INSIGHT-LED MESSAGING - An Introduction to - Challenger Inc
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An Introduction to INSIGHT-LED MESSAGING
COMMERCIAL INSIGHT
INSIGHT SNAPSHOT
CHALLENGE
The new selling reality is selling to customers who are extremely well-informed. CEB research found that customers
are delaying serious engagement with suppliers until they are 57% on the way through the purchase process. By
this point, customers have done the research, explored options, and determined the price they’re willing to pay,
effectively reducing the supplier’s role to mere order fulfillment or, worse, forcing suppliers to compete on price.
Customer Purchase Decision Timeline
57% Complete
Through this period customer
needs have been well scoped,
priorities set, requirements
largely defined, solutions
compared, and price is often
being initially benchmarked.
Customer Due Customer’s First Customer
Diligence Begins Contact with Purchase
n = 1,460.
Source: CEB analysis
Supplier Decision
Hierarchy of Information Conveyed Through Sales Messages
General Discussion General Information
Be Credible/ Accepted Information
Relevant
Be Newsworthy Thought Leadership
Be Frame-Breaking Insight Commercially
Commercial insightful messages
Lead to Supplier Insight lead back to the
supplier exclusively.
INSIGHT CALL FOR ACTION
The only way to avoid the price war (and to drive To enable Commercial Teaching approach,
customer loyalty) is by disrupting how customers organizations should arm sellers with Commercial
define their needs and teaching them how to think Insights that…
about their business differently. This approach is
called Commercial Teaching (one of key Challenger 1. Focus on the supplier’s unique differentiators,
skills) using the sales message anchored in 2. Challenge customers’ assumptions,
Commercial Insight. By definition, Commercial 3. Scale across customers, and
Insights don’t lead with a supplier’s unique 4. Prescribe action steps for customers.
capabilities, rather they teach the customer new,
compelling ways to compete, ultimately leading to
the supplier’s unique capabilities.
© 2020 Challenger Performance Optimization, Inc. 2FROM SOLUTION SELLING TO
CHALLENGER SELLING
INSIGHT SNAPSHOT
CHALLENGE
Suppliers today are facing not only higher deal complexity, but also better informed, more sophisticated
customers. Customers can now research solutions and make informed decisions on their own; they no longer
need suppliers to help them discover their pressing challenges, involving suppliers only when they know exactly
what they want and how much they are willing to pay for it. Surfacing customer needs and aligning solution to
those needs — the very core of Solution Selling strategy — will only make suppliers one of many contenders
competing on price.
Sales Strategy Evolution Over Time
Customer Access to Information
Era I: Era II: Era III:
Product Selling Solutions Selling Insight Selling
Nature of the Sales Lead With Features
Lead with Questions Lead with Insight
Conversation and Benefits
Ideal Sales
Rep Profile Talking Brochure Interrogator Challenger
Key Stakeholders
Decision Maker Coach/Advocates Mobilizers
to Engage
When We When Customer When Customer When Customer
Engage Assesses Options Understands needs is Learning
Flow of Customer Coaches us on We Coach the Customer
Information Customer Places Order
How They’ll Purchase on How They’ll Purchase
INSIGHT CALL FOR ACTION
Winners in today’s world must lead with insight, To fully embrace Challenger Selling approach,
redefining customer needs and teaching them new organizations must...
ways to think about their business, that are ultimately
tied to unique supplier capabilities. In this new era, it 1. Build Challenger sellers
is insight that engages customers earlier in the 2. Equip their sales force with Commercial Insights
buying process. Customers want to hear you teach 3. Use managers to cultivate and refine Challenger skills
them information they themselves would not have 4. Align organizational processes to enable and support
discovered on their own. This approach is called Challenger behaviors.
Challenger Selling (also known as “Insight Selling”)
and it’s the only approach that wins customer loyalty
and differentiates suppliers among competition.
© 2020 Challenger Performance Optimization, Inc. 3CONSENSUS MARKETING /
IDENTIFYING VALUE
INSIGHT SNAPSHOT
CHALLENGE
Most B2B marketers promote explanations of the return on investment a company will get from buying a product or
service. Although business justification is critical, all top suppliers in a given category usually meet the business’s
needs so this decision is typically based on price. In order to differentiate themselves and ultimately drive purchase
decisions, B2B marketers must instead provide a particular type of value to their customers.
