Navigating the journey towards sales triumph necessitates the formulation and adherence to meticulously detailed guidelines. Regardless of the sector, it is incumbent upon employees to comprehend and abide by a set of fundamental principles that delineate their role performance.
To secure customers and finalize deals, team members must possess a synchronized working approach. They should be equipped to effectively navigate the myriad scenarios and situations they may encounter. Fortunately, this can be facilitated by implementing sales methodologies, which serve as the bedrock for these guidelines.
However, crafting a strategic roadmap is not a straightforward task. It demands alignment with your mission, objectives, target audience, and requirements. This guide aims to demystify the concept of sales methodology and its application for your success. It provides a comprehensive answer to the question, "What is a methodology?", introduces six prevalent sales methodologies for your evaluation, and instructs on their implementation.
What are sales methodologies?
Sales methodologies are strategic blueprints that instruct a salesperson's actions from the initial prospecting stage to the closing of the deal. They are designed based on a deep understanding of buyer psychology and employ tactical approaches to achieve sales objectives.
For example, 'Conceptual Selling' is a methodology that goes beyond addressing immediate needs. It encourages salespeople to focus on the broader concept or idea behind a customer's explicit requirements. The 'SPIN Selling' methodology, on the other hand, is based on asking situation-specific questions to uncover a potential need.
Each methodology has its strengths and is suited to different selling scenarios. The choice of methodology should align with your company's sales goals, customer base, and the nature of your product or service offerings.
We'll dive into 5 of the most prominent sales methodologies later in this piece, but first, let's take a step back.
Sales methodology training starts with purpose
Given the multitude of options, look at your audience and strategic goals to guide:
- Your choice of sales methodology
- Your approach to sales training
Identify your audience
As with any training, target sales methodology training to the right audience. Many organizations employ multiple sales functions. Not all learning will apply to all teams, and the newest generation of employees learns entirely differently than their older counterparts. It can be shockingly easy for team members to disengage from learning irrelevant to their role or in their optimal style.
Don't trigger disengagement; be a hero! Determine who needs sales methodology training (for example, Inside vs Outside, Business Development, Account Management, or other), and tailor programming to their unique priorities. They'll be excited to learn when training helps their performance.
What outcomes should your sales training techniques and sales methodologies achieve?
To choose the best sales methodologies and training techniques for your team, consider the following:
- Why is your organization investing in training?
- What are the highest priority learnings each sales team should take away to succeed?
These questions are foundational to building relevant, impactful training. Once you know your why, you can better identify your what: the proper sales methodologies for your team and training techniques that will best boost their performance.
Let's start by exploring training techniques.
Sales Training Techniques and when to use them
While not an exhaustive list, below are sales training techniques Learn to Win has seen trainers use successfully. Pick from and combine any one of these techniques to support your learners and foster growth.
- On-demand resources
- Microlearning
- Storytelling
- Shadowing
- In-field coaching
On-demand resources
One of Learn to Win's foundational beliefs is that employees don't need to know every detail; they need to know where they can find information about every detail. By creating a repository of resources, trainers put learning in their learners' hands. This allows sales teams to access and absorb resources when they need them.
Creating and promoting on-demand content nurtures the mindset, "Training is something my organization makes available to help me succeed."
Microlearning
We're big fans of microlearning as a sales training technique. It's one of the tenets Learn to Win built our platform around: "Get in, get what you need, get back to your project."
But that's not all. Microlearning directly addresses a universal challenge of training: the forgetting curve. A study conducted by Sales Performance International found that a staggering 84% of sales training content is lost after 90 days if not put into practice immediately.
This is microlearning's true strength. Microlearning delivers bite-sized material designed to meet specific learning objectives. Microlearning training, which can take many forms – videos, quizzes, or short articles – helps learners consume information in small increments, aiding retention and application.
When delivered as an on-demand resource, microlearning works in a targeted, just-in-time way, a boon for time-strapped sales team members.
Storytelling
Humans are wired to respond to and store stories, making them a valuable training tactic. To use this technique, identify a moment in which a team member took an action that led to a positive result. Break it into parts:
- The characters and setting
- The problem or conflict
- The action your heroic sales team member(s) took to face challenges and overcome obstacles
- Finally, the successful resolution
Stories that follow this rhythm inspire other team members to remember and replicate good behaviors.
Shadowing
Job shadowing means following an experienced team member to see them in action. This technique typically appears during new hire training. However, job shadowing can continue providing value to tenured sales team members.
