Episode 7: Selecting Your Sales Methodologies

Hi everyone, I'm Ben Wright, successful entrepreneur, corporate leader and expert sales coach to some of the most talented people our amazing planet has to offer. You're listening to the Stronger Sales Team podcast where we bring together and simplify the complex world of B2B sales management. And to help the millions of sales managers worldwide build, motivate and keep together highly effective sales teams. Teams who grow revenue and make their businesses actual profits along the journey. We also provide great insights and actionable steps to managing your personal health. A happy and productive year is not only better for your teams, but everyone around you. So if you're an ambitious sales leader who wants to build the highest performing and engaged teams, stronger sales teams is right where you need to be. Welcome back to Stronger Sales Teams, the place where we provide real world and practical advice to help you develop super powered B2B sales team. This morning I had another round of headshots taken to use in our soon to be revamped website@strongersalesteams.com and it should be up and running by the time this podcast goes live. As I was awkwardly, yeah, really awkwardly smiling at the photographer, Benny Capp, look him up. He does some great work. Based out of Australia and the us I couldn't help but think just how on top of his game he was, all of his equipment was in the right spots ready to be used at the right times. He knew which backgrounds would be best for my face. He had the angles right, the lighting right, clothing colors. He knew my color palette in advance, how I should stick my chest out and my chin out, even though it felt totally wrong that it would make for good photos. And I guess you can be the judge at my website yourself. But whilst a lot of this was good process, he absolutely had his methodology completely down pat. He made me feel so comfortable that the result is clearly living up to his name. And he does a lot of high profile photography work and I can see why he's so good at what he does. So what's the difference between a good sales process and sales methodology? Right. Specifically we're talking about in the sales world and which is more important, right, to focus on. They're questions that I've been asked countless times. So I thought why not share some ideas today around how we can differentiate and then we're going to focus on sales methodologies. Right. So let's have a look at what both are first and then we'll have a look at some real world practical definitions at the same time. So the sales process now we've gone through the sales process in great depth over the last six weeks. If you haven't listened to any of the podcasts, kick back to podcast one for this year and you'll see plenty around the sales process and how you can build a really effective one for your team. But essentially, the sales process is the game plan. It's the structure that we build out for our teams and to help us not only beat our competitors, but do so in a manner that maximizes our time, our energy, and makes promises that the business can keep. You do this poorly and you end up with a team of individuals who, despite everyone's best efforts. And you know, we don't deny that people will try to work hard, right? Most people will try to do a good job. But if we don't have an aligned sales process that people are following, it causes us as sales leaders, all types of lost hours of stress and in the end it results in people turnover. Done well, on the other hand, we have a very powerful understanding between our teams as to how we work together. So this then results in consistent performance, higher conversions, faster sales, and you bet you're more engaged teams. A sales methodology, on the other hand, this is the approach we take to implementing our sales process, right? It's our philosophy around how we sell. So for example, it might be a defense first approach that we build into our game plan or our sales process around. So in business terms, right, this is the strategic skill set that we use to move a customer through our sales process from a lead, to a quote to an opportunity and then to a customer. Types of sales methodologies are a spin solution selling and the challenger methodology is actually becoming really important and really popular in the tech space on their own. Both sales processes and sales methodologies are important, but the truly high performing teams that I've worked with over the last two decades know the power of both. So to answer the question as to which is more important, my response is always it shouldn't be either or. Great leaders have alignment in their business around both. Most of the salespeople that said, I've worked with over time over the last two decades, they've been trained in forms of sales methodologies independently. Generally, sales methodologies will use industry standards, whereas a sales process will be more company specific. So I often see organizations allow their people to use multiple different types of sales methodologies to work with a single sales process. And that's particularly important for salespeople who need to have a strategic approach to selling because giving them a little bit of scope to work with in Terms of their methodology will help them get better results, but at the same time it keeps them on the straight and narrow and avoids them being labeled that dreaded Lone Ranger salesperson. So a sales process, that's the structural plan for moving customers