now They Agree that Continuing To Do Things the Same Way Just Won’t Work AnymoreYou’ve Changed the Way Your Audience Thinks…
They don’t see any alternatives yet, but this is where you’ve been building the whole time
PPG Series: Commercial Teaching and Your Sales PresentationStep 5 — A New Way
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What They’ve All Been Waiting or
At this point, you may be tempted to…
Once you present a New Way at this step, you feel an immediate release of tension. The audience is relieved to see there’s a light at the end of the tunnel
…start promoting
your product right away
Force yourself to
hold off just a little bit
longer
Pitch thenew
approach, not your product
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Don’t get promotional (yet)Relate the visuals
to the solution, not to your product
Alternate ending
You just created a story with an
unhappy ending, now give it a happy ending
It’s still about them
Make sure this new story is still
about them. The reaction you want is,
“That’s how we should be doing
it!”
Repurpose infographicsThink about how you can change the infographics accordingly
Take your time
Get your clients on the same page,
wait until they get it before moving on
Things to keep in mind when presenting your New Way
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Your goal is to educate the audience with
valuable insight they find useful
You are helping them do their jobs
better, and this makes you much more valuable to your customers
After presenting a New Way, you are now ready to offer
up that you happen to have a product
that is a perfect for this new solution
PPG Series: Commercial Teaching and Your Sales PresentationStep 6 — Your Solution
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Commercial Teaching
We have the tools you need to solve your problem.”Now that you educated your audience about their problems and offered better solutions, you’ve set it all up, your product will be the perfect fit
A tech company might need a software demo
A financial firm might need a strategy diagram
A logistics company might need an interactive map
These should be designed well and use the technology that’s the best fit
Your approach to providing a
solution depends on what type
of product you offer
Make sure your salespeople have the right tools and know how to use them
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