What's Broken in GTM and How to Fix It
Exploring the key go-to-market challenges that SaaS organisations face and how to overcome them to ensure success.
What's Broken in GTM and How to Fix It
Sales Methodologies pt 3 – Challenger Sale
Episode 28 - Sales Methodologies pt3 - Challenger Sale.
Welcome to What's Broken in GTM and How to Fix It with Louis Fernandes and Simon Daniels. Each week, together with occasional guests, we explore the challenges that face go-to-market leaders in SaaS scale-up businesses and suggest solutions to common issues.
Louis and Simon reflect on last week’s CRO Connected Autumn Summit and discuss their favourite sessions, especially the Scared So What framework overview with Dr Grant Van Ulbrich, Alex Abbott on Social Selling, and a deep dive into what AI holds in store for us all courtesy of futurist Andrew Grill. Louis and Simon also trail next week’s episode, recorded live at the event with audience participation! Many thanks and kudos for Josh Smith and team for putting on a great event and allowing us to be a small part of it!
This week we are discussing the next model in our sales methodology series, the Challenger Sale, which really shook things up when it came out. Here’s the TL;DL (“Too Long; Didn’t Listen)”) in case you don’t have time for the whole episode: When the Challenger Sale burst onto the scene in 2011 and identified five distinct profiles, it found that challengers dramatically outperformed the rest. The idea of teaching tailoring and taking control reshaped how we think about complex B2B selling.
Listen on as Simon and Louis explore the Challenger Sale methodology, emphasising its research-backed origins and its disruption of traditional relationship-based selling. They outline the five seller archetypes and explain why Challengers outperform others in complex, consensus-driven environments. The conversation details Challenger’s structured approach - teaching, tailoring, and taking control - while cautioning against misapplication that can lead to aggression rather than constructive tension. They stress the methodology’s continued relevance in SaaS and AI-driven markets, where educating buyers and reframing assumptions are essential. The episode concludes with the key takeaways that Challenger is about value creation, requires strong discovery, and, when executed well, drives urgency and positions sellers as trusted advisors.
Read more on this topic in the corresponding edition of Louis’ What's Broken in GTM and How to Fix It newsletter.
Other mentions in this episode:
Andrew Grill’s LinkedIn post on how Josh found him as a speaker using ChatGPT
In a Downturn, Provoke Your Customers HBR article
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
Bounce: The Myth of Talent and The Power of Practice by Matthew Syed
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