Sales Frameworks vs Sales Methodologies.

Many do not understand the difference, or which bring more value. I guess I should start with that.

A sales Methodology is an approach to selling that focuses on salespeople and specific skills of salespeople. A sales framework focuses on how buyers buy and what skills need to be applied to move the buyer through the cycle.

The sales framework is far more valuable because it is buyer focused and if implemented correctly it gives a salesperson a roadmap to the most productive behaviors and activities to move a buyer through a sales cycle.

A good framework maps the sales activities to the buyer’s cycle. Sales organizations mistakenly thing that a buyer’s cycle and a sales cycle are different cycles. BIG MISTAKE! They are the same cycle that two people are on different sides of. When you learn to map the two together your productivity will skyrocket!

Sales Methodologies are over-valued and over sold. They are touted as ways of selling that encompass the full sale. They are not! They are really skill development courses that teach skills that need to be applied at different stages within a sales framework. Here are some examples of sales methodologies. .

Want to learn how to ask questions and do better discovery., Take SPIN Selling by Neal Rackman.

Want to learn how to qualify take Sandler

Want to learn how to target accounts take Target Account Selling. (TAS)

Want to learn how to change a prospects vision of a problem and solution. Take Solution Selling by Mike Bosworth or read The Challenger Sale. by Dixon

Want to learn how to strategize accounts take strategic selling by Miller Heiman

Want to learn how to build relationships and have better conversations Take conversational selling with Ken Valla.

Want to learn how to quantify and sell to a prospects core problems take GAP selling by Keenan.

There are more but hopefully you get the idea. Questioning, Qualifying, Strategizing, Conversations, changing a Prospects Perspective, Targeting Accounts, are all skills that need to be developed in a salesperson. The above methods do a good job at helping to develop those skills.

However, paying tens of thousands of dollars to train an entire sales force in these courses is a big waste of money. First, the odds that your entire sales force is deficient in any one of these skills is almost zero. The odds are that no more than 20% of your team has skill deficiency one of these areas is very low. Secondly these courses are not magic pills, or a guide to how you run a full sales cycle. Although they would like you to believe they are.

I must digress here for just a moment. These is for the first time in many years one skill that odds are close to 100% of your sales team needs help with. This skill is the ability to sell over video. The idea that your sales effectiveness is the same over video as it was in person is absurd. Yet very few realize this and even fewer do anything about it. Imagine an actor on a live stage acting the same in front of a TV camera and expecting the same impact. This never happens and is why stage actors must be retrained to act in front of a camera. Should you want to do a training for your entire team check out juliehansen.com.

The way you run a full sales cycle is with a framework that maps the buyer’s journeys to your sales activities. When you realize these are not different cycles but the same cycle that two parties are on different sides of the way you do things will change for the better.

MEDDIC touts itself as a sales methodology, but most companies use it more like a framework. This is why it is so popular. MEDDIC focuses more on the buyer in that it wants the compelling event, the key influencers, the funding source, the coach or champion, and the funding and buying process. Clearly a framework like the way people use MEDDICC is more valuable than a pure sales methodology from an organizational perspective.

But MEDDICC is an early attempt at what will really drive productivity. I like MEDDIC and I use ti but in the context of a true buyer’s journey. Buyers make emotional decisions and support them with logic. A buyer’s journey is emotional. Dale Carnegie taught us that many years ago and it remains true. THE buyers emotional Journey is Attention, Interest, Desire Conviction Close. This is i Dale Carnegie and when you map your sales activities to these stages you execute more activities that impact the movement of the buyer through THEIR cycle! When you then align your resources to those activities you execute more activities that have more impact on the movement of a sale with the correct resource.

Productivity goes up and costs of sale comes down. Honestly there is no other possible result!

These days we are using automation to shove our sales cycle down the throats of our prospects and they flat out hate it! We drive down productivity by measuring activity without regard for impact. Activity without impact is non productivity which increases cost of sale.

Below is a Sales cycle Framework that I built that takes Carnegies buyers cycle and maps the activities of a salesperson to each cycle, so they know when to execute which. The very bottom aligns the resources. Copy it and blow it up and you will see all the mappings more clearly.

The benefits of this to your organization will be many.

First and foremost, revenue will increase, and cost will decrease. I have never seen a situation where this was not the case.

Your managers will immediately know which skills a salesperson needs help with.

You will quickly know where you have systemic issues that are not skill or sales team related.

Your forecast accuracy will improve dramatically.

Your hiring plan and coverage plan will be far more efficient and cost effective.

Your ASP is likely ti increase,

I assure you that understanding that your buyer’s cycle and your sales cycle have the same goals and need to be mapped into a framework like this makes all the difference. Once you do this get sales ops to report on it , measure it, and enable around it. Sales ops. is your friend when you focus on the buyer and build sales process around the buyer’s cycle!

Should you like to know how to build and map your sales process to your buyers please do not hesitate to reach out.

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