A Little Background …
Over five years ago, CEB and the Sales Executive Council conducted a study to better identify what personality and behavioral traits make up the most high-performing salespeople. The analyses took into account scores of characteristics from sales reps across the globe and came to some insightful conclusions.
First, sales representatives can typically be classified into five categories:
Hard Worker- Challenger
- Relationship Builder
- Lone Wolf
- Problem Solver
Second, when compared and evaluated for effectiveness, the Challenger personality outperformed the others – especially the Relationship Builders. But what makes this particularly interesting is that it’s the Relationship Builder traits that most companies have worked long and hard to cultivate in their sales reps. According to the Marketing Insider Group,
“This was a huge surprise to many heads of sales and marketing because, for decades, sales reps were trained to be relationship builders, and have always been taught to focus on getting what customers had wanted or needed.”
By contrast to Relationship Builders, Challenger sales reps successfully challenge their customers’ thinking and push them outside of their comfort zone – and into great achievement. That’s inarguably a solid foundation for building long-lasting and profitable customer relationships.
Content and the Customer Buying Journey
So, what does all of this mean in regard to marketing? Well, just as CEB teaches that the Challenger sales professional is more effective than the traditional Relationship Builder sales rep, we too must rethink the way we traditionally undertake marketing (see The Challenger Customer infographic), and more specifically, the way we use content in marketing. To ensure our content resonates with customers and prospects, we start by gathering intelligence on the customer’s needs and then use that information to create and deliver customer-centric content that corresponds to the relevant stage in the customer’s buying journey.
Key Takeaway
Don’t forgo content quality to cover every possible variable in the customer’s universe (e.g., industry, segment, role, department, dietary preferences …). It’s impossible to create that magnitude of content without sacrificing quality. And as a result, you’ll have achieved nothing more than mass production of mediocre content developed with a tired, “assembly line” mindset. Content that’s, in a word, BORING. Instead, let’s focus less on developing more content, and more on developing more powerful content.