A boost of motivation welcomingly came this Friday afternoon, and I started and completed 2 internal Microsoft courses: Marketing Fundamentals and Challenger Foundations. Today, I’ll talk about the Challenger Methodology, which (almost) every seller and manager has told me to take!

What It Is

The Challenger methodology is a sales method that teaches you to be more focused on providing insights to your customers as a trusted advisor.

Top 3 Learnings

1. Research your customer thoroughly. This is important to understand the landscape that they are in, what their key business metrics are, what their competitors are doing, and what the industry outlook is like. You need to show up as an expert who is as invested in their company success as they are.
2. Introduce insights and perspectives. Take your knowledge and experience to develop a POV that your customer might not have seen before. What are some of the gaps and risks that may impact their business? What are the potential costs of complacency?
3. Share actions and solutions. Once your customer recognizes that there is indeed a problem, you should be there to provide them with actions and solutions. What are the steps they need to take? How can you guide them through that journey with tailored solutions and best practices?

Overall, I really enjoyed learning about this methodology and coupling it with my learnings from the INSEAD Value Negotiations course that I took earlier this year.