Reasons to Update Your Sales Methodology

I watched a company lose a $1.2M deal last quarter because they were still running MEDDPICC like it's 1996. They identified a Champion and an Economic Buyer. They documented Pain points. They were textbook perfect. The problem in 2025 is that no single Champion can get a deal done. Sales methodologies from the 90s weren't built for today's buying committees, consensus-driven decisions, and distributed authority. The modern sale requires a complete methodology upgrade. No more obsessing over a Champion. You need relationships with the entire team. No more chasing generic Pain points. You need Numerical Priorities linked to business outcomes. No more vague "Compelling Event". You need documented, financially-validated trigger points. No more hoping for Decision Criteria. You need to shape it with objective benchmarks. The best sellers still run a methodology, but it's evolved. They're identifying group priorities, mapping out competing initiatives, and anchoring everything in provable ROI. Try this on your next deal…instead of asking "What's keeping you up at night?" ask "What are the top 3 numerical priorities for your department this quarter?" Watch how quickly you can separate real deals from wishful thinking.

We know all the legacy sales training methods, but we are also quick to plug problems with "the way we've always done it" without considering how they often don't address the problems sellers and leaders face today: 💡 Most methodologies were designed decades ago for starters, but many also talk to you about how to win the deal. Issue: your sellers are being KPI'd on prospecting and outbound, many of which have never received training on how. Consider the money + resources wasted + seller frustration by not helping them here. 💡 "We have intent for that!" Issue: If you're responding to buyer intent, so are your competitors. What will you do to stand out? 💡 Finding the right buyer is one thing, getting them to say yes to a meeting is (a really really hard) another. Issue: In the age of scaled-and-veiled automation that tricks buyers into thinking you made an effort and where our buyers are flooded with outreach, you have to find a way to stand out. Show Me You Know Me sets open rates and response rates through the roof. 💡 "I don't have time to coach." Issue: What doesn't get measured won't get done, so if you don't have KPIs here and those aren't tied to annual reviews... Not having time often = "I just don't know how to do it so I don't." 💡 "And in just 13 steps and 17 weeks, you'll see a win from this training!" Issue: We're in an age where humans need quick gratification to motivate change. Many of these legacy methods require a full change in process vs. quick wins that make big impacts. 💡 Theory + What To Do Issue: Almost all trainings do the above, but the ones that stick tell you HOW to do it. Method, timing, medium, socials, nurturing, multi-threading process and scripts. ********************************************************************** The cliche is true here - what got us here, won't get us there. Your sellers aren't looking for more theory or more product training. They're begging their brands to teach them how to succeed in today's market, not last decade's market. #samsales #SMYKM

"We know we're not operating efficiently but we just need to close deals right now!" The close rate.......8%. The other day I was reviewing a sales pipeline for a B2B SaaS company and it provided a perfect example of neglecting Strategic RevOps. I asked leadership about this and was told "We know we're not operating efficiently, but this isn't the priority. Right now we just need to close more deals to hit our target. That's all that matters right now." I dug into the numbers and saw this: 𝗖𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗲: 𝟴% 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗖𝘆𝗰𝗹𝗲: 𝟵𝟯 𝗗𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗔𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗣𝗶𝗽𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: 𝟮𝟭𝟱 𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀 Without going any deeper I can safely assume: 1. Reps are chasing every deal 2. Reps do not know when to walk away 3. Reps likely have no time to build pipeline 4. Sales targets are missed, creating a vicious cycle I dug a little deeper into our Revenue Efficiency Pyramid. 𝗣𝗶𝗽𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 There's no regular process for leadership to review the pipeline and coach reps on the sales process. 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 There's no report or dashboard providing the above data that anyone looks at regularly. I was the first person to uncover this. 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗢𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 There's no information on the opportunities that tells us anything about the deals so a pipeline review, even if it were to be done, would have to be done verbally, going around the horn like we did in sales team meetings back in the 80s. Glengarry Glen Ross style! 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗱𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 There's no documented sales methodology and process. So, reps are each doing their own thing, hence why none of the above is in place. 𝗜𝗖𝗣 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝘂𝘆𝗲𝗿 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘀 They have this clearly documented and everyone on the team understand it. Nice. Here's where we can jump off from! ---------- It's hard for leaders to understand why they should invest all the time and money here when they "just need to close more deals" but this is what happens when the team lacks process. It's also hard to know where to start here. We built the Revenue Efficiency Pyramid to help visualize an order of operations. Check it out here: https://bit.ly/4aT31de ✌️