Sales. A profession that has existed since the barter system. An element of a business that determines if it sinks or swims by providing real tangible profits. However, selling is arguably not as simple as it used to be. There are several micro and macro complexities that have emerged in the process that often act as a wrench in the works. It is crucial for any modern salesperson to approach a sale with some semblance of a structure, however flexible, that charts out potential paths while understanding a client, their needs and how a specific product or service can fill those needs.

Below are a few frameworks that can provide a basic outline of how a sales-oriented conversations and interactions can be directed to ease the navigation of the decision-making process. While no framework is aligned to a specific business or industry, experience indicates that anyone in sales needs to adopt a strategy that is best suited to their customer and more importantly, their personality. I am of the mindset that it is beneficial for a salesperson to be comfortable in their own skin while promoting any product or service.

SPIN

The SPIN technique stands for: Situation, Problem, Implication and Need-Payoff

This technique requires that sales teams understand the target’s situation in order create some context to tailor a pitch. These questions can include role, responsibilities, tasks and objectives, and budget constraints. In order to correctly identify potential problems, questions need to focus on potential bottlenecks, costs incurred as well as quick fixes to common issues. Once the problem has been determined, its crucial to understand the impact of said problem on the team. The conversation during this stage needs to revolve around implications on customer metrics, team productivity and morale, including the value of permanent solutions to the overall business.

The salesperson needs to weave the benefits of the product or service into the terminology used by the potential customer. For example, for a solution that reduces costs and time incurred by a team while increasing productivity, sales teams need to demonstrate the capability of the solution. This will help to address the key issues highlighted by the buyer in the Problem and Implication stages. Solutions can be described by incorporated either one or all three of the following aspects: Features, Advantages and Benefits.

The objective to the SPIN method is to create a relationship between the buyer and seller by establishing a sense of trust. The conversation needs to be relevant and purpose driven with the ultimate objective of closing a sale. An extremely beneficial value-add is using knowledge from previous sales to push through material and content to empower the first point of contact to become an internal advocate to influence the other stakeholders involved the buying process.

Authority

Every salesperson’s secret weapon is to gain access to the decision makers and map a potential account. This stage requires identifying the various organizational stakeholders and their levels of influence in the decision-making process. As with SPIN, using the end-user as an internal champion can also accelerate the sales cycle.

Timeline

Establishing a timeline that accounts for all the moving parts of a sales create a realistic perspective on when to expect a sale to close. At times, forcing a timeline with the customer can be effective in ensuring minimal delays but is not always practical. This can be overcome by introducing negative consequences to not following an established timeline – such as discounted pricing, enhanced ASLs and other benefits.

NEAT Selling

The key components of the NEAT technique are:

Needs

Empathy plays a key role in NEAT, as it requires sales teams to truly understand the core needs and pains of the target. This requires allowing the target to share more and for the salesperson to analyze minimal information and reach meaningful conclusions. Customer profiles, industry and company information provide insightful context as well as highlight significant unspoken opportunities.

Economic Impact

It is important to remember that this stage is not to focus on solution ROI, but more on the opportunity cost due to the utilization of inefficient tools/ processes/ products. For example, stating the time savings due to a solution is natural but an added influence would question the economic impact of what could be achieved with that extra time.

Conceptual Selling

As with other sales techniques, conceptual selling requires sales teams to listen to their customer. It requires selling not a product or service but rather adhering to the target’s concept of the solution. Sellers need to draw customers away from the pricing of a solution and focus on the perceived value and most importantly, differentiation.

Conceptual selling allows organizations to become more customer oriented, engage multiple departments in a customer management strategy and finally, stronger customer relationships. In order to understand a target’s concept, it is important to ask the right questions. Obtaining information can fall broadly into the following categories:

• Confirmation questions that reaffirm acquired information

• New Information Questions that clarify desired concept of solution and ultimate outcome.

• Attitude questions that help interpret additional information about the prospect and discover their connection to project.

• Commitment questions investment to solution to gauge likelihood of a successful close.

• Basic issue questions that address potential problems with solution first-hand.

SNAP Selling

The core components of SNAP are: Simple, Invaluable, Alignment and Priorities.

It requires salespeople to keep their pitch simple, remain invaluable through the process, align with the priorities of the prospect and raise priorities that are important to the target. This technique allows teams to address the direct needs of potential customers while understanding their environment and objectives. It is best used when working with overwhelmed and senior prospects as it requires minimal deviation from their patterns and habits. Additionally, SNAP selling enables salespersons to provide value knowledge that helps in paving a smooth purchase runway.

