In life, there’s usually a perfect way to do things – a recipe for making the most of whatever you’re doing. In sales, finding that perfect way means figuring out which sales method works best for your business at different stages of selling. In this article, we’ll look at some common sales strategies and give you tips from experts to help you pick the right sales method for your business.
Sales Method Overview
A sales method is like a plan or a set of rules that helps your sales team get new clients. It takes goals and turns them into things your reps can do at each step of selling.
People often mix up ” sales method ” with “sales model.” However, they are actually different things.
Sales Model vs Sales Method
A sales model is how a business sells its products or services. It explains how to use a sales method effectively. Unlike a sales process, a sales model doesn’t cover the whole sales cycle. Instead, it focuses on specific parts like finding leads, learning about customers, showing demos, or following up after a sale.
One big difference between sales processes and sales models is how specific they are and how they fit each business. Each company should create its own sales process based on its customers, industry, and products.
Even though they’re different, your sales model or methodology should still match your sales process to close deals consistently, especially in B2B sales. What works for one business might not work for another because every business is unique.
However, a sales method is different. Different businesses can use the same sales model and still succeed, no matter what they sell or how they operate. For example, “The Challenger Sale” method can work for many different businesses. It’s important to understand that despite your specific sales strategies, you can use the same sales method across your organization.
Top Sales Methodologies
- SPIN Selling
- N.E.A.T. Selling™
- Conceptual Selling
- SNAP Selling
- Challenger Sale
- MEDDIC
- Solution Selling
- Inbound Selling
- Target Account Selling
- Command of the Sale®
- Gap Selling
1. SPIN Selling
Neil Rackham made SPIN selling famous in his book, “SPIN Selling.”
SPIN stands for four things a salesperson should focus on when asking questions to potential customers: situation, problem, implication, and need-payoff.
These topics are important in sales strategies because they often show what problems the buyer has and help the seller connect with them.
- Situation questions: aim to understand the customer’s current situation, but sellers should still do their homework before a call or meeting.
- Problem questions: get to the core of the customer’s issue.
- Implication questions: make the customer think about what could happen if their problem isn’t solved.
- Need-payoff questions: make the customer think about how things would change if their problem was fixed.
Here’s an example of using SPIN selling in a company that helps businesses find executives:
- “How does your company usually hire new leaders?”
- “Do you struggle to find good people for high-up jobs?”
- “If a top job isn’t filled, how does that affect your company?”
- “If you had a list of great candidates, how would that help your HR department and your whole company?”
Instead of telling customers outright about the value of a product or service, the SPIN selling sales method helps customers realize it for themselves.
Created by The Harris Consulting Group and Sales Hacker, this qualification sales method was made to replace old ones like BANT (budget, authority, need, and timeline) and ANUM (authority, need, urgency, and money).
In N.E.A.T., the “N” stands for “Needs.” Instead of just looking at surface-level problems, this method says salespeople should dig deep into what really challenges their prospect. How will this product matter to them personally and for their company?
“E” is for “Economic impact.” Don’t just show your solution’s return on investment – help the buyer see the financial impact they’re going to have if they don’t change, compared to what they could have with your solution.
“A” means “Access to Authority.” You might not be able to talk to the big boss, but can your contact talk to them for you? And will they?
“T,” or “Timeline,” is about the event pushing your prospect to decide. If there aren’t any bad outcomes for missing this deadline, it’s not a real deadline.
Conceptual selling is based on the idea that customers don’t just buy a product or service – they buy into the idea of a solution that the offering represents. With this in mind, founders Robert Miller and Stephen Heiman reviewed sales strategies and concluded that salespeople shouldn’t start with a pitch. Instead, they suggest that sales reps should find out what the prospect thinks about their product and understand how they make decisions.
The authors suggest salespeople ask questions in five areas:
- Confirmation questions: confirm information.
- New information questions: clarify what the prospect thinks about the product or service and explore what they want to achieve.
- Attitude questions: help understand the prospect personally and their connection to the project.
- Commitment questions: ask about the prospect’s commitment to the project.
- Basic issue questions: bring up potential problems.
This sales method focuses on listening and splits the sales process into three stages: gathering information, giving information, and getting commitment.
All deals should benefit both the prospect and the salesperson. If the salesperson doesn’t feel this is true, they should walk away from the deal.
4. SNAP Selling
SNAP Selling is a sales method designed to align salespeople with the prospect’s perspective.
SNAP stands for four guidelines for sellers:
- Keep it simple
- Be i(n)valuable
- Always align
- Raise priorities
By keeping these sales strategies in mind, salespeople can better reach busy prospects with helpful information, link what they’re selling to what matters most to the potential client, and make it simple for them to make a purchase.
Most salespeople think there’s only one big decision in a deal – whether the prospect buys or not. However, author Jill Konrath says there are actually three important decisions.
The first is giving access. The second is deciding to change from how things are now. The third is changing what resources are used. By remembering these smaller decision points, salespeople can better keep deals moving forward.
