How do you qualify whether or not someone you’ve just spoken to is in fact a “hot prospect“? Are they interested in what you’ve got to offer? Just because they sounded excited and interested in what you’ve got to provide, what makes them anything other than someone who is hopeful. You’re job is to manage that energy. Do you really think they’re going to buy something from you? Did they tell you that they are in the market for you type of solution?

The thing that used to drive me crazy about all of the sales training interventions that I have endured (and there’s been many in my career to date) is that they all seem to focus on the concept of QUALIFYING a buyer. But what about DIS-QUALIFYING the buyer? What about eliminating buyers who aren’t willing to put ’skin in the game’ with next steps that actually mean something? I’m talking about committing to introductions to others who will either be using or implementing your capabilities. I’m talking about making commitments to further evaluate what it is that you have to offer. These are the kinds of dis-qualifications that I’m talking about.

I love the saying “bad news early is good news“. In other words… if you can’t get a commitment to move forward in a meaningful way that proves your prospects really wants to invest some of their time and effort in learning about your offering, then you’re merely succumbing to “happy ears”. This is a term that if often used to refer to a “hot prospect”, that never goes anywhere, but keeps you answering the phone, doing more demos to the same non-decision makers…and of course bringing them “coffee and donuts”.

DIS-qualify sooner and more often: you’ll be a better time manager and have great success. I promise.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 5th, 2007 at 3:10 pm and is filed under Sales Reps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.