Want to learn the ideas in The Challenger Sale better than ever? Read the world’s #1 book summary of The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson here.

Read a brief 1-Page Summary or watch video summaries curated by our expert team. Note: this book guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by the publisher or author, and we always encourage you to purchase and read the full book.

Video Summaries of The Challenger Sale

We’ve scoured the Internet for the very best videos on The Challenger Sale, from high-quality videos summaries to interviews or commentary by Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson.

1-Page Summary of The Challenger Sale

Overview

The line, “Always be closing,” from the movie Glengarry Glen Ross is a great phrase. However, it’s not actually the best way to sell something. Today’s successful salespeople don’t do that at all. Instead of using slick tricks and expensive suits, they’re teachers who help people find solutions rather than just trying to persuade them into buying things they don’t need or want.

It’s a new way of selling. You will learn quickly why it works so well and how you or your sales staff can use it.

In this article, I’ll show you how to be a great salesperson. You can do that by embodying the selling approach of a challenger and guiding conversations toward sales without actually pitching products. The most effective salespeople are disproportionately challengers, so they’re more likely to succeed in their careers.

Big Idea #1: Effective sellers involve the customer and personalize the product.

When you think about sales, what comes to mind? Perhaps slick, fast-talking sales reps closing deals. However, we never consider the customer in these situations.

Sales isn’t a one-way conversation. In fact, the most effective sales techniques put the customer first and are customizable to their needs. One such technique is called solution selling. Solution selling involves offering customized products or services as a solution to a specific problem (rather than just offering one product that fits all).

For example, a car manufacturer would not sell just any car to a bakery. Rather, the salesman would pitch a delivery truck customized to keep bread warm. In other words, the car manufacturer sells a solution for the bakery’s concern of delivering stale bread. This approach is effective because it helps the seller differentiate himself from competitors and control prices by offering customization as well as price competitiveness. This way, there is no need for lower prices or additional features in order to compete with similar trucks offered by competitors; instead, they can offer customizations that are more valuable than their competitors’ offerings (because they’re unique).

When selling a product, the salesperson’s job is to solve his customer’s problem. He needs to find out how the customer works and then research all details so that he can offer an effective solution.

Big Idea #2: When it comes to solution selling, innovative sales reps who are “challengers” close deals.

Solution selling is an effective approach, as it’s essentially a dynamic interaction between sales reps and customers. It’s important to realize that not all deals are conducive to this technique because there are five types of sales representatives: those who have the right skills and resources for solution selling, those who don’t but can be trained to use the method effectively, those who could benefit from other techniques instead of solution selling, those whose company culture doesn’t allow them to use solution-selling techniques effectively, and finally people with no interest in using solution-selling methods.

In sales, there are three types of people: the hard worker who is motivated and puts in twice as much effort as everyone else on his team; the relationship builder who strives for success through quality relationships with others; and the lone wolf who doesn’t follow protocol or write reports. He’s also not a team player, which would probably get him fired if he weren’t so good at his job.

The fourth type of employees are the reactive problem-solvers. They’re more customer oriented than sales oriented, but they’re not as snuggly with their customers as relationship builders.