How To Get the Prospect To Do Your Prequalification for You

How you allocate your time as a salesperson is key. In particular, maintaining a healthy pipeline requires that you balance your efforts as follows:
- Focusing on closing the most likely deals for this quarter
- Nurturing those prospects with potential for next quarter
- Generating fresh leads to go in at the top of the sales funnel.

To get the balance right can be a challenge.  Key to the efficient use of time is a system for prequalifying those prospects and opportunities on which you are going to focus.  However that is not all you are going to need - because prequalification is too often applied in a blunt manner.

Prequalifying Leads.

With the effort that is required to generate leads, your sales and marketing efforts must be aimed as precisely as possible at those companies - and only those companies - that fit your ideal target customer profile.  Beyond that you need to be careful.

The popular BANT (budget, authority, timing and need) criteria applied too rigorously, for example on the basis of an inbound enquiry, or cold call, could exclude the bulk of the marketplace, including many companies that, don't presently have a budget for your solution, but could represent potential customers.  There are two reasons for this.

The first is that buyers are reticent about sharing information with a salesperson that they don’t know. So, the reality is that any prequalification questions will only elicit superficial answers at the early stages of contact.

Imagine, for example, a salesperson you don’t know calls out of the blue and asks:

- ‘Do you have a budget for replacing front end systems this year?’ Your immediate reaction is ‘that is sensitive information how do I know where it will end up’.

- ‘Who has decision making responsibility for purchases in this area?’ Your thoughts might include; ‘you don’t want to talk to me because you don’t think I am important enough!’, or ‘I am not going to give you a name so that you can ring up and pester them – thereby getting me in trouble!’

The second reason is that you cannot limit your sales and marketing activity to those that have a budget, a well as an immediate and pressing need. That is because those that are ready to buy are but the tip of the iceberg in terms of the potential for your product.

Indeed those ready to buy are likely to be greatly out numbered by those who have the potential to buy in the future, but are as of yet unaware of your solution, or perhaps even unaware of the need for your solution.

Replacing Pre-qualification with Marketing.

Bottom line, the sales organization must generate, or at least foster and nurture demand for its solutions, while at the same time selling to those who are already actively searching for a solution in the marketplace. That means sales and marketing must work together marketing.

When this happens marketing effectively substitutes for prequalification at the lead generation stage.  While some leads are classified as sales, or sales meeting ready, those that are not ready for the next step are not, as is often the case, left to waste.

The balance of leads while not sales read are marketing ready and can stay in the pot for further nurturing by means of the occasional email with a link to a white paper, an invitation to an event, or webinar, the occasional telephone call and so on.

Pre-qualificaiton of Sales Opportunities.

What about later in the sales cycle?  Well, prequalification becomes more and more important the further along the sales cycle you go and the more time and resources you must commit to an opportunity. In particular, it is essential to ensuring that you don’t spend 3 months chasing a prospect, writing documentation, delivering presentations, etc. to discover that you are wasting your time.  For example there may be no potential for a sale, or the approach you are adopting may be inadequate.

Progressive prequalification – that is asking the right questions – ensures that you can continually adapt your sales approach to ensure you have the maximum chances of success.  That means you will learn fast if you are talking to the wrong people, or addressing the wrong requirements.

Pre-qualification can be a crude term and no customer wants to feel in anyway like they are being pre-qualified, or vetted in any way by you. That is why your approach has to be a careful one.

As an example, one of the popular sales methodologies has an approach which it calls ‘Progressive Questioning Control Technique’ – can you imagine the buyer finding out that you were applying such a term to them.  You absolutely have to ask the questions – questions that will guide the buyer and seller alike - but you have to ask your questions at the right time and in the right way.

Pre-qualification, like all aspects of selling, is not something that is done to, but rather is done with a prospect.  It has got to be a two way process – that means asking the customer what stage he, or she is at and what they want to do next, if anything. It is important to remember that you have to earn the right to ask progressively more direct and searching questions.

Your approach has got to reflect the stage of the buying cycle (if indeed there is one) that you are both at, as shown in the table.

