Sales Process or Sales Methodology? What’s the Difference, and Does it Actually Matter?

The complex sales world is littered with jargon that is so often repeated that they lose their meaning. But when these same terms are treated not as jargon, but rather become clearly understood, they can become key differentiators for your sales team.

Two of these terms are “sales process” and “sales methodology.” Almost everyone talks about them, but very few teams effectively execute on them. And that is partly due to confusion over which is which and their role in your Way of Selling. Here’s the difference, why it matters, and how to use them both to win more deals.

Sales Process Vs Methodology: What’s The Difference?

The difference between sales process and sales methodology is the difference between a spruce tree and the ornaments that make it a Christmas tree.

Sales process is the tree. It’s the scaffolding that defines the stages, milestones, and steps your sales people take from identifying a prospect to completing a sale.

Sales methodology is the ornaments that make it into a Christmas tree. It’s the methods and tactics salespeople use to build rapport, identify needs, and move the sale from step to step.

Why Should You Care?

Companies that implement both an effective process and an effective methodology outperform those who offer only one or the other (or neither). Here’s why.

Process alone offers poor results because while your salespeople may know what steps they’re supposed to take, they may not know how to move from one to the next. It’s like telling a new hockey player that the goal is to move the puck down the field, but not giving them the skills or mindsets necessary to do it. Some hockey players will figure it out and do fine. When the field is clear, maybe most of them get there. But in a competitive situation, the team with the process but no methodology is going to flounder and fail.

Combine sales process and methodology for a Way of Selling that creates a competitive advantage.

Methodology alone will yield inconsistent results because while your salespeople may be skilled in interacting with potential customers, they won’t have an organized framework on which to move them toward the purchase. This is like telling a server at a restaurant how to interact with customers and encourage them to increase their purchase total, but not teaching them how to take an order, communicate it to the chef, manage multiple tables, or carry the food out to the table. You end up with amiable relationships, but ultimately chaos and dissatisfaction.

When you combine the two, however, you build a truly effective Way of Selling that leads to success. You have the hockey team that has drilled on all the essential skills plus knows the goal and how to get there. You have a restaurant serving team that makes the customers feel at home, increases their purchase total, and delivers the experience customers came for.

Here’s How to Equip Your Sales Team with the Tree AND the Ornaments

First: Sales Process

To ensure your sales team is the best equipped sales team in your market, start with process. Your process will include stages, but also milestones to achieve between stages, and the steps salespeople take to achieve each of those milestones.

Your process will be unique to your market and the way your organization operates, but it will likely include stages such as understanding vision, implications, barriers, and, execution plans (VIBE.) Within each stage, your process should include milestones like “identify and contact all relevant stakeholders,” “identify most urgent priorities for each stakeholder.” And it could include steps such as, “initial discovery call with primary contact,” “draft business case,” and so on.

Second: Sales Methodology

Once your teams are equipped with a detailed, dynamic, and actionable process, then you can choose, train, and reinforce a sales methodology that is appropriate for your market and organization. You may choose from one of the leading sales methodologies on the market, or develop your own based on salesperson best practices.

The methodology will include conversational skills and tactics, qualifying deals, organizing information, and methods for moving opportunities from one step of the process to the next. Methodology skills must be trained, reinforced, and coached in order to build effectiveness.

Together, the process and methodology become your organization’s Way of Selling. An effective Way of Selling becomes a key differentiator from your competition, and ensures smooth, consistent, and successful sales execution. It is what will make your Way of Selling into a competitive advantage.

Win More Deals By Placing Process and Methodology Into Salespeople’s Daily Workflow

For greatest effectiveness, your process and methodology support should be baked directly into the salesperson’s workflow, and be supported by automation when/where it makes sense. Create a system that does not require your team to dig for information or recall tools located in a manual from a training session six weeks ago.

When you convert your process and methodology into a useful, intuitive step-by-step workflow (like those that Membrain enables), one that your salespeople live inside, your Way of Selling becomes inevitable, rather than a patchwork.

And that’s how your team wins.