How to Qualify your Prospect

Well hello again and thanks for your interest in my ‘no bullshit’ and straight to the point common sense articles. I try to write as I think and avoid ten dollar words that no one understands.

This topic is all about how to measure a prospects interest in your product / solution. This is about as basic as it gets for a sales person, as a good CRM system will up line your comments and meaningful next steps to your Sales Manager. Think of it as a critical part of the sales process and you are accountable for maintaining an accurate record in CRM of what’s going on in your patch. As a sales person you can’t hide from reality – it is what it is.

Qualifying your sales prospect is a considered judgement on your part as to the probability of your prospect giving you an order. So to save time and improve sales results, you need to do some basic things, and the assumption is that you are doing your own prospecting and attending face to face meetings rather than telesales.

Do some research on your prospect – this may have been done by your telemarketing team (maybe).
Be sure whenever possible that you are meeting the right person – THE DECISION MAKER! Obviously this is not always the case, but at least try to find out your prospects decision making process but that is often easier said than done.
If you have relevant support material, email it through to your prospect prior to the meeting.
If your CRM supports it, make brief and to the point notations that others can understand. THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT!
At the presentation, utilise consultative selling techniques (see 3 part series posted on this topic) build rapport and identify ‘pain points’ or broader objectives that you can match up your product / service with as a ‘Solution’ to address that ‘pain point’ or ‘business objective’.
If possible, try to quantify in $ terms the BENEFIT of your solution. Depending on what you are selling, that may not be possible and you may be scurrying back to the office to prepare a written proposal. Be sure to take lots of notes at the meeting.
Again, ask open questions relevant to the situation, and as you guide your prospect through the sales funnel, then you will know when to start asking closed questions as you get closer to the sharp end of the funnel leading to either a close or a meaningful next step.
Update CRM and don’t fall into the trap of stating ‘done deal’ without a signed commitment. Also don’t state 70% probability of a deal when it’s really only 20%. It will bite you eventually, as in sales, the only thing that matters is RESULTS!

Closing techniques will be a separate post as it is a skill that commands attention, as it is the all critical ‘close’ that get’s you to target and KPI achievement as a sales person month in month out.

This is pretty basic stuff in sales, and if you have a particular topic that you would like to see posted reach me out on Linked In.

Happy selling!

Rick Kemp