from a lead through to a customer. A methodology is the broader philosophy or how we go about executing our unique sales process today. Let's really jump in and focus around common sales methodologies and we'll try and tick into what type of environments they work best in. Towards the end of the podcast, hang in there and I'll give you some ideas about how you can embed sales methodologies into your business and determine your approach to which methodologies you're going to use. Okay, so we're going to flick through about nine sales methodologies nice and quickly. First, first one. Spin selling. Oldie but a goodie. Each letter in the word spin represents a question type. So that's situation S, problem P, implication I and need payoff is N. What I like about spin selling or SPIN methodologies is that it gets to the heart of the problem quickly by asking lots of questions. It really helps set a foundation for a relationship and essentially what it does is it sells the product before introducing it by knowing exactly what the issues are and which product you should pair with it. It's great for the needs analysis stage of a sales process and great for a business that has multiple options that they can present to a customer. But that said, it doesn't always cover the entire sales process because it's very much about asking questions rather than some of the other really important stuff like closing out deals that we need to do. It's great in transactional selling, and particularly when the customer doesn't necessarily know what the problem they're trying to solve is, but needs to get there quickly. Okay, that's number one. Number two, solution selling. Look, it's not that dissimilar to spin, but it really does aim to educate the customer on problems and solutions before moving on to selling the products. So you need a really good understanding of the client and of their problems. But it's more like that traditional sales process or sales methodology. And I use process and methodology interchangeably there because solution selling has been around for so long that it's almost been embedded into sales processes at times. It's fantastic when you're selling custom products because there's a little bit work needed in the product delivery, so you really do need to build a strong relationship. But also like spin selling, when you've got a wide range of solutions that you can use interchangeably. Right. Depending on the customer's needs. It's also really good for repeat sales and key account environments because you're becoming a trusted advisor to a customer. All right, the Challenger methodology, not so much a new kid on the block, but certainly very popular now in the tech markets. This focuses on solving a customer's problem through teaching. Right. And challenging current ways of thinking. So this is less talk about products and more talk about problems. So in the early stages of a sales process, you'll be talking more about problems that a customer is trying to solve before introducing products kind of later down the track. This really does require experience. A challenger methodology is not for a new salesperson because you need to really quickly build credibility, which means you generally need to have a base of information yourself. So think for this methodology. It's all about thought provoking conversations. Great for industries where customers are pretty well versed on what they're looking for, but they're overwhelmed with information and really need to spend some time articulating a problem. This essentially this process and it's great quote around the Challenger methodology and that's teach, tailor and take control. So quite similar to solution selling however most commonly used I'd say in the IT and tech services or tech markets, particularly where the salesperson can come control that direction that the sale's going next. One Sandler selling system so the Sandler selling system is really about making sure that customers and salespeople are treated as equals. I know as a salesperson it's often hard to be treated as an equal, but the Sandler selling system aims to find win win solutions. Right. So a salesperson is more about position as a consultant than a salesperson. So generally you're going to ask lots of questions early that might disqualify a customer if they don't meet them properly. So do they have the budget? Do they know what type of provider they want? It's all about finding out exactly what a customer needs to determine if we're going to continue with them. Very high on transparency, but involves a huge amount of time being spent in that qualification and needs analysis stage of the process. Pretty universal in application for me. I'd be using this in markets where you've got lots of leads and you need to know which one to focus on next. One Conceptual selling that's typically called the Miller Hyman method. So this is where a customer buys a solution that a product's going to represent, not so much the product itself. So it's really based on an understanding of a customer's perception of say, your product. Right before you then move into the product specs. So get the solution sorted. So what the actual result the customer is looking for. And then move into talking about the product. It really focuses on asking lots of questions about what a customer will understand about a product, what a customer will understand about a solution, what their attitude is, what could stop them moving forward with a particular type of solution. Right. And then moves into commitment