Stage	Prequalifying Questions	Seller Questions	Buyer Questions
Sales LEAD:	Should we be talking?	Do you fit the profile to be on our target list? Have I got something that is interesting for you?	I am not sure if this is of interest to you…
Sales MEETING:	Should we meet?	Is it mutually beneficial to meet at this time? What useful information, or insights do I have to share?	Is this an something that is important to your business? Is it an area for which you are responsible?
Sales CYCLE:	Should we explore problems / solutions together? How should we engage?	Are you at the exploration of; needs, solutions, or suppliers stage? What is the need? What is the ideal solution? What is the buying process? Am I talking to the right people? Am I getting the right reaction? Do I have a sponsor? How am I positioned? Where am I strong? Where am I weak? What is the next step?	Is now a good time to look at this? What are the implications of the problem? Is there a reason why this problem has not been addressed to date? How does it fit with your organizational priorities and strategies? Who else needs to be involved? What would the ideal solution look like? What are the alternatives? What are the constraints? What are the characteristics of the ideal supplier?
Sales ORDER:	Can / Should you buy / buy from us?	What is the business case? What are the selection criteria? Are there any yellow, or red lights?
REPEAT Sale:	How strong is our relationship? Can, or should we deepen it?	How are we performing? How well are we working together? How can we help more? What is the sales/profit potential?

Has Your Prospect Done His, or Her Homework?

Has your prospect dutifully completed the tasks that were agreed at your last meeting? Has the homework been done, thereby helping you to qualify the opportunity and to determine how much time and effort you should commit in selling to them?

Let us explain what we mean. Too often salespeople meet with a prospect who nods in agreement to everything that is said, indicating a need and the desire for a solution.

Why Give Your Prospect Homework?


The salesperson leaves the meeting full of enthusiasm and with a number of follow-on tasks to complete, for example: writing up and sending on a note of the meeting, forwarding a short technical brief (hopefully it is a template that does not require too much customization), offering a list of suggestions and next steps, perhaps even creating a summary proposal, or price quotation.

All that may involve several hours work for the salesperson. Meanwhile, what does the prospect do? Well, probably nothing. That means it could all be a waste of time.

A Commitment on Both Sides is Required.

When the salesperson has completed all his or her tasks and the proposal is sent, expectations are high. However, many sales people are disappointed when the buyer does not respond with equal enthusiasm in turn. Here is the problem - the salesperson has does all the running, failing to check that the customer is following.

It is a statement of the obvious, but selling requires the involvement of the buyer. Buyer and seller must move ahead in tandem, because it has to be a process of dual engagement and mutual commitment. So, there is no point in the salesperson doing all the running, or taking on all the work.

How To Ensure Your Prospect is Following.

To avoid this happening, salespeople are advised to build and test commitment incrementally, for example by giving the buyer a test, in the form of some homework after a meeting, or a task to be completed prior to the preparation of a proposal.

If the buyer does not complete the task successfully, then a red flag is raised regarding his, or her level of commitment. This is an effective means of allowing the buyer to prequalify himself by his actions.

This is important because words and deeds don't always match up. For example, the buyer may be saying the right things, but only because he, or she is reluctant to say ‘no’, even though there is not intention to buy.

So, let us take an example - the prospect asks for a proposal after just one, or two meetings. Rather than immediately saying yes, you might give the buyer a test by responding as follows: ‘Sure I would be delighted to prepare a proposal for you, but in order for me to be able to do that effectively would you….’ The specific ‘homework’ might be as follows:

- Send me a one page outline of your requirements, or a technical specification…

- Introduce me to your colleagues in IT, so that I can check one or two pieces of information with them…

- Send me a sample of the reporting provided by your existing system, so that I can understand the gaps as you have described them…

- Provide a tour of the facility and talk to some end users…

Progressively Building and Testing Commitment.

Giving homework is an integral part of the process of confirming interest, agreeing next steps and sharing of any follow-on tasks.

Agreeing to share tasks between buyer and seller at each stage of the sales process, is likely to involve some, or all of the following:

- Sharing information
- Providing feedback

- Providing access

- Indicating commitment

- Organizing a next step (e.g. demo, presentation, etc.)

The particular task is not only aimed at testing, but is also used to build the buyer's commitment. The rationale being that if the buyer is prepared to take the time to prepare a specification then that is a sign that he, or she is pretty serious. The act of preparing the specification is a significant advance in the buying process, as well as an important input to enable you complete the next step of your sales process – in this example the preparation of the proposal.

A Word of Caution

The principle of 'giving the prospect homework' is an important one. However, as with all techniques it must be applied with care. Although it is a term that is in common usage, the language is a little off, particularly if you are a buyer. People don't like being told what to do and just as in school days most people don't like doing homework!