In “The Challenger Sale,” co-authors Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson say that almost every B2B salesperson fits into one of five types: relationship builders, hard workers, lone wolves, reactive problem solvers, and challengers.
According to their research, salespeople are spread out pretty evenly among these groups.
But the most successful ones are the challengers – by a lot. This one group made up 40% of the top performers in the authors’ study.
So why are challengers so good at selling? They follow a sales method called teach-tailor-take control.
- Teach: First, they teach their prospects about bigger business problems, new ideas, and smart observations – not just about the product or service they’re selling.
- Tailor: Then, they customize their communication for each prospect.
- Take Control: Finally, they take charge of the sale by not being afraid to challenge their customer, focusing more on getting results than being liked. The Challenger Sales method tries to teach the skills of the challenger to the other four types.
6. MEDDIC
MEDDIC is a way to qualify complex and big sales. It’s short for metrics, economic buyer, decision criteria, decision process, identify pain, and champion.
To get the answers, ask yourself and your prospect:
- Metrics: What’s the economic impact of the situation?
- Economic buyer: Who controls the right budget?
- Decision criteria: What are the formal rules the organization uses to pick a vendor?
- Decision process: How will the organization pick a vendor? What are the steps?
- Identify pain: What are the events that start the problem and how much money does it cost?
- Champion: Who is helping to sell on your side?
7. Solution Selling
Instead of just selling individual products, salespeople use solution selling to focus on the advantages a personalized solution can offer the customer.
For instance, a salesperson at a printing and design company might put together a custom package of design services, signs, and business cards that fit the buyer’s needs.
This sales method recognizes that buyers today usually know a lot already and lets sales reps connect with them better. Prospects have likely already looked into your products and know what they want.
With solution selling, sales reps find out what problems the prospect has and offer a mix of products that’s tailored to solve them.
Sales strategies and marketing goals are more connected now. People check out content made by the marketing team and often look up products on their own before they talk to the sales team.
The inbound sales method helps salespeople connect with prospects where they are – like on Twitter or the company’s product page.
Inbound sales use data like page views, conversions, and social media activity to personalize how they sell. By using this approach, sales reps focus on selling using a model called a flywheel instead of a traditional sales funnel.
As prospects move through the different stages of deciding to buy, inbound sales reps do four things:
- Identify: They pay attention to active buyers – the ones who visit the company’s site, start a chat, fill out a form, or reach out on Twitter.
- Connect: Inbound reps reach out to prospects with a message that’s made just for them, whether it’s through a blog, social media, or in person. This message is based on the buyer’s job, interests, industry, or connections.
- Explore: In this stage, reps focus on getting to know the prospect better and talk more about their challenges and goals. They also talk about products or services that might help and make plans that fit the buyer’s schedule and budget.
- Advise: Finally, reps make and give a sales presentation that’s all about what the prospect needs and how the product or service can help.
9. Target Account Selling
Target account selling is all about picking the right prospects to talk to – that’s the most important part of selling. It means doing careful research when you’re figuring out which leads to go after, looking at how organizations work, and making profiles of who the buyers are.
This sales method often uses sales tools to help your team find out what kinds of people are most likely to want what you’re selling and go through your sales process.
The main thing with this sales method is to focus on finding good leads and targeting the right accounts, even if it means putting in extra work at the start. The idea is that this will help you close more deals and sell more efficiently later on.
The Command of the Sale® sales method is about using your sales strategies to sell with urgency, confidence, knowing a lot about your product, and being really aware of what’s going on – all things that could be called commanding in sales.
To make this sales method work, a salesperson needs to understand what the prospect wants to achieve, how they want to help their business, how their solution can help with that, how the prospect measures success, and what makes their business better than the competition.
With all that figured out, a salesperson using this sales method has to be able to clearly explain how their solution fits the prospect’s problems, needs, and interests in a way that other companies can’t. And that explanation has to be good enough for the prospect to be willing to pay more for their product or service.
11. Gap Selling
Gap Selling is a way of selling that’s all about showing the difference between where a prospect’s business is now and where they want it to be. Instead of just talking about products, it’s about fixing problems.
With Gap Selling, salespeople focus on the prospect. They really learn about the potential customer’s business, problems, and most importantly, goals. Then, they figure out the best way to show how their product or service can help bridge those gaps.
To do this, salespeople have to really understand what’s causing the problems a prospect is facing. This kind of deep understanding takes time, so gap selling works best for sales teams that have enough time to really look into a prospect’s situation from all angles.
Begin Implementing Effective Sales Method
In sales, the most important thing is the prospect – the person you’re selling to. Every deal you make should help them reach a goal, fix a problem, or meet a need. The key is finding the right sales method that lets you do this over and over again. This is what makes your sales strategies meaningful and builds good relationships with customers who stick around.
With all the sales methodologies to choose from, it’s hard to know which one is the best fit for your organization. That’s where AIM Consulting can help! Reach out to us today and we can help you decide and implement the right sales method for your company.