to your product. So this one here is a great methodology for large scale transactions. Transactions with lots of people in them because there's lots of talk around solutions and products and what a customer's looking for. All right, so the SNAP methodology. This really is a short and sharp sales methodology based on customers having really limited time. It's all about keeping it simple. S being invaluable, which actually stands for the N. Always aligning back to the customer's needs. A and raising priorities. P to ensure you stay on track. So simple. Being invaluable, aligning back to the customer's needs and raising priorities to ensure you stay on track. So this methodology keeps it very simple, aims for the seller to be a guide, and it's really good for busy customers who you're trying to convince to buy your product or service relatively quickly. Three to go. So one, I expect you'll know the consultative sales methodology. So this is all about the trusted advisor salesperson. You're more about working together, kind of similar to the Sandler selling system where you're about working together for win win solutions rather than trying to push a specific solution for a customer. So it aims to place whatever the buyer needs ahead of what the seller wants. But of course, we're trying to get to a sweet spot. Right. Where they both align. It's also pretty universal in application, but doesn't work as well when we've got one product. No customization. And it is what it is. You take it as it is. Okay. Inbound methodology. Inbound methodology can play a really important part in businesses and that focuses on customers who are ready to buy. So these are customers who have often made inquiries into your business. They're ready to go. And it's all about engaging with customers who are in the more advanced part of their sales process. Right. The time when they need tailored and relevant content given they're further down the buying process. It's clearly really well matched with businesses that have a strong level of inbound marketing process. Okay. Last but not least, targeted account selling or TAS selling. This is when a Sales team will sit down and build a methodology around being very specific on their targets. So you'll spend most of your time in research of these targets, which should then result in higher close rates at the other end. So you'll invest heavily at the start of an opportunity and then aim for more efficient usage of your time once the customers are engaged. Downside of this is it can deprioritize those opportunities that just come in front of you while you're off doing the TAs selling. You can become so hyper focused in that market that you miss the pots of gold along the road as you're on your way to your journey because you've got such strong blinkers on. Okay, so look, we went through nine. I won't go and repeat all of them because there's a lot there. What I will say about sales methodologies is that for me, there's lots and lots of literature in the market about sales methodologies. I don't think as a sales leader, the most important role for you to have in sales methodologies is necessarily teaching them. What I think your role is is to make sure that you're clear in what your business will use. So which sales methodologies are welcome in your business and which sales methodologies do you prefer your team not to use? What I'll go through now though in a little bit more detail is how do you pick the best methodologies for your business? Right. So for me, sales leaders, you can choose to implement one across the team consistently or you can support, let's say a bigger team or a more experienced team in utilizing their own choice around methodologies, often from a short list. So for me, as a leader, in terms of which methodologies do you use, I would consider nominating only one or two methodologies for younger teams. And that might be younger by age, it might be younger by experience, or it might even be younger by time together. So it's really important that when we have a team that's still coming together, right, they're still forming, they're not necessarily norming or even storming yet. Right. They're new teams with more junior salespeople that we don't confuse them with too many methodologies because they can be really daunting. The other time, I'd say that we really want to look at one or two sales methodologies is where we have very standardized sales environments. So we're selling cookie cutter products or we're selling to the same markets all the time and we almost have a script like process that we can follow. So More importantly, and more commonly, the areas I'm asked to talk about is what do you do when you have a highly experienced sales team? So essentially when you require more engagement from your customer and ultimately more skill from your salespeople to bring these customers into your business, this is the time when I think you'd want to consider having three or four sales methodologies that the business supports and then gives your team a little bit of free rein. This is so valuable when you have a team with diverse skills and when you're relying on those diverse skills to be used across the team. It's really common to use these different methodologies at different times. Right. So when you have quite a few that the team can choose from, they might start out with a snap methodology to build some quick momentum before switching into, say, solution selling once they have broad frameworks in place. Part of my coaching includes helping leaders