Using N.e.A.t. Selling™ Methodology in Your Sales Process

Business owners always employ sales playbooks, frameworks, and various strategies. The reason: they want to profit and scale. Sales methodologies have played a significant role in helping businesses realize the revenue goals.

Sales have gone through many changes in the past decade. There have been experiments on the way businesses can grow their revenue cycle.

In this article, we will be explaining one of the sales methodologies, i.e., N.E.A.T. Selling™.

So, what Does N.E.A.T. Selling™ Stand For?

Every letter in the N.E.A.T. Selling™ acronym is a guiding principle or framework.

The methodology intends to guide sales professionals while selling.

Needs

This is where sales professionals understand the importance of finding out the needs of prospects.

They also get to know understanding the pain points the prospects have.

Once the prospects find out whether they could benefit from your product or not, it is easy for them to make a purchase.

Economic impact

Here, the prospect must be allowed to understand the financial impact their decision will have on their problem.

The aim of this point is to show the financial benefit of choosing your solution.

Access to authority

Your sales process gets delayed because many times, sales reps are not able to reach the decision-maker.

Having a direct conversation with the decision-maker is essential to move the prospect ahead in your sales process.

In this part, sales professionals understand the importance of reaching decision-makers or someone who has influence over making the final purchase, early in the sales process.

Timeline

In this section, sales professionals will learn why it is crucial for them to create a timeline of their sales process and why they must achieve sales in the set timeframe.

N.E.A.T. sales qualification method promotes active listening

If your sales professionals are going out there to close a number in their spreadsheet or make sales pitch to a prospect, they will probably fail.

N.E.A.T. sales emphasize on the fact that sales professionals must listen carefully to the prospect.

Listening to the problems of prospects helps sales professionals delve deep into their needs.

Ever felt like your sales reps have a bad reputation!

The most likely reason for this situation is that your prospects feel they are interacting with a radio or cassette player.

Or maybe the sales reps who have “conversation” with the prospect are more driven by the completion of their quota than understanding the prospects’ needs.

No prospect wants to feel like a number! And no ones like getting interrogated!

Help your sales professionals learn the art of shifting focus.

Help them understand how and when they must tap the pause button and hit the “listen” button.

In this section, we are going to provide a small N.E.A.T. sales methodology training.

We will also show you why N.E.A.T. sales methodology is ideal for a sales organization.

In other words, you can say that N.E.A.T. Selling™ (by Harris Consulting Group) is more effective as a lead qualification process.

It allows organizations to understand the prospects’ needs and eliminates prospects who don’t fit for using your solution.

N.E.A.T. Selling explained

As discussed above, N.E.A.T. stands for:

Needs
Economic impact
Access to authority
Timeline

In layman terms, the N.E.A.T. sales technique helps you locate the needs or pain points of the prospect.

It then allows you to respond with your product or service, positioned as the solution to the need or pain point.

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Evolution of N.E.A.T. Selling™

In the sales domain, customers have changed drastically. So yes, the selling techniques too needed an upgrade.

N.E.A.T. Selling™ evolved because of a realization that the sales process is no longer linear.

N.E.A.T. sales methodology builds on lessons learned from previous methodologies such as BANT and ANUM.

BANT is a sales qualification process.

This process is based on a prospect’s

Budget
Authority
Need
Timeframe

ANUM is another sales qualification process which is based on a prospect’s

Authority
Need
Urgency
Money

Salespeople across the globe have been clinging on to these acronyms because of their time-tested results.

BANT was created in a very different era.

ANUM improved over BANT!

Based on previous learning, the methodology helps businesses develop a process that addresses the problems that modern customers face!

We would strongly advise businesses to do an in-depth study of modern sales methodologies and see which fits their organization best.

Why?

Because if you are sticking to a methodology or sales process just because it used to work, then it is not a smart move!

Yes, this also means that in the coming years, the effectiveness of N.E.A.T. selling will get questioned too, but for now, it is advisable to include it in your business.

The methodology focuses your attention on core pain points and helps in positioning your product as a solution to those pain points.

This reason makes N.E.A.T. selling one of the best approaches for qualifying your leads.

Execution of the N.E.A.T. Selling™ process

Approach your prospects with a set of questions.

Let’s have a look at this N.E.A.T. Selling™ example below.

Every section of the N.E.A.T. methodology has recommended questions.

But it is up to the sales professionals to use these questions as a part of a broader, more organic discussion.

You must always shuffle the order in which these questions are asked based on what the buyer answers.

We are laying out a mock flow of stages and examples that you can consider when you apply the N.E.A.T. Selling™ process.