1. 2 ©Harvard Business Manager - February 2016
Driving Sales*Translated into English by CEB.
**Original article published in
German under the headline "Die
Erneuerung des Vertriebs" in
Harvard Business manager 2/2016.
In 2012, software group SAP decided to launch a new way of selling
worldwide. In just three years, they turned 5500 salespeople into
creative marketers, who closed significantly more deals.
By RAINER STERN
In the past, SAP predominantly sold conventional
business software for enterprise resource planning
(ERP) or supply chain management. However, our
business has changed dramatically over the past ten
years: our products now help companies to network,
and support them in developing digital business models.
In addition our customers’ requirements changed too.
Conventional selling does not achieve the desired results
any more. They no longer want our employees merely
to explain to them which computer programme will
best solve their problems: nowadays the customers
already know that themselves. Rather, they expect
our sales staff to have an in-depth knowledge of their
sector, business processes and relevant key performance
indicators. What our customers want to talk about
are their business challenges, and they are extremely
receptive when salespeople suggest ideas to generate
new business.
Ever since we were able to reflect entire value chains
digitally and – most importantly – in real time with
our software, we were also able to help our customers
in new ways. This applies to many companies, and is
enabling businesses to evolve from merely offering
products to providing services. For example, we’ve
helped one sanitary product supplier move from simply
selling paper towels and soap by the pallet load to
guaranteeing their customers that their sanitary facilities
will always be adequately stocked, thus minimising their
storage requirements.
Identifying similar ideas that could lead to new deals,
required a new approach to sales.
In 2011, CEB – a best practice insight and technology
company - published “The Challenger Sale” (see p.
69).The two authors – Brent Adamson and Matthew
Dixon - show that a specific type of salesperson is
particularly successful selling complex products. They
call this the ‘Challenger’- a salesperson who is able
to push his or her customers and advise them how to
move out of their comfort zone. Adamson and Dixon
described three main steps that Challengers use in their
approach to selling: they present their customers with
risks and new opportunities for their businesses, teach
them something new and develop tailor-made business
strategies using their customers’ products and their own
knowledge.
CEB’s study proved that this way of selling is extremely
successful: there are 4.5 times as many top salespeople
in the Challenger group, and their close rates are
on average 14% higher than those of other types of
salespeople (see box on p. 66). On the basis of CEB’s
studies, we conducted an analysis of our own sales staff
and found that around half of them were not fulfilling
their potential – simply because of the way they worked.
As a result, our Board decided at the end of 2012 to
retrain all SAP sales staff worldwide. We set the goal
to set up 5500 sales staff to use the Challenger model
within three years. My role as our global continuous
development executive in this change was to implement
the training programme at our Sales University. The
following article provides an insight into our global
training programme, in the form of a work-in-progress
report.
We emphasised the benefit of the
training programme to the personal
development of the participants.
1. PRINCIPLES OF THE TRAINING PROGRAMME
The success of the training programme would depend
on being able to demonstrably increase our sales
revenue. The aim of the training was to encourage our
salespeople to change the way they sell. We therefore
focused on two groups: individual salespeople and
their supervisors, the sales managers. The intention
for the individuals was to help them sell using the
Challenger methodology, and to teach their managers
how to coach. We aimed to put managers in a position
where they could lead their teams to use the desired
sales techniques. Working with CEB and other
partner companies who provided us with coaching,
we developed a detailed training programme for
both target groups. This consisted of a mix of factual
knowledge and practical exercises, evaluating success
regularly.
The training began with a two-week preparatory phase
with videos, specialist presentations from the Ted Talks
series and recorded presentations (e-learning). At the
end of this input stage, we invited the sales teams to
a two-day group workshop, during which we provided
them with practical exercises. This training was followed

2. ©Harvard Business Manager - February 2016 3
Harvard Business Manager
by a 90-day phase in which course members were to
practice and improve what they had learned in their
day-to-day sales. For this phase, we produced e-learning
sequences and podcasts and organised telephone
conferences between course members and coaches,
where they could share their experience and ask
questions.
