From Pitch to Profit

CHAPTER 5STEP ONE: QUALIFICATION PROCESS

Your sales process really starts here when you have a human to interact with. Either someone has ‘inbounded’ you, which means they have contacted you first through your website, a phone call or even a referral, or you have someone you've gone ‘outbound’ to, and they have also agreed to meet with you.

Before this meeting occurs, you want to ensure this person is a qualified prospect, so you can respect both your time and theirs. And you start working that out by looking at their motivation and capability.

Combining motivation with capability

Imagine you were talking to a prospect and they were highly motivated to partner with you. What would they be saying or doing to give you that indication? They would likely be asking detailed questions, showing enthusiasm in the conversation, asking about pricing, time lines and delivery, and sharing more about their organisation and pain points. You can probably work out if someone is keen, or motivated, to partner with you. It's usually not that difficult. But this isn't enough. You also need that person to be capable of partnering with you.

For someone to be capable of buying from you, you need them to be the decision-maker, and have the appropriate budget and time line requirements.