What is a Sales Technique?

What is a Sales Technique?

A sales technique or selling method is used by a salesperson or sales team to create revenue and help sell more effectively. The technique typically isn’t a one-size-fits all and is often refined through trial and error based on past experiences.

Sales process and Sales method are not synonyms;

• A sales process covers all the steps to get from a fresh, unqualified prospect to a customer. It’s all about opportunities, deals and win rates.

• A sales method or technique can be applied to virtually any sales process, but it often only covers a piece of that process. Rather than just outlining steps to take, it’s all about skills, focus and communication.

You could put it like this: a sales process gets you from A to B, a sales technique is “How” you apply your sales process.

There are many sales techniques to close deals faster and sell more effectively. If you’re a B2B salesperson maybe you have already heard of some of them, like SPIN Selling, SNAP selling,  Challenger Sale,  Sandler Sale method or Consultative selling.

Which sales methods should I use? Well, you can experiment with some of them or even apply multiple methodologies to different parts of your sales process.

“Which sales methods should I use? Well, you can experiment with some of them or even apply multiple methodologies to different parts of your sales process.”

— Mauro Berno

1. SPIN Selling

SPIN selling is about asking the right questions. SPIN stands for the four stages of the questioning sequence:

• S: Situation

• P: Problem

• I: Implication

• N: Need-Payoff

1. Use SITUATION questions to learn where your prospects stand. The goal is to understand the prospect and their situation and check whether your offering can serve their needs. This information plays a vital part in the rest of your sales cycle. The more legwork you put in determining which questions you should ask, the more useful the information.

2. PROBLEM questions help make your prospect aware of a problem that needs to be solved and identify potential areas of opportunity.  These pain-points will be used to accelerate a deal.

3. IMPLICATION questions reveal the depth and magnitude of your prospect’s pain point.

4. NEED-PAYOFF questions encourage the prospect to explain the value of a real solution. The secret to success is to help the buyer to specify the benefits themselves. Get these questions right, and a prospect will tell you how your product helps them.

These 4 questions will help you discover what your buyer needs and what the best way is for you to help him. If you use SPIN as a sales tactic, asking the right questions will prospect to the right answers.

“SPIN will help you ask the right questions to uncover their needs.”

— Mauro Berno

2. SNAP selling

Before modern buyers make a purchase decision, they’re overloaded with information urging them to buy solution A or B. This makes it hard to get buyers’ attention, since they are wary of salespeople and their tactics. 

SNAP selling focuses on the way customers make decisions.

With any deal, Konrath points out that that there’s not just one decision involved—to buy or not to buy. There are actually three critical decisions:

1. allowing access

2. the choice to move away from the status quo

3. changing resources

Utilizing SNAP Selling principles, salespeople are better armed to deal with busy prospects and provide valuable knowledge, connect their product or service with issues vital to the buyer, and provide a smooth, easy purchasing runway.

•  1st decision - allow access:

  Understand that customers are bombarded with interruptions and distractions, and might think of salespeople as a pure waste of time. In order to earn access to their time, convey relevant information in every touchpoint -- via phone, email, etc.

• 2nd decision - initiate change:

  Once customers want to speak with you, salespeople need to demonstrate the value of your offering to the bone. Share resourceful and bite-size research to provoke your prospects’ thinking. Guide them through the complexity of a decision with a straightforward overview of the steps to take.

  Also, keep your ears open for words like “dissatisfaction, bottleneck, challenges, issues, frustration, trouble, concern” so you can dive further into the problems and solve them with your business solution.

• 3rd decision - select resources:

  At this stage, prospects decide which products to choose; they’re looking for ways to justify their choice and try to minimise the risk.

SNAP selling helps you to focus on the way a consumer thinks. Respond to their thoughts, priorities and objectives to win their trust and truly show them the value of your offer.

“SNAP focuses on the way a customer thinks and how you can react to that.”

— Mauro Berno

3. Challenger Sale

The Challenger Sale steers away from the idea that a good sales approach starts with building a relationship with a prospect. The reason: customers are too busy, too well informed, and have too many options to invest in a relationship.

The model splits B2B salespeople into 5 personas: relationship builders, hard workers, lone wolves, reactive problem solvers, and challengers. After an in-depth assessment, challengers are by far the most successful. Salespeople can adopt this by using a three-part sales model: teach-tailor-take control.

1. Teach:

   For well-informed potential customers, you need to bring unique, educational information or a new approach to their problem to the table. The Challenger Sale method educates prospects on how they can overcome their challenge differently and uncovers needs they don’t know they have. They have a competitive mindset and are careful observers to deliver insights that make customers re-think their business and their needs. Prospects are brought to an “A-ha” moment: the new or innovative approach is eye-opening.
   

2. Tailor:

   Throughout the sales cycle, you might talk with different people. Each person requires a tailored approach. To make your message stick, personalise conversations: make sure your communication is in tune with both the organisation and your contact person’s individual goals, motivations, needs, and concerns. Take a look at the company’s website: what’s their look and feel, do you get a sense of what their company culture is like? Try to mimic this as much as possible.
   

3. Take control:

   The key to ultimately close a deal is to pursue a goal in a direct, yet nonaggressive, two-sided way. To take control, you need to talk to the right people; decision-makers or people than can influence decisions. When a prospect pushes back, the Challenger Sale method shifts the conversation from price to value and challenges a prospect’s thinking.

