Deciding which sales methodology to use can feel like trying to pick a Netflix show with your partner—so many options, so much pressure.
This isn’t due to a lack of options. Quite the opposite.
There are so many methodologies out there that it can be overwhelming to pick one that will work best for your business.
In this article, we’ll help narrow this search.
We’ll share three highly effective sales methodologies that work well in today’s B2B landscape.
That way, you can give your sales team a set of principles that helps them quickly and effectively make the hundreds of sales choices they’re faced with each day.
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What is a sales methodology
You can think of a sales methodology as a practical philosophy for your sales team.
Just as a recipe helps a chef (or any cook, really) consistently create a great dish, SPIN and SNAP Selling help sellers make smart decisions about how to interact with leads and prospects.
By definition, a sales methodology is a set of guiding principles on how to approach each stage of the sale process and get desired results. Methodologies typically encompass the techniques, communication style, and mindsets reps should take to each sales encounter.
For example, if you learned the Challenger Methodology, your mind would be programmed to look for opportunities to educate the client on the pitfalls of their current perspective.
As a result, whenever a client makes an objection, you’d immediately think — “hey, is there some faulty assumption beneath this objection? Let’s dig and find out.”
Having principles removes a lot of decision-making, allowing sales reps to focus on execution and spend less time in analysis paralysis.
Side note: Keep in mind that although many sales methodologies apply to the entire sales process, others are designed for one particular stage. For example, MEDDIC is a framework for sales qualification, not nurturing or closing. Therefore, you can use more than one methodology in your sales strategy.
Challenger Selling
Popularized by the book The Challenger Sale, the Challenger Methodology focuses on challenging and stretching the prospect’s perspective by offering new insights.
The salesperson is basically that tough-love teacher you respected in high school. The one who pulled you aside after class and made a good case that being a Nihilist probably wasn’t the best way to go about life.
In control of the conversation, informed on the customer’s business type, the seller educates the prospect on their problem, helping them see it in a new light, a light that shines favorably on the seller’s product or service.
The Challenger Methodology can be boiled down into three overarching sales principles:
Teach
Drawing from industry expertise, the seller helps the buyer discover opportunities and risks they haven’t yet considered. They know that acting like a Bain consultant will win over today’s buyer, who has probably already done online research and wants insights, not just more feature summaries.
Example: “Your SEO problem isn’t that you have poor-quality blog posts. It’s that your interlinking strategy is nonexistent. Here, let me show you what competitor X is doing and why it’s working.”
Tailor
In discovery, the rep works hard to tease out the buyer’s goals and needs. Then, in future conversations and emails, they relate all of their offers and sales messaging to these objectives, thus elevating their persuasiveness. Consider using a multi-channel sequence builder like Mixmax to help reps personalize every sales touchpoint, at scale.
Example: “When we fix this interlinking strategy, readers stay on your website for longer, and that’ll increase sign-ups for the free demo you’re pushing this year.”
Take control
Assertive, the challenger sales rep never backs down from hard conversations about budget, performance concerns, or delayed decisions. Instead, they initiate them. This earns the prospect’s respect and speeds up the sales cycle.
Example: “We need to discuss the budget you gave me. I’m happy to work within it. But if you really want to hit your SEO goals, you’re going to have to increase it. Here’s why...”
In sum, a well-executed Challenger Methodology can make prospects view you as an expert and increase your close rates.
Who should use it: B2B sales teams — especially in SaaS, financial services, and tech —will thrive with the Challenger approach. Business professionals are often appreciative of their salespeople coming prepared with informed suggestions. Also, busy executives want to work with an expert they can trust to guide them through the sales process, not the other way around.
SNAP Selling
Jill Konrath’s SNAP Selling is the solution to the “analysis paralysis” that haunts many of today’s B2B buyers.
Its power rests on the fact that company executives and professionals are so flustered with information overload that a new approach is necessary — a simpler one.
SNAP Selling stands for four key sales principles:
- keep it Simple: Be clear, concise, and easy to work with. Aim for fewer meetings, shorter emails, and more tailored demos and presentations. Offer 1-2 solutions or packages. Always ensure the prospect knows the next steps of the sales process.
