Sales Mistake No 6: Not using a qualification process

Two weeks ago we talked about sales activity (do you remember the equation “activity x performance = sales results?) and that without activity, nothing gets sold (it might get bought, it doesn’t get sold).

We looked at the organisational need to build sellers’ performance (Sales Mistake No 3) through focusing on developing sales skills. This week, we look at how to make sales activity more effective.

The fastest way to improve your sellers’ sales performance is to get them to qualify their prospects before investing time in them. Perhaps the prospect has no budget, no authority, no real need for your product. A qualification process will identify this at the start of your sales process so that your sellers do not waste time with prospects that cannot go the distance.

If your sellers are reporting back after failing to complete (close) a sale: “They didn’t have enough budget”, “they’re not going ahead with it now”, “it’s been turned down by someone more senior”, then they need to start qualifying their prospects.

You can find an example of a qualification process that also gathers sales information on this link

You can design your own qualification questions relating:

To time: “when do you need to have this purchase operational?”

To budget: “what have you budgeted for this purchase?”

To process: “what’s your normal process for a purchase like this?” and “apart from you, who else will be involved in this decision?”

Depending on your product or service, progressing a sale, preparing a tender or presentation, all take time and resource. These questions will help your sellers decide just how serious their prospects are at the outset, which improves their sales conversion rate and reduces your unit sales cost.

A win for everyone!