Challengers capture the customer’s current belief or assumption, expose the flaws or misinformation in that thinking and present a better course of action. The better course of action helps customers learn something new about their business, usually how to save money, make money or mitigate risk.

“The Challenger Sales tactic also zooms in on a specific way of thinking, in order to challenge and create a new perspective.”

— Mauro Berno

4. Sandler Sale method

Sandler sales methodology has a glorious past of more than 50 years. In this model, the typical sales process is extended to a certain extent.

The Sandler Sales method encourages salespeople to act as a reliable, trustworthy source: the buyer actually convinces the seller to sell. To get to this point, Sandler-trained salespeople facilitate an in-depth, heart-to-heart discussion moving beyond technical issues, and focusing on the impact of a challenge on a business.

This methodology is divided into 7 steps which differ from a usual 5-step sales process.

Here are the 7 steps of the Sandler sales method:

1. Bonding and rapport

2. Up-front contracts

3. Pain

4. Budget

5. Decision

6. Fulfillment

7. Post-sell

You might have heard about the term called “Sandler Submarine”, associated with this methodology.

• The point 1 and 2 will come under the “Establishing the relationship” part.

• From point 3 to 5, will be under of “Prospect Qualification”.

• And the stage 6 is the starting os “Sales Closing”

• 7 is the last stage of the Sandler sales method where the rep will continue to provide the support and help to make sure the prospect has chosen the right product.

While other sales methodologies focus on closing more sales, the Sandler sales model focuses on qualifying the lead and making sure to unite the prospect with the right process.

This long process of lead qualification may also result in lesser sales closing. But if the prospect picks the wrong product, they will realize sooner or later and find something else.

I believe the Sandler sales methodology will help you pick the right customers. It can give you a strong base of loyal customers and significantly drop the churn rate.

“The Sandler Sale creates that new perspective by showing potential customers the technical, financial and personal impact their choice can have.”

— Mauro Berno

5. Consultative Selling

With this technique, a salesperson acts as an expert consultant and asks questions to determine what the prospect needs. The focus is on how the prospect feels when he or she’s talking to you. The goal: forming a long-term bond by putting the customer first.

The consultative selling process focuses on 6 principles:

1. Research: In the first step, you gather all the information you can get about a prospect before you start a conversation to help you stack up on ammunition for your prospect qualifying process. In addition, you need to look for information about your competitors: how do you rank up against a competitor? Before you establish a connection with a customer, you need to become an expert in the buyer’s business as well as anticipate any questions they might ask.

2. Ask: the key lies in asking the right questions about their needs and pain-points. When you speak with the lead, be sure to ask open-ended questions. Ask questions that start with the words Who, What, Where, How, Why, and When. Avoid starting questions with words like Do, Are, You, and Can. These types of questions tend to lead to yes or no answers, which is exactly the sort of response you most want to avoid.

3. Listen: be genuinely interested in your prospect and absorb as much information as possible. Identify what’s said, and more importantly, what not. Always. Be. Listening. It’s the most important thing a great salesperson can do. Let the buyer do most of the talking. Keep your ears open for what’s important to their business and its people: productivity, cost-efficiency, team welfare, etc.

4. Teach: his is not about teaching your lead about your product or service. It’s about helping the lead learn to overcome their challenges and build a plan to reach their goals. Make sure your ‘why’ is clear throughout your conversations: clearly stress that you’re here to help someone improve.

5. Qualify: You’re always going to be qualifying the lead. A qualified lead has goals, might or might not have a plan, definitely has challenges to overcome, a defined timeline, and budget. But keep in mind that an unqualified lead is just as good as a qualified lead during the consultative sales process. Unqualified leads give you a chance to help, be friendly, and move on. Qualified leads, of course, give you the chance to help, be friendly, and sell. The sooner you can identify a lead that is not a right fit for your product or service, the better.

6. Close: sealing the deal should be fairly easy to qualified prospects as they typically have the budget and power to decide in place. If there’s a push back, you can decide to dive right in and point out the consequences of leaving the situation as is. “What will happen if you can’t reach your goal?”

According to this technique sale should result in one of these three things, at all times: 

• a customer achieves their goal (i.e. printing more efficiently)

• you solve their problem (i.e. printing no longer lags behind)

• you satisfy their need (i.e. save money)

Solution selling has the intention to create a long-term relationship between a business and a customer. The solution salesman lets buyers feel successful throughout the entire buying process. The only way to do that, is to listen to them.

“If you want to invest in a long-term relationship, Consultative selling is the way to go. It’s not about asking or showing anymore, but about listening.”

— Mauro Berno

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, these 5 techniques all stretch the importance of qualifying potential customers. Don’t sell to everyone you encounter, but talk to prospects to figure out if you can offer them what they really need. There are similar under certain aspects, but you can find some usable tips in order to adapt your sales technique with your sales process.

• SPIN will help you ask the right questions to uncover their needs.

• SNAP focuses on the way a customer thinks and how you can react to that.

• The Challenger Sales tactic also zooms in on a specific way of thinking, in order to challenge and create a new perspective.

• The Sandler Sale creates that new perspective by showing potential customers the technical, financial and personal impact their choice can have.

• If you want to invest in a long-term relationship, Consultative selling is the way to go. It’s not about asking or showing anymore, but about listening.