{"id":12091,"date":"2020-08-13T09:38:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-13T13:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=12091"},"modified":"2020-08-23T13:31:26","modified_gmt":"2020-08-23T17:31:26","slug":"grainger-inc-challenger-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/grainger-inc-challenger-sale\/","title":{"rendered":"Grainger Inc: Sales Insights Lead to Customer Loyaly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is W.W. Grainger Inc? How did Grainger successfully use a challenger strategy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

W.W. Grainger Inc. was an MRO company (maintenance, repair, and operations) that used their insights in a successful teaching pitch. W.W. Grainger Inc. used a Challenger Selling<\/a> technique\u2014to teach the customer something new about the business\u2014in order to differentiate their company, build customer loyalty<\/a>, and increase sales. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Sales Insights From Grainger Inc.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Once you’ve agreed on your company\u2019s unique benefits and you’ve created a set of insights to teach customers, the next step is organizing your material into an effective teaching pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An effective teaching pitch follows a formula, but it also has an emotional component. Your pitch must tell a compelling story incorporating suspense and a few surprises. It\u2019s like an amusement park ride that takes customers through a dark tunnel before showing them the light at the end: your solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An effective pitch must engage both the rational and emotional parts of the customer\u2019s brain in order to get a decision. It speaks to logic but also triggers the customer\u2019s dismay at the money being wasted or the risk they\u2019re exposed to. See how Grainger Inc. used a teaching pitch to improve their sales and business value. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commercial Teaching in Action<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

W.W. Grainger Inc. is a distributor of maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) equipment in the U.S. and Canada. It stocks several hundred thousand products like tools, pumps, and electrical equipment that companies need to keep their plants operating smoothly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its customers typically bought individual items reactively, based on past purchase patterns and need. Grainger wanted to establish itself as a solutions provider or strategic partner rather than a transactional supplier. To do so, it needed to change the way customers thought of the company and about their own operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grainger Inc. needed a story about how the company could help customers save millions by properly managing MRO spending. In tracking customer purchasing, Grainger Inc. learned that customers were handling purchases inefficiently. This provided an opportunity to teach customers something new about their business\u2014they could save a lot of money by thinking strategically about MRO spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To ensure that this insight would lead customers to buy from Grainger rather than other suppliers<\/a>, the company analyzed its unique benefits and found that Grainger\u2019s combination of capabilities\u2014for instance, its efficient delivery system and wide range of items always in stock\u2014made it unique. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company built these insights into a teaching pitch: \u201cThe power of planning the unplanned.\u201d Rather than starting with Grainger\u2019s capabilities, it started with changing the way the customer thinks about MRO spending. The opening slide laid out the presentation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n