Remember, selling is a two-way street. You are both trading assets. They get to decide whether or not they want to spend their money on your help, and you get to decide whether or not you want to spend your time helping them.
You must brutally qualify your prospects on the front end so that you only spend time with the prospect who has a desire for your service, the ability to decide if they want to buy your product, and the money to do so.
Do not present your product or give information or an estimate or anything at all. The only way they get your valuable information is if they are a good fit for you and your product/service. That means they must first qualify for the sales trinity:
- Desire
- Decision-making ability
- Money to spend
How do you quickly determine if your prospect has these three qualities? Ask simple questions:
Desire
- What do you like best about your current provider?
- What would improve your experience if you could change one thing?
- If that one change would happen, how would that affect you personally?
- It looks like you’re all set and doing great. What could I add to what you are already doing?
- Why???
Decision Maker
- Is this the type of decision you can make yourself or do you need to consult with anyone?
- What is your decision making process here?
- Who will ultimately be making the decision to buy or not to buy?
If you can’t get the commitment on the first two, there is no reason to go to the price. They have disqualified themselves and have not earned the right to get your prices so they can shop them to your competitor. If you do have commitment on the first two, proceed on to the next qualifier: money.
Money
This one you have to set up a little. You can approach the conversation this way:
- Ok, since we got that out of the way, now for the money questions. Are you comfortable talking about the money?
- The fee for our service usually falls in the range of ____ to____. Assuming that everything is perfect and you love our solution…is that a number that works for you?
- Great, the basic price for our service is _______. How does that sound?
- How much would you like to pay for a service like ours?
Remember to lock it down when you get a commitment. We are always happy to help you refine the all-important qualifying process. Please contact us for more information on how we can amplify your efforts.
