Recently I met with a prospect who was looking at sales training for his team, and when we got towards the end of the conversation, the prospect asked, “What do you look for in a potential new client?” I think that is the first time I have been asked that question by a prospect. Usually, that question is going in the opposite direction: “What does a prospect look for in a sales trainer?” The question was good, and I think the prospect asked it because the meeting went well and the rapport between us was strong. I would like to share with you my response because I believe most selling professionals should be looking for these same key items in their prospects.
“There are three things I look for,” I responded to the prospect. Here they are:
1. The Prospect must have a real need for your product or service. I like to call this “Pain.” For example, if my prospect is struggling to grow sales and his/her sales team is slow to get in front of potential clients, this registers as pain in my prospect. If I have a solution that fixes these issues, then there is real motivation in my prospect to spend money with me. I do run into a lot of curious prospects that just want to know more about what I do, but curiosity fades quickly once the prospect gets their questions answered and the issue of how much it costs is brought up.
2. The Prospect must have money. It seems simple to verify this key issue with the prospect before spending a ton of time presenting great solutions to him/her. Yet, the truth is, many salespeople don’t like talking about money. They assume money is available because the prospect is talking to them. How painful it is for the salesperson to find out after much effort has been put forth to develop a solution that the prospect is broke.
3. The Prospect you are selling to must be capable of making a yes/no decision in regards to what you are selling. I can look back in my own selling career and painfully recall spending lots of time and money coming up with ideas, services, products that will bring real value to a client only to find out at the end, the client has to get approval from someone else before an order can be placed. And of course when that someone else looks at the proposal, the answer always comes back as “No”.
Before handing over any of your intellectual property (your good ideas), you should “Qualify” your prospects first by getting answers to the three key qualifying issues listed above. If you verify your prospect has Pain, Money, and Decision, then it is safe to proceed. If not, no need to continue. Save your time and gently fire the prospect.
by Karl Schaphorst, President
Sandler Training
402-403-4334
Sandler Training is a global training organization with over three decades of experience and proven results. Sandler provides sales and management training and consulting services for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) as well as corporate training for Fortune 1000 companies. For more information, please contact Karl Schaphorst at (402) 403-4334 or by email at kschaphorst@sandler.com. You can also follow his blog at karlschaphorst.sandler.com