“To qualify or to disqualify, that is the question” No disrespect intended to William Shakespeare, but I don’t know if he ever had to sell.
The word qualify has several meanings but if you ask most salespeople I believe they would tell you it means going through a process that identifies a problem, the money to fix it, decision making and the motivation to make a change.
There are lots of reasons when we follow this process we still fail to get the business.
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We might be uncomfortable asking the types of questions we really need to be asking.
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Our buying cycle might be causing us to give the prospect too much information and allowing for “think it over’s."
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We might just be looking to “pad the pipeline” until a really good opportunity comes along.
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Our own record collection about qualifying for something. No one wants to be disqualified.
What if we take a new approach and look to disqualify a prospect instead? We want to disqualify prospects so we can eliminate those who waste our time and won’t buy anyway. The way to do it is by asking questions.
Too often I hear from salespeople that the prospect is asking all the questions, trying to qualify or disqualify us.
Think about this:
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When we ask questions, the prospect will talk.
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If we don’t ask questions, the prospect will ask us questions.
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If the prospect asks us questions, we will answer them.
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If we start talking, they get all of our information, ideas and solutions.
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Once they have all our information without paying for it they don’t need us anymore.
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This is a good deal for the prospect and a lousy deal for us.
What would happen if our process were geared more towards disqualifying the prospect and finding out earlier in the process to avoid giving away our time and expertise without getting paid for it.
Disqualifying a prospect could be exactly what your business needs for a boost in sales.
“To sell more or not to sell more, that is the question”