Is it Time to Replace Prequalification with Marketing?

Not everybody is in the market for your solution that is clear. However, in the present climate if you only focus on those who have a budget and are ready to buy, your sales potential would be limited indeed.

In times of buoyant demand salespeople are well advised to be highly selective about where they focus their scarce sales resources.But, when there are fewer buyers with the cheque book ready, a change of approach is needed.

Pre-qualification in Tough Markets.

In difficult market conditions searching for low hanging fruit and getting the best prospects ‘across the line’ must be balanced with nurturing those who represent vaguer and longer term prospects.

Put another way it means that you have to sell to those without a clear and immediate need. That is those buyers satisfied with the status quo.

You need to generate demand among those who may not be fully aware they have a problem. Through your interaction you have got to nudge them along - educating them as to what they are missing, inspiring them as to what is possible and provoking them to what is needed.

Prequalification that Looks Beyond This Quarter.

The only problem is that in the present climate the field of vision of the typical sales organization has narrowed considerably. Meeting this quarter’s target leaves little time for anything else.

For example, many salespeople complain about the quality of leads, indeed it is often the number one issue of contention between sales and marketing. Here is how the post meeting conversation about ‘a fresh lead’ goes ‘I made the effort, I showed up, I did the dog and pony show, but they will never buy… what a waste of time – thanks a lot marketing!’

This is what happens when sales teams are focused on this quarter, with little attention to the next.

An 'Irrational' Obsession with Prequalification.

Many sales people have an irrational aversion to meeting with ‘tyre-kickers’ and a fear of wasting time educating the curious.

I say it is 'irrational' because busy buyers and managers won’t waste their time talking unnecessarily to salespeople. This is particularly the case at senior management levels.

However, those of us who have picked up the phone to buyers enough know that crass and crude measures of pre-qualification are ineffective. In particular establishing budget, authority, need and timing (BANT) on the basis of little more than a cold call is a pipe dream.

Replace Prequalification with Better Targeting.

Prequalification becomes less important where there is careful targeting of sales and marketing efforts. However, it does not help that the quality of target customer lists is often poor and the level of screening applied is lax.

The absence of a clear profile for the ideal target customer is also a factor that accounts for the irrational and premature emphasis on prequalification. So, unless prospects can jump the hurdle of prequalification he, or she does not deserve our attention (think about it).

Well, unfortunately the market is not big enough to enable salespeople to focus only on those who are ready to buy. A new approach is required, consideration needs to be given to how well the prospect fits the profile of an ideal customer.

How Prequalification Criteria Has Changed.

Old Criteria	New Criteria
• Budget • Authority • Timing • Need Will they buy?	• Fit the Profile • Interested • Could have a need • Could buy in the future Should we talk?

Salespeople must look beyond BANT to ask questions such as;

- Should they be on our target list?

- Should we be talking to them?

- Could they have a need and could they potentially buy our solution?

Nurturing Contacts.

The new approach to pre-qualification requires adopting a longer term perspective as to the potential of any target customer. Although a prospect may not contribute to this quarter’s target, they could one or two quarters out.

But how will you effectively and efficiently nudge these could be customers along while you are chasing those already in your pipeline and in shopping mode?

Well, the answer is by a programme of nurturing that involves one to one contact through your marketing, for example:

Week 1: Send a white paper (not a brochure)

Week 6: Call to invite to an event, or webinar.

Week 12: Send a clipping from a magazine, or press release

Week 16: Ask if they would like an executive briefing on a relevant topic

Week 24: Ask if they would like to talk to one of our gurus or expert

s about a new area

Week 25: Send a customer success story in the post

And so on.

Then your marketing does your pre-qualification for you. You will get to determine

who is genuinely interested, while educating your prospects along the way and nurturing them to sales readiness.

All the while you have built the relationship, demonstrated your commitment and hopefully, based on the quality of the engagement, shown your company to be an expert in its industry.

How to Maximise the Success of Your Sales Calls

In the present environment, salespeople are delighted with the opportunity to meet with anybody who expresses an interest. But, what exactly is the purpose of that first meeting and how to maximise its success? For example, how speedily can you qualify the opportunity?