2. ROLLOUT OF THE TRAINING PROGRAMME
Getting established sales managers to dedicate two
days coaching role-playing games is not an easy task.
Before starting such a programme, we needed to keep
in mind that each salesperson will be weighing up
whether they should invest two days in the training,
or whether they would be better off investing in their
current sales project. We therefore designed all our
materials and events to always highlight the relevance
to personal work. From concrete real-life examples,
participants discovered how to gain more time to do
their actual job, how to achieve higher contract values
and how to close more sales.
To train 5500 salespeople, we needed a global structure
allowing us to run as many of the required courses
at the same time. At SAP, continuous development is
provided by our Sales University; and I was responsible
for the Sales Leadership Programme. It comprises of a
central management group and local teams in all sales
regions worldwide. We delegated the task of rolling out
the training in all six of SAP’s country regions to the
local country teams concerned. However, to ensure that
all our sales colleagues worldwide would be working
to the same concept, we equipped them with all the
content and it was up to them to complement this with
actual local examples.
We started in early 2013 with a group of sales managers
selling to the public sector in our North American
region. This was a group whose sales projects were
particularly complicated and time-consuming, so using
more effective sales methods would reap particularly
positive results. We believed that if this target group
succeeded we would secure the necessary advocacy in
the business.
We had provided all the participants with our training
documents two weeks beforehand. Now, with the
two-day practical phase coming up, we invited our
head of the public sector sales service to launch the
workshop. We also engaged a particularly experienced
sales manager who had previously worked at Procter
& Gamble and was well versed in the concept of the
Challenger Sale. Her presentation was tailored entirely
to those present: she introduced herself to the twenty
sales managers present, and closed with striking words:
“I know my global clients inside and out. I know all
their locations worldwide and know precisely what the
company is doing at each one of them.” She paused for
dramatic effect. Then she concluded, “I hold platinum
status with three airlines.”
Her confident approach and her experience won the
respect of the participants, and they engaged in the
role-playing games that followed. We had managed
the first hurdle. And the practical programme had been
accepted. All the workshops that followed made minor
adjustments to meet particular needs locally, using the
model below.
SALES MANAGERS: COACHING, NOT
INSTRUCTING
Increasingly salespeople handle more and more
customer projects in parallel. These are new business
projects with an uncertain outcome; we call them sales
opportunities. Sometimes salespeople discover they
have hit a wall in terms of closing a deal and ask what
they should do. Often, their sales managers will then
give precise instructions on what should happen next. To
change this behaviour, a typical manager workshop task
reads, “Managers should lead their staff, and get them
to develop their projects themselves, resulting in the
increased probability of closing a deal”.
Synopsis (or Abstract)
GLOBAL SCHOOL
In 2012, SAP’s sales director decided to train their
salespeople globally so everyone would be using the
same method. The author, who was in charge of this
project, describes how he successfully got 5500 sales
staff worldwide to permanently change the way they
acted towards their customers.
APPLICABLE CONTENT
The whole training programme revolved around
workshops tailored closely to the everyday working life
of employees, using exercises based not on theoretical
cases, but on specific customer projects they were
working on. This content was supported by two
communications strategies: starting with the Board
advertising the programme to individual sales managers.
At the same time, there were many additional measures
ensuring that those who went on these courses reported
back to their colleagues the effectiveness of the training.
By the time the programme ended, participants had
seen their sales increase by 27%.

3. 4 ©Harvard Business Manager - February 2016
THE STUDY
For many years now, Brent Adamson and Matthew
Dixon from CEB have been looking at how buying and
selling are changing. In their articles in Harvard Business
Manager, they start by describing how drastically the
world of buying and procurement is changing. During
the purchase process, buyers were looking increasingly
for something special that offered them the chance to
put forward better internal arguments (see “Through
tiebreak to sales success” in service box page 69).
