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Post by Archiballin on Jan 27, 2016 14:57:25 GMT
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Post by TheBoubs on Jan 27, 2016 15:35:00 GMT
A bunch of privileged entitled kids who get out of University thinking that they deserve a job, so they spend their entire time not learning anything because they think they've already paid their dues - they can't be challengers. Your TYPICAL 22-29 year old can't challenge anyone because they haven't matured to the point where they're humble enough to recognize "hey, I need to really know my shit before I can call someone and give them advice on how to do it better".
I think it's quite realistic to assume that someone in their 40's is going to look at you and think "What does this kid know about how to best do my job?" - if you're actually an expert in your domain, or have fact-based evidence of what you're claiming to be true, who can argue with that? Why would your age matter at that point?
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Post by nelmsyy on Jan 27, 2016 20:15:00 GMT
When I was reading the Challenger sale my exact thoughts were "There's no way at 24 I can teach them how to efficiently run their business."
With that being said, if you were 24 y/o running a campaign such as the targeted UTC one, I believe you can learn enough from a few subsidiaries that you're talking with that you could start leveraging that and challenging other business units. But without a targeted campaign like that I believe we need 3-5 years of experience in the industry to start challenging prospects and showing them unique ways to start thinking about their business.
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Post by tobinator on Jan 29, 2016 18:54:36 GMT
Being humble is the key here. As Abdul pointed out, the majority of 20-29 year olds are not humble and would get their ass handed to them if they tried the challenger method.
If you are humble, you would realize right away how much you DON'T know and try to fill those knowledge gaps as quickly and thoroughly as possible. After a lot of calls, personal research, and attending industry events (this would probably be the most important part, so you are on the leading edge) you could develop a substantial amount of understanding and begin to challenge/enlighten executives on their practices. How long this takes really depends on an individuals learning capability/tolerance. You really need to dive in head first, like Cory mentioned with the UTC campaign, for this to work
"if you're actually an expert in your domain, or have fact-based evidence of what you're claiming to be true, who can argue with that? Why would your age matter at that point?"
- I agree with this point wholeheartedly. Age does not matter if you have knowledge. As soon as you speak their language and come to the decision makers with some solid information they should respect you as long as they themselves are humble.
There were a lot of good points in this article but the one that stuck out to me the most was this quote "A 2013 study by the University of Iowa showed that, after a meta-analysis of 35 studies covering nearly 4,000 salespeople, there was a correlation of just 0.07 between extroversion and sales performance—in practical terms, that’s as good as no correlation at all."
- Extroversion and the ability to converse does no good at all unless you actually know what you are talking about. People don't respect anyone who drones on. To use one of my favorite sayings - "K bud, if you wanna blow smoke... go outside and have a dart".
Listening is much more important to me because if you are listening well, you will pick up on what the customer needs. At that point, once you have their needs you can use all your knowledge and expertise to address those needs. THAT is when they actually care what you know, because you are using it to help them.
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