To help you we have pulled some of the key points from Miller Heiman's NEW CONCEPTUAL SELLING which in the words of the authors describes 'the most effective and proven method for face to face sales planning'. And it is a refreshing read, bring us back to the basics, that are so easily overlooked in the complex sale.

The purpose of this book is clear. It is spelt out in the opening sentence of Chapter One: ‘This book shows you how to stop selling.’ So, you are immediately confused, just how is it going to help me as a salesperson then? Well, Miller Heiman want us to focus instead on how the customer buys and on making that easier. That means adopting what they call a partnership approach to mutually exploring needs and solutions with our customers.

Partners in Exploring Options

So, how to you begin this partnership process? Well, state it as your objective, for example starting your customer meeting with something like this: ‘I am really not try to ‘sell’ you anything. Instead, because we are not for everyone, I would like us together to explore whether or not we have a match here. I know exactly where we fit and where we don’t, so I would like to ask you as many questions as you would like to ask me… Is this ok with you?’ The end result a more relaxed buyer, as well as a more relaxed salesperson and a more effective process of interaction.

Note the salesperson is immediately suggesting a process of two way communication, or dialogue as the approach. They remind us what we all know, but can easily forget – that is ‘show and tell’ sessions are not effective. We need to have conversations instead. For too long salesperson have been telling customers what they need, but now those same customers have stopped listening, after all they have real business decisions to make.

Joint Venture Selling

The first step on the path to joint venture selling is to scrap the assumption that the prospect needs your solution and that by showing it he, or she will immediately recognize that need. Here is the fundamental point – ‘people buy for their own reasons not yours!’ In a similar vein, people don’t resist their own ideas, but will resist those foisted upon them.

So, the task of the salesperson is to understand his, or her needs and the decision making process by which they will be met.

Life beyond the product pitch.

Let us revisit selling complex solutions 101 - ‘nobody buys a product, or service per se. What is bought is what the customer thinks the product, or service will do for him, or her.’ This is encapsulated in what what the authors refer to as the customer’s own personal ‘solution concept’.

For example, two organisations may require a CRM system, but for totally different reasons. The salesperson who sells the same way to each, pitching their and highlighting its feature set, is missing the point. Each customer has a unique and individual concept of the solution for his, or her business. Knowing exactly what that is the vital first step to a sale.

'Customerized Selling'

The salesperson’s job is not just discovering the customer’s solution concept, but helping shape it too. This process of adapting what you have got to the unique needs of each customer and the ideas that they want expressed, is what the authors call ‘customerized selling’. Key to this process is addressing the following questions:

Why am I here? This requires defining the sales objective for each meeting, or call. This goes hand in hand with effective sales meeting and sales call planning.

What do I want the customer to do? That is the ideal, or at least the minimum commitment that you expect from the customer as a next step following your meeting – after all it is a joint process, or no process at all. Before the meeting you will confirm with the prospect that this step is an appropriate next action, in this way ensuring agreement and commitment.

Ensure that people are with you on the journey – testing on an ongoing basis their level of interest, engagement and commitment. Measure the pulse of the relationship, as well as the opportunity, by regularly checking for commitment on the part of the customer.

If the customer does not take, or complete a specific next action following a meeting then perhaps he, or she does not clearly see a personal win and work in this area is required. Otherwise perhaps this is no win-win to be had at this time and you should look elsewhere.

Why should the customer see me? This relates to what the authors call a ‘valid business reason’ for the customer, or prospect to want to allocate time to meet with the salesperson. Clearly agreeing this in advance will warm up your call (if it is a cold call) and set expectations for the meeting, including who should be present and increase its effectiveness. If it is simply meeting a prospect for a sales call and there is no ‘valid business reason’ in the eyes of the prospect then it is not a sales call.

Do I have credibility? Before you prospect can talk about needs or explore your solution, he, or she had to be comfortable regarding your credibility, and that of your company. So, pay attention to the nature of the questions the prospect is asking, are they about your solution, or your credibility?

Present the prospect with evidence of your credibility which is based on your confidence, appearance and approach, as well as what you communicate about your experience, knowledge, associations, accreditations, etc.

What Information am I missing?

As salespeople we have the dominant gene for talking. However, we need to stop talking and start listening. To help us we need good questions that will fill in any gaps in the information that we have about our prospects and their needs, solution concept, buying process, etc.

