What Is the Challenger Sale Email Approach?

What the research behind it is about

Challenger's own summary of the original CEB research says the Challenger profile was the most common among high performers in complex sales. That was research about sellers and deals, not about email replies. So the method tells you what a strong message contains, not how many people will answer it. This site is not affiliated with Challenger.

Based on: Challenger, n.d.

Teach: lead with an insight, not the product

A Challenger email opens with a point the reader has probably not considered, about their own business. It should be useful even if they never buy. An obvious industry fact or a compliment does not count.

Corporate Visions' research supports the core of this: naming a cost of the current approach the buyer may not have weighed yet can be more persuasive than repeating a need they already stated.

Based on: Challenger, n.d.Corporate Visions, 2018

Tailor: relevance, not just personalization

Challenger's email guidance warns against mistaking personalization for relevance. Mentioning their hometown or their last post is not tailoring. Tailoring means the insight fits this company and this person's role. Gong's research adds that senior buyers need to see a company priority, while a name or a hobby with no business challenge is not enough.

Based on: Challenger, n.d.Gong Labs, 2023

Take control: one clear request

Taking control does not mean being pushy. It means you make a clear, confident request instead of a vague “let me know”. Challenger's email guidance stresses a strong request. What is strong depends on the stage: on a cold note, Gong found that asking whether a topic is worth a conversation works better than asking for a meeting, and once a deal is active, a specific next step works better.

Based on: Challenger, n.d.Gong Labs, 2020

Tension without pressure

Challenger talks about constructive tension: a little productive discomfort about the way things are done today. That is not the same as fear. Research from Dixon and McKenna, written up by Challenger, found that when a live deal stalls, piling on more pressure about the status quo tends to backfire, and that recommending a path and making the decision feel safer works better.

Based on: Challenger, 2024

An invented example

Invented example

Subject: Where new hire time goes

Hi Priya,

Most support leaders we talk with assume training is what slows new agents down. At teams growing as fast as Northline, the bigger delay is often waiting for system access.

Worth comparing notes on how your setup works today?

Writing practice, not a study result.

Common mistakes

• A “provocative” opener that is really just a pitch.
• An insight that would be true for any company.
• Tension that turns into criticism of the reader.
• A soft ending with no clear request.

Writing practice, not a study result.

Sources

• Challenger. What is the Challenger Sales Methodology? (n.d.). Read the source
• Corporate Visions. Defeat Your Prospect's Status Quo with Unconsidered Needs (2018). Read the source
• Challenger. Email Pitfalls to Avoid (n.d.). Read the source
• Gong Labs. 4 effective ways to boost your email reply rate and book more meetings (2023). Read the source
• Gong Labs. This surprising cold email CTA will help you book a lot more meetings (2020). Read the source
• Challenger. Why are you losing to customer indecision? (2024). Read the source

Advice marked as writing practice is common sense for clear email, not a study result. See where all of our guidance comes from. No statistic on this page is invented.