The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation

Brent Adamson is the co-author of The Challenger Sale, which he wrote in his capacity as senior director of advisory services at Corporate Executive Board, an American company dedicated to providing executive advice and insight based on global research. After receiving a master’s of business administration from the University of Michigan, Adamson joined the Corporate Executive Board as an associate director of research. His research interests include the concept of “productive disruption” and the intersection between buyer and sellers, two areas he championed while engaging in the company’s marketing, sales, and customer service divisions. The idea that “disruption” can be a constructive force contributes significantly to The Challenger Sale’s exploration of The Rewards of Embracing Discomfort.

When Gartner acquired Corporate Executive Board, Adamson remained as a distinguished vice president. He left this role in 2022 to become the global head of research, advisory, and communities at sales software firm Ecosystems. He positions himself as an expert in B2B sales, which is the subject of The Challenger Sale. He has also written other texts on the subject, including The Challenger Customer with Matthew Dixon, Nick Toman, and Patrick Spenner, as well as articles for The Harvard Business Review such as “Traditional B2B Sales and Marketing Are Becoming Obsolete.”

The SEC was the sales research unit of Corporate Executive Board, an advisory firm that used best practice insights to support global business leaders. Founded in 1983, Corporate Executive Board dispensed its insights and support tools through a subscription service, which enabled programs like the SEC to derive research from its membership. It was considered one of the earliest uses of the subscription model now that the information technology industry now commonly uses.

Apart from sales, the Corporate Executive Board also included research arms in finance, marketing, information technology, and various other functions. At the time of The Challenger Sale’s writing, the company catered to over 200,000 business leaders across the globe. The company’s extensive research network enabled the SEC to produce the study that resulted in a 2009 report called “Replicating the New High Performer,” which discussed the Challenger profile for the very first time. Two years later, Corporate Executive Board published The Challenger Sale. In early 2017, American information technology research firm Gartner acquired the Corporate Executive Board, discontinuing the latter’s branding the following year. By the following year, a number of former Corporate Executive Board leaders founded a new company called Challenger, utilizing the insights from Dixon and Adamson’s book for global training and consulting services.