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THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER: OVER HALF A MILLION COPIES SOLD

In The Challenger Sale, Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson share the secret to sales success: don´t just build relationships with customers. Challenge them

What´s the secret to sales success? If you´re like most business leaders, you´d say it´s fundamentally about relationships - and you´d be wrong. The best salespeople don´t just build relationships with customers. They challenge them.

Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson, and their colleagues at CEB have studied the performance of thousands of sales reps worldwide. And what they discovered may be the biggest shock to conventional sales wisdom in decades.

The Challenger Sale argues that classic relationship-building is the wrong approach. Every sales rep in the world falls into one of five distinct profiles, and while all of these types of reps can deliver average performance, only one - the Challenger - delivers consistently high performance.

Instead of bludgeoning customers with facts and features, Challengers approach customers with insights about how they can save or make money. They tailor their message to the customer´s specific needs. They are assertive, pushing back when necessary and taking control of the sale.

Any sales rep, once equipped with the right tools, can drive higher levels of customer loyalty and, ultimately, greater growth.

Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson are managing directors with CEB´s Sales Executive Council in Washington, D.C.

www.executiveboard.com
www.thechallengersale.com

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The most important advance in selling for many years. Neil Rackham, author of SPIN Selling

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Dixon, Matthew

BRENT ADAMSON is a managing director in the Sales and Marketing Practice of CEB. He is a coauthor of The Challenger Sale and a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review.

MATTHEW DIXON is executive director of the Financial Services and Customer Contact Practices of CEB. He is a coauthor of both The Challenger Sale and The Effortless Experience and is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review.

PAT SPENNER is a managing director in the Sales and Marketing Practice of CEB. He is a frequent contributor to Forbes and the Harvard Business Review.

NICK TOMAN is a managing director in the Sales and Marketing Practice of CEB. He is a coauthor of The Effortless Experience and is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review.

CEB is the leading member-based advisory company. By combining the best practices of thousands of member companies with its advanced research methodologies and human capital analytics, CEB equips senior leaders, and their teams with insight and actionable solutions to transform operations.

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