What’s your sales methodology? You may still be figuring the answer out, and that’s okay. Your selling methodology should change whenever your business does and depending on the needs of the clients you generally interact with. When choosing your next method, you must know the key facts about its strengths and weaknesses. 

The Top 3

Flori Needle, writing for HubSpot, offers some stats you should know about three of the most common sales methodologies out there:

1. Value-​Based Selling

This best sales methodology focuses on “showing the customer how the product or service they’re selling can bring them value, helping customers decide based on benefits, rather than simply whether a product or service is the best option on the market,” says Needle. It is the correct one for you if your clients aren’t typically satisfied with basic facts and statistics. 

Your clients don’t care whether or not your product or service is priced lower than your competitors. They don’t even care about the number of five-​star reviews you have. They want to know how your product or service will work for them and the ROI they can expect, so you must use the sales methodologies that show these. Overall, Needle says sales calls focusing on the product or service’s value are 96% more effective than standard sales calls.

2. Social Selling

“Social selling is the process of using social media platforms to find leads and fill your pipeline,” says Needle. This methodology can also be paired with other methods since it focuses solely on filling your sales pipeline. Needle says that 78% of the sales reps who practice social selling outsell their non-​social counterparts. Additionally, these salespeople are 65% more likely to fill their sales pipelines and 51% more likely to meet their sales quotas. Are you thinking it’s time to update your social media profiles yet?

3. Challenger Sales

Practicing the challenger sales methodology means that you’re basically becoming a teacher. Your primary goal for sales meetings is to educate your prospects on your product or service. And, “As the name suggests,” says Needle, the reps “challenge customers to view their business operations and how they would be affected by the product or service they’re selling.” This method works best on prospects who don’t believe they have a need for your product or service. 

However, you see the prospect's need. So, your sales methodology needs to challenge the prospect’s point of view to get them to recognize and accept their pain points, as well as take action to fix them. “40% of star sales performers were challengers,” says Needle. To join the ranks of star sales reps, you need to do your research. To establish credibility with the prospect, learn about their company in advance, identify their pain points, and show up to the meeting with proof that their company could be doing so much better if only they would take advantage of the solution you’re offering.