work out which methodologies to roll in. So if you're really confused and it's just daunting, please strongersalesteams on LinkedIn or Instagram, look me up, send me a message, and we can set up a time for you to have it free consultation with me. But again, I wanna repeat that for us as leaders. I see our responsibility is to be defining which methodologies we're gonna be using rather than teaching our teams about these. There are so many providers out there that will teach this for you at a very reasonable cost. I would not recommend you go and try to aim to become a sales methodology expert because it really, really will result in a lot of wasted time and often confusion if you're not an expert in delivering a program to pick these methodologies. Okay, so moving on. So we've gone through about nine sales methodologies there, and look, I think there's about 15 that I've probably come across across my time, and I'm not gonna go through all of them. But the message I'd also like to get across is that if we as leaders can nail down about 80% of the sales process, which includes the sales methodologies we use, then I think we can be really confident that we're gonna balance both consistency and efficiency of salespeople's performance, but also leave them enough room to be a little bit creative. Being creative, being unique, having a little bit of a razzle dazzle. Right. Or a secret sauce is really important in high performing teams. Okay. Unless you are literally a call centre driven environment. I've seen some really good teams, some really great teams, leverage that last 20% of uniqueness, particularly around bringing personality or care or unique insights into sales transactions and I've seen them really leverage this to do some amazing things to outperform their competitors. It's also really, really good for an experienced team around engagement and learning because it gives them some room for freestyling. Right now they're not freestyling out in the ocean and can go whichever way they want, but it's more like they're freestyling in a 50 meter pool, 50 yard pool and they have certainly plenty of room to move but have to work within an agreed business structure okay, time to take a breath. Another chunky episode on building in some structure for our teams as we go through the rest of the year, I'm going to start looking at quite a few different areas around how sales leaders can build superpowers into their teams. But I thought to start this year off it was really important to look at some sales processes and methodologies to give you some structure. If you couldn't capture everything that we went through, please jump onto the show notes in your own time. Or better still, I mentioned it earlier. Book in a free discovery call with me and I can help you a little bit. More specifically, you can get in contact with me at stronger sales teams on Instagram or LinkedIn and I get across every connection so you'll hear back from me directly. Next up, we have a guest who focuses solely on mental fitness for sales teams and this is a really cool topic and cool perspective. I'm really looking forward to it. For me personally, I've experienced plenty of times when we have great performing sales teams who don't necessarily have their lives outside of work that are in a state that they're happy with and they can become really, really distracted and go from high performers to low performers almost instantly. So for me, I'm really keen to hear what Juan is his name from Colombia, what Juan has to say about mental fitness with sales teams. That does bring me to today's health and fitness Tip Overwhelm. Look, it happens to a very large number of us, and I'm going to say almost all of us, regardless of our levels of experience. I have certainly had it to very significant levels over different periods in my career. So if you're finding it starting to creep in, I can't recommend enough. The importance of prioritization. This is a habit that you can build of writing a list of everything going on, writing it down personally and professionally, and then really methodically putting it into order. Once you put it into order, that gives you a priority list as to what's important, then it's fantastic. If you can sit down and delineate between what's important and urgent and what will then come out of it is that your important and urgent priorities will rise to the top. And that's where I want you to start tackling from. Certainly when you tick off the big things, I love to do the big things as early as I can in the day. It then allows me to freestyle a bit in the afternoon. Can really help people stay in the zone and that's how I've seen some of the best operators I know tackle prioritising. Same as always. Get in touch if you want to know anything more about that. Well, until next time. Keep living in a world of possibility and you'll be amazed by what you can achieve. Want to be kept up to date with any of our free materials to help you build the best sales teams possible? Well, the easiest way you can do so is to follow us on your favourite social media channel. We're onger sales teams on most of them and if you DM us stronger, we'll send you right back some great resources to help you build your super powered sales team. If you'd like a little more help, please get in touch directly and book a free discovery call with me. I run a limited number of these sessions and they're free for my podcast listeners. I'd love to help you out. Until then, see you next week for another podcast of stronger sales team.