{"id":12095,"date":"2020-08-11T09:46:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-11T13:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=12095"},"modified":"2020-08-23T13:30:09","modified_gmt":"2020-08-23T17:30:09","slug":"building-customer-loyalty-challenger-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/building-customer-loyalty-challenger-sale\/","title":{"rendered":"Building Customer Loyalty With Challenger Sales"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How does the Challenger Sale Model help with building customer loyalty<\/a>? What strategies can you use?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building customer loyalty has traditionally been done through careful relationship building. But researcher found that the Challenge Sale Model is even more successful in building customer loyalty. Keep reading to see why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Building Customer Loyalty<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Building customer loyalty takes time and trust. How can Challenger Sellers build loyalty? The answer lies in your pitch. With an effective teaching pitch, you can create loyal customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teaching for Differentiation<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Challengers distinguish themselves from competitors by their ability to teach customers something new about their business. Research on customer loyalty (discussed in Chapter 4) shows that teaching new insights will build customer loyalty<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s how a rep selling office furniture applied this kind of teaching in a conversation with a company that was moving into a new office building. The company had already contracted with a competitor for office design and furniture, so the conversation would seem to be a lost cause; however, the rep did three things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) She started from an insight and taught the customer about a problem he didn\u2019t know he had<\/strong>. The rep had learned that one of the company\u2019s priorities in moving was to provide collaborative spaces for employees to work on group projects. She knew from her research that collaboration works best in small groups of three or four people. However, she noticed that the collaborative workspaces in the architect\u2019s plan were designed for large groups. She shared her insight and the problem with the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) She developed interest<\/strong>: The customer was intrigued by the research findings and drawn into a discussion about possible solutions, complicated by the fact that the project was already well underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3) She changed the direction of the account<\/strong>: The rep suggested the large rooms could be reconfigured with moveable dividers. Then she introduced dividers and other relevant products from her company that could help the customer facilitate collaboration among employees<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rep\u2019s teaching pitch was linked directly to her company\u2019s products, yet it was based on a unique insight her competitor had not offered the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teaching Builds Customer Loyalty<\/strong><\/h3>\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. This is an important finding in building customer loyalty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not what<\/em> you sell but how<\/em> you sell it that counts the most<\/strong>.<\/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 a loyal customer base. 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, and were able to build loyalty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Value of Insight<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Building customer loyalty can be done through insights. In surveying customers, researchers identified seven attributes or qualities in sales reps that were most important in generating loyalty. A majority related to providing insight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customers were most loyal to reps that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n