Qualifying the Complex Sale

Last week we talked about increasing your productivity by creating better, tighter, lead generation systems and strategies. This week let’s talk about how to better qualify those leads.

If last week was about opening the door to possible opportunities before making contact, this week is about increasing the probability of making a sale after making contact.

If pre-qualification is about potential fit, qualification is about actual fit. And whether we should continue to invest resources to try to win the deal.

So, it’s at least a two-step process. You call on those that are prequalified and keep calling on those that are qualified.

But here’s another big difference. You never stop qualifying an opportunity. It’s not a one-and-done process. That’s because so many things can happen to derail an opportunity (e.g. change in players, change in strategy, spending freezes, mergers). And, some qualifiers don’t happen until later in the process.

So, qualification is not a one-time thing. It’s an all-the-time thing. For each The more complex the opportunity, the more this is so.

The standard qualifiers you see in simpler sales (some version of budget, authority, need, & timeframe or “BANT”) simply aren’t sufficient for more complex sales. It’s not precise enough.

Lack of budget can be overcome. Decision-making authority can be hidden or shift up and down. Needs can be influenced, and so can timeframe.

So how do you keep qualification of a complex sale from becoming too complicated to understand or communicate inside your company? How do you keep it simple enough to get an overall view of the qualification of this opportunity and still detailed enough to be useful?

By using buyer actions that are win predictors as your qualifiers. When you do that, you kill two birds with one stone.

(1.) You gain precision knowing where you stand and where you need to focus

(2.) You tighten up your forecast, making for faster pipeline discussions.

The point of qualification is more than can they buy from us. It’s about the probability that they will buy from us. And their actions determine that probability.

Here are some examples of qualifiers that I recommend to my clients (and if you’ve been following me for some period, they’re not surprising):

My #1 qualifier is need/want in an area where we have a differentiated solution and is powerful enough to overcome organizational inertia.

My #2 qualifier is having at least one coach (someone on the inside who wants you to win and can help you with strategy).

Your odds of winning go up when these two are in place.

The other qualifiers are also predictive.

Regarding budgets, I don’t care if they don’t have a budget or if it’s too low for my solution. I just care whether or not I know how to get a budget exception. When the need or want is strong enough at the right level, lack of budget won’t stand in the way.

And it’s the same thing with timeframe. A strong-enough need can alter implementation and decision-making timeframes.

However, establishing a second coach at an executive level is a great predictor/qualifier.

And so is having all key players attend a presentation or demo. When those who should be there skip it, that’s a red flag (or at least a yellow one).

Being able to influence decision criteria or the weighting of them that best matches your strengths is a great qualifier. This gets you closer to the sale.

And so on.

Over the years I’ve helped clients create over 20 key predictive qualifiers.

And that’s what I recommend you do. Take a look at your qualifiers. Are they predictive toward a win? If not, modify them so they are. Slowly but surely your win rates will go up.

Have a great week!

Bob 

P.S. If you’d like some assistance in redoing your qualification process, just send me an email: [email protected] and we can schedule a brief, no-cost consult.