It is important to prepare a list of the right questions and asking them in the right way, including how they are phrased and sequenced. Then afford silence to the answers. These questions are not just aimed at eliciting facts, but also building understanding and in particular exploring soft areas such as attitudes, emotions, culture, etc.

So, the sales person is no longer in control.

The salesperson has to let go of the notion of control. He, or she must stop assuming that the customer needs what he, or she has got and start listen intensively to what the customer actually wants. He, or she is no longer the 'ring master at the sale', to use the authors words, but merely a facilitator and communicator.

The salesperson’s new job is to get information, give information and build commitment through what the authors call a ‘joint venture’ approach to selling. And the founding principle of that approach is a win-win, where buyer and seller create the environment and conditions for a mutually beneficial relationship.

Arriving at a win-win situation.

Win-win is a genuine situation where neither the buyer,

or the seller seeks to steal a short term win over the other. For the seller this win-win mentality is key to ensuring repeat business and enthusiastic referrals for the customer. Something similar applies for the buyer, who does not foist unreasonable terms on the seller that would result in a one sided deal that would cut the cost of the solution, but might also impact on the suppliers ability, or commitment to deliver.

The win-win mentality is the ultimate expression of joint venture selling, with parity of needs and esteem. It means that the seller does not adopt a ‘cap in hand’ mentality and is prepared to walk away if the relationship cannot be mutually advantageous.

Praise for this book:

THE NEW CONCEPTUAL SELLING by Miller Heiman is not new, in fact it was first published as far back as 1987. However, it is still the gold standard as regards sales methodology for the complex sale. This book provides the fundamentals that will always be important, regardless of any trend, or fads in selling.

Transforming The Buyer-Seller Relationship - 'Let’s Get Real, or Let’s Not Play'

Relationships between buyers and sellers can be dysfunctional and are often motivated by fear. For the buyer that is the fear of being talked into buying the wrong solution. For the salesperson it is the fear of missing target. The result is that rather than working together for a win-win outcome, buyers and sellers can end up pulling against each other.

Mahan Khalsa and Randy Illig, in their book aptly titled 'LET'S GET REAL, OR LET'S NOT PLAY', provide the antidote - a means of transforming the buyer-selling relationship. This is a must read book for every person who has a role in selling high value B2B solutions.

The authors make it clear that

bad buying is as common as bad selling. It is not just the salesperson who is at fault. They point out that when buyers don’t trust sellers, dysfunctional buying practices result, such as:

· RFP practices that hide and protect vital information, and restrict personal contact.

· Sellers having no alternative but to guess what their customers want

· Buyers expecting sellers to make large upfront commitments of time and energy

· Sellers being expected to reveal proprietary knowledge and to present an immediate solution to problems that may have existed for years.

Although both sides own the problem, it is up to the salesperson to strive for a solution say the authors. That is to create a mutually beneficial dialogue that is value based, integrity driven and consultative in approach.

What is the starting point?
Well, salespeople must act in the role of consultants (as opposed to salespeople) looking to satisfy client needs as the means to achieving their own goals. This has to be a genuine motivation, say the authors. They emphasise that such a genuine intention is more important than any sales methodology, or process. Elaborating further on this point they point out there is no one size fits all sales methodology, or one way of selling to the customer.

Time for a structured and systematic approach:

The authors do advocate a structured and systematic approach to the management of the sales opportunity, one that helps the buyer to buy and seller to sell. It is aimed at progressively qualifying the opportunity by resolving a logical sequence of questions:
QUESTION 1: Should we be talking, should we keep talking?
QUESTION 2: Should they buy?
QUESTION 3: Can they buy?
QUESTION 4: How will they buy?

QUESTION 1: Should we be talking, should we keep talking? – Starting the dialogue requires that that the salesperson has something interesting to say, a reason for the client to invest time talking with him, or her.

It is most important to determine in the early stages if there is a mutually beneficial reason for both sides to be talking and to engage in a number of next steps together at this time. The first encounter presents the opportunity to exit low probability opportunities early, as well as to get high probability opportunities off to a good start.

QUESTION 2: Should they buy? The dialogue starts with the sales person working from an educated guess, or hypothesis regarding the customer's needs, or interests. But does the customer have a real need? Mastering this stage requires:

· Getting out and prioritising all the issues (including the unspoken, or inherent ones)

· Moving beyond the initial preconception of the solution to address the full, or underlying needs of the prospect

· Gathering evidence of and quantifying the impact of the problem

· Understanding the organisational context of the problem,

· Recognising why the need has not been resolved to date (i.e. constraints).

