XLR5

Sales Director

What's the best sales methodology to use for small and uneducated businesses?

I need to preface saying we are doing incredibly well with enterprise selling, mostly using a hybrid of SPIN and MEDDIC/Challenger. The competition almost gave up on competing with us in this space so this does not pose an issue.

However, almost 50% of the market is small/independent/uneducated businesses, and here the competition is fierce. There are a LOT more competitors, and we come across as the most expensive and 'just another one'. Our product is objectively better, better UI/UX, better implementation, better infrastructure, better security. However, these small clients do not care about any of that like enterprise do. All they care about is the bottom line figure, and they often fall for sleazy sales tactics because their decision making process is not well thought out.

We do win in this space, but I hate that it often comes down to luck (being the first to demo usually means winning) or rapport building (which will depend on personality and emotional connection with the AE).

How can we play the odds in our favour? I feel like MEDDICC is the wrong methodology to use here since there's often 2 contacts: 1 Economic buyer (who only cares about the cost and not the use) and 1 end-user/champion (who is very easily dissuaded by sleazy tactics).

I pride myself in a team of true advisors/caring AEs who are humble yet confident, knowledgeable, and competent. I don't want to resort to sleazy tactics and want to win as a result of being the most competent, better solution.

Thank you all for your insight!

🏅 Competition

🎓 Methodologies

13

24 comments

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jefe

Arsonist

6

🍁

Definitely GAP for these kind of buyers.
Read the book, follow Keenan. MEDDIC is too much for unsophisticated prospects.

GDO

Politicker

1

BDM

I second this!

saaskicker

Celebrated Contributor

4

Enterprise AE

Check out the SPICED method. In sales motions like yours, coaching your prospect how to buy is a key factor to winning - keep the next steps tight and use a mutual action plan aligned to their "go live/launch" date.

DataCorrupter

Politicker

4

Account Executive

I agree with this. Coach/Walk them through the process and clearly distinguish why you do things and why the other guys are wrong for doing it that way. "we are a SaaS company, which means you never have to install a thing, the other guys will make you install this and that, then you need a bunch of servers, etc" you get the point. If they're uneducated and not interested in the details, a lot of those easy to digest bullet points will go a long way.

XLR5

Catalyst

2

Sales Director

I'm talking reeeally uneducated here, they have really little patience and are not used to SaaS buying. Some of them even ask why are there recurring fees. The key here is little time, little patience, and the first ones to win them over, win the deal.

saaskicker

Celebrated Contributor

2

Enterprise AE

coach them through the process, here's how pricing works, it's recurring because we do XYZ

Sunbunny31

Politicker

1

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

If you equate recurring fees to things they understand (lease, mobile phones, electricity...) they may get it. In fact, if you tell them they're leasing software AND not incurring the capital expenses of having to buy hardware to support it, maybe they'll understand the benefit of SaaS. You're selling them an application that provides (whatever value and service you provide) on a subscription basis that will keep them from large upfront and maintenance costs, while ensuring the application is supported and upgraded properly, and with new features, etc., they'll be able to use.

XLR5

Catalyst

0

Sales Director

This is a very provocative thought, thank you. We added a mandatory 'discovery' stage where the video call was purely discovery/coaching (which works great at enterprise level), however at this level they get extremely annoyed as they feel like they wasted their time because they just wanted to jump straight to a demo. They're always impacient/wanted to see "how it looks" by the way.
Doing a well crafted mini clip video could be a way of clearing out misconceptions and set their expectations right...

Sunbunny31

Politicker

0

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Everyone always wants to go to demo when they don’t really know what they want or need. It’s extremely common. If you can provide coaching via a short video clip, that would be great. Do you have a short demo of your solution on your website? Or available to share before the “real” demo? Sometimes that helps keep them from getting frustrated with the process that is honestly designed to help them.

SaaSguy

Tycoon

4

Account Executive

The Challenger sales model and methodology is built around a sales process that focuses on teaching, tailoring and taking control of a sales experience. What I would recommend here for prospects that need guidance to buy.

Pachacuti

Politicker

4

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

In all seriousness - GAP it’s all you really need for SMB.

Large/Enterprise is a different beast.

HVACexpert

Politicker

3

sales engineer

What “sleazy tactics” are you losing to?

Sunbunny31

Politicker

3

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Oh, that is an interesting question.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

2

🦊

👀🍿

XLR5

Catalyst

1

Sales Director

Very good question.
I often do deal reviews on won/lost and interview clients to understand the reason for closure. There is a significant number of wins that say the others are pushy/sleazy in general, with tactics such as "We're the only ones who do X and everyone else who says so it's lying to you, especially [our company]" (preempting our success).
Another example is "Everyone in your area uses us, so you NEED to join us otherwise you'll be left out from the community ecosystem" (blatantly untrue).
Another is saying they have certification which they don't. But small providers don't check. Or saying they are the only ones with a particular integration, or the very first ones to do xyz. All untrue.
I could keep going. But in short, they move very quickly, very well (respect to them), "setting the scene" before anyone else gets a chance for a demo and sets their expectations with untrue facts, which we can politely refute but their decision is already made by then.

XLR5

Catalyst

0

Sales Director

Forgot to mention they are very aggressive on pricing, and do the usual "sign by Wednesday for an exclusive discount", which is completely fair.

LambyCorn

Arsonist

1

A mfkn E

Straight Line Selling IMO

ASalesCoach

1

National Director of Sales

i have sold to small, mid, large and global companies in my career. I spend a lot of time with small and mid-sized companies now. yes, bottom line is important, but that is not always their motivating reason to purchase. the buyers tend to me be more emotional in their purchase. the decision can affect them more. they are much often what I would call closer to the issues and how those issues affect those in their roles and responsibilities. Large companies can absorb a lot of this, but small companies cannot. as mentioned in the Challenger Sales model, you have to get them to the Rational Drowning stage where they understand the impact of a wrong decision. make it personal and help them be the hero?
hope this helps.

ThatNewAE

Big Shot

1

Account Executive - Mid enterprise

GAP selling is the most effective in this case.
BANT is now for kids. If everything eventually comes down to the price, you don't even need to map the org and do what enterprise sales usually does.
Go ahead with GAP and SPIN. if you are a little overpriced, you'd have to justify the pricing. For that, the impact piece is essential. What their current problem is, how much of an impact that would be - so on and so forth.

XLR5

Catalyst

0

Sales Director

I feel like the consensus is GAP selling so I'll explore it further. Any literature you recommend around it? Blog posts seem to be oversimplifying it. Appreciate it!

Beans

Big Shot

0

Enterprise Account Executive

Challenger customer was built for this.

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

0

Rolling 20's all day

GAP all day every day baby ;)

AnchorPoint

Politicker

0

Business Coach

Guess I never realized there was different method depending on the account...

Youngking

Contributor

0

account executive

GAP selling is awesome. Really implicates pain and makes them realize urgency. People make changes by nature when the pain is painful enough, not just in buying but in life. And the questioning should lead them to their own conclusion rather then you telling them their pain. People don’t argue with their own conclusions (stole that from John McMahon)

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