What’s the secret to sales success? If you’re like most business leaders, you’d say it’s fundamentally about relationships-and you’d be wrong. The best salespeople don’t just build relationships with customers. They challenge them.

Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson, and their colleagues at CEB have studied what determines the performance of thousands of sales reps worldwide. And what they discovered may be the biggest shock to conventional sales wisdom in decades.

The Challenger Sale argues that classic relationship building is a losing approach. Every sales rep in the world falls into one of five distinct profiles, and while all of these types of reps can deliver average sales performance, only one – the Challenger – delivers consistently high performance.

Instead of bludgeoning customers with facts and features, Challengers approach customers with insights about how they can save or make money. They tailor their message to the customer’s specific needs. They are assertive, pushing back when necessary and taking control of the sale.

The things that make Challengers unique are teachable to the average sales rep. Once you understand how to identify Challengers, you can model their approach and embed it throughout your sales force. The authors explain how almost any average rep, equipped with the right tools, can drive higher levels of customer loyalty and, ultimately, greater growth.