CompanyValue PerformanceValue IdentityValue
“My Company“ “My Work” “Myself“
• Meeting industry standards • Simpler work • Pride in my work
• Reliability • Time savings • Respect from others
• Required features • Productivity • Career advancement
• Achieving organizational goals • Structure and order • Belonging to a community
• ROI • Great service • Popularity with team
• Improving performance • Better work • Helping team and pleasing others
• Customer loyalty • Achieving personal targets • Optimism/happiness about work
Business Value
Personal Value
Business value accrues to Performance value accrues Personal value accrues to
the organization to both the individual and the individual
the organization
Impact of Perceived Types of Value on Willingness to Drive Consensus
0.500
Impact on Willingness to Drive Consensus
0.420
Not Significant
0.260 Driving Consensus
• Initiating group
0.250
0.200 purchase discussions
• Leading group discussions
• Resolving conflicts
• Highlighting shared needs
n =367
0.000 Source: CEB 2014 B2B Value Survey; CEB Analysis
Company Value Performance Identity Value
Value
© 2020 Challenger Performance Optimization, Inc. 4CONSENSUS MARKETING /
IDENTIFYING VALUE (CONTINUED)
INSIGHT SNAPSHOT
Impact of Value Types on Purchase and Premium
0.800
0.577
0.456
0.422
Impact
0.400
0.334
0.247
0.109
0.000
Willingness to Purchase Willingness to Pay a Premium
CompanyValue Performance Value Identity Value
• Meeting industry standards • Simpler work • Pride in my work
• Reliability • Time savings • Respect from others
• Required features • Productivity • Career advancement
• Achieving organizational goals • Structure and order • Belonging to a community
• ROI • Great service • Popularity with team
• Improving performance • Better work • Helping team and pleasing others
• Customer loyalty • Achieving personal targets • Optimism/happiness about work
n = 1,047
Source: CEB 2014 B2B Value Survey; CEB analysis
INSIGHT CALL FOR ACTION
There are three types of B2B Value: Company, To influence purchase decisions and bring
Performance, and Identity. All three types matter for stakeholders to consensus, companies should equip
different reasons. Company value, which is where marketers to focus on identity value (the social and
most suppliers currently focus, is most likely to make self-esteem needs of the individual) over company or
a professional interested in a business product, but performance value to customers to advocate for the
will not increase their likelihood to advocate for the purchase on their behalf.
purchase within their organization. On the other
hand,performance and identity value motivate
individuals to advocate. However, buyers care most
about the type of value that is largely untapped:
identity value, which has twice the impact of
performance value on advocacy. Additionally,
identity value drives both willingness to purchase and
pay a premium more than company value or
performance value.
© 2020 Challenger Performance Optimization, Inc. 5DISRUPTING THE PURCHASE DECISION /
MENTAL MODELS
INSIGHT SNAPSHOT
CALL FOR ACTION
Instead of the thematically loose, mixed quality, and supplier-centric content that is currently being created,
Content Marketers must create content based on Commercial Insight to teach their customer something new and
disrupt their buying criteria in the supplier’s favor.
Relationship Between Customer Behaviors and Underlying Mental Models
1
Commercial teams try to move customers from
a current behavior set to one advantageous to
the supplier (e.g., “buy my product“)
Current Behavior Desired Behavior
2
But commercial
teams typically
fail to recognize
that existing
behaviors stem
from existing
mental models
Current Desired
Mental Model Mental Model
3
That’s why commercial teams need to break
down and replace existing mental models with
new mental models that directly support the
desired behavior
© 2020 Challenger Performance Optimization, Inc. 6MARKETING: THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY
INSIGHT SNAPSHOT
CHALLENGE
Marketing organizations are making large investments in an array of technologies to assist with demand generation.
These technologies enable them to engage customers and assess their affinity and readiness to buy. With these
increased investments in improving lead qualification and conversion comes greater scrutiny over the
organizations’ ability to demonstrate ROI, but despite these advances in demand generation, the leads are
converting at an unacceptably low rate.
Frequency Distribution of MQL Conversion Rates
26 Median = 2.97
Number of Marketing
Organizations
13
0
1% 3% 5% 7% 9% 11% 13% 15% 17% 19%
MQL Conversion Rate to Revenue
Distribution of Content Consumed
By Buying Stage
26% 23.7% 23.0%
21.3%
18.6%
13.4%
13% By qualifying leads based on high
content consumption, Marketing
risks passing leads to sales too early.
0%
Understanding Evaluating Determining the Selecting a Completing the
the Problem Solutions Criteria for the Supplier Purchase
Solution
n = 1,052 B2B Buyers.
Source: CEB analysis
‘Question: “Of all the information you consumed from suppliers and third parties, what percentage did you consume during the following stages of your purchase?”
© 2020 Challenger Performance Optimization, Inc. 7MARKETING: THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY
(CONTINUED)
INSIGHT SNAPSHOT
Percentage of Customers Reporting High Consumption of a Supplier Content
Top Three Candidate Suppliers
100% 91%
85%
81%
Percentage of Respondents
50%
0%
Winner First Runner-Up Second Runner-Up
n = 1,052 B2B Buyers.
Source: CEB analysis
‘Question: “Did you spend a lot of time with attention to content from your top three suppliers?” (Percent answering “Agree“ or “Strongly Agree“)
INSIGHT CALL FOR ACTION
The bulk of content consumption occurs during the Marketers need to use content to track the
early stages of customer research and the majority of customer’s purchase journey, which will help them
buyers consider equal amounts of content from all understand the customer’s affinity and readiness to
considered suppliers throughout this research buy and improve the qualification of leads.
process. This means that content consumption alone
is not an accurate indicator of customer readiness,
causing leads to be passed from marketing to sales
too early, nor customer preference.
© 2020 Challenger Performance Optimization, Inc. 8You can also read
