Sell: Increase Sales Success by Qualifying Leads

In a tight economy, qualifying leads can help you allocate resources appropriately and increase your success rate. If you qualify and continuously assess every lead in your pipeline, you can expect to generate more successful deals faster, even in tough economic times.

Qualifying leads has more to do with assessing the behaviors of your prospect than it has to do with externally observable factors. Consider four areas of behavior as critically important when implementing a lead qualification process. For each behavioral area, you can continuously ask yourself which of the behaviors your lead demonstrates.

Ability to make a decision and commit to a decision-making process.

You can spend weeks and months pursuing someone, but if they don’t take action you wasted your time and money. Similarly, your ability to engage through their active involvement indicates you have a fair shot at winning the business. Consider if your prospect:

1. Articulates how this decision will happen
2. Identifies key decision maker(s)
3. Has made similar decisions in the past
4. Budgeted adequate resources to support the decision
5. Allows you to engage to win
6. Meets with you in person or over the phone
7. Responds to your sales initiatives

Willingness to build specific solutions for specific challenges

Does your prospect have a need or a want? Prospects with needs move more quickly. Needs arise out of specific business problems or challenges. Wants include those nice-to-have items which enhance operations. Ask yourself if your prospect:

1. Needs or wants a solution
2. Has specific challenges prompting the inquiry
3. Demonstrates a consensus on their team regarding the challenges and solutions
4. Articulates when the need was first identified

Desire to share the competitive landscape

Large competitive purchases convert your specific solution into a commodity. In that world, price becomes more important or the most important criterion. If you can engage earlier and avoid competitive horse races you will win more business at a lower cost of sales.

Prospects who don’t openly discuss the competitive landscape probably don’t care if you win or lose. Your solution is being viewed as inconsequential to their success. As a result, you do not have the leverage you need to win. Rather, you’re gambling that a fair and equitable evaluation will occur. Some top of mind questions to ask about your prospect include:

1. Are they speaking with your competitors? If so, when did they start?
2. Do any of your competitors claim them as a client?
3. Has someone championed your solution and become your advocate?
4. What were the decision criteria on their last competitive purchase?
5. Why haven’t they made a decision yet?

Posses a compelling reason to take action

People probably will act if they have a need. They might act if they have a want. They almost always act if they have a compelling reason. Having a compelling reason tends to motivate all other behaviors the prospect will demonstrate. Compelling reasons to take action have two components—time and consequence.

A specific quantifiable consequence that occurs on a specific date compels people to move forward and conclude business. Otherwise why should your prospect act? In fact, they have every reason to wait for a better deal, more options, a different approach, or any other reason not to finalize a purchase. Consider the following when assessing a prospect’s compelling reason to act:

1. What happens if they do nothing?
2. When will consequences of inaction start affecting their business?
3. Does the solution cost more than the consequence?
4. Can they quantify the consequence?
5. Do they have a deadline and why is that specific date important?

Many of these conventions need to be adapted to specific circumstances. They tend to hold true for larger, more complex, solution-oriented sales situations. In a tight economy, qualifying leads can help you allocate resources appropriately. Just remember, as a sales campaign unfolds, the qualification can change in either direction as you meet more contacts and ask more questions.

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