How can you effectively qualify a prospect?

Every business relies on a strong sales process to consistently grow and scale. While effective lead generation can come from a number of sources, both online and offline, the art of selling ensures that ultimately as many leads as possible are converted into paying clients.

The sales process will vary from business to business and have its own nuances. However, one aspect that is almost universal across all organisations is the qualification process. This is basically when a sales professional, early on in the sales interaction, ensures that the prospect is a good fit for the product or service being sold.

The tendency for a lot of companies or sales teams is to pitch to everyone, regardless of fit, in order to maximise sales opportunities. However, pitching to every client can actually lead to many long term problems for any business as signing the wrong type of client can be time-consuming and eventually unprofitable.

In this week's blog we wanted to highlight how you can effectively qualify a prospect and some key steps you should take to sign the best fit for your business.

What do we mean by qualifying a prospect?
We have already briefly touched on the notion of qualifying but we wanted to expand on this point. Surely, every customer or client that is willing to pay for our goods or services is a good fit? Not quite, as the sales cycle for businesses is generally a labour-intensive process as it involves people.

Therefore, the qualifying process is all about making sure your lead is worth your time and effort to actually close. Once someone has expressed an interest in your product or service, that doesn’t mean they are ready to buy. It is far too early in the sales process to make that assumption and that’s where the qualifying process actually proves most useful.

Eliminate non-starters early
As we have seen above, the qualification process involves making sure you are maximising your time with leads that are a good fit and have the best possible chance of converting with you.

It is for this very reason that you should also get into the habit of eliminating leads that are not a good fit for your business. Some criteria for non-starters could include a lack of funds, time frame and size.

One of the biggest mistakes many people make during the sales process is wasting their time on prospects that will never convert. By nature, sales professionals are optimistic and believe that they can convince most leads to ultimately buy. However, this is not the best use of your or your sales teams time. It is better to focus your energy and resources on prospects who are engaged with your content, brand, products/services, rather than leads you have to convince.

Tactics to qualify a prospect
Every company will have its own idea about how they qualify their leads. There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to qualifying prospects as it depends on the type of clients you are looking to work with.

There is one tactic that stands head and shoulders above all other qualifying methods and that is asking questions. These qualifying questions can be conveyed on a registration form or asked during an initial meeting. The ultimate aim is to uncover answers that will help a sales professional determine if the prospect has the money, authority and timing to convert.

Qualifying questions will also help you capture crucial information that can be used further down the sales process and highlight pain points for the client as well as frame your products/services in the right way.

When should you qualify a prospect?
The simple answer is right at the start of the sales interactions, known as the discovery phase. This is where you are first being acquainted with the lead and want to make sure the fit is right for both parties.

However, the most successful companies also qualify at every stage of the sales process as this helps focus the sales team on the most ideal clients to work with. Qualifying leads can be done via questions on an enquiry form, during an initial phone conversation or even during a face to face or online meeting.

Plan your qualifying questions
Asking qualifying questions is important for the reasons we’ve mentioned in this blog. However, you don’t want your qualifying questions to come across as an interview or interrogation of the prospect.

This is why it’s always a good idea to plan your qualifying questions, especially the ones that are designed to eliminate non-starters. Standardising these questions will also help you build a consistent qualifying process and ensure the leads that pass this stage are genuinely good fits for your company.

Types of qualifying questions
The most effective qualifying questions are open-ended questions that give your prospect an opportunity to open up about their particular situation. Some common examples include:

• What interested you about our product or service?
• How are you looking to fund your investment in our product or service?
• How soon are you looking to get started?
• How are you competing with similar companies to yourself?
• What are some of the challenges you are looking to overcome?
• Who’s involved in making the decision?
• How are you currently marketing your business?
• What’s the average lifetime value of your customer?

These are just a selection of questions that you can ask a lead during the qualification process to ensure you are a good fit for the potential client.

Start utilising the qualification process immediately
In our opinion, you should be qualifying every lead that comes into your business, particularly if you are selling services such as digital solutions. With time being one of the most precious commodities for all businesses, it’s crucial that you and your team focus your time on prospects that are most likely to convert.

At first, it can seem counter-intuitive to discard leads that have expressed an interest in your business, but it’s better to eliminate leads that do not have the financial capabilities or authority to make a buying decision.

Practising qualifying questions and building these into your sales interactions early, will help you close more clients and increase the lifetime value of every client you work with.

Summary
As we have seen throughout this weeks blog, you can effectively qualify a prospect by careful planning and asking open-ended questions. This gives your lead the perfect opportunity to disclose crucial information that will help you eliminate prospects that are not a good fit as well as frame your products or solution in the right way.

To find out more about how we help our partners qualify their prospects as they scale their Digital Agencies with us, please contact a member of our team.

Until next time, take care.