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Tell me about the implications
- Recommended by:
- Craig Rosenberg,
- Chris Snell,
- Tom Massey
Lead qualification calls are not about the data. The business premise for LQ calls is to find out, by asking what the prospect is trying to accomplish that might make what you sell viable and desirable and, if there appears a matchup, to advance the process. That is why lead qualification calls must include questions about implications …
. What are the business implications of what the prospect is trying to accomplish?
· What are the implications of failure to accomplish? Of success?
· What are the implications if they keep doing things as they presently do?
The absence of implication questions and answers produces an “all trees but no forest” effect that can cost you a fortune in missed opportunities. Also, failing to ask about implications can make the call sound like a form completion exercise more than a meaningful dialogue about the prospect’s business requirements and your offerings.
Best Advice: Train your reps to ask implication questions and listen carefully to the answers. Ask the prospect to elaborate as warranted and desirable … do not rush to the next data point. Once you have the whole story, you can propose the matchup and convince the prospect to consider your products or services, the process for doing so, the participants, budget, next step, etc.
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5 Comments
Return on investment is a great tool to use in the sales process. It demonstrates clearly that a company can make more (or save more) by using your product or service.
The major problem with ROI on its own, however, is that it doesn’t necessarily create urgency. There’s a positive return on the investment, fine, but I could do that for dozens, even hundreds of things. How do I determine if the work & cost up front is still worth my time? How do I, the buyer, prioritize this? How do you, the seller, create urgency with your prospects to want, to need, that ROI?
The answer often can be found in calculating the cost of the problem. Understanding there is a problem is just the first step. If you can quantify the problem, then calculate the cost of the problem over a period of time, you may just create urgency to change now. The risk of staying the same needs to outweigh the risk and time/cost of making a change. That comes from understanding the true cost of the current problem.
You also need to make sure you’re speaking to someone who understands and directly feels the pain and cost of the current problem. Let’s say you’re working with a company and want to help them reduce the margin of error on a current process. You make a case that by eliminating 50% of the current errors, you can save the company significant money.
But if you’re speaking to someone who has already built a profitable model with the margin of error baked in, and who is motivated to spend as little extra budget as possible this fiscal year, good luck getting the deal done.
But take that same business case and cost of problem calculation to the sales department (who may have more inventory to sell if you fix the margin of error) or perhaps the CFO (who would enjoy the sales lift while also understanding that the cost of fixing the problem would be a fraction of the incremental sales, therefore also improving margins), now you’re getting somewhere.
Calculate the cost of the problem to drive urgency. Ensure you’re selling to someone who’s direct objectives & desired outcomes are impacted by that problem. Then deliver the ROI on solving the problem. It’ll be difficult for prospects to argue with that.
@Matt makes a great point about the individual stakeholders and their desired outcomes. Sales is a thinking game as much as a listening game. In an enterprise sale there could be 15 or 20 stakeholders, all with separate agendas, all with the potential to become sponsors or abolitionists. @Matt: I like calculating the cost of the problem. People are more likely to be moved by relief of pain than the promise of pleasure.
Don F Perkins
http://mindmulch.net
Thanks Michael, normally we stop at asking whether the prospect is interested in our product/service, which sometimes can be a big assumption.
Implication/Qualification would be very helpful but how would you put it so that prospect can think about it over the short period of a phone call? In certain businesses the implication is long-term enough that most of the time prospect need time to think about it.
Hi Bach! Make no assumptions. Rather, state a true and compelling "reason for my call" to earn the right to have a conversation.
The prospect's "interest" in your product or service is because of something they are doing or considering. So it is up to you and your callers to ask what about they are doing or considering and its implications. If your product or service can help them achieve it, then you'll have a good conversation.
Great points already made! Michael, you're on the money when you say that lead qualification calls must include questions about implications; what a great reminder for the teleprospecting community.
Anyone can tell you that they're interested because they like your product, but time is better spent with those prospects that can articulate what it will mean if their business does not select your solution to their problem. Adding implication questions to your teleprospecting/lead qualification efforts is a must. The intel that your BDR's add to their lead write-ups because of having that implication information can be more important than your typical qualification info.
I've often thought of a lead write-up as a painting. The greater the detail, the greater the picture. I can draw a circle, put two dots in it and a smile and you'll know it's a face. But, if I take my time on the drawing, use crosshatching or smooth shading techniques, you can look at the portrait and say, "Now THAT'S a face." The same is with the lead. You can get typical lead info, but when you get detailed implication info, it just makes the lead that much better. The same can be said of Matt's point about ROI. It's great information to have and helps the sales process speed up that much more.
Good stuff guys!
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