Your Sales Strategy Must Include Qualifying

As a salesperson, you want to have a quality sales strategy. A good sales strategy has many facets so let’s start with one of the most important ones. While developing a winning sales presentation and closing are two vital ingredients in your over-all strategy, you can’t even get to those unless you’re good at qualifying your prospects.

Some salespeople try to by-pass this step because they think it takes too much time. However, you’re setting yourself up for a ton of frustration by not taking qualifying seriously. I’ve even seen sales trainers say that this isn’t a necessary step in your sales strategy because a good salesperson can sell anything to anyone.

I beg to differ on that point. There are some people you’ll come into contact with that just aren’t going to buy your product or service no matter how proficient your sales skills are. Are you really going to sell a new car to the guy who just bought a new car last week? You’ll be better off to find out he just bought one last week before you go into a sales presentation than after, don’t you think?

What is qualifying? Basically, it’s the step in your strategy where you find out the needs of your prospect. Are they interested in what you sell and do they have a need for it? During the qualifying step you’re asking questions. You can avoid many objections later by finding out about how important things like price, value, follow-up service, budget, color, etc are to your prospect.

Don’t bypass this sales strategy step! Before you fly into your sales presentation, ask your prospect something like this, Because I offer quite an array of products and services, I’d like to ask your permission to ask you a couple questions in order to better understand you and your possible needs. Is that OK with you?

Most people will respect this sales strategy you’re employing. They respect the fact that you are taking their needs and feelings seriously and will be more than happy to allow you this time. They don’t want to waste time hearing about a bunch of stuff they have no need for either.

Once you’ve effectively qualified your prospect, you can now safely move to the next part of your sales strategy and deliver that winning sales presentation.