Sales Blog for Sales and Sales Management

1. Do they fit the profile of your practice and what your company supports for sales and marketing?  If the buyer is a small business and your product and service is designed for mid-size companies then there is a mis-match and you will probably fail to provide what they need.
2. Do they have the motivation to buy- severe mental anguish (SMA)?  If they are not properly motivated to make a buying decision to eliminate the SMA, then they won't buy from you or anyone.  Now sometimes you need to help them discover their SMA, but that is another topic.
1. Are they motivated to undue the current relationship they have?
2. Do they have SMA for the features and benefits of your product and service?
3. Do they have the time, money and resources to invest to make their problem go away?  However it is more than ‘do they have', it is also ‘will they invest' the time, money and resources to make the problem go away.
4. What is their commitment to make a decision?  If they haven't decided to fix the problem, and if you don't know the decision making process, then certainly you will end up in prospect land of no return phone calls and think it overs.
5. At the time of presentation, will they fulfill the agreed to terms of the presentation?
1. You will provide a solution to their problem with the appropriate features and benefits as they have described them to you.
2. You will provide that solutions with terms and conditions that you have already agreed to.
3. You will be in a position to answer all of their questions.
4. They will give you a decision once you have completed a, b, and c.

In our sales training programs, we constantly talk about selling more business, more quickly, at higher margins.  Using the mirror test instead of this 5-step test will guarantee failure to selling more, more quickly, at higher margins.