In sales qualification we need to ask some direct, maybe challenging, questions. The longer we delay asking the harder it gets to do. Both we and the customer have something invested in the buy/sell process and it gets harder to walk away. That’s why we need to ask the hard questions early.
Our sales process can seem paranoid about qualification, because it is.
Making sure we understand what the customer is thinking is absolutely fundamental to our decision on whether to compete or not. We need to know will it really happen, is there anything we can do to make sure we win, and if we do win is the business going to worth having. It also dictates the way we structure our campaign. It tells us how to win the business. This is true regardless of whether that campaign lasts 18 minutes, or 18 months.
Qualification requires some penetrating questions to be asked, and answered. This can feel aggressive – it involves testing what the prospects say, in order to get to what they really think – and can put the sale at risk. We can manage that risk by explaining the value to both parties of a clear understanding, keeping the discussion direct, dispassionate and “strictly business”. It’s much easier to do this early in the sale, before either party has too much invested. Each can decide to walk away. On the other hand, once relationships have started to emerge people get sensitive about questions such as “are you really going to make this decision” or “have you really got a budget? and how much is it?”. Unfortunately, we need the answers.
Through our process the prospects will pass through a number of emotional states. In the beginning they will be open and helpful, testing our offer and, if we’ve something interesting, will want the best proposal we can make. As the list of potential suppliers reduces, prospects become more guarded. They don’t want to be seen to favor one competitor over the others. If we’ve done our job well, they’ll eventually move into the third phase, coaching us to win the business.
It isn’t hard to imagine asking the prospect hard questions in that middle phase can be difficult. We’ve already taken as read what we were told earlier, invested cost of sale, and in our own minds at least started to put a revenue value on the opportunity. By this time the prospect might have built a relationship with our competitor and we won’t want to openly challenge it. The middle phase is the one when our risk is highest. The deal is on the prospect list and our role is shepherding it into the third phase.
By the time the prospect’s mind is in the third phase, it’s too late. The emotional decision is already made, either for us or against us. We can no longer influence the decision as a result of what we’re told here. Elsewhere we discussed the least capable sales rep has the biggest prospect list. Those deals are usually in the third phase and out of control because the hard questions never got asked.
The sales professional understands the need to ask hard questions and the benefits of asking them early.
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