In their bestseller published in 2011, “The Challenger
Sale”, CEB then published the findings of a massive
study of particularly effective sales strategies, looking
at how 6000 salespeople from 90 companies behaved
and sold and asking 1100 customers what they valued
most about salespeople. What the consultants found
was surprising: relationships with customers were
mentioned only very rarely, contradicting the old sales
saying, “First relationship, then close”. Instead, what
they valued above all was how much and what type of
value a salesperson added. The consultants concluded
that a good relationship is primarily the result of selling
successfully, not the starting point.
A NEW KIND OF SALESPERSON
What they found was, in complex sales situations
amongst different kinds of salespeople like the ‘Hard
Worker’ or the ‘Relationship Builder’, one kind stood out
above all – the ‘Challenger’. Adamson and Dixon studied
how salespeople types were distributed amongst
the top group of people. 54% were ‘Challengers’ in
a complex selling environment. They like debating,
challenging views and can also turn what their
customers are currently thinking ‘on its head’. They’re
not afraid to advise customers to make uncomfortable
changes.
In successful sales teams, the ‘Challenger’ approach
is now standard. Instead of preaching the technical
benefits of their products, the sales staff of a global
telecoms equipment supplier will now talk about
the commercial benefits they offer, like eliminating
underappreciated network inefficiencies. For example,
they explain how much customers can save if they
can cut out needless service calls through better
automation, and then offer the products required.
THREE STRATEGIES TO SUCCEED
The best salespeople have abandoned old methods
and developed a new approach to selling based on the
following skills:
One
Teach: in step one, salespeople deliver
comprehensive new findings about the potential
customer’s business through Commercial Teaching.
This takes the form of a disruptive insight that
challenges the customer’s current thought process
in a rationally and emotionally compelling way. This
could include new ways to cut costs, open up new
market opportunities or minimise risks. This helps
customers realise that they do need to act and are
therefore more willing to do so.
Two
Tailor: Challengers tailor their communication
and message based upon a client’s business and
individual attributes. They don’t talk to a marketing
manager the same way they would to a production
manager. They always focus on people’s particular
priorities to ensure a more effective conversation.
Three
Take Control: Challengers aren’t afraid to
respectfully and empathetically guide the client to
a recommended action by reinforcing value and
momentum for change. That means, for example,
they don’t ‘give in’ when someone demands a 10%
discount, but steer the discussion back to the added
value/assert the value of the opportunity . They are
also comfortable questioning what their customers
think and pushing them into making a decision. As
such, they prevent opportunities from running into
the sand –and, above all, no decision ever being
made.
Michael Leitl
The Challenger
Model

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Harvard Business Manager
During the workshops, the coaches took on the roles
of individual salespeople and we asked sales managers
to always ask them two probing questions thus
encouraging participants to think like Challengers. For
example: “What creative idea did you use to surprise
customers? What other customers do you know in the
same sector and what are the relevant KPIs?” Practical
exercises like this were used throughout the course,
in addition to short theoretical sections. By the time
the seminar ended, people recognised that coaching
saves managers a lot of time in the long run. The reason
for this is that salespeople learned how to solve many
problems themselves. As time evolves, they no longer
ask their managers for individual advice on how to
proceed, but only require them to approve a different
solution they have already worked out themselves.
SALES STAFF: SELLING THROUGH PROVOKING
For salespeople, the role-playing was about specific
sales strategies. To lay the foundations for subsequent
sales growth at the same time, we handed each
participant an actual task from their department’s
current sales pipeline. Using this sales opportunity,
the trainer then helped the salesperson work through
the different strategies and then practiced with them.
What was particularly important here were unfamiliar
aspects of the Challenger concept, such as deliberately
disagreeing with customers, including telling customers
why their current business model would only offer
very slight prospects for growth. Learning to challenge
customers was important, because many sales people
are inclined to create a particularly harmonious
atmosphere when selling.
As the workshop participants had already practised
these methods through role-playing based on a specific
case, they were well prepared when it came to actually
talking to their customers after the training; and, over
the next 90 days, they could discuss any questions
which arose during regular telephone calls with the
trainers.
