How To Mercilessly DISqualify Prospects
Have you ever thought about the following concept – disqualifying prospects? I believe we spend too much time trying to qualify prospects.
The Problem With Qualifying Prospects
We hate prospecting. As a result, we try to “force fit” leads into qualified prospects. But reality tells us that most of the leads we contact are not even close to qualified prospects.
We find ourselves in prospecting situations where:
- We aren’t connected to a decision maker.
- We don’t have a good product fit.
- The timeframe is all wrong.
- The budget isn’t there.
- The competitor is almost at the finish line, and we’re just starting.
- Contract and legal issues will be formidable, if not impossible, to contend with.
It makes prospecting so much easier – but not in the long term – if we pretend the pieces always fit.
The Beauty Of Disqualifying Prospects
Quit wasting your time trying to sell to prospects that aren’t the least bit serious about becoming your customer. Give them the boot.
I’ve always felt that: 1) customers are best, 2) qualified prospects are good, and 3) totally disqualified prospects are definitely not a bad thing. Why are disqualified prospects not a bad thing? Getting rid of tire kickers frees you to focus on genuine prospects.
Sales Tips On How To Disqualify
I have only two sales tips regarding how to mercilessly disqualify prospects. It’s time to identify them and throw them in the rubbish bin.
1. After getting a big cup of coffee (caffeinated, of course), create a list of questions that will let you quickly identify whether a prospect hits your sweet spot. In about five questions, you can tell whether you have a live one on your hands. You can make this list by yourself, but doing it with your sales peers will sharpen your efforts.
2. Throw away those lead lists. Is there anything more worthless than a purchased lead list? Seriously. They should be called “make me look busy” lists. You’re a big boy or girl; it’s time to start using 21st century tools (that I’ve written about in this sales blog) to find prospects.
Sales Blog Epilogue
There are additional benefits in creating a list of pinpoint qualifying questions. You can use them to improve your elevator speech and to more accurately define your perfect customer when asking for a referral.
Further sales tips reading:
Be Bold about Qualifying Questions
Hierarchy of Prospects
Prospecting By Going-Through-The-Motions, Part 2 of 4
Prospects: Fired, Dead and Demoted
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Related posts:
- You’re Not Bothering Your Prospects – You’re Boring Them
- Hierarchy of Prospects
- Be honest with yourself. Are you afraid of your competition?
- Are You Asking This Powerful Qualifying Question?
- 6 Thoughts On The Fickle Nature Of Prospecting
Tags: aggressive, assertive, Prospecting, prospects
We'd like to hear your feedback on this post - feel free to comment below!
January 28th, 2010 at 8:04 am
To take this even one step further and save Sales even more time, take those 3 – 5 sweet spot questions and ask Marketing to incorporate them into your web forms and/or list purchase criteria. That way your lead scoring system (and c’mon tell me you have one) can assign a value that denotes how close to the sweet spot the prospect lies.
Not only should this lead score dictate “sweetness”, it will also allow you to develop follow-up processes based on propensity to buy. We have the technology folks…let’s use it!
January 28th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
Great Post Scott, and excellent comment Trish!
Who has time to “look busy” when at the end of the month/quarter/year the only thing that matters in sales is growth?
January 28th, 2010 at 11:33 pm
It’s funny how sales professionals debate on this topic Scott. Some have the ‘See’um if their breathing’ approach and others do everything possible to ensure the customer is worthy of their time. Personally, I think disqualifying can be a wonderful tool for a sales person when done the right way, as it can give the sales person more time to work with ‘true’ prospects/clients or even better, be at home with the family(my fav)….Here is the thing, with the economy the way it is these days, it’s critical we disqualify those persons that just can’t afford our products. For example, my average product sells for about 50k. In order to afford 50k, most prospects must finance with some type of home equity line. With the housing market the way it currently is, I make customers qualify for financing BEFORE I’ll go out. There is nothing worse than closing a sale only to find the customer couldn’t get financing. This is why pre-financing will likely be a trend for sales professionals in the coming years, as money ain’t always easy to come by these days…..Anyway, that’s my 2 cents worth. Keep up the good work Scott.