A sales methodology does more than create consistency. It defines how sellers approach customers—what they seek to understand, how they create value, and how they help buyers make decisions.
That makes choosing the right methodology as important as having one.
Customers increasingly educate themselves before engaging sellers, forming perspectives about their challenges, available solutions, and whether change is worth the effort. But informed buyers still face complexity, risk, and uncertainty.
That creates a higher bar for sellers.
Average Sellers Respond.
Average sellers respond to stated requirements, lead with their solution and differentiators, and focus on communicating value.
Great Sellers Shape.
Great sellers understand the customer’s business, examine assumptions, bring expertise and perspective, illuminate the consequences of the status quo, and help customers navigate toward a better decision.
The right methodology gives sellers a proven approach for creating that kind of sales experience—
consistently, intentionally, and authentically.
Download the brief, "What’s Missing from Today’s Sales Technology", to learn why sales tools that are not grounded in methodology are not enough to move the needle.
Download the BriefTwo Proven Methodologies. Distinct Approaches. Complementary Principles.
Richardson Sales Performance offers two of the most proven and trusted methodologies in selling: Consultative Selling and Challenger.
Each provides a distinct approach to how sellers engage customers and can be applied based on an organization’s needs and selling environment.
Their principles are also complementary and can build upon one another because both reflect a customer-centered view of selling.
Understand the Customer
Bring Expertise & Perspective
Help Buyers Confidently Navigate Change
Consultative Selling and Challenger put these beliefs into practice in different ways.
Consultative Selling: Understand What Matters. Connect Needs to Value. Build Momentum.
Consultative Selling is a customer-focused sales methodology that helps sellers deeply understand customer needs before positioning a solution.
Rather than beginning with the product, sellers seek to understand the customer’s situation, challenges, needs, and desired outcomes—then use that understanding to recommend relevant value and move the conversation forward.
The methodology brings together the Consultative Selling Framework and the Six Critical Selling Skills sellers use throughout the dialogue.
The framework gives sellers a consistent approach to the conversation. The Six Critical Skills help them execute it effectively and adapt in real time.
Together, the framework and skills help sellers create authentic, customer-centered conversations focused on meaningful business outcomes.
Explore Consultative SellingChallenger: Bring Insight. Change Thinking. Guide Action.
Challenger is an insight-led sales methodology that helps sellers bring customers new perspectives, challenge assumptions, and guide action.
Rather than responding only to needs the customer has already identified, Challenger sellers bring a point of view that reframes the status quo and helps customers recognize a better path forward.
At the center of the methodology are four interconnected Challenger skills.
Challenger sellers don’t simply tell customers why their solution is different. They use Commercial Teaching to lead customers toward a new understanding of their business.
A Commercial Teaching conversation begins with the customer’s world, introduces a reframe, demonstrates the consequences of continuing on the current path, and helps the customer see a better way forward before connecting that perspective to the seller’s differentiated solution.
Distinct Methodologies. A Complementary View of Great Selling.
Consultative Selling and Challenger each provide a complete approach to selling. Viewed together, their principles also reveal complementary dimensions of what customers need from sellers.
Bring the Methodology to Life
Richardson Sales Performance offers flexible learning experiences that help organizations develop methodology capability in ways that fit their teams’ needs.
In-Person Instructor-Led Training
Interactive, facilitator-led learning with opportunities to build knowledge, practice skills, receive feedback, and apply the methodology.
Virtual Instructor-Led Training
Live, facilitator-led methodology training for distributed teams.
Digital Learning
Self-directed experiences that give sellers flexibility to build knowledge and skills at their own pace.
Blended Learning
Learning journeys that combine instructor-led and digital experiences to support development over time.
Methodology Defines the Approach.
Capabilities Put It Into Action.
A sales methodology provides an underlying approach to how sellers engage customers. Capabilities are the behaviors sellers and managers need to execute that approach in different selling situations.
Those capabilities change with the selling motion. Creating pipeline is different from pursuing a complex opportunity. Growing an account is different from negotiating an agreement. And managers need capabilities that enable them to coach and lead seller performance.
Richardson Sales Performance’s curriculum develops the specific capabilities sellers and managers need to apply a proven approach to selling across different selling motions.
Methodology
Defines the Approach
Capabilities
Put the Approach into Action Through Seller and Manager Behaviors
Frequently asked questions
Q. What is a sales methodology?
A. A sales methodology defines how sellers approach customer conversations and the behaviors they use to create value throughout the buying process. It gives sellers a consistent way to navigate important selling moments while still allowing them to adapt to the customer and situation.
Q. What sales methodologies does Richardson offer?
A. Richardson Sales Performance offers two proven sales methodology paths: Consultative Selling and Challenger. Each develops distinct selling capabilities and can be customized to reflect your organization’s customers, solutions, language, roles, and selling environment.
Q. What is the difference between Consultative Selling and Challenger?
A. Consultative Selling helps sellers deeply understand customer needs, create value through dialogue, and guide productive customer conversations. Challenger helps sellers bring differentiated insight, reframe customer thinking, tailor the conversation, and constructively take control of the buying process.
Both are designed to improve the quality and impact of customer conversations, but they approach that goal differently.
Q. How do I know which sales methodology is right for my organization?
A. The right methodology depends on what your sellers need to do differently to succeed. Factors such as your sales motion, buyer environment, solution complexity, existing capabilities, and business priorities can all influence the right approach. Richardson Sales Performance works with organizations to determine which methodology best fits the behaviors they need to build.
Q. Can an organization use both Consultative Selling and Challenger?
A. Yes. An organization does not necessarily need to choose one methodology for every seller. Consultative Selling and Challenger can be deployed across different roles, teams, segments, or sales motions based on the capabilities each group needs.
Q. Can Richardson Sales Performance customize the methodology to our business?
A. Yes. We customize the context—not the integrity of the methodology. The core methodology and capabilities remain consistent, while the way sellers learn and practice applying them can reflect your organization’s customers, products and services, language, roles, and real selling situations.
Q. How is a sales methodology different from a sales process?
A. A sales process defines the stages and activities used to move an opportunity forward. A sales methodology defines how sellers execute effectively within those moments—how they think, communicate, create value, and engage buyers. The two should work together rather than compete.
Q. How do you make sure sellers continue using the methodology after training?
A. Methodology adoption requires more than a training event. Richardson connects learning with practice, reinforcement, manager coaching, and ongoing visibility into seller development so organizations can continue building the behaviors sellers need to apply in customer conversations.
Find the Right Methodology for Your Sales Organization.
The right methodology depends on your customers, selling environment, business challenges, and the capabilities your sellers need to develop.
Richardson Sales Performance can help you determine which approach best aligns with your organization and how your sellers need to perform.