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3 Ways Your Sales Methodology is Hurting Customer Engagement

5 December 2022

Becca Eddleman

“Instead of adapting to customer behaviors, what we’re doing more and more of is trying to jam people through our methodologies.”

 

We’ve built a big chunk of our success in sales around the right sales methodology. 

But in our modern, fast-paced era, we’ve consistently started to see that these methodologies that worked in years past are no longer serving us in the same way.

This has been very challenging for teams because methodologies are so ingrained in our culture and processes.

Most sales methodologies aren’t inherently wrong, but they were built for buyers of literally a different decade. 

And instead of adapting to current customer behaviors, we’re trying to jam people through our methodologies because they feel familiar and used to be successful.

So today, I’m going to get into three ways sales methodologies are hurting customer engagement (without calling out specific ones because these are true for most) that have to do with the changes in how buyers want to buy.

    1. Layering on top of a broken process
    2. Speed – the real killer
    3. Overfocusing on the wrong areas (two in particular)

 

Recap: 3 Ways Your Sales Methodology is Hurting Customer Engagement

The important bits

    • 1:10 – Instead of adapting to customer behaviors, what we’re doing more and more of is trying to jam people through our methodologies.
    • 3:14 – Number 1 – what we see with many methodologies is that they are layered approaches. For instance, a new sales leader comes in, they want to implement a new methodology, and what happens is they layer that on top of old norms or behaviors that teams are already doing.
    • 4:55 – A big part of the problem is that we don’t want to take a step back and look at what’s working and what’s not. We are hesitant or nervous about building something new instead of only updating a mediocre process.
    • 6:13 – Think about how much your own behavior as a buyer has changed. But in B2B, we keep making small, incremental changes that don’t get us the results that we want.
    • 7:15 – Number 2 is speed. The real killer.
    • 8:34 – Most methodologies do not address speed. 
    • 9:48 – Your sales methodology should be about getting customers the information they need at the right times, not about your qualification process.
    • 10:48 – Most sales methodologies are one size fits all.
    • 12:10 – Number 3, we are focusing on the wrong areas. There is nothing inherently wrong with what a lot of these methodologies do. They were just invented around a buyer in a different decade.
    • 13:53 – Your methodology is most likely focusing on the wrong areas because it was built 20-30 years ago for a customer who behaved differently and had no access to information.
    • 14:38 – 3a, there is an overfocus on qualification.
    • 16:00 – How much value can you give to get them excited and in the process?
    • 16:50 – Audience question: would Challenger or Sandler be a more modern approach to buyers?
    • 21:05 – 3b, the concept of the champion shouldn’t be a focus.
    • 23:29 – You do want to find people who will be allies, but there are a few things that you can’t expect “champions” to do.
    • 26:10 – There is a very high likelihood that the champion doesn’t have the full story.
    • 29:19 – If your methodology doesn’t have a process to fast-track people further down the intent funnel, you will lose deals.

 

Layering on top of a broken process (3:14-7:14)

The first area in which your current sales methodology is hurting your customer engagement is that leaders are hesitant or nervous to build something new.

Instead of taking a holistic step back and looking at what’s working and what’s not, we hesitate to throw out the book because it was successful at some point or other.

This often happens when new sales leaders come in and have experience with a different methodology or need to make a change quickly. Unfortunately, instead of really driving change, the output is a layered approach on top of old norms or behaviors the team was already doing.

Updating the playbook here and there or doing a few trainings is not going to reflect how much buyer behavior has changed – especially in the last two and a half years since COVID hit.

My advice here is to walk through your customer’s experience, how they interact with your brand, and how sellers are showing up.

 

Speed – the real killer (7:15-12:09)

It was around 2018 when McKinsey put out a report that said speed was 2X more important to buyers than price. Think about how important speed would be today if they re-ran this same study.

Getting to an outcome was more important than anything, and they didn’t care about paying an extra 20-30%. 

The issue is that most methodologies do not address speed. They are not built for people who have already researched and educated themselves on a possible solution. Methodologies are not built for people who want to move quickly.

Your methodology should be about getting customers the information they need at the right times.

As you think about changes in the process that need to happen next year, you want to address this first – do you have a way for high-intent people to buy things faster? Does your sales process have multiple triage points where you can have a buyer skip a step and skip a step as needed? Have you mapped that new customer journey?

Related Content: Intent-Based Sales - What You Need to Know

Article, Video
Intent-Based Sales - What You Need to Know

 

Overfocusing on the wrong areas (12:10-28:14)

I’ve said this before. Sales methodologies were built for people of a different decade. I’m talking the 90s and early 2000s. This means they were built around customer journeys and buyer preferences of that decade, and how people interact with content and websites has massively changed.

Meaning most methodologies focus on the wrong areas because they were built 20-30 years ago for a customer who behaved differently and had no access to information.

There are two areas where methodologies get us into the most trouble today when it comes to customer engagement:

    1. Overfocus on qualification
    2. Relying heavily on champions

 

Qualification

This one goes back to the issue of speed and the lack of value in most “qualification” calls for buyers. 

Our job as sellers is to consult, understand where buyers are at in the process, what they’re trying to accomplish, and see if there’s an opportunity for us to partner or get them on the right path.

And that means adding value, value, value. How much value can you give a buyer and get them excited for next steps when trying to see if they fit into your checklist?

 

Champions

I go a lot deeper in the recording on the three ways champions can lead you astray in the process, but the gist of it is – the #1 champion of your deals is you. And we can’t put all this pressure on buyers to give you access to people and coordinate the deal.

Internal collaboration is a struggle for most companies, so they don’t know who needs to be involved, and buyers don’t have the time to coordinate every meeting.

The third drawback with leaning on champions is that they most likely don’t have the full story. They’re likely not a senior executive, so they may communicate one problem set to you that isn’t important to the people who will veto down the line.

 

Ask these questions to determine engagement

To sum up where sales methodologies hinder customer engagement and to identify if it’s hindering yours, ask yourself these questions:

    1. Is your current sales methodology layered on top of old bad habits? Or Frankensteined together and not engineered for a modern customer journey?
    2. Do you have a process to fast-track people who are further down the intent funnel and can speed up the process for people wanting to move fast?
    3. Does your sales methodology overfocus on the wrong areas that no longer fit with buying behavior, like “qualification” and “champions”?

 

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