Now more than ever, sales professionals, need to be guiding their customers through a process. This means that sales methods have to be well understood and executed.
This will help buyers to navigate the complexity and the chaos that they are currently faced with as the seller creates more transparency and clarity around the value they add and why my product should be the one that is purchased.
Having watched the Expert Webinars B2B Sales Masterclass last week, I am aware that there are many great sales methodologies out there and an emerging methodology, which is very much worth considering.
As a Training Expert, I use a process that is multi-stepped and includes Discuss, Discover, Explore, Scope (Confirm), Develop, Pilot, Refine, Deliver and Evaluate and then repeat. I consider the initial phase until CONFIRM, to be discovery, putting together a plan, which gets discussed, reviewed, agreed and started. I also consider this a phase where I might signpost the client to another intervention in training or explain what our offering does and does not do.
I’ve heard it said that ‘Nothing happens until someone sells something’ – we are always looking to influence, persuade and sell so that we create a better world through facilitating purchases that make our customers better, stronger, faster, more effective, more productive etc. If we have a process which we all understand and adhere to it makes the sales process and customer journey a significantly easier one
There are many great sales methods out there and three very well-known ones are:
Conceptual selling was developed by Stephen Heiman and Robert Miller. This sales model believes that customer interactions are too important to leave to chance. Their approach is centred on customer-focused interactions to help salespeople better prepare for their time with customers, resulting in purposeful meetings and win-win outcomes.
This sales methodology established its roots in solution selling where an experienced salesperson’s expertise, industry knowledge and reputation is leveraged. Instead of telling prospects what they need, this investigative approach engages prospects through thought provoking questions, helping them identify their own pains.
The Sandler Sales Methodology reframes sellers as trusted advisors who are as invested as customers in their success finding a solution. There is a large emphasis placed on relationship building, lead qualification and deal closing. The Sandler Selling Pain Funnel
SPIN: Situation, Problem, Implication and Need Pay-off The acronym in this sales model represents the 4 types of questions that sellers should be asking prospects. The questions are aimed at helping sellers do 4 things:
- Assess their customer’s real situation
- Isolate the core problem needing to be solved
- Cite the consequences of not solving the problems
- Guide buyers into reframing the situation had the problem been solved
From and See more options: https://spotio.com/blog/sales-methodologies/
- Yet, given that these sales methodologies are so popular, sales people often struggle in key areas like getting appointments, negotiating, keeping their pipeline opportunities moving and closing at acceptable margins.
- What I like about Glen Williamson @glenwilliamson, Coach-Based Selling approach is that it takes the very best of selling and coaching and blends it to ensure that both skills and behaviours are accounted for within the sales process.
- Coach Based selling promotes impeccable sales timing by ensuring that sellers do the right things before they start selling and don’t rush into trying to sell, which is a key reason why so many good opportunities are lost. Only when the Initiation, Qualifying, Exploration and Impact phases of the sale are complete, does a seller start selling, otherwise they have nothing to sell against and are merely making meaningless assertions.
- Glen’s approach breaks the process down into simple steps that will have you connect deeply with every prospect and establish yourself as a credible partner that only adds value.
If you want your sales team to be capable of guiding your customers toward the right solution for them, whilst developing as Trusted Advisors, book a call with Glen on the link below.
