Sales Qualification Questions in the Sales Masterclass

Turn Prospects Into Customers and Opportunities Into Sales.

Questions to Qualify the Sale

Qualification is the fundamental step in the sales process. At some point every sales guy has to decide whether the deal can be won, and whether the winning will be worth the cost. This isn’t personal – it’s business. Expert sales guys don’t chase every deal. They’ll only go after sales they can win. They won’t waste time and expense on opportunities that can’t be won.

Professionals call this Qualification, meaning does it pass a set of tests. They know qualifying a sale involves some tough questions, and the easiest time to ask them is as early in the process as possible. If they’re going to walk away from the sale – qualify out – the sooner the better.

Here’s some questions they’ll try to get answered in the first call.

1 – Why is the prospect buying?

Consultants call this the business imperative, by which they mean some influence justifying the cost. Three answers to look for are:

Business strategy – otherwise known as the boss wants it.

Competitive pressure – responding to external threat(s).

Competitive advantage – grabbing an opportunity in the market.

2 – How will the decision get made?

Does the prospect have a process worked out and does it make sense? It should include:

Requirements definition.

Selection criteria.

Short list.

Presentation, Proposal, Terms of Business, Negotiation.

Selection decision.

Approval process.

Signing the paper.

3 – Who will make the decision?

This will rarely be the buyer.

Who are the thought leaders?

Who can throw a wrench in the works?

Who has the authority to say yes and who will influence them.

4 – What is the time frame?

If there’s no plan with dates, there probably isn’t a deal.

Is there a date for each step in the process?

is there a date for the decision?

Is there a start/delivery date planned?

5 – Where’s the money?

A prospect serious about buying will know how the invoice will get paid.

Is there a budget committed?

How much is it?

Is there a business case defining return on the investment?

Is there cash available, or does it need financing?

6 – Where’s the competition?

Look for incumbent suppliers, partners or relatives.

Who will be asked to bid?

Which competitors won’t be asked to bid, and why?

Is there competition for the budget?

Are there personal agendas?

This might seem counter intuitive. Most sales coaches ignore qualification, recommending concentrating on why prospects SHOULD buy, as opposed to why they WON’T. That’s why they’re selling books and training courses and not products and services.

Qualification is focused on whether and how prospects will buy. It helps us avoid chasing deals we can’t win, and also tells us how to win.

Whether or not we should bid is the subject of another article.

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January 28th, 2010 - Posted in sales qualification | Add a Comment

Comments (RSS 2.0)

michelchiasson

Yes...the questions....you are bang on again, but how often have I heard members of my sales team, after the 7 th time I asked why, figure out that they were "not sure" about the MONEY>>> that is such a key category. Everyone wants to solve everything, everyone can sign...until you follow the money! Such an important yet difficult question to ask for new sales reps.

stevensreeves

Hi Michel thanks for taking the time to read my post and comment. I'm very familiar with the problem you describe. To my mind price is the one thing we should spend time training people to cope with, and from what I see, the coaches and authors never do.

I have written a couple of pieces on price here, but you've inspired to make a bigger project out of it. f you'd like to help me focus my pricing articles on some real life challenges please suggest some. Direction is always more useful than inspiration when it comes to writing stuff others might want to read :-)

In the software business price gets to be enormously complex, because there's no marginal cost so the answer gets to be whatever the customer will pay is acceptable. But of course the professional will always get a better price than the amateur, from the same customer and for the same deal.

I've always encouraged sales guys to talk money as early as possible in the sales process, if possible establishing at the first call what the cost expectations are, where the money's coming from, and what will justify the spend e.g ROI.

I

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