sales qualification

Two Tall Guys Talking Sales – How Sales Leaders Use CRMs to Align Sales Processes, Value Selling, and Revenue Management – Episode 152

By Sean O'Shaughnessey

In this episode of Two Tall Guys Talking Sales, hosts Kevin Lawson and Sean O’Shaughnessey build on last week’s discussion of qualification methodologies and take the conversation further—into how these frameworks should live inside your CRM. From aligning sales processes with the buyer’s journey to enforcing accountability at each stage, this conversation offers practical strategies that every sales leader and salesperson can implement. Expect a deep dive into sales management, revenue generation, sales processes, and how value selling thrives when marketing and sales teams work in sync.

Key Topics Discussed

Why your CRM is the right home for qualification methodologies (00:48)
Best practices for embedding qualification questions into sales processes (02:01)
How sales leaders enforce discipline and consistency across teams (03:18)
Eliminating Excel spreadsheets and consolidating data for effective revenue management (05:12)
Aligning marketing collateral with sales strategies to support qualification and value selling (06:00)
Real-world stories of late-stage deal failures caused by missing buyer-side approvals (10:21)

Key Quotes

Kevin Lawson (05:12): “Oh, please, oh, please evacuate Excel spreadsheets from your solution guide… For the purposes of this discussion, we want to strenuously avoid having third-party apps disconnected from your system.”
Sean O’Shaughnessey (10:40): “There is nothing worse than missing your quarterly number because you didn’t know how they were going to buy… Knowing the paperwork process is the difference between celebrating the win and missing your commission check.”
Kevin Lawson (14:10): “Having a qualification methodology mapped into your CRM, aligned with a buyer’s journey and supported by marketing resources, gives you a fully wrapped system that prevents that dreaded CEO call asking, ‘What’s the status of that deal?’”

Additional Resources

HubSpot Blog: A Guide to Sales Qualification Frameworks https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/6-popular-sales-methodologies-summarized
Join the B2B Sales Lab for 90 days free and access practical community discussions on sales strategies, revenue management, and messaging. https://b2b-sales-lab.com
CRM platforms mentioned: HubSpot (https://www.hubspot.com/), Pipedrive (https://www.pipedrive.com/), Salesforce (https://www.salesforce.com/), Membrain (https://www.membrain.com/)

A Significant Actionable Item from this Podcast

Embed your qualification methodology directly into your CRM, tied to each stage of your sales process.

Don’t let critical deal information reside inside spreadsheets or Word docs; configure your CRM so progression requires those qualification questions to be answered. This not only improves sales accuracy but also enhances revenue management, ensures consistency across your team, and creates alignment with marketing resources to drive value selling.

Summary

This episode of Two Tall Guys Talking Sales is a must-listen for anyone serious about building sustainable sales success. Sean and Kevin reveal how sales strategies such as qualification methodologies come to life when fully integrated into CRM-driven sales processes. You’ll learn why sales management must prioritize data consistency, how business acumen prevents late-stage deal disasters, and how aligning messaging between sales and marketing fuels stronger revenue generation. If you want practical insights on improving your sales processes and elevating your organization’s performance, download this episode today and start putting these best practices to work.

Two Tall Guys Talking Sales – Why Consistent Sales Strategies Win: Forecasting, Messaging, and Revenue Management – Episode 151

By Sean O'Shaughnessey

In this episode of Two Tall Guys Talking Sales, hosts Kevin Lawson and Sean O’Shaughnessey delve into the crucial role of deal qualification in driving sales success. From simple frameworks like BANT to advanced methodologies such as MEDDIC and MEDDPICCC, Kevin and Sean explain how consistent sales processes, value selling, and business acumen can sharpen forecasting, strengthen messaging, and ultimately accelerate revenue generation. Whether you’re managing a sales team or selling solo, this discussion will help you refine your sales strategies and improve your revenue management outcomes.

Key Topics Discussed

The cooking analogy for sales qualification – how preparing a meal mirrors building consistent sales processes
Why full qualification matters – reducing forecast slippage, aligning solutions to customer needs, and driving predictable revenue generation.
BANT explained – Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline as a simple framework for qualifying deals
Beyond BANT – an overview of advanced methodologies such as SPIN, SPICED, and NEAT for value selling in complex deals
Deep dive into MEDDIC and MEDDPICCC – why metrics, the economic buyer, and champions are essential for enterprise-level sales success
The importance of sales management consistency – ensuring every salesperson in an organization qualifies deals with the same discipline

Key Quotes

Kevin Lawson : “When you close things better, when you have more deal intelligence or customer intelligence or relationship intelligence gained through a qualifying methodology, you end up being better able to serve a customer.”
Sean O’Shaughnessey : “If you have five salespeople trying to qualify deals, you want them to qualify them the same way—consistency matters because it creates repeatable sales success.”
Sean O’Shaughnessey : “Every deal needs a champion. If you can get a champion to sell for you when you’re not there, you are far more likely to win.”

Additional Resources

HubSpot Blog: A Guide to Sales Qualification Frameworkshttps://blog.hubspot.com/sales/6-popular-sales-methodologies-summarized
The Qualified Sales Leader by John McMahon is an essential read on MEDDIC from one of the most successful sales leaders in software history. https://a.co/d/76089W7
Join the B2B Sales Lab for 90 days free and access practical community discussions on sales strategies, revenue management, and messaging. https://b2b-sales-lab.com

A Significant Actionable Item from this Podcast

Select and consistently implement one sales qualification framework across all your deals.
Whether you adopt BANT for simplicity or MEDDPICCC for enterprise-level selling, consistency in qualification builds stronger forecasts, improves customer alignment, and accelerates revenue generation. Decide on one methodology, train your team, and hold yourself accountable to using it every time.

Why You Should Listen

This episode is packed with practical insights for salespeople, managers, and business leaders committed to improving revenue management and sales success. Kevin and Sean take you from everyday analogies to advanced enterprise strategies, showing why consistent qualification is the backbone of predictable growth. If you want sharper sales processes, better forecasting, and stronger messaging that supports value selling, you won’t want to miss this conversation. Download now and start applying these proven sales strategies to your own pipeline.

Validation Events: The Unsung Hero of Sales Process Discipline

By Sean O'Shaughnessey

In the complex world of B2B selling, trust is built in stages. The challenge in all sales campaigns is ensuring the prospect trusts they are making the best decision for their business.

Do they trust that the salesperson is giving them all of the information?
Do they trust that the company will support them after the sale?
Do they trust that the product will perform as they expect it to perform?

As I have explained in my book, Eliminate Your Competition, as well as the blog for that book and in this blog, the prospect needs to trust all three elements the salesperson is selling:

They need to trust the product.
They need to trust the company behind the product.
They need to trust the salesperson.

Prospects listen to your sales message, review your materials, and hear your claims, but none of that guarantees belief or trust. Trust is validated when your claims are validated. That’s why validation events are crucial to any rigorous sales process.

In The Qualified Sales Leader, John McMahon stresses the importance of customer-driven validation. He cautions sales leaders against relying on internal optimism or anecdotal “good signals” from prospects. Instead, McMahon emphasizes observable proof—real buyer behavior that confirms alignment, commitment, and value. Validation events are when the customer takes action to validate that what you’ve promised is accurate and valuable.

An excellent sample sale process flow looks like this: