Does your sales force employ a specific sales methodology?
For those unfamiliar with this area – let’s address a few questions first - what is a Sales Methodology? Is it a structured Sales Process? A particular set of sales skills? A set of tools?
A Sales Methodology is a structured approach that a sales organization follows to better win business and achieve consistent sales performance. But what is an effective Sales Methodology? An effective Sales Methodology is one that a sales organization has clearly defined, is widely adopted, provides value to management and individual sales representatives, and is systematically provided to the salesforce. It is built upon the following foundational elements :
- Documentation: Clearly defined steps as a guide for the sales force throughout the sales process.
- Best Practices: Embedded with what your top performers consistently do.
- Training: Prepares the salesforce to ensure they have the knowledge and skills to perform the steps.
- Tools: Gives salespeople and sales managers the right tools to execute the sales process.
- Execution: Live it and coach to it.
- Adaptable: Continually improved with ongoing feedback and refinement.
Having a consistent Sales Methodology across the sales organization can make a big improvement in the performance of the sales force. With common terms and processes in place, it reduces communications and expectations errors, eliminates common sales mistakes, and when coupled with CRM, increases management's insight into how effectively the sales force is executing.
There are many sales methodology vendors out there which offers a standardized Sales Methodology (examples are: Miller Heiman, TAS, The Complex Sales Inc. etc.) Each of these vendors has a different philosophy about selling and typically have a sales process and best practices embedded into their methodology. Every company must determine the right Sales Methodology for their sales organization and the products that they sell. Often companies select a methodology from a vendor such as those mentioned previously, while some employ a bespoke methodology that has developed organically within the sales organization. Across these companies, methodologies are deployed in a variety of mediums – be it spreadsheets, word documents, or packaged software from sales methodology vendors.
Returning to my Question from the beginning, “Has your sales organization standardized on a particular sales methodology? If so, which Sales Methodology do they leverage?”
