One of my mentors used to always say
when it came to selling that,
"When you start strong, you end strong."
And what our data shows is that sales are won and lost
at the beginning of the sale, not at the end.
If you're focused on what you have to be saying
at the very end of the sale in order to close that sale,
chances are you are in trouble.
Sales are won and lost at the beginning.
It's about creating tons of value during that early part
of that conversation, which many people refer
to as sales qualification, or your discovery conversation.
That's the phase where you're creating the real value.
So many salespeople are missing so many opportunities
to go so much deeper and get more and more value
in the eyes of the prospect.
Let me be clear, prospects don't see value
from what you say, they see value from what they say.
So you need to be able to ask questions
to really understand what's going on to help them hear
in their own words the value of your solution.
In this video I'm going to show you three must know steps
to create tons of value during sales qualification,
check it out.
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Number One- Don't qualify, disqualify.
So here's the thing, is that many of us have been taught
that we need to qualify prospects.
We need to ask them questions and help them see
that they're a fit for our solution.
We have found that that absolutely is not the mindset
that you want to have.
You don't want to help them see that you're the solution,
you want to simply determine whether they're a fit or not.
And they're going to determine I'm either not a fit
for this, or they're going to see massive value.
You want your prospects to go in one of two directions,
either they recognize that they're not a fit,
or that they really see that they are a fit
and they see huge value in your offering.
That's what disqualification is all about.
It's starting from a frame, a mental frame of,
"You know what, I'm not sure if this person is going
to be a fit.
And so let me ask them some questions
to determine whether they actually are."
This is the absolute best approach,
not just for you as a salesperson,
but it's also the best approach for them,
because it's both conveying massive credibility
on your part, but it's also helping them determine
whether this conversation makes sense.
Because the data shows, our internal data shows
that 50% of your prospects are not a fit for your offering,
for one reason or another.
Maybe they don't have the challenges that you solve.
Maybe they don't have the money.
Maybe they just need something completely different.
And you know what?
That 50% is okay, because you know what that also means is
that 50% of prospects could be a fit for your offering.
And what I find is that very few sales people are selling
most of those 50%.
And the reason for that it's because they're spending
so much time trying to convince the other 50%
to do business with them.
Don't qualify, disqualify.
Next time a prospect says,
"Why should I do business with you?"
I want you to respond with something like this,
"You know what, I really appreciate your asking me that,
and quite frankly I'm not sure
that you should do business with me.
Would it be okay if I ask some questions
to see whether we're a fit?"
That is disqualification, that's coming from a place
of thinking like a doctor and saying, "You know what?
I'm really not sure."
And what you will find is that your prospects are going to
be drawn to you for using that type of an approach.
Don't qualify, disqualify.
Number Two- Know the cost.
If you've been following me for a while,
you know that this is a huge passion of ours here
at the Sales Insights Lab.
You must know the cost of your prospect's challenges.
So part of the disqualification conversation is going to be
about talking about their challenges,
understanding what's really affecting their business
or their situation.
But just talking about their challenges isn't enough.
You need to understand the real cost of those challenges,
that's going to be the value of your solution.
The value of your solution is not determined by you,
and it's not determined by all the awesome features
and bonuses that you have.
The value of your solution is determined solely in the eyes
of the prospect by the size and cost of their challenges
that they believe you will help them solve.
That is all the value that you have,
not a penny more and not a penny less.
So you need to help them determine the cost.
And that doesn't mean you throwing out numbers and saying,
"You know, doing some kind of an ROI calculation."
That's complete junk,
ROI calculation the data shows doesn't work.
What you want to do is be asking questions
to understand the cost of those challenges, questions like,
"You know, George, you shared with me
those three challenges, and I appreciate that.
What do you think those challenges are
ultimately costing the business?"
That's the kind of question that now is going to lead
to an answer where they're like, "Oh, you know,
I think it's costing us hundreds of thousands of dollars."
And you want to pinpoint the actual cost.
The other way that you can get to cost is,
on the positive side you could say something like,
"You know, George, if you were able
to solve those challenges, what do you think it would mean
in potential upside to the business?"
That's cost, understanding the cost.
And even if you're selling to consumers,
the cost doesn't have to be just money.
It doesn't have to be purely monetary.
Although in many cases it can be.
But you really want there to be other costs associated.
You know, even if you sell kitchen cabinets,
the cost for them with their current kitchen cabinets could
be that they're embarrassed to have friends over.
They hate looking at it.
They don't even enjoy being in their kitchen anymore.
Those are costs, and understanding those issues is
where they're going to start to see real value
in your solution.
The more you know about them,
the more likely they are to trust you,
and to believe that you are the solution.
The key is that you want to know more about their challenges
than even their own spouse does.
If you get to that point, you are going to have a customer.
Number Three- Understand their commitment.
Are they actually committed to solving these challenges?
One of the keys to a proper disqualification conversation is
to understand their personal commitment
to solving this challenge.
This is a place where particularly in the B2B space,
a lot of salespeople get really uncomfortable.
Even great salespeople can get uncomfortable
in understanding their prospect's personal commitment
to solving a problem.
But you know what?
Behind every professional objective is a personal objective.
And so you need to understand
why they actually personally care
about solving this challenge.
There is always a personal motivation
behind solving any challenge.
If there isn't, then they're not going to do it.
They need to have a personal motivation behind why they want
to solve some particular challenge.
It's absolutely critical
that you understand their personal motivation.
By asking a question that sounds something like this,
"You know what George?
Behind every professional objective is a personal objective.
Help me understand what's driving you
to want to solve this challenge?"
By asking that question and getting them to say,
"Oh, well, if I don't solve this, the company is going
to be in trouble," or whatever the answer is.
Now we're really getting them personally connected
to solving that challenge.
The more personally connected they are
to actually solving that challenge,
the more likely they are to do business with you
because you are now becoming such an obvious solution
to a challenge that's not just professional,
but actually personal.
And of course, if you're selling to consumers,
then they have to have personal commitment
in solving this issue.
They've got to be fully all in, and if they're not,
then there's a good chance that they're not ultimately going
to be qualified to do business with you.
That's the key to disqualification.
That's the key to making sure
that you turn your qualification conversations
into disqualification conversations.
And one of the important parts is understanding their
personal commitment to solving those challenges.
So there are three steps to create tons
of value during sales qualification.
And if you enjoyed this video then I have
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