Unless you’re a seasoned chef with years of experience in the kitchen, you’re probably not going to wing it when it comes to cooking. You’re going to follow a recipe. This way, you’ll avoid any rookie mistakes and make something delicious in the process.
A sales methodology is like your recipe for sales success. Without one, you’re tossing ingredients in the soup pot and hoping for the best. Just like a favourite recipe, a solid methodology gives your team the guidance they need to get the job done (and do it well).
We’ll explain the importance of sales methodologies, the different types, and how to choose the right one for your business.
What you’ll learn:
- What is a sales methodology?
- 6 of the best sales methodologies with examples
- How to choose the right sales methodology for your business
- How to implement your new sales methodology
What is a sales methodology?
A sales methodology is a series of steps your sales team uses to sell to prospects. It teaches sales reps how to nurture leads from potential customers to converted buyers.
Sales process vs. sales methodology
The sales process is a series of steps a salesperson takes to move a lead to close. This roadmap helps you convert a prospect into a paying customer. A sales methodology, on the other hand, is the framework that guides your actions.
Here’s a simple way to remember:
- Sales process: A series of steps that can guide a sales rep to help a prospect become a customer, from market research to close.
- Sales methodology: A guiding philosophy or set of principles that informs the sales process
6 of the top sales methodologies with examples
Think about your unique approach to sales when crafting your sales methodology. Then, you can choose a methodology that will suit you, so that you can perform with confidence. Here are six methodologies to consider:
1. MEDDICC
MEDDICC, or Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Identify pain, Champion, and Competition, stands out for its intricate approach, which makes it ideal for longer sales cycles. This methodology and helps you deeply understand and align with your client’s needs and decision-making processes.
Who it’s for: MEDDICC is designed for large deals and complex B2B environments. It takes time and resources to work on complex deals over long sales cycles. If your business handles many clients, MEDDICC probably isn’t for you. But if you’re targeting high-value prospects and have the team for it, this methodology can help you navigate intricate deals with multiple stakeholders by securing the right buy-ins at the right times.
How it works: Imagine you’re selling an enterprise-level software solution. Using MEDDICC, you discover that the key decision-maker is the CFO, but the IT department’s concerns are the pain points to address. You identify a champion within the IT department and tailor your pitch to highlight how your solution streamlines their workflows. Ultimately, you secure buy-in from the economic buyer (CFO) and the end users (IT department).
2. N.E.A.T. selling
N.E.A.T. selling shifts the focus from traditional ROI to the broader economic impact. N.E.A.T. emphasises Needs, Economic impact, Access to authority, and Timeline, offering a more holistic view of a client’s situation.
Who it’s for: N.E.A.T.’s focus on listening and understanding helps you understand your prospects’ needs quickly. This makes it easy for lead qualification teams to identify promising prospects whose problems your products or services can solve and those who wouldn’t be a good fit for your solution.
How it works: I’ve found success with N.E.A.T. because it’s good at demonstrating how a product or service can positively affect a client’s overall business, not just the bottom line.
3. S.P.I.N. selling
S.P.I.N. selling, developed by Neil Rackham, revolves around four key elements: Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need-payoff. It’s designed to identify and explore more about your client’s pain points, helping you develop a tailored solution that addresses specific issues.
Who it’s for: By focusing on your customer’s actual problems and implications, the S.P.I.N. selling methodology fosters a more consultative and problem-solving approach that can build trust and strengthen customer relationships in the long term. S.P.I.N. also works well for new companies looking to earn trust in the marketplace by putting relationships first.
How it works: Let’s say you’re selling a cloud storage solution. You might learn that a client’s storage solution is nearing capacity (Situation). Frequent data overflows are causing disruptions (Problem), which could mean lost revenue and productivity (Implication). You propose your cloud storage solution (Need-payoff), which offers scalable storage and ensures the client’s business operations run smoothly without future disruptions.