3. COMMUNICATIONS THROUGHOUT THE
PROGRAMME
One of the key tasks throughout the project was
communicating at different levels. We had to ensure that
our organisation globally was working to our standards,
that our sales staff and managers understood what the
training was all about (and ideally recommended it to
others) and to inform management regularly how things
were progressing.
EMBEDDING THE PROCESS
We regularly stayed in touch with everyone involved
throughout the project period, travelling frequently to
meet with teams in different sales regions, organising
telephone conferences and discussing matters with
our partner organisations that provided the coaches.
We held weekly meetings about the division of
responsibilities, and the results and problems. We kept
close touch about a range of topics until the programme
was completed three years later.
MOTIVATING SALES STAFF
We invested much of our time in communicating with
the people who would be attending our courses, and
used every opportunity to obtain feedback from those
who had attended in order to improve the courses and
training materials.
Having completed a workshop, for example, we asked
everyone who had taken part to tell their respective
organisations about the programme. We filmed sales
managers and staff in workshop breaks and asked
them for feedback. We used what they said and
enriched our videos, brochures and mailshots with
their statements. German sales staff member Nils
Tinnermann, for example, explained in the video how
he could get his customer’s CFO to experience the
benefits of SAP’s products, as a result they signed a
strategically important contract. Ramiro Perdoma from
Columbia explained how one Challenger technique had
helped him win Banco Popular Dominicano as a client
and close a contract worth € 550,000. Others stressed
how important constructive conflicts are for successful
negotiations, and underlined the fact that too much
harmony can be counter-productive.
To ensure the many stories and anecdotes from the
workshops spread through SAP’s organisation as
effectively as possible, we also set up an internal social
network for the sales teams, where they could exchange
their experiences and share tips, furthering informal
communications within our sales force.
INVOLVING MANAGEMENT
Top management helped us implement this training
strategy in many ways. First, it was about showing our
sales staff and managers time and time again that this
is a project which is important to and supported by top
management. To illustrate this, we asked members of
the Board and the CFO to make brief video statements,
explaining what role sales plays from their perspective,
how they talk with customers themselves and what
topics matter to them. Presenting this very personal
relationship of our group leaders to what our individual
sales staff actually do had a major effect: for the first
time, many of our colleagues realised that even our top
managers are constantly talking to SAP’s customers.
Salespeople realised that how they work with individual
customers can have an impact on meetings that our
Board members have with our customers on another
level.

5. 6 ©Harvard Business Manager - February 2016
FOLLOWING THE TRAINING, SALES
REVENUE INCREASED BY 27%
We also asked members of top management to launch
workshops on a regular basis, which gave the events
more weight. Additionally, managers would be able to
position the new sales strategy as part of our global
sales organisation.
Finally, we kept management regularly informed about
how we were progressing, but also about any impending
problems. This continuous exchange meant everyone
involved in the project was aware that it had the backing
of top management throughout the cycle. This proved
to be one of the most critical success factors.
RESOLVING CONFLICTS
The first workshops may have gone well, but things did
not always run smoothly, as salespeople were not at all
motivated to sacrifice their time for training, even if they
were instructed by their managers to do so. If they had
doubts, there were also times when executives were not
available at short notice – it even happened that one
seminar room was only half full.
Sometimes, even speaking with those in charge locally
was not enough to resolve the issue. We could not force
them to take part, after all. Nonetheless, to implement
our goals, we were always learning new ways of
communicating, and not just with our regional teams
and salespeople generally at whom our communications
materials were aimed. It was also very important to
communicate with the teams various direct managers in
sales and other managers of all levels.
We continuously recorded our successes and problems
and reported both to central management and regional
managers. If we wanted to get something done, we
could refer to our successes to date and stress how
important this was to our global sales organisation.
Furthermore we imposed local penalties via regional
managers, for example: if staff did not let us know when
cancelling participation of a workshop, they had to bear
the costs themselves.
