What is a Sales Methodology?

A sales methodology is the ‘how’ of selling, taking goals and turning them into executable steps and activities to best position themselves and increase competitive advantage and win ratio.

Every organization is placing bets now on how to succeed in the ‘new normal’ by formulating and successfully executing its new business, expansion and retention growth strategy – whether it’s a comprehensive transformation or simply getting Sales and Customer Success focused on a new message and value proposition.

The challenge is in turning great strategies into great results with a sales enablement roadmap and methodology to accelerate revenue outcomes. To accomplish this, many either create or license a sales methodology to enable their teams.

Sales Methodology Importance

A sales methodology provides sales professionals and leaders increase productivity and efficiency with repeatable, scalable and predictable ways of operating.

Methodologies deliver several important benefits to sales professionals and leaders, including:

• Strategies for successfully navigating changing business environments and political influences
• Tools to effectively evaluate and qualify sales opportunities, situations and challenges
• Best practices that increase the likelihood of success
• Scalable, effective self and team leader led coaching to increase competence and effectiveness
• A common language within which to discuss tasks and activities required within each sales process stage to produce positive and verifiable outcomes.

Sales methodologies have valuable core tenets and concepts that may be applied for different sales processes. Most of the most popular sales methodologies are trademarked and were created by sales consultants and trainers, who wanted to define their own signature approach.

Unfortunately, this means many of the methodologies you’ve heard of are somewhat dated approaches and generic products being sold to you with recurring subscription or license fees. It doesn’t mean they aren’t useful; it just means you should be wary of trusting what you hear about any specific o

Sales Methodology Strategy & Execution

Sales methodologies are generally focused in two areas – strategy and execution. Methodologies are typically designed and implemented to best align the sales team’s activities and messaging with the customer’s buying process and improve sales productivity and efficiency.

Strategy

• White space analysis
• Account planning and Management
• Opportunity Management

Execution

• Combo prospecting
• Account expansion and cross-selling
• Partner co-selling
• Compelling conversations
  • Opening the conversation
  • Building rapport and trust
  • Communicating and linking value
  • Handling objections
  • Competitive trapping
  • Negotiating for value
  • Close planning

How to Build a Sales Methodology

To have the highest impact, any methodology should be tailored to the client’s markets, verticals, solutions and industry position. TechCXO’s approach in working with clients is to understand several variables to develop learning objects such as examples below that are designed to increase competence and individual performance:

• Ideal customer profiles (ICPs)
• Qualification criteria
• Personas involved in the evaluation and decision-making processes
• Corporate and individual challenges
• Competitively differentiated value drivers

TechCXO designs and creates tailored methodologies that align with our client’s revenue growth strategy, model and processes. Content design and creation is then aligned with learning objectives that enable the skill, competence and performance outcomes of the target audience(s).

To accomplish this, TechCXO ensures the highest impacts resulting from extensive research related to the current environment, buyer and customer behavior as well as virtual selling tools that are now being incorporated as the result of dramatic changes and disruptions created by our current global COVID pandemic.

TechCXO methodologies may be implemented efficiently and economically through an adult learning model and variety of blended media. Skills-based exercises prove individuals’ ability to competently, confidently and consistently perform in ways to sell competitive, complex and highly political situations and to increase win ratios.

The outcome – our clients receive results of the best and most current thinking – and tailored to their go to market strategy not decades old one size fits all methods.

Sales Methodology Experts