4. The challenger sale
As the name suggests, the challenger methodology emphasises challenging the client’s thinking and assumptions. You aim to bring new insights and value to their business. This methodology can be tricky because it only works when the whole company, not just sales, buys into delivering solutions that change client perspectives.
Who it’s for: Best suited for complex sales environments where clients can benefit from being pushed to think differently about their challenges and solutions. The challenger method is well-suited to large sales departments, as it ensures an element of personalisation for every deal without needing to change any team structures.
How it works: According to Gartner, “Challenger reps use their understanding of their customers’ businesses to deliver new insights and ideas, like how to save money or avoid risk, that the customer hadn’t previously considered or fully appreciated on their own. Challengers are effective because they build constructive tension.”
5. Consultative selling
Consultative selling focuses on understanding your customer’s challenges and recommending products or services to resolve them. It’s a deeply customer-centric approach focused on empathising, advising, and advocating rather than pushing a product.
Who it’s for: Ideal for creating long-term client relationships based on trust and understanding. This methodology is suited for B2B sales, financial services, and consulting industries.
How it works: Customers often do their own research in the early parts of their journeys, whether through blog posts and content marketing or social media and product reviews. Selling to savvy, self-educated customers starts when they’re midway through their buying journey, already have a basic understanding of your product, and need an expert to help guide them the rest of the way. It’s your job to listen to their needs and goals and recommend the best solution.
6. Solution selling
Solution selling focuses on the customer and the problems they’re experiencing and provides recommendations to solve them. Unlike the previously standard approach of box pushing, solution selling offers customisation and consultation centred on each customer’s needs.
Who it’s for: Solution selling is used in many industries, including software, healthcare, and education, to give customers customised solutions to their complex problems.
How it works: Solution selling’s focus on customisation makes it an effective approach to solving unique problems. Both empathetic and practical, solution selling aims to understand the buyer’s industry, challenges, and goals and provide tailored solutions.
How to choose the right sales methodology for your business
Finding the right sales methodology for your business starts with taking a careful look at your business and analysing your customers. Different methodologies are better suited to different industries, markets, and sales cycles. Depending on how large and varied your customer base is, you might end up mixing and matching a few different methodologies to best suit particular prospects and situations.
Let the answers to a few key questions guide you. Whichever sales methodology you choose, remember to measure performance before and after implementation. Let the data help you judge which ones work best for your business.
What are your business needs and objectives?
Look at your business needs. Do you want to increase revenue, grow your customer base, or hit some other goal? Or do you need to address a current issue, like improving your approach to addressing customer pain points?
By focusing on what you need, you can choose a methodology that helps you get there. S.P.I.N. selling, for example, is great for focusing on customer pain points, while consultative selling will help you build stronger relationships.
How does your industry affect your sales process?
Selling cookies to cafe-goers is very different from selling subscription-based software to enterprise clients. As such, your sales methodology should suit your industry.
Considerations include the length of your sales cycle, the complexity of deals, and customer expectations within your industry. MEDDICC is a great methodology for B2B sales, where deal cycles are often long and involve multiple stakeholders. You probably wouldn’t apply it to your cafe business, however.
Who are your target customers?
A good sales methodology supports your business and your customers. When evaluating its effectiveness, consider your customers’ perspective. Find out who they are, how they think, and what markets they spend time in.
Work backward from what you know about your audience, and choose a methodology that’s most apt to suit them. If you have a customer who’s most concerned with the financial health of their business — not just the ROI of individual deals — you might choose to apply the N.E.A.T. selling method.
Key considerations for all
- Customer interactions: Analyse how your customers prefer to communicate, and go for a methodology that matches these preferences for better engagement.
- Aligning with buyer’s experience: Choose a methodology that matches and supports the buyer’s journey through consultative selling or direct problem-solving.
- Importance of open-ended questions: Your methodology should encourage open-ended conversations to uncover deep insights into your clients’ needs and challenges.
Ultimately, the right methodology will feel like a natural extension of your sales efforts, improving the process for you and your buyers.
