{"id":11805,"date":"2020-08-12T17:20:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-12T21:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=11805"},"modified":"2020-08-23T13:33:07","modified_gmt":"2020-08-23T17:33:07","slug":"commercial-teaching-challenger-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/commercial-teaching-challenger-sales\/","title":{"rendered":"Commercial Teaching: 4 Rules for Scoring Sales"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is commercial teaching? How can it help you make sales<\/a>? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commercial teaching is when a sales rep teaches a customer something new about the business. This, in turn generates more business for the supplies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But why engage in commercial teaching? When you use commercial teaching, you build customer loyalty<\/a> and get the customer to think about their needs using an important challenger sales method<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Why Use Commercial Teaching?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

CEB surveyed companies to learn what customers were looking for in a business-to-business (B2B) supplier. Specifically, researchers asked companies why they might choose one supplier over another, or what made them loyal to a supplier. The most important thing was the sales experience\u2014not the product and service or price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not what<\/em> you sell but how<\/em> you sell it that counts the most<\/strong>. This is where your commercial teaching pitch comes in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study found that only 38% of customer loyalty stems from brand and service. Typically, these factors keep a supplier in the game, but they don\u2019t build sales or loyalty. Customers often don\u2019t see much difference between competitors\u2019 products, yet reps often spend time highlighting small differences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Price isn\u2019t a significant factor in customer loyalty<\/strong> either. Only 9% of customer loyalty is attributable to offering the best price. Discounting alone won\u2019t get customers to buy more or continue buying from a company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, 53% of customer loyalty is attributable to outperforming the competition in the sales experience itself. A customer\u2019s loyalty is won during the sales call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In surveys, customers saw huge differences between suppliers<\/a> in the conversations they had with reps. They saw some reps as wasting their time by talking about small product differences; in contrast, others provided interesting, unique, and valuable information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next section looks deeper into the sales experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Four Rules<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Teaching doesn’t mean free consulting. Reps must ensure their teaching leads to more business for their company, not for a competitor. To do so, they must engage in Commercial Teaching, defined as teaching customers something new about their business that leads to business for the supplier<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are four Commercial Teaching requirements:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Link to your company\u2019s unique strengths.<\/li>
  2. Challenge the customer\u2019s assumptions.<\/li>
  3. Prompt the customer to act.<\/li>
  4. Segment customers based on needs. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Rule 1: Link to Your Company\u2019s Unique Strengths<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    A Commercial Teaching pitch must connect insights to the areas in which your company outperforms the competition.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    You want the conversation to go like this: you share an important insight that requires action; the customer asks, \u201cHow can I make that happen?\u201d; you respond, \u201cHere\u2019s how we can help you do that better than anyone else.\u201d Teach the customer not only to want help, but to want your<\/em> help<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Doing this well requires two things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1) You must actually be able to help. You\u2019ll frustrate customers, or drive them to the competition, if you teach them about a problem without offering a solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2) You need to know what your company\u2019s unique strengths are. While this sounds straightforward, many companies struggle to pinpoint what they do well, let alone what they do best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In a recent survey of B2B customers, CEB found that only 35% could verify they were truly preferred over the competition. And of the preferred companies\u2019 purported unique benefits, customers saw only half of them as relevant to their needs. In other words, only 14% of a company\u2019s unique benefits were seen as such by the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agreeing on your company\u2019s unique strengths is often the hardest part of implementing Commercial Teaching. Most companies cite being innovative, customer-focused, solutions-oriented, and so on. But those aren\u2019t unique qualities because most companies cite them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If you can’t connect the insights you teach to your company\u2019s strengths, you\u2019re providing your customers with free consulting<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Rule 2: Challenge the Customer\u2019s Assumptions<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Your insights must not only connect directly to your company\u2019s strengths, but they must also resonate with the customer by being directly relevant to his world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To resonate, the insight you present has to challenge the customer\u2019s assumptions<\/strong>. It must reframe how he thinks about his business, operates his business, or competes. In contrast, validating what the customer already knows doesn\u2019t give him any value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This may sound like a high bar. However, most suppliers really do know a customer\u2019s business better than the customer does when it comes to the supplier\u2019s capability or area of expertise. For instance, a company selling printers to a hospital knows more than the hospital about information management in a hospital setting (although not more about health care). A company that sells packaged foods knows more about how consumers buy groceries than most retailers know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If you\u2019ve successfully reframed your customer\u2019s thinking, the reaction will be equivalent to, \u201cI never thought of it that way before.\u201d<\/strong> If you haven\u2019t changed the customer\u2019s thinking, but only validated it, the reaction will be something like, \u201dThat\u2019s it exactly\u2014I totally agree.\u201d When they get the latter response, Relationship Builders often feel good about making a connection. But agreement doesn\u2019t win the customer\u2019s business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Challenger reps want the customer to stop and think about what an insight means to his business or wonder what else he\u2019s missing. That\u2019s the point where you\u2019ve given the customer something of value. It’s the turning point of an effective Commercial<\/a> Teaching conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Rule 3: Prompt the Customer to Act<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    It’s not enough to change the customer\u2019s thinking\u2014you have to get the customer to act. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Most reps try to make the case for action by focusing on how the customer can save money with the supplier\u2019s solution over time (the ROI). However, in a Commercial Teaching pitch, the initial focus of the conversation is on the customer\u2019s business, not the supplier\u2019s solution. The rep must show why the insight shared with the customer requires action in the first place<\/strong>, especially when it runs counter to conventional wisdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The way to use numbers to prompt action in Commercial Teaching is to help the customer calculate the cost of failing to act on the insight you\u2019ve taught<\/strong>\u2014either the money they\u2019re wasting or the money or benefit they\u2019re missing out on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Rule 4: Segment Customers Based on Need<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    A Commercial Teaching pitch is a great business<\/a> strategy, but to apply it effectively and efficiently, sales reps need expert market research and analysis from their organization. To deliver unique, relevant insights to individual customers about their business, reps need data and analysis that are widely applicable. This is where organizational support is crucial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Marketing departments should research customer segments<\/a> and generate insights linked to solutions and applicable to specific segments<\/strong>. Reps can then approach customers with a handful of scripted insights and diagnostic questions that help them present the right insight for the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    However, generating insights useful for Commercial Teaching requires marketing professionals to think differently about segmentation. (Shortform note: Market segmentation is dividing a target market into smaller groups of customers that share common characteristics.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Segmenting customers by common needs is more useful than traditional segmentation by, for instance, geography or industry. Reps can apply the same insights to customers across various industries by focusing on needs they have in common, for instance, improving cash flow, reducing employee turnover, or improving workplace safety. In each case, reps can help the customer think about the need or problem differently (reframe), explain the costs of inaction, and propose action linked to the supplier\u2019s solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Commercial teaching is an important part of the challenger sales approach<\/a>. Using commercial teaching, you can build long lasting sales relationships and create new business. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    What is commercial teaching? How can it help you make sales? Commercial teaching is when a sales rep teaches a customer something new about the business. This, in turn generates more business for the supplies. But why engage in commercial teaching? When you use commercial teaching, you build customer loyalty and get the customer to think about their needs using an important challenger sales method.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":11962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,103],"tags":[113],"class_list":["post-11805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing","category-sales","tag-the-challenger-sale","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nCommercial Teaching: 4 Rules for Scoring Sales - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is commercial teaching in sales, and how can you use it? 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