A Novel Approach to Qualification

“Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets…”

W. Edwards Deming

Most current qualification processes are perfectly designed to protect valuable vendor resources from potential waste. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that these same qualification processes also cause Lead Churn for as many as 50% of your leads who are qualifiable, but who are not yet in an Active Buying Process. SDRs, BDRs, and Inside Salespeople qualify prospects through mechanisms like BANT, GPCT, MEDDIC, etc., all of which focus on gaining an understanding of your prospects’ status on their buying journeys.

Prospects who are interested in planning or budgeting for the future (those who are “Just Browsing”) are qualified out, in theory saving vendors from investing resources in sales processes that won’t yield short-term positive results.

But consider: “Just Browsing” prospects who are qualified out never have their desires satisfied. They clicked the “Book a Demo” button but never saw a demo. The result? They churn, even before they enter your sales funnel!

What is an elegant solution to this?

First, provide a Vision Generation Demo, then qualify. (You can find the full process for Vision Generation Demos in Chapter 11 of Great Demo! Third Edition.)

The entire process can still be completed by the same SDR, BDR, or Inside Sales staff (with training) and only requires a 15-20-minute call with the prospect:

Step 1: Intro – About the Prospect

Step 2: Menu and Vision Generation Demo

Step 3: Qualification Conversation

Step 4: Mutual Action Plan

Step 1 invests in a brief exploration of your prospect’s background. (See the “About You” discussion in Doing Discovery for full details.)

Step 2 applies the Menu Approach (when you have multiple solutions or offerings) to guide your prospect to an area of focus or specific interest, followed by a Vision Generation Demo. This satisfies your prospect’s desire to “see a demo of what’s possible”.

Step 3 is when you ask your qualification questions to determine whether your prospect is in an Active Buying Process or Just Browsing.

Step 4 harvests the results of Step 3 to enable a Mutual Action Plan that proceeds into a sales process for prospects in an Active Buying Process or a nurture “keep you informed” marketing process if your prospect is Just Browsing.

(Bonus for the enlightened: Change “sales process” to “buyer enablement process”.)

By following this approach, you’ve successfully accomplished the objectives for both vendor and prospect:

Vendor: Qualify your prospect to avoid wasting valuable vendor resources.

Prospect: See a demo of what’s possible.

And, as opposed to suffering from Lead Churn, when you follow this process, you’ll find that your prospects are predisposed to return to you when they move from Just Browsing to an Active Buying Process.

Congratulations!