Challenger Sales

Challenger selling requires salespersons to take control of a conversation and tailor a solution while educating on larger industry and macro-level problems. Using this, they can highlight issues with the target’s current practices or solutions, pushing back on to the consumer or challenging their customer’s belief system. Employing this technique compels sales teams to focus on the end goal of closing the deal rather than creating a relationship with the buyer.

One common element of this technique is Rational Drowning. This means the prospect is presented by an immense amount of data and information, so that they feel they are “drowning” in facts. The objective here is to create a sense of FUD – Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. Placing a customer in the center of the story behind the information dump empowers a salesperson to present a solution that resolves the sense of FUD in the buyer.

However, before doing so it is important to establish trust and a sense of credibility by gathering all background information on the prospect to correctly identify their value drivers. Challenging a belief system without knowing the intricate details can often result in blowing a deal. Challenger selling requires the integration of the solution into every challenge, question and statement made about the target’s existing way of functioning.

Decision Process

Complex sales usually have equally complex decision processes. It can go beyond just meeting the above-mentioned Decision Criteria, with numerous stakeholders and decision makers involved. Should the decision process involve multiple people, information sent across needs to highlight the value delivered across the board, not just the end-user. There is often a paper process that is time consuming, including negotiations, that needs to be accounted for while establishing a timeline. This can help in proper allocation of resources, preventing several teams getting involved in a sale that extends beyond a feasible time-frame.

Identify Pain

To be pinpointed during the discovery phase, pain is a key factor in the success of a sale. The customer needs to be impacted either financially or otherwise in order to remedy that impact with a new solution. The pain also needs to be strong enough to drive a sense of urgency through the process ensuring that there are minimal barriers to a purchase.

Champion

In every organization, in every sale, there is always one individual who is looking for ways to excel. Intertwine your value proposition with their goals and you have an internal champion. Their influence and relationships within the organization will enable the opening of doors that were otherwise impenetrable. Building a relationship here is key not for just one sale but all future business as well. The idea here is to support your champion to achieve their goals so that your business grows with them, reducing the effort required to successfully close a sale.

MEDDIC

Utilized for complex sales and enterprise level deals, MEDDIC comprises of:

Metrics

Identifying the economic impact of the situation i.e. quantifiable and measurable metrics that are a result of a project or initiative being successful. This can also translate into the savings and/or benefit from employing the proposed solution.

Economic Buyer

This require identifying the final decision maker, who controls the purse strings for the sale and determining criteria relevant to their decision. This can be done through some old-fashioned online detective work to focus on a few prospective candidates and engage with them. Another (quicker) alternative is by working existing contacts and relationships to accurately engage with the person responsible for a purchase.

Decision Criteria

Organizations take decisions based on several factors or criteria. Two key criteria are technical and business or commercial alignment. This could mean potential integration of software platforms (in the case of selling a SaaS solution) as well as if the proposed solution meets the required ROI and budget objectives. One a salesperson is equipped with some of this knowledge, it can result in a smooth transition from discovery call to sale.

Customer Centric Sales

This selling technique requires salespeople to converse situationally, with absolutely no pitches involved during the conversation. It’s crucial to ask relevant questions and not offer any opinions in order foster a sense of empathy for their pains and successes. The idea here is to gather as much as information possible to focus on the solution and provide buyers with a solution to overcome their challenges by aligning with their perspective and voice. Solution value is also to be demonstrated through usage of the product, not just explained, in order to obtain maximum impact. Selecting and focusing on a single challenge that is well understood leads the buyer to a positive purchase decision without having to convince them through solution pitches and presentations.

Further, in order to make the process even more efficient, sales teams are encouraged to target decision makers, not users. However, the deal works on the buyer’s timeframe rather than the sellers, by keeping their best interest in focus through the sale.

Sellers need to be the best version of salesperson in order to deliver a streamlined experience by integrated every aspect of the company into the account. An added benefit of an enhanced customer experience is the use of referrals to acquire new business at a fraction of the cost.

To conclude, there are many different sales techniques that can be employed by a business. Each sales technique is unique to a salesperson, industry, situation, client and environment. Creating meaningful sales efforts and results requires teams to be agile in their process to deliver and achieve maximum value.