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Of all the things we are supposed to do when selling, the one that most often gets forgotten, is qualifying the buyer. Miss this step and you can waste a whole lot of time and effort selling to someone who doesn't have the power to make a decision. Worse still you may get a "No" from someone who can't give you a "Yes" - and if that happens it is very hard to recover the sale.
Who's Who in the Buying Scenario?
Initiators
These are people that might call you to find out more information, or they could be the person you first speak to when you call, or visit a prospect.
Influencers
Initiators are also often influencers, but not always. Anyone that is involved in the decision-making process, even at arms length is an influencer, ignore them at your peril even if they are occupy a very junior position.
Buyers
Now, buyers are interesting because they may not actually make the buying decision. Take for instance a not-for-profit organization; you may deal with the Executive Director during every step of the sales process, but he or she may have to take the proposal to their board for a final decision. In this case you are relying on the Executive Director to make the actual sale, unless you can get to present to the board yourself.
Decisio- Makers
Most often, the decision-maker is also the buyer, but as mentioned above this is not always the case so be careful. Qualifying the buyer, should really be qualifying the decision-maker.
Users
If you are selling anything that will be used by third parties, these users can become influencers, so you should consider them when planning your sales process. For instance, if possible you might want to get their feedback prior to making your pitch to the buyer, or even before you design and produce, or develop, the product or service you are selling.
Evaluators
At some point in the future someone might assess whether what you sold them worked well and was cost effective. This could be a board of directors, a supervisor, foreman or manager. Once again, these people will be influencers with regard to future sales. As with users, it would be worthwhile soliciting input from evaluators prior to pitching the target company.
As an exercise, identify these people and their roles in some of your major customer's companies, and then more importantly identify them in those companies you would like to sell to.
How to Qualify a Buyer
You can, of course, simply ask. Be open about it and ask your first contact how the company makes its buying decisions.
The front desk person can often tell you a whole lot about a company, so it is advisable to make sure you are on good terms with them. It's a simple matter to ask, "Does Mr. Smith do the buying for your company?" or "What is Mr. Smith's role at Benning Brothers?"
When talking to your prospect encourage them to talk about their team. The more you know about the structure of the team the more you will know about who makes the decisions.
For instance, ask, "Is there anyone else you work with that needs to see this information?" or "Do you need to bounce this project, product, service, situation off anyone else before making a decision?"
Once you know your prospect is interested, ask whether you could have the opportunity of meeting with the CEO, or even make a presentation to the board if you suspect they will be integral to making the decision to purchase. The answer to this will tell you a lot about who makes the decisions.
Qualifying The Buyer When You First Meet
We often meet prospects at networking events, heck that's why we attend isn't it? But often we waste time just chatting, and hoping the conversation will get around to the business we are in and discovering whether the person we are talking to could be in a position to buy what we have to sell. So, let's look at speeding this process up a little.
First, create a 15-30 second advertising pitch for yourself, or your business, that answers the question most people inevitably ask at these events, "What do you do?"
If you are a corporate trainer, you might answer "I'm in training" but would that help you qualify the buyer? No.
How about? "My company provides innovative team-building activities and other unique training which increases revenue and productivity for companies just like yours,"
Is this a better answer? Yes it's better, in that it will pique the interest of who you are talking to. But, is it enough? Not really. You now need to qualify this potential customer with questions such as:
"How many staff do you have?"
"Do you believe training is an important part of staff development?"
"Do you have a training budget?"
"Do you develop training in-house or do you look for suitable training programs from outside providers?"
"How do you currently spend your training budget?" or "What do currently spend your training budget on?"
"Do you think a training budget is a good idea for a company to help ensure that its staff spends some time on personal development?"
Create around 20 questions like this, which you are prepared to ask depending on the circumstances.
The idea of these questions is to qualify whether this person's company is one you might do business with, so think about what you need to know.
How can you make yourself stand out from your competition by asking these questions and move the potential sale to the next stage in the sales process?
Show the prospect what you can do for them by saying something like, "I'm sure I can help you. My company has a variety of highly innovative off-the-shelf training programs, and we can also cost-effectively design programs to answer your specific needs. We have trained over 850 businesses in the city and thousands across the country. Our programs are fun, interactive and above all else result in increased sales for your company. Why don't we meet for coffee, next week, or perhaps meeting at your office might be better? I could make Monday, or Wednesday morning or any afternoon next week." Then shut up, and wait for them to choose which meeting venue and time works best for them.
You Didn't Qualify The Buyer?
What do you do if the buyer announces they have to get approval for the order? Obviously they are not the decision-maker (although they could still be the buyer). At this stage find out exactly where they are in the decision-making tree. Remember, they might only be an initiator, influencer, user or evaluator.
Ask the prospect whether he/she would buy, if it was their decision (this makes sure they are not bluffing, and that it is just a way of getting you to leave). Your goal is to discover whether they will support their company buying from you. If they say yes, talk with the prospect about how, together, you will get the buyer's decision to buy.
Discover the names of any and all decision-makers and arrange a meeting with them. Remember, do everything you can to avoid having the initiator/influencer sell on your behalf.
Learn as much as you can about the decision-makers. Remember the more information you have the more power over the situation you have.
Once you know who they are, make a presentation to the decision-makers and ask for the order. Do not place the sale back into the hands of the prospect.
Use these techniques and you will waste less time selling to people who don't have the authority to make the decision to buy.
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If you handle sales in your company, then this article is for you. If not, then we suggest you pass it onto members of your sales team because if you can increase your salespeople's creativity, you will increase your sales revenues.
Sooner or later, every entrepreneur knows the pain that comes with business problems. Sometimes it comes as a complete surprise - out of the blue - no warning and then bam! We have to think fast, drop everything else and deal with the problem - right now!
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