| In sales your job is not to overcome every single challenge that comes your way. Your job is to take full advantage of every opportunity that comes your way. When you qualify, you uncover information to help you identify your best opportunities. But asking questions is just part one. These tips give you guidance on what to do with that information. Wants, Needs, Interests Your prospects have lots going on. When you discover that meeting the wants, needs and interests falls low on their to-do list, this may not be a hot prospect. Follow through, just don’t get your hopes up too high. You might be tempted to try to create a sense of urgency. Maybe you can make the prospect see it should be a high priority? Well, you sure could try that…and you may annoy the heck out of them, which is rarely an effective sales technique. A better approach is to find out if concerns are pulling the priority down. For example, let’s say you sell mortgages and you’re talking re-fi. If the prospect thinks the re-fi process will take a lot of work on her part that could put it lower on her to-do list. If you can show her how you make the process easy she might want to move forward more quickly. If concerns aren’t pulling priorities down then the reality is that buying whatever you’re selling is not high on their list. In this case, the best thing to do is to turn next-steps over to them. It’s also smart to put the issue of low priorities into the open. For example: “Sounds like you’ve got lots going on and a re-finance isn’t high on the list right now. What would you like to do from here?” Questions like that not only nurture a prospect’s buy-in for those next steps, they qualify all the more. You might be thinking you’ll check back in two months only to find the prospect wants to move forward in two weeks. The exception to the above is when the prospect is having trouble identifying priorities at all. When you’ve got a wishy washy prospect, push for priorities and suggest next-steps. These sorts of prospects are thankfully rare because they are very difficult to deal with. Follow through but keep your expectations low on these! Timing There are two aspects of a timing fit. One aspect has to do with availability or delivery. For example, if the prospect wants delivery in two weeks but it takes five to create what he’s buying…you don’t have a hot prospect. Is it likely that he can find another source to deliver in two weeks? If so, you may not have a prospect at all. If not, try to educate the prospect, ask what he’d like you to do from here and follow through. But if this prospect doesn’t believe that he can’t find a source and doesn’t particularly want you to do anything, check back with the prospect anyway. “Checking in to see if you found a vendor you like or if you’d like to re-visit working with me.” The other aspect is that of too much time. Too much time involved in their decision process. Too much time between now and when they want to move forward. Too much time between now and when they want you to do something as a next-step. “Too much” time means lots can change in the meantime. “Too much” time means whatever agreements you had may evaporate. How much is “too much”? Anything much longer than your usual sales cycle timeframe is probably too long. For example: If the usual cycle is three months and this prospect isn’t deciding for six, that’s too long. When there’s too much time involved, suggest you and the prospect connect sooner and ask the prospect to decide when that happens. Again, turning it over to the prospect nurtures buy-in and qualifies at the same time. However, until you re-connect with this prospect and find out what’s up this prospect is pretty darn chilly. Budget This one is easy. In order for this to be a hot prospect:
Decision process and players It’s not the type of decision process or type of players that define hot prospect or not. It’s your involvement and access that counts. For example: Your product demo’s well and you suggest adding one to their decision process. If they agree, great. If they decline, not a hot prospect. There’s a committee evaluating all proposals. You ask to talk with each committee member before creating your proposal. If they agree, great. If they decline, not a hot prospect. Or you ask to present your proposal directly to the committee. If they agree, great. If they decline… You have to be selling directly to each person involved in the decision process for you to have a hot prospect. Follow through, just don’t get your hopes too high. Remember the reasonable A truly hot prospect is one that includes reasonable people. When the prospect isn’t reasonable then it’s not a hot prospect because it’s not one you should pursue. You may get the sale alright—and be sorry you did. Make a plausible excuse or decline to quote and let these guys go. What now? What to do with warm prospects? Keep working it, darlin; keep the process moving as best you can. What to do with pretty darn cool prospects? Also keep working at it--just don't get your hopes up. If you get the business, great! If you don't, you have prevented emotional ups and downs that drive salespeople crazy. |