Selling is Not About Relationships

Ask any sales leader how selling has changed in the past decade, and you'll hear a lot of answers but only one recurring theme: It's a lot harder. Yet even in these difficult times, every organization has a few stellar performers. Who are these people and what can we learn from them?

The following is an adaption of an article I found on the HBR Blog Network that talks about the qualities of these star performers.

Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson of the Sales Executive Council wanted answers to these questions. They launched a study of sales rep productivity three years ago involving more than 6,000 reps across nearly 100 companies in multiple industries. Here are their three insights:

1. Every sales professional falls into one of five categories

Every B2B sales rep falls into one of the following five types, characterized by a specific set of skills and behaviors that defines the rep's way of interacting with customers:

Relationship Builders focus on developing strong personal and professional relationships and advocates across the customer organization. They are generous with their time, strive to meet a customer’s every need, and work hard to resolve tensions in the commercial relationship.

Hard Workers show up early, stay late, and always go the extra mile. They'll make more calls in an hour and conduct more visits in a week than just about anyone else on the team.

Lone Wolves are the self-confident, rule-breaking cowboys of the sales force who do things their way or not at all.

Reactive Problem Solvers are, from a customer’s standpoint, highly reliable and detail-oriented. They focus on post-sales follow-up, ensuring that service issues are addressed quickly.

Challengers use their deep understanding of their customer’s business to push their thinking and take control of the sales conversation. They're not afraid to share potentially controversial views, and are assertive with both their customers and bosses.

2. Challengers dramatically outperform the other profiles, particularly Relationship Builders

Average reps are fairly evenly distributed across all five profiles. But close to 40% of high-performing reps cluster in the Challenger profile. Three key capabilities define these stars.

a) Challengers teach their customers. They focus the sales conversation not on features and benefits but on insight, offering new (and typically provocative) ideas that can make or save money for their customers.

b) Challengers tailor their sales message to the customer. They have a finely tuned sense of their customers’ objectives and values and use this knowledge to position their sales pitch.

c) Challengers take control of the sale. While not aggressive, they are certainly assertive. They are comfortable with tension and are unlikely to acquiesce to every customer demand. When necessary, they can press customers a bit around issues such as price.

Why aren’t Relationship Builders star sellers?

Just as surprising as it is that Challengers win, it's more eye-opening who loses. Relationship Builders come in dead last, accounting for only 7% of all high performers.

Relationships still matter in B2B sales, but the data point out that the nature of the relationship makes the difference. Challengers win by pushing customers to think differently, using insight to create constructive tension in the sale. Relationship Builders focus on relieving tension by giving in to all customer demands. Where Challengers push customers outside their comfort zone, Relationship Builders focus on being accepted into it.

These findings are often troubling to sales leaders because their organizations have placed their biggest bets on recruiting, developing and rewarding Relationship Builders. Here's how a leader in the hospitality industry reacted when he saw these results: "You know, this is really hard to look at. For the past 10 years, it's been our explicit strategy to hire effective Relationship Builders. After all, we're in the hospitality business. And, for a while, that approach worked well. But ever since the economy crashed, my Relationship Builders are completely lost. They can't sell a thing. And as I look at this, now I know why."

3. Challengers dominate the world of complex "solution-selling"

When Dixon and Adamson analyzed their data by complexity of sale - separating out transactional, product-selling reps from complex, solution-selling reps - they found that Challengers dominate as selling gets more complex, accounting for 54% of all star reps in a solution-selling environment. Relationship Builders fall off the map almost entirely, representing only 4% of high-performing reps in complex environments.

For any company on a journey from selling products to selling solutions — which is a migration that more than 75% of the companies I work with say they are pursuing — the Challenger selling approach represents a dramatically improved recipe for growth.

Communities Make Brands Sticky

Relationships are the secret-sauce of a sticky brand. We fall in and out of love with products, but human relationships are far more lasting. It's people that make brands stick.

When you buy a new car, you love it. It's fun to drive, and fun to show off. It's your shiny new object – at least for a little while. After a few months the new car luster fades, and it's just a car.

It's hard to maintain a relationship with a shiny new object, because when the shiny and new wears off you're just left with an object. That's the struggle for most brands. They're constantly struggling to release something new and exciting to bring their customers back. It's a vicious cycle.

Communities break the shiny object syndrome. They add human relationships, which are far more sustainable and protectable than adding features and benefits.

Communities keep you engaged

I experienced the power of community first-hand when I joined Element CrossFit last summer. CrossFit is a fitness program that incorporates dynamic, full-body workouts. It has become very popular in recent years with CrossFit gyms popping up everywhere.

Prior to joining Element CrossFit, I had never maintained a fitness program beyond 60 days. I'd join a gym, learn their equipment and use the facilities. All would be going well for a few weeks, and then I'd get derailed.

I used to think falling out of fitness was my fault, because I wasn't disciplined enough. But that wasn't it. I was bored. When the shininess of the gym wore off there was nothing left to sustain me.

Element CrossFit has been a completely different experience. For the first time in my life I have been working out three to four times a week for over a year, and I'm loving it. I'm not bored, I'm not tired of it, and I'm not using willpower to maintain my routine. The difference has been their community.

Element CrossFit is a minimalist gym with free weights, chin-up bars, medicine balls and space to do various routines. Compare that to the 140,000 square-foot gym Life Time Fitness is building a few kilometers away. Can you imagine how much equipment it will take to fill 140,000 square feet?

But Element CrossFit has something very powerful: a community. The community has been a real sticking factor in my experience. It's the people I see week after week, and the support and camaraderie I gain that keeps me coming back.

Products and services can't share emotions. They can't connect with you as a human being. Only people can do that.

Communities create loyalty

An engaged brand community keeps customers coming back for more. Just look at the commitment of Harley-Davidson owners. Other motorcycle brands may have more advanced technology and features, but Harley owners couldn't imagine riding anything else.

Communities increase customer loyalty. Alex Cibiri, the owner of Element CrossFit, explains, "The community shifts the customer relationship. Our members feel a part of the gym, and take ownership and pride in it. You will hear people describe it as 'my gym,' and truly mean it." He goes on to say, "The more members feel a part of a community, the more they invest in it."

From a business context, the community increases Element CrossFit's customer retention and participation rates. Alex explains, "Many people belong to gyms, but rarely go. The gym may claim to have a high retention rate, but their participation levels are terrible. Element CrossFit is very different. We have high retention and high participation. Very few of our members pay their dues and don't show up."

The stickiest brands have communities

Look at brands you admire, and you will likely spot a community. Harley-Davidson, LEGO, Wikipedia, Apple and WordPress all have dynamic user communities. Some communities are organized and sponsored by the brands, like the Harley Owners Group (HOG). And some are left to their own devices, like Apple's user communities.

Regardless of how the community forms, it can be a great asset to a brand. When people organize in a community it adds a relationship dimension that greatly enriches the brand. It adds human bonds, experiences and camaraderie that no product or service can achieve on their own.