True commercial insight is hard to create. It requires an intensive study of your ideal customer. Once it is created, salespeople must learn how to sell differently (consultatively) and sales managers have a role to play in changing behavior. This presentation uses ideas from "The Challenger Customer" to illustrate why true commercial insight is so important. It discusses a way to capture commercial insight and convert that into a visual story or whiteboard to enable salespeople to challenge status-quo thinking and create new opportunities through story and conversation - not presentation.

1. Ideas from “The
Challenger Customer”
to Create Commercial
Insight

2. Pitching Products
Unless the customer is looking for products like yours to solve specific problems

3. Nobody Cares About Your Products, Except You!
What do your Customers Really Care about?

4. Grow Revenue
Reduce Cost
Reduce Risk Competitive
Advantage
The Buyers Compass – Why People Really Buy

5. Start Helping Customers
to
Buy
But how?
No-one likes being pitched

6. Start showing
customers how to solve
the problems they
really care about

7. Do You Need to Change How You Sell?
• What does your ideal customer look like?
• How do they buy?
• Who do you have to convince?
• How does the customer see their problem?
• What are their alternatives?
• How do you make the case for change compelling?

8. The Capital Purchase = Change
Average B2B Buying Committee = 5.4 people
Asking: Why Change?
It’s expensive, disruptive, risky and unknown
Which is why most opportunities lose to status-quo!

9. B2B Customer Buying Process: I-M-P-A-C-T
Idea Mentor Position Assessment Case Transaction
*Do nothing
*Build it
*Explore
*Find alternative
Awareness Evaluation Decision
Why
Change?
Why
You?
Why
Change
Now?
Shared VisionWe must change!
Mentor/MobilizerStatus-quo
A B C







Fit
Price
People

10. Teaching Customers to Value a New Perspective
A BCurrent
Perspective
Desired
Perspective
Hint: It’s Not about the Product
• To help customers change - show them what they are currently doing is
unsafe, costly and untenable
• That is, help them envisage a different way of operating that will
produce superior results, or opportunities they are missing.

11. Suppliers think B is their Solution
A B
Until A becomes unsafe, risky and painful, the
status-quo will prevail
Current
Perspective
Desired
Perspective

12. A to B is the Customers Story
Counterintuitive points:
1. Stop thinking about A--> B as your value proposition
and start thinking about the return to the customer
from a new way of thinking about their problem.
2. Get customers to think differently about themselves
and they will think differently about you.

13. We must change!
A BCurrent
Perspective
Desired
Perspective
Commercial Insight helps the Buyer break down A
and build up B
“Let me show you how we are the only
company who can help you with this.”

14. Commercial Insight
Building Commercial Insight is an Organizational
Capability, not an individual salesperson’s skill.
Commercial Insight requires deep understanding of
how customers see their own business.

15. Four Questions to Create Commercial Insight
• What major problems are customers exposed to that you
can help solve?
• What are the causes of the problems currently under-
appreciated by your customers?
• What is the impact to the customer if they fail to act?
• What would we have to teach the customer about their
business that would lead them to value your capabilities?
How can you credibly break down their A and build up their B?

16. Create Differentiated Capabilities: Cause-Level Value-Model
Customer
Problem Solution
CapabilitiesCause
Generic
Value
Differentiated
CapabilitiesCause
Differentiated
Value
Issues
Symptoms
Impact
Impact
Adapted from Bob Schmonsees Cause Level Value Model

17. The New Way
Problem Addressed
How it ends
OUTCOME
Defining Moment
Triggering Event
Light-bulb
INSIGHT
Challenges
Struggle
Resistance to Change
THE REVEAL / HUMAN
Character (s)
When/Where
How does the Journey Begin?
THE SET UP
The Moral
The Message
A Belief
LIMBIC-TO-LIMBIC
The Point
Complication
Turning Point
Resolution
The Hero’s Journey Storyboard
Setting
Adapted from “What Great Salespeople Do” by Mike Bosworth

18. Visual Story Development Guidelines
2. Narrative:
• Customer as-is,
• Creates tension,
• Engages emotions,
• Contrasts as-is vs. as-it-
could-be
• Insight resolves in a new way
of thinking
• And a guide for the journey -
you
This Way
1. Visual – easy to draw icons,
big ideas
3. Language = voice of the
customer, no “product-speak”