Sales methods are processes that sellers use to win business. These customer centric selling methods and strategies are important to improve a company’s bottom line.
Based on tons of experience gained over the years by those who sell every day, these methods are designed to help companies maximize their revenue growth opportunities while increasing customer satisfaction.
Sometimes referred to as sales methodologies, these processes allow companies to run a customer-centric business that focuses on providing the right experience and increasing the lifetime value of customers.
In this article, we’ll go over the top sales methods businesses use. In addition, we’ll show how companies can use customer-centric selling to leave their clientele satisfied and more loyal to the brand.
The Top Sales Methods In Business Today
The following are the most popular sales methods in use today:
- Conceptual Selling
- Solution Selling
- Inbound Selling
- The Sandler Selling System
- SPIN Selling
- N.E.A.T. Selling
- SNAP Selling
- The Challenger Sales Model
Let’s have a look at what’s involved with each one.
Conceptual Selling
According to this method, customers don’t really buy a product or a service; they acquire their vision of the right solution. The product or service that one buys just happens to represent the means to achieve this solution.
With that in mind, Miller and Heiman (the founders of this methodology) advise salespeople not to start with a pitch; instead, they should understand what people think about a product and use it to help them make the right buying decision.
One should ask questions about these topics:
- Confirmation: Ensure that the information prospects have in their head about a product or service is accurate.
- New information questions: Get clear on expectations and the level of knowledge the customer has.
- Attitude questions: Understand the connection and relevance a person attaches to a product or service.
- Commitment questions: Find out if a person is serious about buying the product or service.
- Basic issue questions: Uncover any objections or problems that stop a person from buying.
When people are asked these questions, they’ll think about their needs – instead of imagining how the salesperson is projecting his/her agenda on them. This helps them make the right decision by thinking independently.
Solution Selling
Solution selling is when a salesperson works with the prospect to identify solutions.
This way, the buyer will get a product tailored to their needs as opposed to one created with the seller’s end goal in mind.
The goal is to focus on what the customer wants instead of what the seller wants them to buy, which helps increase their satisfaction and loyalty.
For instance, imagine you’re selling a car. Rather than starting with the product’s features or even focusing on your sales pitch, start by asking about their needs.
When they tell you what they want, ask questions specifically about why these things are essential. What are they looking for in a vehicle? What are their pain points when it comes to their current way of driving?
By asking these types of questions, you can determine whether a car is the right fit for them — and, if so, which features they’d need for it to be a suitable solution. You can also determine if they have a budget in mind or any other constraints that might come into play when they consider making a purchase.
Inbound Selling
Inbound selling focuses on delivering the right message to the right person at the right time, which can help increase sales.
For instance, let’s say you have a business that sells custom t-shirts. Your site allows people to come to you and lets them search for specific types of material, colour, and size. This way, they can find what they’re looking for quickly and get in touch to get more information or place an order.
By leveraging marketing automation and the right sales tools, you can find people that are intersted in your custom t-shirts and connect with them as they come to you to buy.
Rather than sending out mass messages and hoping for a response, it is the potential buyer that goes to the seller.
There are four stages to go through in inbound selling:
- Identify: Figuring out who the potential buyers are.
- Connect: Connecting to these people in a non-imposing manner.
- Engage: Engaging with potential buyers by communicating in the right way.
- Advice: Converting leads into clients interested in buying your product or service by communicating the right message at the right time.
Using the power of content marketing to provide helpful information and then web analytics to analyze specific data points, you can get a good idea of who is interested in buying your product and how to reach them better.
The Sandler Selling System
Having equal investment from both parties helps ensure a win-win — and helps prevent pushy sellers from turning people off.
The Sandler Selling System helps identify what both parties want, allowing them to make the most of every deal they work through. The goal is for everyone involved to achieve their objectives, which helps build long-lasting relationships.
Both entities build a solid foundation that centers on trust, fairness, and mutual respect in this system.
Common objections such as “This is too expensive” or “It won’t work for me” are seen as opportunities to build the relationship rather than threats that will end it.
These objections tend to naturally evaporate as people work through building a foundation of trust and as they feel more comfortable talking to those on the other side of a potential deal.
SPIN Selling
In his well-known book “Spin Selling,” author Neil Rackham identifies the four questions to ask to complete the SPIN.
The questions involve:
- Situation Questions: Figuring out the current situation that the client is in.
- Problem Questions: Figuring out what their problems are.
- Implication Questions: Getting them to think about the implications of not solving these problems.
- Need-Payoff Questions: Helping them see how your product or service will help solve problems and meet their needs.
N.E.A.T. Selling
The N.E.A.T. method, similar to the previous sales methodology, focuses on four steps to selling.
