Sales frameworks provide a structured approach to the sales process and can help drive a more effective and efficient sales process.

1. Consistency: Using a sales framework ensures that the rep follows a consistent approach to every sales conversation, which can help build trust with potential customers and improve their overall experience.
2. Efficiency: A sales framework can help salespeople prioritize their time and focus on the most promising leads, which can improve their productivity and help them close deals more quickly. Getting quickly to the no is just as important.
3. Clarity: A sales framework can provide clarity and structure to the sales process, making it easier for salespeople to identify the customer's pain points, present solutions, and address objections.
4. Scalability: Sales frameworks can be easily taught and replicated across a sales team, making it easier to onboard new hires and ensure that everyone is following the same approach.
5. Continuous improvement: A sales framework can help salespeople identify areas for improvement in their sales process, and refine their approach over time to achieve better results.

Deciding which sales framework is best for you depends on a variety of factors, including your product or service, your target market, and your sales goals. 

1. Evaluate your product or service: Consider the features and benefits of your product or service, as well as the pain points it addresses for your target market. Some sales frameworks, such as Solution Selling or Challenger, may be better suited for products or services that require a more consultative sales approach with a longer sales cycle.
2. Analyze your target market: Consider the characteristics of your target market, such as their level of sophistication, their buying habits, and their decision-making process. Some sales frameworks, such as MEDDIC or BANT, may be better suited for sales cycles with multiple stakeholders.
3. Set your sales goals: Consider your sales goals, such as the number of deals you want to close or the revenue you want to generate. Some sales frameworks, such as Challenger, may be better suited for generating fewer higher-value deals, while others, such as BANT, may be better suited for fast qualification of leads and prioritizing your time.
4. Experiment with different frameworks: Try out different sales frameworks and see which ones work best for your sales process and your target market. You may find that a combination of framework steps works best for your sales goals and your product.

There are a multitude of sales frameworks and methodologies. A few common ones are BANT, MEDDPICC (or variations such as MEDDIC), and Challenger. These methodologies vary in their approach and qualifications and are often used for different sales processes.

BANT

BANT is a sales qualification framework that stands for Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline. This framework helps salespeople determine whether a potential customer is a good fit for their product or service. The four criteria of BANT are:

• Budget: Does the customer have the financial resources to purchase the product or service?
• Authority: Does the customer have the authority to make purchasing decisions?
• Need: Does the customer have a need or pain point that the product or service can address?
• Timeline: Does the customer have a timeline for making a purchasing decision?

MEDDPICC 

MEDDPICC is a sales framework that stands for Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, Champion, and Competition. This framework is commonly used for complex sales cycles with multiple stakeholders. The eight criteria of MEDDPICC are:

• Metrics: What metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs) are important to the customer?
• Economic Buyer: Who is the ultimate decision maker with budget authority?
• Decision Criteria: What criteria are used to evaluate potential solutions?
• Decision Process: What is the process for making a purchasing decision?
• Paper Process: What are the steps for getting a contract signed?
• Identify Pain: What pain points or challenges is the customer experiencing?
• Champion: Who is a key advocate or sponsor within the customer's organization?
• Competition: What other solutions or competitors are the customer considering?

Some teams choose to use variations of MEDDPICC, for example MEDDIC which omits the identified pain and competition criteria, if it's not relevant to the closing process and could cause unnecessary drag in the sales cycle.

Challenger

The Challenger Sale is a sales methodology that focuses on challenging the customer's assumptions and helping them see their problems in a new way. The goal is to position the salesperson as a trusted advisor who can help the customer solve their problems. The Challenger framework consists of five steps:

• Teach: Provide the customer with new insights and information about their business or industry.
• Tailor: Customize the solution to the customer's specific needs.
• Take Control: Lead the customer through the sales process and take control of the conversation.
• Challenge: Challenge the customer's assumptions and help them see their problems in a new way.
• Close: Close the deal and follow up with the customer to ensure their satisfaction.

Meetingflow is built to support any sales framework. There are 3 main themes when considering how to implement a sales framework into the meeting workflow.

Orienting meeting plans around a framework

In order to drive consistency and integrate the framework into every meeting, create meeting plan templates customized for different stages of the deal. Let's say a sales process uses BANT framework, where an SDR qualifies need and timing in the first call, where an AE is then brought in to further assess budget and authority; different meeting plan templates can keep this conversation seamless as it progresses and changes hands and reps stay focused on the right outcomes for that stage. Learn more about templates.

1. Map out the major milestones of the sales cycle. What types of meetings are there, who is in them, what is the purpose of each different meeting type? 
   1. This a good opportunity to assess your sales cycle and identify missing steps or areas causing extra friction.
2. Build meeting templates that map to each key meeting type of the sales cycle
   1. Add default formatting for the meeting plan and/or the meeting notes section. This helps keeps reps on track in their conversations and drives towards the key outcomes
   2. Add default assets to meeting templates, such as a pitch deck template so all reps can always have access to the most up to date assets

Collecting sales framework qualifications

Qualifications are the underpinnings of a sales framework, and it's essential to capture them in a CRM for sales efficiency analyses, accurate pipeline forecasting, and deal intelligence. With Meetingflow, reps can quickly access deal fields (including custom CRM fields!) for one click updating. This makes updating opportunity fields both comprehensive and fast, ensuring all appropriate fields are kept updated. Learn more about CRM updates.

1. Identify the Hubspot deal or Salesforce opportunity fields you want surfaced in the meeting workflow
   1. These should be fields key to deal flow, or fields that get updated often. This might not be all the fields on an opportunity record.
2. Establish what order the fields should appear in Meetingflow from a user perspective. If using an acronym based sales framework, it's common to follow the order of the acronym, though you might find you want fields ordered differently for better user experience. Organization admins will need to configure this.
   1. The order you select fields in the admin "organization settings → manage integrations" is the order the fields will appear in Meetingflow, top to bottom.

Understanding additional meeting context 

Opportunity fields are important, but that's not the full story from the meeting. Templates can be leveraged to guide reps on how to structure their meeting notes, with formatting retained, for meeting detail that is organized and understandable. 

1. Within the meeting templates, consider formatting the notes section based on meeting type.
   1. This makes it easy to read meeting note details. Instead of reading 10 different formatted notes from 10 different reps, templated notes makes it easy to compare deal context like-for-like.