When Salespeople are Uncomfortable Disqualifying Sales Opportunities

When Salespeople are Uncomfortable Disqualifying Sales Opportunities

And why they don't need to feel uncomfortable disqualifying them

At Slattery Sales Group, we’re fanatics about qualifying business opportunities.

We regularly tell our clients that they can (and should) culturally expect, within their sales organization, a closing rate of 9 out of 10 offers they put on the table.  

Thorough qualification is the key to reaching a 90% closing rate.  

But too often, sellers get antsy, and jump to presenting too early: they may talk about the perks, specs, features, or benefits of their solution; they may present valuable information to an “interested” (but unqualified) prospect; they may present a premature quote or a demonstration; maybe they even present an offer to do business to an unqualified prospect who lies to them by saying, “We’re really in a rush – can you get us something by Tuesday?”

Early presentations and pitches – even teeny-tiny ones! – to unqualified opportunities always result in “Think It Overs”.  And a “Think It Over” means there’s fiction in the forecast.

So here is an excerpt from our book “Wimp Junction” (our comprehensive guide to avoid the prospect’s buying process and win more business at high value), where we dig into the visceral discomfort many salespeople may have about ruthlessly qualifying their opportunities.

This excerpt can be found in can be found in Chapter 7 (“Engage”, the third of 5 stages in our sale).

When we teach salespeople about collecting the Attributes of a Qualified Selling Opportunity, we are often asked, “Is it possible to accidentally disqualify a good opportunity?” Salespeople get nervous that they may lose a viable opportunity through overzealous qualification. 

Our answer is that it’s practically impossible to accidentally disqualify a good opportunity if you’re following the stages on the right side of the tracks at Wimp Junction. For a quick recap, those stages so far are:

• Differentiate yourself by determining your DV in this opportunity. 

• Use your DV to Target the right Emotional Customers. 

• Engage those Emotional Customers with strategic questions that bring clarity to the costs and consequences they’re experiencing in the absence of your DV.

When this flow is followed with focus and clarity, you’re more likely to uncover hitherto-buried pains than you are to disqualify a good opportunity. In other words, you’re more likely to uncover new opportunities than you are to accidentally discard a winnable deal.

Occasionally, we do see an eager salesperson skip the effort to strategically Differentiate and Target, and go straight to engaging a Logical Customer. When the Logical Customer lies to them by saying, “We don’t need what you’re selling,” the salesperson takes it at face value and moves to the next prospect on their list without digging any deeper. They think they’re following a good process to qualify. There might be a missed opportunity here, but it certainly wasn’t missed through the ruthless pursuit of clarity.

If you follow the steps to pursue clarity as we’re outlining here, it’s practically impossible to discard a viable opportunity. You’re more likely to unearth previously missed opportunities than to accidentally disqualify a good one. Go forth with confidence, follow the steps, and qualify ruthlessly.

Find more insights into winning complex sales in our book, “Wimp Junction” our comprehensive guide to avoiding the prospect’s buying process and protecting your margins to win more business at high value. 

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At Slattery Sales Group, we empower great companies and sellers to win more business in less time.

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