It’s a question I have been asked many times.  And it has a surprisingly simple answer.

Sales process tells you where your deal is in the buying cycle. It indicates the types of resources and activities needed to progress the sales cycle. For example, if you are in the “Solution” stage, you’ll likely need help from the presales team, while the “Negotiation” stage might require legal or pricing support.  So your sales process provides a helpful data point.

But in complex sales, a sales process isn’t enough – a more sophisticated sales methodology is required.  To help illustrate this, imagine a two-way competitive sales cycle.  Both vendors are at the “Solution” stage of the process – discovery, demonstrations etc. However, that’s where the similarities end.  Vendor B was engaged months earlier than Vendor A, and has directly influenced the business requirements. Vendor B is also aware of additional undocumented decision criteria, while Vendor A is not. And Vendor B has support from a senior internal champion which Vendor A lacks.

So which vendor has a higher win probability? No prize for answering that question correctly.

While your sales process is tracking where you are in the customer’s buying cycle, your sales methodology tracks the milestones that correlate best with sales success, and therefore provides a snapshot of how likely you are to win. So there’s your answer, if you want to predict your sales outcomes, you need a sales methodology.