How to implement your new sales methodology
Whether you’re introducing a sales methodology for the first time or refining an existing one, consistency is key. Think of it like perfecting a recipe. You learn a little more every time you cook until you get it right.
To ensure your methodology sticks, incorporate regular training sessions and ongoing coaching. Professional development and consistent feedback are essential for helping your team master a new approach. Align your methodology with your sales activities with these tips:
Analyse your sales stages
Whether you’re setting up your first structured sales process or tweaking an existing one, begin with a detailed analysis. A CRM system is key for fine-tuning your sales stages. It helps you:
- Gather insights: Use CRM data to identify strengths and weaknesses in your sales process.
- Spot improvements: Pinpoint where a new methodology could boost performance — like improving lead qualification if drop-offs are high at this stage.
- Implement changes: Directly integrate methodology tactics into CRM activities, ensuring your approach is grounded in actual sales interactions.
- Monitor results: Quickly adjust your strategy based on CRM feedback to continually refine your sales process.
A CRM not only streamlines analysis but also actively supports the integration and ongoing improvement of your sales methodology.
Incorporate specific tactics
Apply targeted tactics and strategies from your chosen methodology at each sales stage. This will ensure it’s not just theoretical but actively informs daily sales activities. Here’s an example of a sales process using S.P.I.N. methodology:
- Open: S.P.I.N.’s goal for making first contact with prospects is to gather information. Don’t lead with your product or service’s features. Focus on grabbing attention with an interesting insight or thought-provoking question.
- Investigate: Identify your prospect’s priorities and buying criteria. Use strategic, targeted questions to learn more and gain credibility.
- Show capability: Prove the value of your offer with the FAB formula — features, advantages, and benefits. Say to a prospect, “With these [features], you can do these things [advantages], and you’ll experience this [benefit].”
- Get commitment: Field objections without giving the hard sell. SPIN selling builds this into its framework by digging deeper into customer challenges with probing questions. Use a problem question, followed by a series of implication questions to understand the consequences at stake. Then, ask the buyer to see the value of your solution with a need-payoff question, and get their commitment to buy.
- Problem question: What’s preventing you from reaching [goal]?
- Implication question: Could [problem 1], [2], or [3] be holding you back or giving your competitors an edge?
- Need-payoff question: What [payoff] would you experience if we could solve [problem]?
Set clear milestones
For each sales stage, establish clear objectives aligned with your methodology’s principles. This way, your team understands what success looks like and how it supports your overarching business goals.
Clear milestones, aligned with your sales methodology’s principles, get everyone on the same page. Your team should understand your organisation’s approach to sales, what’s expected at each stage of the sales process, and how to get there.
Review for continuous improvement
Use performance reviews and feedback to discuss any issues you encounter. Make timely adjustments to ensure your methodology evolves with your sales needs. Learn more about your methodology’s challenges and successes with:
- Weekly team meetings: Dedicate a portion of your weekly sales team meetings to discuss your methodology. Encourage team members to share their experiences, challenges, and successes.
- Performance dashboards: Use your CRM to create dashboards. Then track key metrics for objectives associated with your methodology. Regularly review your dashboards to identify areas for improvement.
- One-on-ones: Have regular one-on-one meetings with your reps. Review their application of the methodology to understand their successes and challenges on an individual level. Give personalised feedback, discuss obstacles, and set goals.
Whether you’re building from the ground up or adjusting your approach, defining your goals and understanding your gaps are critical first steps. Remember, adopting a sales methodology requires patience, practice, and persistence.
Find the right approach and work on it every day
Choosing the right sales methodology is like testing out a new recipe. You won’t know if you got it right until you taste it — or in the case of sales, test it.
Sales methodologies are meant to bring consistency and structure to your sales process, but it can take time to get it right. Remember, they only succeed when they align with the needs of your business and its customers.
No matter what methodology you choose, build in the flexibility for your team to respond to unique situations as they come up. Learning and adaptation are the name of the game.
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