- be iNvaluable: Position yourself as a dedicated advisor. Always come ready to add value to any conversation so you don’t waste their limited time. Come prepared with data-driven insights and salient ideas.
- always Align: Tie everything back to the prospect’s current goals and priorities. For example, if you were giving a web demo, show them only the features that relate to their biggest pain points.
- raise Priorities: B2B prospects have a lot of decisions to make, so you need to work hard to keep your brand top of mind. Emphasize the gap between their current and imagined state. Use industry trends and FOMO as springboards for urgency. Consider using a sales engagement tool to automate prospect engagement.
SNAP selling in today’s B2B sales environment is sort of like a frozen pizza on a Friday night.
When executed correctly, buyers are thrilled with how fast and easy it was to work with you to find their ideal solution.
Who should use it: B2B sales teams with prospects that are often frazzled and pressed for time. These workers are common in the healthcare, education, community services, construction, property management, and warehousing industries. Challenger sellers can also add it to their repertoire for their especially stressed prospects.
MEDDIC
MEDDIC is a sales framework that helps sales reps effectively navigate the qualification stage of the B2B sales process.
It involves a 6-step vetting process that helps you fully understand the prospect’s purchasing situation. This helps you spot low-quality deals and, for qualified leads, gather enough intel to create highly targeted offers and messaging.
MEDDIC stands for the following qualification sequence:
- Metrics: Ask the prospect about their objectives and how they measure success. This way, later in the sale, you can make a case about how you’ll improve the KPIs and metrics that matter to them.
- Economic Buyer: identify the person who’s responsible for the financial success or failure of the investment (aka, the decision-maker). Ask questions like “are you leading this initiative?” and “Is anyone else involved in this decision?”
- Decision Criteria: Understand the technical and financial criteria the buyer is using to make their decision. Ask questions like “what factors matter to you most in this decision?” and “do you have a budget set aside for this venture?”
- Decision Process: Learn the business’s buying process so you can align your sales process with it, giving them the best experience possible. Ask questions like “What steps do you usually take to reach a final decision?” and “do you have a timeline in mind?”
- Identify Pain: Identify the major pain points and challenges holding your customer back from reaching their goals: “what’s your major issue?” Also, agitate the pain to make them highly aware of the consequences of letting it fester. “what happens if you do nothing?”
- Champion: Find and connect with an influencer at the company who will vouch for your solution. Often, this is the person struggling most with the problem you’re going to solve. To find them, ask “who is in charge of managing [key problem area]?”
Since MEDDIC is for the qualification stage, it pairs well with either the Challenger or SNAP methodology, which you can use for the remainder of the sales process.
Who should use it: B2B sales teams involved in high-priced, complex, or enterprise deals where you need a nuanced understanding of the prospect’s intricate buying process and particular needs.
Which sales methodology is best for SaaS brands?
SaaS brands benefit from the MEDDIC methodology for sales qualification, as it helps reps gain a deep knowledge of the complex motivations and needs of the target account.
For the rest of the sales process, the Challenger works well if you are highly knowledgeable about the buyer’s industry and can confidently push back against their opinion and point out gaps in their understanding.
Beginner SaaS sales reps, on the other hand, might want to stick to SNAP selling, especially if the prospect seems overwhelmed by the complexity of your software.
Which sales methodology is best for large deals?
The Challenger Selling Methodology, with its emphasis on bringing new insights to clients, is purpose-built for large, complex sales deals where buyers need a confident, informed salesperson to guide them through the evaluation process.
In fact, in a study of 6,000 sales reps Gartner found that, in complex sales, 54% of all-star sellers were Challenger sellers.
Use technology to enforce your sales methodology
Sales methodologies eliminate much of the pondering regarding how to best interact with leads so your team can focus on flawless execution.
But the challenge is getting everyone on the same page.
This is where a sales engagement platform like Mixmax comes into play.
With Mixmax, you can build outreach sequences, workflows, task automations, and email templates that enforce your sales methodology.
This way everyone on your revenue team — from BDRs to CSMs — is operating off the same playbook.