Sometimes, we also stepped in if the staff taking
part were unhappy with the quality, such as when
unexpected language barriers arose in China, or when
some course content was difficult to convey in Japan,
where it was particularly difficult to get people to
practise conflict meetings. In cases like this, we adapted
the course content to suit local customs.
4. MEASURING SUCCESS
It was evident from the start that this programme could
only be considered a success if we could provide hard
evidence that it worked. Each workshop therefore
ended with one of the usual attendee surveys, which
gave us some helpful feedback for improvement. What
was almost more valuable, on the other hand, was
the fact that it was rated, on average, 4.4 out of 5. In
the feedback on the 363 workshops altogether, sales
managers in particular proved to be particularly satisfied
with the programme, even though we knew they were
notalways happy about their new coaching tasks: 98%
said they’d recommend the programme (compared with
90% of staff).
What was far more important, though, was that 95% of
sales staff said they would approach their customers
differently from now on, and the hard sales data show
this was not just an empty promise. We measured how
much the training contributed to successful sales at 90
and 180 days after each workshop, comparing not just
how staff performed before and after the training but
also how they performed after training compared with a
control group of their colleagues who had not received
the training. In addition, we worked out specifically what
effect training had on sales, using Jack Phillips’ method,
recognised as the worldwide standard for assessing
human resource development measures (see right hand
box). The following five indicators demonstrating the
success of the programme:
• Those who had been on the training programme
closed 26% more deals than before the training (win
rate).
• Those who had been on the training increased their
sales revenue by 27% overall.
• Those who had been on the training programme
generated 26% more sales opportunities (pipeline)
on average (by way of comparison, the untrained
control group made just 9%).
• Deal size was up by a factor of six.
• Deal closing time was down 25%.
On the whole, the trained sales staff had increased
their business results measurably since completing the
programme.
FUTURE PROSPECTS
Markets continued to grow in the last three years. The
issues our customers are mostly concerned with now
are digital transformation and innovation. As a result, we
have already started on the training programme for sales
managers and individual salespeople, staying abreast of
customers’ new interests. We are transferring over the
successful aspects from the first programme, such as
defining and managing the global rollout centrally and
dividing the content between our two target groups:
sales managers and sales staff. We have also added
some new elements to our programme, including an
online university at which enables salespeople around
the world to participate in courses together, taking our
sales efforts to the next level.

6. ©Harvard Business Manager - February 2016 7
Harvard Business Manager
RAINER STERN
is Global Vice President of SAP, heading all sales
leadership programmes at the group’s Sales University
SERVICE
LITERATURE
BRENT ADAMSON, MATTHEW DIXON: The Challenger
Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation,
Redline 2015
HBM ONLINE
KARL SCHMIDT et al., [Consensus is trumps], in Harvard
Business Manager, September 2015, p. 64, reprint no.
201509064
JAMES C. ANDERSON et al., [Through tiebreak to sales
success], in Harvard Business Manager, May 2014, p. 32,
reprint no. 201405032
BRENT ADAMSON et al., [Selling solutions was
yesterday], in Harvard Business Manager, September
2012, p. 22, reprint no. 201209022
INTERNET
The ROI Institute founded by Jack and Patti Phillips
in 1992 offers certified training assessment: www.
roiinstitute.net.
CONTACT
rainer.stern@sap.com
REPRINT
No. 201602062, see p. 102 or www.
harvardbusinessmanager.de
© Harvard Business Manager 2016
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7. About CEB
CEB is a best practice insight and
technology company. We have a unique
view into what matters—and what works—
when driving corporate performance. With
more than 30 years of experience working
with top companies to share, analyze,
and apply proven practices, we deliver
innovative solutions that help you unlock
your full potential.
Every year we equip over 20,000
senior leaders from more than 10,000
organizations across 110 countries with the
intelligence they need to respond quickly
to evolving business conditions. In doing
so we help them more effectively manage
their talent, customers and operations to
exceed business objectives.
To find out more information about CEB
and The Challenger Sale please contact:
Jon Riley
jriley@cebglobal.com