J12 Commercial Excellence Playbook — Sales Methodologies

Written By Richard Thornton

Part 7/10

A Sales Methodology is a framework or set of guiding principles that walks a sales team through a staged, repeatable process to win clients and close revenue. It is a philosophy of how you want to sell, a part of your overall sales identity and DNA, and it sets the tone for approaching each and every lead and opportunity. Sales Methodologies (often also referred to as Sales Qualification tools) provide a blueprint for the ruthless qualification of leads and opportunities, and a handrail process to optimise the likelihood of closing a deal. They define the sales language you use, how you run discovery and qualification processes, and ultimately set the stool out for how you sell within your company

There exists a huge amount of written content, manuals, guides and commentary on sales methodologies, creating what is often a minefield for founders as they think about setting up and scaling a sales organisation. There is no one size fits all when it comes to choosing and adopting a sales methodology, and what works depends on a number of factors not least:

  • who you sell to (ICP).

  • fit and complexity with your product or service.

  • the value of what you sell.

  • how large your sales team is (and who is leading it — people have their “favourites” when it comes to sales methodologies and tend to stick with them religiously, rightly or (sometimes) wrongly!).

  • what systems you have to support your sales process (e.g. CRM).

  • what type of revenue model you expect to have (e.g. non-recurring, recurring, repeat…).

  • how you will need a methodology to bend and evolve as the company grows and scales.

What is key is landing on a framework that is right for the business model and capability of your team. Do not overcomplicate things by implementing a sales methodology that is overkill for the simplicity of what you sell and how you sell. Equally, if you are selling a product or service that is complex, non-standard or bespoke in nature per customer, or your ICP is predominantly enterprise level customers, a well-structured framework will almost certainly add value and pay dividends in getting to a sales-market-fit (SMF) faster, and in a more repeatable and scalable way.

Don’t underestimate how impactful following a sales methodology and ruthless qualification process can be to elevate accuracy, efficiency and velocity. Without a defined process and way of selling, how can you expect to evaluate effectiveness, benchmark against good/best practice, and successfully onboard sales hires and bring them into anything remotely structured.

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Choosing an Option

Here are some of the most commonly used Sales Methodologies in practice. Almost all owe a degree of debt (in my humble opinion) to the forefathers of sales methodologies aka the Sandler Selling System, and the Miller Heiman Solution Selling. These were sales methodologies born out of the 60s and 70s, with many citing sales leaders at Xerox as the originators of what we now recognise a lot of, across all methodologies used in modern selling.

All of the following frameworks are relevant for software and technology businesses, and arguably both recurring and non-recurring revenue models. What one would consider the modern methodologies such as  GPCT and SPICED   have evolved out of the traditional methods used consistently over the past 30–40 years.

  • SPIN selling is crafted around four categories of questions — Situation, Problem, Implication and Need pay-off — to enable a focus on buyer challenges and a consultative approach to solutioning and selling.

    It is popular with enterprise level and complex (multi-level, multi-stakeholder) sales processes and is arguably the most commonly used sales methodology adopted today. SPIN has stood the test of time, is very adaptable to most sales environments, even those that are more transactional in nature, with lower ‘ACVs’ (than enterprise).

  • A sales qualification methodology that stands for Budget, Authority, Need and Timing.

    BANT centers around how much the prospect is able or willing to spend, who is the ultimate decision maker, does the prospect have an identifiable problem your business can solve, and is there an urgency and genuine need to purchase your product or service.

  • A modern-day version of BANT recognised as a fit-for-purpose sales qualification for today’s sales environment. GPCT — Goals, Plans, Challenges, Timeline — was developed by Hubspot and adapts to how buyer behaviour has evolved — strongly influenced by a digitised process and a wealth of information available to a prospect long before they potentially engage with a seller. The full name is GPCTBA/C&I — adding in the components of Budget, Authority, Negative Consequences & Positive Implications.

  • A sales qualification process that provides a framework of questions — Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Identity pain, Champion — to help you qualify a prospect and narrow down on potential buyers of your products and services. Like other sales qualification methods it provides a staged process to get to a decision in a predictable, repeatable manner.

  • More of an old school sales methodology that also considers the size of a prospect and gets a salesperson reflecting on how unique and differentiated they are vs the competition through Solution, Competition, Originality, Time, Size, Money, Authority and Need.

  • More of an old school sales methodology that also considers the size of a prospect and gets a salesperson reflecting on how unique and differentiated they are vs the competition through Solution, Competition, Originality, Time, Size, Money, Authority and Need.

  • Purists would probably argue whether Challenger Sales is a genuine standalone sales methodology or an iteration or amalgamation of existing methodologies. Nevertheless, Challenger Sales has been a defining method for many successful sales teams around the world. It places a significant focus on leading and controlling a sales process. At the heart of the methodology is the role of sales to instill a healthy degree of tension and strain in challenging the prospect or customer. It leans heavily on rigorous training and enablement of the technique for it to be effective and relies a lot on delivering high quality content and thought leadership, i.e. insight or value-selling, on the problem or opportunity being addressed.

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Going Forward

Choosing a sales methodology is as much a philosophical decision as it is a practical one. Those that have worked with certain methodologies generally carry them throughout their careers and reapply them over and over, or evolve their application based upon modern techniques, tools and the ever evolving buyer profile. Regardless of which one you decide is right for you and your company, the starting point is to align any sales methodology with your business goals. If a sales philosophy is not supporting you in achieving your goals, it is not serving its purpose.

Also ensure you remain open minded and agile in your methodology and application. The sales environment is evolving quickly, disrupted by digital technologies, AI and a more (generally) educated and well researched buyer. Do not be too stubborn to think your sales methodology and approach is immune to macro-level changes. Continue to follow the trends, educate yourself on modernised methods and techniques. Evaluate how (and which parts of) these can be adapted and utilised to enhance your go-to-market, and how you sell. Also make sure you are adopting a methodology that is specifically suitable for your ICP, Personas and sector dynamics.

Importantly, also take the time for internal sales enablement and training. Assess and evaluate the team on capabilities and skills, and choose a methodology through the lens of the maturity of the team and how easy it will be to integrate into their daily activities and existing tool kit.

Finally, ensure that whatever sales methodology you pick, you define and implement simple and measurable KPIs to evaluate its effectiveness, its application by the team, and the results and outcomes it is driving. Commit to it and own it!

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Richard Thornton
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