Every Sales Manager needs a set of questions they’ll use to review their sales reps pipelines and qualify the deals in them. Those questions will tell them the probability each deal will turn into a real sale, and highlight risks of losing out to competition, or of the sale not going down.
Ideally the same questions will be applied to every qualification review. They’ll become part of the sales management process and help everybody work to the same rule book. Reps like easy reviews with their sales manager. Once they know the questions they’ll be asked they’ll work harder at finding the answers, before the review meeting.
Sales Managers will spend less time achieving more accurate reviews and improve the accuracy of their sales forecasts when they’re consistent with the review process and qualifying each opportunity with the questions asked of the rep.
But which questions should the sales manager ask?
Here’s my checklist of questions I’ll ask every sales rep about every deal. They might not all be appropriate in your business, but my guess is most will.
- Do you understand the business imperative?
- Is this an existing happy customer?
- How much is the committed budget
- Who holds the budget?
- Have you met with the decision maker?
- Do you understand the decision process?
- Does your offer fit the requirement 100%?
- Are any incumbent suppliers excluded?
- Is there a start/end date planned
- Does the customer deliver on agreed dates?
- Do you have an internal Coach?
Just a word of warning. Rigidly applying this sales management process never made me popular with my sales teams. Reps can be over optimistic, and some can even be desperate. Either way they don’t like sales managers raining on their parade. But for me at least that’s a secondary issue. Knowing the facts, being able to intervene to increases the chances of winning, and presenting accurate forecasts to my boss are much more important.
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