| "Qualifying" is how you figure out how hot of a prospect you've got. The art of "qualifying" is very important to sales success. Qualifying helps you develop a strong business rapport with prospects, and paves the way for a great business relationship. Using qualifying wisely also prevents frustration, and highlights your best opportunities. A truly hot prospect is one that has both need and desire for what you're selling. The timing is right. They have control over existing budget or the ability to create budget to buy. Last but definitely not least: they are reasonable. If you look at the Consultative Framework, you'll see that there are two parts of qualifying. The first comes up as you uncover wants, needs, and interests. Qualifying Wants, Needs, Interests One of the most common mistakes people make in selling is thinking that any and every need is a selling opportunity. Nope! Just because you see a need--a fit for your product or service--that doesn't mean your prospect sees one. And, even if your prospect sees the same fit, that doesn't mean he sets a priority on meeting that need. So, as you uncover needs, you better also find out whether the prospect sees them as needs. And, you better find out how badly the prospect wants that need met! Here are some questions that uncover this information: Tell me about how (issue) affects your business? On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is it to you to address this issue? Hard Qualifying The other part of qualifying often poses another sort of challenge for sales people. This part of qualifying asks "hard" questions, the kind that your mom told you were rude. You'll have to practice asking these questions until they roll off your tongue as easily as asking for the time. The information you uncover is vital to your ability to develop a business relationship as a trusted advisor, and vital to your success in focusing on your best opportunities. Here are some suggestions for ways to ask these "tough" questions: Timing When you find the right vendor, when would you want to get started? What's your timeframe on this? Budget Do you have budget set aside for this, or would you have to create budget? Any financial issues between finding the right service and getting started? Decision Process and Who is Involved Tell me about your decision process for purchases like these: What's the process and who is involved? Walk me through the how and who of your decision process for this. That is the outline of qualifying questions. Be sure to include qualifying in your sales call guide. Be sure to practice asking questions in advance so you're ready to apply the power of qualifying when the time comes. And one more thing... Remember the Reasonable! A truly hot prospect is one that includes reasonable people. In fact, each and every person involved in the decision to buy what you're selling has to be reasonable. That means that if the prospect lies, or won't discuss their true concerns, or wants you to cut prices too much, or wants things to move forward too slowly or too quickly, or wants you to provide free services to establish your credentials, or... get the picture? Obviously, you can't ask questions that establish how reasonable each prospect/person is. But you can certainly keep your eyes open for red flags. And you can certainly keep the "reasonable" factor in mind when you decide where to focus your efforts. |