These steps are core needs (N), economic impact (E), authority (A), and timeline (T), as work as follows:
Core Needs: Understanding the problems your prospect is currently facing. Here, the salesperson needs to go deep into the root of these problems and not be satisfied with surface-level issues.
Economic impact: Not only focusing on an R.O.I. in this stage, salespeople must also show the prospect what their current path means economically and compare that to their proposed plan and the returns it will bring. In other words, comparing what is vs. what could be is key.
Authority: Showing the prospect that salespeople have access to authority figures in the industry and will get in touch with them if need be, will elevate the chance of prospects accepting a proposal.
Timeline: A prospect must make a decision about your prosposal based on a set timeline or face negative consequences that may include losing out on opportunities or missing out on something even bigger.
The Challenger Sales Model
This methodology is based on the assumption that every salesperson in a business to business situation is one of the following:
- relationship builders
- hard workers
- lone wolf
- reactive problem solver
- challenger.
When conducting their surveys to build up this method, co-authors Dixon and Adamson found that challengers are the most successful types of salesman, with as many as 40% of the total number falling into this category.
Challengers follow this process:
- They teach prospects about their business through their observations and any problems that arise. They also give business ideas that can help prospects grow.
- Then, they focus all their communication on one particular area so that prospects can understand the real pain points and business benefits they’d get from solving these points.
- Thirdly, they take control of the situation and (most importantly) are not afraid to challenge the status quo to drive consensus to their solution.
Let’s take a sales funnel example. With the challenger sales model, a salesperson can first use an online funnel to identify a lead’s business pain points and then attract prospects with content and communication that speaks directly to them.
Teaching prospects the various benefits they’d get from the proposed solution, salespeople drive the point home. Then, in the last stage, they make a suitable offer to help convert prospects into customers, overcome any objections they may have, and challenge them to take action.
Customer-Centric Selling
Now that we’ve looked at a few different sales models, let’s look at what it means to be customer-centric when selling.
Being Flexible Around Customer Needs
Flexibility is key to being customer-centric. The more flexible you are, the better you can serve your customers’ needs.
This means that salespeople need to be prepared for changes in the buying process and know how to adapt. They need to do their homework on common objections and questions and understand what solutions work best for their prospects.
Let’s say your business help agencies set up their L.L.C(For example Doola). In this situation, working closely on the buyer’s timeline and adapting your L.L.C. services as needed is crucial.
Some customers will need in-depth advice and guidance. Others might require you to fill out paperwork and hand it in for them.
Depending on the client’s needs, this service will change on a case by case business. Flexibility around your services can help streamline the process for both you and your client, which results in a win-win situation for both.
Use Technology That Helps You Offer The Best Service Possible
The technology you use plays a significant role in how many bridges you can cross for your customer.
While some use an off-the-shelf solution to run their business, others use a customized approach tailored to fit the customer’s needs.
Having a custom web application built for your agency allows you to offer various services while still having the flexibility to adapt and change as needed.
For example, a customer may ask you to automate their marketing efforts by following a specific process, and if this is something you can’t do with standard tools, a custom application might be the right solution.
In some cases, a custom application may also be a more budget-friendly option than a tool that requires recurring fees.
Be Proactive In Anticipating Your Customer’s Needs
Being proactive means understanding your client’s needs and what they’re going through to help them come out on top in their business.
In sales, one can offer a free consultation up front so the client knows what to expect from you and how you can help them in the long run. This process should be customized for each customer, creating a unique experience for everyone.
In other cases, you can give your client a referral to someone else who might be able to address their concern. This lets the customer know that you’re not trying to upsell them and are instead focusing on what’s best for them.
Keep Your Customers Engaged For The Long Term
You might have a great product or service to offer, but what if your customers aren’t engaged?
The result won’t be pretty.
The more you can engage with customers personally and get their feedback on the product or service you offer, the better. By doing this, you’ll be able to ensure that they’re satisfied and want to continue using your solution for future projects.
One way to do this is by starting a customer advisory board. This allows your company to get structured feedback on various products from customers, as they share their opinions on improvement, and build closer relationships with the right people in your company.
If we take a SaaS example, employing various SaaS marketing strategies when it comes to customer engagement can significantly impact your company’s performance.
These can include having a blog where you share how-to tutorials, providing helpful resources that include practical call to actions and telling your customers about the latest updates that you’ve made that will help them run their business better.
Other ways of engaging include:
- Asking for customer testimonials.
- Create an online community to connect with everyone involved
- Organizing webinars to discuss specific topics.
- Hosting events where customers can come and share their stories.
Conclusion
The above sales methods can be very effective for a variety of companies. The important thing is to find the one that suits your needs and do whatever it takes to stand out from the rest through your application of such strategies.
In many cases, choosing the proper methodology plus having a customer-centric approach can help grow your business and increase its value over time.
