When writing for constructive tension, I recommend following this outline: Our goal is to build customer’s readiness for action and to be the teacher that has guided them to solutions (drawing upon other learnings from Building a Storybrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller). Tension should not be scare tactics or overly stressful if you raise problems, present solutions. When correctly applied, your content should develop constructive tension to intrigue customers and to make them feel they need to take action by moving the conversation and buying process forward. Instead, we can build constructive tension and achieve similar impact by addressing technology trends and specific market segments. While implementing Challenger methodology congruency into content marketing, we face a major obstacle – it’s significantly more difficult to tailor marketing content to specific customers than it is to tailor sales interactions. How can I implement constructive tension in my content marketing ? By using Challenger methodology in our content, we can encourage customers to consider innovative solutions to their needs, preparing them for the sales cycle and guiding them towards our solutions. While sales professionals are essential to closing the deal with their customer-specific knowledge and relationships, marketing professionals can more effectively warm up their leads and develop new ones by working to introduce constructive tension into our content marketing strategy.
While the applicability of the Challenger methodology is easy to see in sales, it’s more difficult to apply in marketing materials but it can be done.
This has a significant positive impact on customer loyalty and sets both the sales professional and their organization apart, in three ways ( outlined in the same Gartner research conclusions):ĭifferentiating based on in-depth knowledge of the customer’s business and their specific perspective.ĭriving a two-way dialogue tailored to customer’s economic needs and values.Ĭontrolling the conversation because they’re comfortable both discussing money and the customer’s specific needs. They transition from the role of seller to guide, bringing up new ideas that drive innovation and force the customer to consider new possibilities.
Challenger reps win by understanding their customers’ business and demonstrating insights that drive their customers’ thinking.
How do they do this? By challenging a customer’s assumptions and developing constructive tension. In an increasingly data-driven world, customers have more information at their fingertips and sales professionals need to adapt to changing customer needs and cut through the noise in order to be effective. One of the key reasons for this, as this same Gartner research goes on to note, may be that today’s customers are typically more than 57% of the way through their purchase process before they have their first meaningful contact with a seller. Nearly 40% of the “stars” identified were Challengers – and in complex sales environments, that number rose to 54%. Based on their research Gartner identified five distinct profiles, of which only one – the Challenger profile – correlated strongly with star performance. Gartner surveyed over 6,000 sales reps and assessed performance across 44 different attributes with a goal of identifying “star performers” – those sales professionals that drive the majority of revenue – and the traits that set them apart. What exactly is Challenger Sales Methodology– and why is it gaining popularity?Ĭhallenger is based on Gartner research examining sales methodology. Within that debate, one of the trending topics has been the rise of the Challenger Sales methodology, based on Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson’s popular 2011 book The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation. Last updated Īn ongoing debate rages around which sales methodology is the most effective.