One of the main points made by the authors is that world class inquiry precedes world class advocacy. In other words the salesperson needs to fully understand the problem, before being able to sell his or her solution.

All of these points sound obvious, however completing them requires some considerable skill on the part of the salesperson who must:

· Second guess and interrogate any information that is provided

· Earn the right to ask certain questions, or raise certain issues

· Avoid being deflected by the buyer who wants to get to a solution without first exploring the problem

· Apply a more thorough and forensic approach to questioning

· Demonstrate the tact and diplomacy of a counsellor and mentor

· Arrive at the explicit and quantifiable, but with egos and sensitivities intact

· Bring the customer along on the journey of discovery, or needs analysis

· Avoid any guesswork and look beyond the obvious

· Understand any challenges, or solutions in the context of organisational goals, strategies and politics, including priorities, constraints and trade offs.

One of my favorite take away quotes from the book is "as long as the solution is the topic of discussion, clients can put all the pressure on you, they can sit back and watch you sing and dance". Most sales people I know will have fallen into the sing and dance routine at least once over the past few months.

QUESTION 3: Can they buy? Pre-qualification does present challenges for salespeople, particularly in an environment where opportunities (genuine or not) are scarce. In this context however the authors again remind us that buyer and seller must adopt a 'get real or let's not play' mindset.

The authors remind us that ‘intent counts more than technique' and that the intent is to figure out if the salesperson and the prospect are headed in the same direction and should keep on going. If not then 'let’s find out now, so we do not waste each other’s time…’.

Most sales people will agree its better to walk early or be excluded early than to invest lots of time and resources in a sales cycle that will result in a second place finish. As we all know there is no cheque for coming second in sales!

Put in this context it makes sense to bring issues of budget and price range up front. So, qualifying the resources available to the client for the solution in terms of time, people and money is essential.

Qualifying requires getting information and to get information we need to ask questions. If you have built trust (a topic we have written a lot about lately) by showing intent and expertise, you should be able to talk about timing, people and money matters.

The salesperson must be constantly looking out for signs, or signals that indicate their chances of success (yellow or red lights). But the authors argue that a yellow, or even a red light is, in itself, not a problem.

A red light or flag is only a problem if it is received too late to be addressed, or after too much time has been invested on both sides.

So, the advice for the salesperson - if you feel something is off, or needs to be said; slow down, raise your concerns/thoughts and address them fully and explicitly.

An important caveat is that the salesperson has to be prepared to walk away if both parties cannot achieve a win-win dialog, or deal, after all that is the title of the book ‘let’s get real, or let’s not play.’

QUESTION 4: How will they buy? Often salespeople don’t ask about how the buying decision is going to be made. That is because they are afraid of the answer. For example, it is uncomfortable to find out that:

- the decision is going to be made by a committee of 6 people, when he, or she has only had contact with 2 of them

- the time frame is not quarter 2 as suggested by your cash flow, but based on the buyers rate of progress will be quarter 4 at the earliest.

This is not helped by the fact that buyers often play their cards close to their chest. Buyer’s rarely tell salespeople about how they are going to make their purchasing decision (at least not without being asked).

Again, the authors reinforce the notion ‘let’s get real, or let’s not play’- so if the buying organisation is restricting access to key information, or key stakeholders that is a flashing Yellow light and one that requires a carefully structured approach by the salesperson. They recommend reiterating your intent to find the right solution and then ask for the information or access you need.

The authors point out that coy buyers have learned that the easiest way to get rid of a salesperson is to give them something to do i.e. prepare a proposal. In the ‘let’s get real or let’s not play’ world the buyer can and should be asked to do something in return. It is after all a two way commitment.

Conclusion:

The authors suggest that 80% of lost deals are the result of an inadequate, or nonexistent pre-qualification process and the lack of an effective sales planning process. This book goes a long way to addressing both. It is a must for every sales professional and the best sales book we have read this year to date.

Other areas this book addresses that we think you might be interested in:

• How to gain access when you have been told you can't
• How to avoid the guessing game
• Introducing money and timing questions
• How to handle the "just give me a proposal request"
• How to discuss the decision process with your prospect

We hope you take the time to buy this book, it is a great read.

‘Am I wasting my time with this account?’ Some techniques to help you find out.

