As we dip our toe into the waters of the blogosphere, one of the biggest questions we faced for the blog itself was:  what to call it?  Those of you who’ve spent some time with our materials know that we spend an inordinate amount of time on page titles alone so it was a spirited discussion here in the researcher dungeon. 

(Side note: if you look at our study Deepening Customer Relationships, the titles of the first five pages are: “The train has left the station,” “I thought I meant more to you,” “Through bad times and good,” “Two sides of the same coin,” and “Taking the next step.”  Intriguing enough for a closer look??)

But once we came up with Sales Challenger, the discussion was over.  Why?  Well, the Sales Challenger really encapsulates the two major goals we are trying to achieve with this blog: Read More »

Welcome to The Sales Challenger, a new blog brought to you by the Sales Executive Council (SEC). For those of you who don’t know SEC, we are a membership-based organization for senior sales leaders and their teams from the world’s largest B2B companies.  Our value proposition to members, in short, is to provide leading-edge insight on what the most progressive sales organizations are doing to tackle today’s most vexing sales challenges.

While longtime members will fondly recall the days when they received their SEC studies in the mail (you will still find many of those shiny green tomes on sales executives’ bookshelves around the globe), we’ve found over the years that the sales world moves a little too quickly for executives’ needs to be addressed simply through 6-month-long research projects.  While these big studies will always be a core part of what we do, we’ve begun to invest in a number of capabilities to speed up our ability to share insight with members.

We’ve created platforms to put members in touch with one another quickly and efficiently (check out the Sales Ops Forum, our moderated community of more than 3000 sales operations professionals exchanging views and peer-to-peer advice on a wide range of issues) and have now launched The Sales Challenger to allow us to quickly and informally disseminate what we’re learning to sales leaders.  

We will refresh this blog several times per week, so come back often and, by all means, share your comments—positive, negative or otherwise.  In terms of content sections, look for the following:

• The Buzz –our point of view on emerging and newsworthy issues and trends
• From The Road – anecdotes from our recent meetings and calls with members
• Sales Insights – breakdown of our ongoing and existing research
• Practical Advice – tips and tricks to make you more effective in your day-to-day job
• Diversions – light, fun (more random) topics

Until next time, happy selling!