How to sell more- Qualify, Qualify, Qualify.

I once talked to a new-ish salesperson on my team about a problem he was having with closing deals.  Let’s pretend his name was Richard.

Richard described working long hours and opening hundreds of new opportunities per month (more than anyone else on the team)- but his sales numbers weren’t increasing.  He rightfully wondered how he could sell more.  He had all the classic sales skills- a knack for getting people to talk to him, giant work ethic, and a great understanding of what he was selling.  I listened to a few of his calls and his prospects sounded legitimately excited.  We both struggled to see what was wrong until I started looking through his notes (edited for anonymity):

“Brandon is interested in our product.  Thinking he will buy sometime over the summer.  Very excited, loves the features.  Understands the benefit.”

“Joan is concerned with the price but loves the features.  Sent over a 60 day demo license for her to try out.”

“Eric’s current project is going to probably run through the new year, he’s not sure when his manager will let him focus on our product, but knows he wants it when he has the chance to work on it.”

Starting to see the problem?

In his excitement and haste to work hard and open as many new opportunities as possible, Richard got lax about qualifying his prospects.  This led to opened opportunities which never had any real chance to close in the first place- meaning Richard was wasting his and his prospect’s time.

Let’s back up.  What’s qualifying?

When you are talking to a prospect, as a salesperson you want to understand if they are going to buy or not.  Qualifying is the process by which you determine these chances.  It varies industry to industry, but the basic principles are the same.  A prospect must have certain attributes and engage in certain behaviors to be qualified to buy something from you.  The stronger those attributes and behaviors are, the more qualified the prospect is. Qualification is a key skill for any salesperson.  Here’s an example:

Joe walks onto a car lot.  He’s recently received insurance money from an accident and he needs to buy a new car.  He has one in mind, and is willing and able to make the purchase today.

At the same time, Frank also arrives.  He’s heard about the newest sports car and wants to look.  He recently purchased a new car and is not in the market, but is an enthusiast and would love to talk cars.

For argument’s sake, let’s say there’s only one salesperson available- Arnold.  How can he decide how to prioritize his time to meet the needs of both customers, but also close the deal on a new car sale?

The answer is with qualifying.  Arnold should look to learn about both the attributes and behaviors of both Joe and Frank to determine how to spend his time and meet their needs.  This can mean asking questions, observing behaviors, and looking for cues.  Frank might make a beeline to the sports car, but will probably hesitate to touch it as he doesn’t want to give off the impression that he is interested in buying.  Joe, on the other hand, will probably look for a salesperson right away, as he knows he will need to meet with one to make a purchase.

Arnold can meet Frank’s needs by welcoming him to the lot and telling him to feel free to look all he wants, leaving the interaction open to more if Frank decides he does actually want to buy today.  If he wants to go even further he will tell Frank where to find him if he wants to hear the sports car rev up.  By looking for the qualifying behavior to begin with, he meets Frank’s needs and frees up time to work with Joe on getting him the car he needs right away.

This holds true in every industry and sales role out there.  The behaviors and attributes might vary slightly, but they all point back to a few basic rules:

1. The prospect must be willing and able to make or influence a purchasing decision.

If the person you are talking to doesn’t have anything to do with what you are selling, you are wasting your time.  I know several sales reps who spend countless hours calling lists of people in roles unrelated to what they are selling, hoping to find an internal sponsor that will bring the conversation to a different department.  This is idiotic.  In the same way you wouldn’t chase after college students if you sold insurance at AARP, your prospects need to be qualified as willing and able to at least directly influence a purchasing decision.

2. Feed the need.

There’s a book by Rick Page called Hope is Not a Strategy which describes this concept very well.  Rick describes selling to a prospect’s “pain,” a process of identification and strategy in which you discover the problem (the need), and tailor your pitch as a solution to that problem (the feed). This is a critical portion of the qualification process- if you can’t find the need, you have nothing to pitch to.  You’ll end up creating laundry lists of features and advantages and rattling them off to anyone who will listen.

Your prospects will push back on price and excuse away not closing on time again and again because while what you’ve told them is impressive, it isn’t compelling.  You wouldn’t put in an offer on Buckingham Palace just because you watched a documentary on the Discovery Channel (unless you were the Queen), why would your prospects buy without need?  (Note- the very best salespeople can create and enhance genuine need in the majority of their prospects, but this ability has pitfalls.  If you’re going to try this, note the importance of the word genuine)

3. Qualifying behaviors must match the timeline to buy.

This may seem obvious, but it merits being said.  You can’t select attributes or behaviors to look for that take so long to identify or develop that you miss your selling window.  If Arnold back in our car sales example waited to see how many miles his prospects drove on a test drive before making a qualification decision, he would have potentially missed the opportunity to make a sale with Joe while he took Frank out driving.

4. As a salesperson, you start with the most qualified prospects and work towards the least.  No exceptions.

The size of the opportunity doesn’t matter (though, size can be a qualifier in some cases).  The whole point of qualifying is to tell you where to place the majority of your focus.  Given the choice between a poorly qualified lead for a giant opportunity and a well qualified lead for an average opportunity, take the average.  The giant lead is tempting, and surely should not be ignored, but don’t spend more time on it just because there are more dollars attached.  Better an average win than a huge loss.

Here’s an example from my own experience: I once had a “hot” lead come through to me from a manager.  It was a Senior VP at a Fortune 100 company who had expressed interest in what we were selling for a “massive” project.  Like any dutiful salesperson, I engaged right away- quickly learning that the project was not entirely defined- the budget was not in place, engineering resources were unavailable, and there was no schedule for completion.  These qualifications told me it was unlikely to close, so I answered his questions, and put him on my list to check in with once per quarter.  In the meantime, I focused on 5 other more qualified (albeit more average) opportunities and closed 4 of them as wins.  Because I was able to make a decision based on qualification rather than perception, I avoided focusing on a project that never actually materialized and instead closed 4 new accounts.

For one reason or another, many salespeople hate this concept.  The main objection seems to stem around some form of the argument “You never know blah blah blah could have blah blah blah which you may have missed blah….”  Which is true.  I can’t see the future, and maybe I would have been able to push that VP to define his project, allocate resources, make a timeline, AND close the deal with me over the competition- but at what cost?  Closing 4/5 well qualified prospects was relatively easy, and generated way more revenue for me than the one ever would have.

Let’s go back to the beginning with Richard, my opportunity-creating machine.  If I was with him now I would tell him to pick the 3 opportunities he thought were most likely to close- and focus on closing them until they are closed. Then repeat.

Well Richard?  What are you waiting for?