- Teach team members who aren't achieving results. Learners who are low-performing or not absorbing other sales enablement methodologies might learn best by following a high performer, learning their approach, and asking real-time questions.
- Build cross-functional awareness or collaboration. By seeing the challenges other teams face first-hand, sales team members can better understand how their actions affect their business.
In-field coaching
In-field coaching is, essentially, reverse shadowing. A trainer, manager, or veteran sales team member joins the learner in their day-to-day work. This shadow provides real-time guidance and feedback. In-field coaching is intensive but effective.
Recent technologies have automated in-field coaching to an extent, recording sales conversations and allowing trainers and AI to parse data from those calls. Pattern-based feedback informs learners' future performance.
Popular Sales Methodologies
So you've determined your highest priority goals and are familiar with solid sales training techniques. Now, you must decide which sales methodologies you teach your team members.
Some of the best sales methodologies include:
- Conceptual
- SPIN
- Challenger
- Medic
- SNAP
Conceptual
Conceptual selling centers on the idea that buyers choose based on concepts and relationships, not products or services. Sales teams:
- Listen carefully to understand prospects' perceptions of their problem and the product or service in question.
- Shape that concept by sharing information.
- Gain a commitment to the concept and - ultimately - the deal.
This sales methodology focuses on the right relationship with the buyer. You should not pursue the deal if you do not believe your product or service will meet real needs.
SPIN
In the SPIN selling methodology, SPIN stands for Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need-payoff. Each represents a category of questions that guide buyers to a purchase decision by helping them see how your product or service will solve a challenge.
- Situation questions ask the prospect to lay out the context in which their business operates.
- Problem questions encourage the prospect to think through the challenges they are facing.
- Implication questions lead the prospect to consider how the unsolved challenge could negatively impact their business or role over time.
- Need-payoff helps the prospect see the value of addressing the challenge.
Of course, skillful sellers are positioning their product or service as the solution to this challenge throughout the conversation!
The SPIN methodology is commonly used in the earlier part of a sales relationship, in discovery calls and demo prep, to ensure that the sales team fully understands the prospect's needs.
Challenger
The Challenger sales methodology grew out of research into sales personality types. Upon finding that the "Challenger" personality significantly outsold other types, researchers sought to turn those behaviors into replicable steps.
The outcome? A consultative approach that puts the salesperson in the driver's seat from the beginning of the relationship to the close.
This methodology proposes that sales teams:
- Start by educating their prospects about industry challenges and trends
- Raise specific issues and risks they notice within the prospect organization related to these more significant trends.
- Position their product or service as the anecdote to the problem.
The Challenger approach relies on well-prepared and skillful sales reps who can pull in facts and data that back up their statements, and it focuses more on expertise and outcome than on relationship-building.
MEDDIC
Typically used early in enterprise sales processes, the MEDDIC sales methodology helps team members sift through numerous stakeholders, determine whether a deal is worth pursuing, and assess customer fit. The acronym stands for each area sales team members should learn:
- Metrics - What are the prospect's strategic goals, current financials, and KPIs?
- Economic buyer - Who among the decision makers owns the budget to pay for this deal?
- Decision criteria - What are the prospect's requirements: price, features, services, etc?
- Decision process - How do stakeholders at the prospective organization come to an agreement?
- Identified pain - What challenges does the prospect want to address, and what will happen if they cannot successfully address them?
- Champion - Who within the prospect organization most wants your product or service? Who will help sell it internally?
SNAP
The SNAP sales methodology favors simplicity and speed. It acknowledges that time is tight for buyers and sellers and aims to provide trusted, just-in-time expertise. Another acronym, SNAP, encourages sales team members to:
- Keep things Simple - Remember that the prospect's time is valuable from proposal to contract.
- Be valuable - Make yourself and your organization essential to your customers through your expertise and the product or service.
- Always Align - Make sure that every part of the sales process connects to the customers' needs and goals.
- Raise Priorities - Focus the prospect on the most important points every time you interact.
SNAP selling is great for prospects who seem disinclined to take calls or respond to outreach. It helps them see that your team is no-nonsense, quick, and knowledgeable.
Choose your sales methodologies and training techniques, and get started!
These sales methodologies are only a sampling. There are many options your organization can mix and match to achieve the best results. But, as with all training, successful sales methodology training requires focus.
Determine your goals. Choose one or two methodologies to best position your team to achieve those goals. Then - using the training techniques listed above - help your sales teams build a firm grasp of those methodologies. The results will speak for themselves.
