The UK’s Institute of Sales and Marketing Management commissioned me to write this article for their members’ journal, Winning Edge. I think it's fair to say, most leading B2B sales-led organisations have probably considered shifting to insight-led sales conversations or have already implemented a change in some form. Given most companies want to have more customer-centric conversations that create value at the executive level, I thought it would be useful to republish this article. (Note: A post written after this article, also on the same topic and reviewing the sequel to The Challenger Sale, is available here)

The Challenger Sale (2011) – Dixon & Adamson 

This book was the 'big one' as far as many Heads of Sales and Marketing are concerned. Viewed by some as the most robust, fresh thinking on revenue growth for years, it was based on one of the largest pieces of B2B buying and selling research ever conducted. The Challenger Sale's key points were heavily promoted by Harvard Business Review, with the book becoming a high-selling global title. Its key themes are:

• Why B2B buying is changing (buyers are learning about their needs and thus reaching out to suppliers later than they used to in the buying process. They are also tired of answering lots of questions from sellers)
• The resulting responses need to be highly differentiated. Sellers should fight back, using their intellectual capital to 'get in' earlier with executives through teaching using insights about the customer's business (as opposed to product features or issue-based questioning)
• Executive decision-makers want to be taught when they buy – in fact, they attach 53% of their decision criteria to the sales experience they receive – so teaching results in more sales
• The idea of 'teaching' should be part of a broader framework encompassing Tailoring the message, Taking control of the sales process, all whilst using Constructive tension
• Classic 'Relationship Builders' are now the lowest performing type of sales person

The Challenger approach has been embraced by many leading companies. However, it is also viewed by many as too simplistic and polarised in relation to how to sell. It plays down the importance of asking questions and appears not to sufficiently address when to use insights (versus sell to customers' identified needs). Many people complain that such insight-led selling is not new (a gripe amplified by the marketing hyperbole surrounding the book). Whatever your thoughts, Challenger is a book that has changed things. Whether its key points are actually new is maybe the wrong question. What is clear is that many Commercial Heads in Fortune Global 500 companies around the world found them to be new. Such corporates realised they have not been advising their customers and enlightening decision-makers with robust insights.

Changing the Sales Conversation (2013) - Richardson 

After the success (and controversy), of The Challenger Sale, it was always going to be interesting to see how other leading sales researchers would respond. Linda Richardson, a highly respected thought leader and founder of the leading sales training firm sharing her name, covers many similar points to Challenger such as:

• How the Internet has resulted in customers' learning about how to fix issues and decide what to buy, with less of a need for them to engage with sellers early on.
•  The need to differentiate through the sales conversation using insights (sell using your expertise, not your products, as these products are the same as the competitions')
• The need to research your customers in completely new ways

However, this book also takes a broader perspective than The Challenger Sale and some may feel it is more balanced. In particular, Changing the Sales Conversation: 

• Promotes using questions to test insights, on the basis that an insight is a hypothesis (based on your perception of a customer's business)
• Recommends using consultative selling skills as a platform to move to insight-selling
• Addresses later stages of the buying process, right through to decision stage
• Reinforces the importance of trust, emotions and closeness in buying decisions

Whether or not you have read The Challenger Sale, it is likely that most commercial leaders would get some value from reading Changing the Sales Conversation. Some will feel this book presents a more acceptable approach to selling for their organisation. However, those who are passionate about Challenger may feel Linda Richardson’s book dilutes the importance of using disruptive insights to differentiate in tough markets.

Insight Selling (2014): Schultz & Doerr 

This book appears to be a solid, new reference point given it’s based on a research study of 700 corporate purchase decisions. While the headline findings follow similar themes, a few points are worth highlighting:

• First placed sales professionals (winners of sales deals studied) sold radically differently to those in second place with, you guessed it, insight missing in the latter group. In fact, sales winners provided insights three times more often
• Most buyers simply do not find sellers valuable unless the seller creates value through insight
• Sellers need to go through the three key stages of Connect, Convince and Collaborate, using insights throughout this process

Insight Selling also sets out six example buying personas and nicely guides readers how to use insight-led techniques with each. Additionally, it provides some implementation points and states that 85%-90% of sales training has no impact after 120 days – a stark message for those thinking some sales training is the fix!

This book firmly pushes back on some of the claims made by the Challenger marketing machine. In particular, Insight Selling states that solution selling is not dead, but just needs to be built on and adapted to a world where understanding customers’ identified needs is now only the price of entry to prospecting. 

Whilst some ISMM members may be put off by the US-centric case studies and quotes in this book [those members with pure UK remits], most will find the key story resonates in European markets.

The Collaborative Sale (2014): Eades & Sullivan 
Whilst this book takes a different story line to the other three and doesn’t explicitly cover ‘insight selling’ as an approach, it merits a review for several reasons:

• It is written by the individuals behind the registered 'solution selling' methodology (adopted by over a million sales professionals globally). Many adopters of solution selling will be reflecting on whether the new kid on the block, insight-selling, is the way forward
• Some commentators (including Harvard Business Review) were calling time on solution-selling – it’s right that we get to hear from Eades & Sullivan

The Collaborative Sale actually agrees that buyer behaviour is changing, with decision-makers delaying their outreach to supplier organisations (the book refers to the new decision-maker as Buyer 2.0). It suggests that sellers need to be:

• Micro-marketers: Providing innovative ideas and advice particularly to those buyers in the latent pain stage
• Visualisers: Creating, expanding or re-engineering visions of solutions, including through insights
•  Value drivers: Focusing on value of the solution throughout the buying/selling process
• Situationally fluent: Being able to adapt to the buying stage they're dealing with

A number of points seem to gel with concepts of insight-selling, including a reference to a great 'teaching' example from a seller of industrial gases. The authors also highlight that early engagers win 5x more business. However, there are also big differences versus some forms of insight-led selling, with the authors stating - as per the title - that collaboration with the buyer is the way to go. Key messages include: Don't disrupt the buyer's thinking; partner with them on their journey to find a solution; and, understand their issues (but be prepared to influence the buyer with new ideas and insights). Given the success of solution-selling approaches, it's also understandable that this book anchors its new thinking on that proven base.

The Collaborative Sale should appeal to the large community of solution selling practitioners who find that approach is still valid, but wish to build on it in response to today's changed landscape.