The more time you have invested in a sales cycle the more determined you are to close the deal. The danger

however is that you can easily cross the point of no return, becoming blind to signals that perhaps the buyer is not really that keen, becoming increasingly reluctant to hear a ‘no’ answer and resistant to prequalifying the buyer in case the answer suggests you are wasting your time.

A ‘no’ is not a problem if it comes early, that is before the salesperson has had to invest too much time in meetings, follow-ups, proposals, etc. So it makes sense to make it easy for the customer to say no at any stage of the sales process.

That ‘no’ can take a number of forms, for example ‘no not quite’, ‘no not at all’, ‘no at this time’. It will either redirect your effort towards a yes, or point you in the direction of finding your next potential customer elsewhere. Either way – ‘yes’ or ‘now’ you will be better off with an answer.

Take away your solution.

So, here a good technique to use to ensure that you are selling to a buyer who is interested and able to buy, it is what is called ‘taking away the solution’. Here is how it works, you have been selling your solution to the customer and suddenly you realize that perhaps he, or she is not as ‘gun ho’ about what you are selling, as you thought. You want to put their commitment to the test so you say something like this:

‘You know I was thinking, and I am not sure if I am right, but…’’ and you continue with a sentence such as any of the following:

…there seems to be a lot happening your company at the moment perhaps there are more immediate priorities…

…maybe the problem is not as great, or as urgent as maybe I though…

…maybe this is not the right time for you to be making this decision…

…perhaps a different approach would suit your business…

Then you wrap up with a ‘…what do you think?’

Then you shut up. You have preempted a no by the customer, providing him with an easy out and even offering to open the door for him, or her on the way. The reaction will either be, ‘yes I think you are right’ and it is clear that it is time to move on, at least for now. Otherwise it may be ‘no we need your solution’, or some version of this.

Why getting an answer is important.

As buyers sometimes we don’t appreciate what we are getting until it is taken away. We can happily sit back and leave it to the salesperson to do all the running, taking their enthusiasm for granted. So being put on the spot by having our solution taken away can be effective in forcing us to make the call on what is important and what is not.

In an ideal sense buyers would tell you what they are really thinking, but as we all know that is not the case in reality. All too often buyers are reluctant to ‘burst your bubble’ and will likely let you continue chasing the bone until you finally give up and go away of your own accord.

Boxing clever like the above is also important in trying to uncover any unspoken concerns on the part of the buyer.

What reaction will presenting the legals have?

Another technique a former colleagues uses has the similar effect in terms of measuring the head of steam build up behind a sale. He presents the legals to his sponsor and waits to see what is said. The buyer will either say ‘I will pass them on to my colleague’, or will inform you that ‘it is too early for legals at this stage’. La voila you have an instant proxy for the likelihood and timing of a sale.

Always give the customer a chance to say No!

The golden rule always was 'don't give the customer a chance to say NO'. That is don't ask any questions that could result in a 'NO' answer and consequently sabotage your sale.

For example, don't ask the customer 'is this something that you might be interested in' if there is a chance he/she could say 'NO'. The logic was keep listing the benefits, the features and with persistence and charm you will eventually get the sale.

Now, if you are selling door to door, or over the phone that logic is fine. But, if you are selling complex or high value B2B solutions you will want to hear a 'No' as much as you will want to hear a 'Yes '. That is because the nature of the answer is irrelevant in terms of prequalification and consultative selling.

With sales cycles lasting months, you had better find out as early as possible if what you have could be of interest to the customer. If it is not, then either you need to go back to the drawing board and find another solution, or go back to your prospect list and find another potential customer.

Getting a 'NO' in week 2 is much better than getting it in week 22, after multiple futile sales calls, presentations and even a proposal. Your sales time is precious so make it easy for the customer to tell you if you are wasting your time, or at least going in the wrong direction.

Here are some of the questions you want to ask, regardless of whether the answer is YES, or NO:

· - I am not sure if this is something that you might be interested in?

· Is now a good time to talk?

· Is this the right time for you to consider this option?

· Is this a priority for your business at this time?

· Do you have a budget for this?

· Do you have decision making responsibility for this?

· Is there a reason why you are talking to us, given that you have been a customer of our competitor for so long?

If 'NO' is the answer then how will it help you advance your sales process, or does it suggest that your sales efforts would be better invested elsewhere.