The Problem: Sales Training Overload Without Practical Application

I’ve been through nearly every major sales training methodology—SPIN, MEDDIC, Miller Heiman, BANT, and more. Each of them has value. Each of them has great principles that can help sales teams close more deals. And yet, after working with dozens of Swiss and European industrial companies selling in the U.S., I’ve noticed a major problem:

🚨 Salespeople don’t actually use them.
🚨 They are too complex for real-world application.
🚨 They slow down sales cycles instead of speeding them up.

The truth is, most of these methodologies require months (if not years) of training to master before they become second nature. For large enterprises with structured sales teams and years of experience, this level of training may work.

But for small and mid-sized European industrial companies—often selling highly technical solutions and hiring engineers-turned-salespeople—these frameworks feel like overkill and don’t translate into real sales results.

So instead of layering on complexity, I focus on three core principles that create immediate impact, improve qualification, and drive faster, more confident sales cycles.

1.Start with Why Customers Actually Buy

Most sales methodologies focus on what a customer needs and how to align your solution to their pain. But the problem is that technical sales teams tend to over-focus on product details and under-focus on why the customer is actually making a purchase.

📌 Forget the product for a moment. Instead, look at your recent customers and categorize why they bought from you.
📌 Identify 3 core buying drivers. I always group these into three because the human brain remembers things in patterns of three.
📌 Go beyond technical reasons. The real reason a customer buys is almost always emotional—it’s about reducing risk, making their job easier, or feeling like they’re making the right decision.

💡 Example:

One of my clients, a Swiss-based industrial company selling automation technology, was struggling to differentiate. Their sales team kept focusing on the technical advantages of their solution—efficiency, precision, durability.

But when we spoke to customers, we found out that they were buying for three core reasons:
1️⃣ They needed a solution that wouldn’t get them blamed if something went wrong (risk aversion).
2️⃣ They wanted to standardize across facilities to reduce complexity.
3️⃣ They needed faster implementation than their competitors were offering.
Once the team understood these deeper reasons, they stopped overloading prospects with technical features and started focusing on the emotional drivers behind the sale—and their win rate shot up.

2.Use a Simple Yet Powerful Qualification Framework

BANT, MEDDIC, Miller Heiman—all of these are excellent, but they require a deep level of mastery to use them without slowing down. Instead, I developed PPVVC—Power, Pain, Vision, Value, and Control—because it’s easy to remember, apply, and scale across the entire sales process.

Here’s how it works:

1️⃣ Power – Are you talking to the right person?

If you’re speaking to someone who can’t make the decision, the deal will stall.

2️⃣ Pain – What’s their biggest challenge?

If there’s no urgent problem, there’s no motivation to buy.

3️⃣ Vision – Where do they want to go?

If you only focus on fixing today’s pain and not their long-term goals, you’re missing half the equation.

4️⃣ Value – Can you prove your solution is worth it?

Customers don’t buy features—they buy measurable outcomes.

5️⃣ Control – Who’s leading the sales process?

A sales cycle without clear next steps dies in endless follow-ups.

PPVVC is fast, flexible, and effective. It helps sales reps qualify leads, avoid wasted effort, and close deals faster.

3.Apply Qualification Across the Entire Sales Process

Most sales training focuses on qualification only during discovery calls. But in real-world industrial sales, the qualification process should never stop.

I teach my clients to use PPVVC across every stage of the sales process:

✔️ Prospecting: Does this lead fit at least one of our three core buying drivers?

✔️ Discovery: Are we speaking to someone with power? What’s their real pain?

✔️ Presenting Options: Does this align with their vision and create clear value?

✔️ Proposals & Consensus Building: Are we controlling the sales process, or waiting on them?

✔️ Negotiation & Closing: Are we reinforcing value, or just dropping price?

✔️ Onboarding: Have we aligned expectations to prevent buyer’s remorse?

This method does two things:

1️⃣ It simplifies sales training. Instead of overwhelming new hires with complex methodologies, they only have to remember five core principles.

2️⃣ It creates consistency. Marketing, sales, customer success—everyone speaks the same language, making the entire company more aligned.

The Real Game-Changer: Confidence in the Sales Process

One of the biggest struggles for European-led sales teams in the U.S. is that many of their reps—especially those with engineering backgrounds—lack the confidence to control the sales conversation.

🔹 They default to technical discussions instead of selling.

🔹 They wait for the customer to drive the process instead of leading it.

🔹 They spend months nurturing leads who were never serious buyers.

PPVVC changes that.

🔹 It gives sales teams a clear roadmap.

🔹 It makes qualification easy to remember and apply.

🔹 It provides structure without unnecessary complexity.

Most importantly, it gives salespeople confidence—because when they know exactly how to qualify, engage, and close, they stop second-guessing themselves.

The Bottom Line: Simpler = More Effective

I’m not here to say that SPIN, MEDDIC, or Miller Heiman don’t work. They absolutely do. But for European industrial companies selling in the U.S., these methods are often too complex and slow to implement effectively.

Instead of overcomplicating sales, focus on three simple principles:

📌 Understand why customers buy (from their perspective, not yours).

📌 Use a qualification framework that’s easy to apply—like PPVVC.

📌 Integrate qualification throughout the entire sales process.

This approach will help your team close deals faster, eliminate wasted effort, and sell with confidence.

🚀 Want to see how PPVVC can help your sales team move faster and close more? Let’s talk.