|
April 19, 2012 ISSN# 1545-2646
If you are not Qualifying
To be in business is to be in sales. Unless your revenue stream is tax based (i.e. the government) then your business had better sell something at a profit to make money to support your family and those families of your employees.
Your product can be either tangible like a physical item such as a computers or it can be intangible such as internet services. Both are required to conduct business these days but how you sell these items can be critical to the bottom line.
I was speaking with an executive the other day about a sales person that was looking for a job at her company. The individual was college educated and their degree was in a related field. They were just out of college with only an internship of experience under their belt. Their personal interview and presentation was well prepared and polished. The executive was pretty excited about the possibilities of this person.
As we talked, we reviewed some of the individuals responses during the interview. It all looked solid. The picture the executive was painting to me was one of already being sold to on this person. The question remained were they qualifying them for the role and duties they would need to accomplish to be successful in the company.
I stopped the conversation. I suggested to the executive they process like a sales rep, qualifying the opportunity. Is this person, for the consultative sales position, the best resource applying for in the position? Do they meet the criterion to move them forward? I challenged the executive to figure out a way to disqualify the person by seeking a situation where she would have to say no. The objective here was to take off the blinders and get to the real situation and capabilities at hand. If the executive could not disqualify the resource objectively then the possibility of moving forward would be that much better.
This same process holds true for many sales situations. As sales reps we are all looking for that next sale no matter what size of profit value. Yes we all want the big ones but some profitable sales are better than no sales. The challenge is for sales reps to constantly be qualifying and re-qualifying the opportunity. By constantly being proactive to disqualify the prospect or disqualify themselves from the sale, their time invested into an opportunity is razor sharp. They tend not to get lost in the process and stay focused on the end goal of closing the sale and making the customer happy.
This week take some time to look at your sales team. Are they engaged in qualifying their pipeline opportunities or just filling them up. Carrying prospects because it makes them feel like they are working hard?
Every organization needs sales. The cost of acquiring those sales that do come in the door have to be proactively managed so excess pursuit is not lost on sales not closed by the sales team.
Sales Team not qualifying or pipeline not closing? Give JKL Associates a call (313) 527-7945.
Questions or comments – email us at partners@jklassociates.com or call our Office at (313) 527-7945
|
![Subscribe-graphic_thumb_thumb_thumb_[1]](https://talentstrategist.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/subscribe-graphic-thumb-thumb-thumb-1.gif "Subscribe-graphic_thumb_thumb_thumb_[1]"){kind=small}
![Links-graphics_thumb_thumb_thumb_thu[2]](https://talentstrategist.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/links-graphics-thumb-thumb-thumb-thu21.gif "Links-graphics_thumb_thumb_thumb_thu[2]"){kind=small}