INSIGHT-LED MESSAGING

An Introduction to

COMMERCIAL INSIGHT

CALL FOR ACTIONINSIGHT

CHALLENGE

2© 2020 Challenger Performance Optimization, Inc.

INSIGHT SNAPSHOT

The only way to avoid the price war (and to drive customer loyalty) is by disrupting how customers define their needs and teaching them how to think about their business differently. This approach is called Commercial Teaching (one of key Challenger skills) using the sales message anchored in Commercial Insight. By definition, Commercial Insights don’t lead with a supplier’s unique capabilities, rather they teach the customer new, compelling ways to compete, ultimately leading to the supplier’s unique capabilities.

To enable Commercial Teaching approach, organizations should arm sellers with Commercial Insights that…

1. Focus on the supplier’s unique differentiators,2. Challenge customers’ assumptions,3. Scale across customers, and4. Prescribe action steps for customers.

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.

Through this period customerneeds have been well scoped,priorities set, requirementslargely defined, solutionscompared, and price is often being initially benchmarked.

n = 1,460.Source: CEB analysis

Customer Due Diligence Begins

Customer’s First Contact with

Supplier

Customer Purchase Decision

Customer Purchase Decision Timeline

Hierarchy of Information Conveyed Through Sales Messages

Commercial Insight

General Information

Accepted Information

Thought Leadership

Commerciallyinsightful messageslead back to thesupplier exclusively.

General DiscussionBe Credible/ Relevant

Be Newsworthy

Be Frame-Breaking

Lead to Supplier

Insight

57% Complete

CALL FOR ACTIONINSIGHT

CHALLENGE

3© 2020 Challenger Performance Optimization, Inc.

INSIGHT SNAPSHOT

Winners in today’s world must lead with insight, redefining customer needs and teaching them new ways to think about their business, that are ultimately tied to unique supplier capabilities. In this new era, it is insight that engages customers earlier in the buying process. Customers want to hear you teach them information they themselves would not have discovered on their own. This approach is called Challenger Selling (also known as “Insight Selling”) and it’s the only approach that wins customer loyalty and differentiates suppliers among competition.

To fully embrace Challenger Selling approach, organizations must...

1. Build Challenger sellers2. Equip their sales force with Commercial Insights3. Use managers to cultivate and refine Challenger skills4. Align organizational processes to enable and support

Challenger behaviors.

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 longerneed 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.

FROM SOLUTION SELLING TO CHALLENGER SELLING

Sales Strategy Evolution Over Time

Nature of the SalesConversation

Ideal SalesRep Profile

Key Stakeholdersto Engage

When WeEngage

Flow ofInformation

Era I:Product Selling

Lead With Featuresand Benefits

Talking Brochure

Decision Maker

When CustomerAssesses Options

Customer Places Order

Era III:Insight Selling

Mobilizers

When Customeris Learning

We Coach the Customeron How They’ll Purchase

Lead with Questions

Era II:Solutions Selling

Interrogator

Coach/Advocates

Lead with Insight

Challenger

Customer Coaches us onHow They’ll Purchase

When CustomerUnderstands needs

Customer Access to Information

4© 2020 Challenger Performance Optimization, Inc.

CONSENSUS MARKETING /IDENTIFYING VALUE

CHALLENGE

INSIGHT SNAPSHOT

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“My Company“

• Meeting industry standards• Reliability• Required features• Achieving organizational goals• ROI• Improving performance• Customer loyalty

PerformanceValue“My Work”

• Simpler work• Time savings• Productivity• Structure and order• Great service• Better work• Achieving personal targets

IdentityValue“Myself“

• Pride in my work• Respect from others• Career advancement• Belonging to a community• Popularity with team• Helping team and pleasing others• Optimism/happiness about work

Business Value

Personal Value

Personal value accrues to the individual

Performance value accrues to both the individual and the organization

Business value accrues to the organization

0.200

0.260

Company Value

0.500

0.420

0.000

0.250

PerformanceValue

Identity Value

Impa

ct o

n W

illin

gnes

s to

Dri

veC

onse

nsus

Not Significant

n =367Source: CEB 2014 B2B Value Survey; CEB Analysis

Impact of Perceived Types of Value on Willingness to Drive Consensus

Driving Consensus• Initiating group

purchase discussions• Leading group discussions• Resolving conflicts• Highlighting shared needs

CALL FOR ACTIONINSIGHT

5© 2020 Challenger Performance Optimization, Inc.

There are three types of B2B Value: Company, Performance, and Identity. All three types matter for different reasons. Company value, which is where most suppliers currently focus, is most likely to make a professional interested in a business product, but will not increase their likelihood to advocate for the 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.

To influence purchase decisions and bring stakeholders to consensus, companies should equip marketers to focus on identity value (the social and self-esteem needs of the individual) over company or performance value to customers to advocate for the purchase on their behalf.

CONSENSUS MARKETING /IDENTIFYING VALUE (CONTINUED)INSIGHT SNAPSHOT

Impact of Value Types on Purchase and Premium

0.000

Impa

ct 0.4220.400

0.247

0.456

0.334

0.109

0.577

Willingness to Purchase Willingness to Pay a Premium

n = 1,047Source: CEB 2014 B2B Value Survey; CEB analysis

CompanyValue• Meeting industry standards• Reliability• Required features• Achieving organizational goals• ROI• Improving performance• Customer loyalty

Performance Value• Simpler work• Time savings• Productivity• Structure and order• Great service• Better work• Achieving personal targets

Identity Value• Pride in my work• Respect from others• Career advancement• Belonging to a community• Popularity with team• Helping team and pleasing others• Optimism/happiness about work

0.800

But commercial teams typically fail to recognize that existing behaviors stem from existing mental models

That’s why commercial teams need to break down and replace existing mental models with new mental models that directly support the desired behavior

Commercial teams try to move customers from a current behavior set to one advantageous to the supplier (e.g., “buy my product“)

6© 2020 Challenger Performance Optimization, Inc.

DISRUPTING THE PURCHASE DECISION / MENTAL MODELS

CALL FOR ACTION

INSIGHT SNAPSHOT

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

Current Behavior Desired Behavior

CurrentMental Model

DesiredMental Model

2

1

3

MARKETING: THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY

CHALLENGE

7© 2020 Challenger Performance Optimization, Inc.

INSIGHT SNAPSHOT

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.

13

019%1%

Num

ber o

fMar

ketin

gO

rgan

izat

ions

Distribution of Content ConsumedBy Buying Stage

13%

0%

26% 23.7% 23.0%21.3%

18.6%

13.4%

Understandingthe Problem

EvaluatingSolutions

Determining theCriteria for the

Solution

Selecting aSupplier

Completing thePurchase

3% 5% 7% 9% 11% 13%

MQL Conversion Rate to Revenue15% 17%

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?”

Frequency Distribution of MQL Conversion Rates

26 Median = 2.97

By qualifying leads based on high content consumption, Marketing risks passing leads to sales too early.

CALL FOR ACTIONINSIGHT

8© 2020 Challenger Performance Optimization, Inc.

The bulk of content consumption occurs during the early stages of customer research and the majority of buyers consider equal amounts of content from allconsidered suppliers throughout this research 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.

Marketers need to use content to track the customer’s purchase journey, which will help them understand the customer’s affinity and readiness to buy and improve the qualification of leads.

MARKETING: THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY (CONTINUED)INSIGHT SNAPSHOT

Percentage of Customers Reporting High Consumption of a Supplier ContentTop Three Candidate Suppliers

Perc

enta

ge o

fRes

pond

ents

50%

100% 91%85%

81%

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“)