The second question helps to determine whether this stakeholder is looking to genuinely help their company or bolster their own position within the organization. Challenger selling revolves around educating customers with commercially insightful, often counter-intuitive information, and a customer pushing back with skeptical questions is a great indicator of a mobilizer. The first question helps to understand whether this individual is engaged and paying attention.

Do they demonstrate interest in the greater good of the organization?.

Does this individual display healthy skepticism?.

Blockers (customers who prefer the status quo)Īs a salesperson’s time is much better spent with a Mobilizer, it’s important to diagnose each stakeholder as quickly as possible and the easiest way to do so is to ask yourself two questions:.

Talkers (customers more apt to waste your time).

Mobilizers (customers more able to drive the purchase decision).

We found that stakeholders generally fall into one of three categories:

In our latest publication, The Challenger Customer, we dive into customer buying profiles. These are the 4 types of powerful questions you’ll frequently see Challengers asking their prospective customers:

Whether you’re asking the classic discovery question of “What’s keeping you up at night?”, or the more updated Consultative Selling query of “How can we partner together on this?”, the questioning techniques used by salespeople are informed by the evolution of sales as an industry.Ĭhallenger Selling understands the importance of investigation as well but shifts the focus onto different types of questions, ones that cut to the heart of the customer issue and lead to a true value-add conversation.

The challenger sale used