Many salespeople make a simple mistake: they only qualify leads at the beginning of the sales process. A professional sales department recognizes MQLs and SQLs – leads that have been qualified by both the marketing and sales teams. But it’s a huge mistake to stop qualifying there.
A quick reminder: the art of sales qualification is to measure the chance of success. This is done by looking at key qualification criteria, taking into consideration both the potential revenue and the investment it requires to potentially win the deal.
The challenge lies in the fact that since companies and people change over time, so do opportunities. And it is for this reason that qualifying should never be a one-time thing.
You may have qualified that a lead is interesting enough to be an opportunity – and that’s great. But even whilst pursuing an opportunity, a master salesperson will continue to qualify. Why? Because if you don’t, you run all sorts of risk, such as:
1. Spending way too much time with only one decision maker, and not being able to close the deal in the end
2. Failing to ask for time and sensitive information, giving your competition a head start
3. Giving away value and information too early in the process, and thus losing your leverage
What does a sales qualifying master
A sales qualifying master constantly checks the following when pursuing an opportunity:
Is the need still perceived as urgent?
Are all key decision makers in alignment and onboard?
Is the route to budget clear and transparent?
Is there an agreed time to decide or to implement change?
Never forget: the purpose of this process is not only to qualify or disqualify. In fact, the central purpose of great qualifying is to re-strategize and adjust sales engagement to ensure you don’t lose opportunities when things happen to change in the wrong direction.
So how can a customized sales playbook help with this?
Well, a sales playbook contains all the qualification criteria a salesperson should be looking at when dealing with an opportunity. And these criteria can be used at each stage and phase of the opportunity, to identify what kind of prospect commitments the salesperson requires prior to advancing the opportunity.
The criteria are developed and co-created with you, to ensure it’s based on real, relevant information. So that your salespeople are equipped with a solid sales strategy, helping them to stay in control of deals and maximize their closing rates.
We are here to help your sales team to become a sales qualifying master – talk to us to find out how!
