I want to share with you a (certainly not the only) method you could use to pre-qualify your sales opportunities.
The reason why this pre-qualification method is my personal favorite:
1) it is simple enough to not take a lot of time, and
2) it gives you a way to incorporate & quantify the so-called gut feeling.
By using it frequently, in time you’ll develop a gut feeling that is quite accurate.
How you may think? When a new sales opportunity emerges, try to answer the following five questions:
- Can I identify the root cause of the problem?
- Can I find a particular part of the problem (or preferred solution) I can challenge to position myself?
- Is the problem big enough to justify paying for my solution?
- When does the problem need to be solved?
- Is there a strong bias towards a particular supplier?
Now let’s dissect those questions one by one:
1. Problem identification
2. Positioning opportunities
3. Problem identification
4. Time frame
5. The competition
Ps. Question no. 5 is by no means a disqualifier. However, being the preferred supplier is a strong plus!
Conclusion
By using these questions as your quick and dirty way to separate the weed from the chaff, you will turn random opportunities into sales-qualified opportunities ready to be explored.
Ps. Don’t confuse PRE-qualification, with qualifying in general. Pre-qualification is what makes us decide to even consider working on an opportunity, qualification is what we’ll be doing throughout the remainder of the opportunity’s lifetime. Interested to see how you can use a NEW WAY TO BANT as a thorough qualification tool?
We’ve got you covered, just check out this article here.
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Take care — Mohamed Ali
