Qualifying in sales process for engineering

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alrighty so now we're going to get into B2 this is the qualification phase okay so get on Zoom call we start it then we shut it off now we're getting into B2 gather information using qualification questions okay this is so so so so so so important you're gonna need every everything in this training is so important guys as you probably have figured out by now but qualification is like extra okay so once you set the frame establish somewhat of a status Delta with B1 you're going to start learning about the Prospect and qualifying them so what is qualification so this is the pro what is real what is qualification it's obviously the process of qualifying someone to see if they can buy okay you're not selling to everyone fools sell to unqualified prospects the the million dollar sales producers sell to qualified prospects okay so a prospect is qualified if and only if the prospect has a need or desire to solve the problem they need to have a need for what you have they need to have a problem that you can solve okay they need to have a pro and everything that people buy it's used to solve problems even those those really like luxury items are consumer goods people are trying to solve problems when they buy those things okay so you need to uh think of the problem you're solving and you got to make sure that the customer has the problem the desire to solve that problem another point the prospect needs to be able to afford your offer so even if they have a they have a problem but they can't afford it they're not qualified don't waste your time selling to broke people you're gonna pull your hair out and you're going to think you're something's off but reel it in at the end of the day uh realistically you're just selling to broke people and that's like the worst thing ever okay like it's it just sucks so badly selling to broke people so don't celebrate people um the prospect can make a decision so they they need to have the desire to solve the problem they need to be able to have money and they can make a decision or they have authority they have authority to make a decision okay so during this phase you're qualifying for those three things if the prospect checks those boxes you better close Okay this process is used this all this advanced stuff all the language patterns all this all the uh the the the tactics they're used to close people who fall into this bucket they have to check off those three marks okay it doesn't work if the prospect is not qualified so you might be the best closer in the world but if the prospect's not qualified you're gonna be out of luck okay so uh the this process is used the B2 is used to figure out these these answers okay so qualification questions are used to gather important information and engage the prospect another key thing you have to you have to get the information from the person to see if they're qualified but it's also used to engage the prospect so a lot of people sometimes people will send me their demos or something like they'll send me recordings and then they they on the call they just like throw up the uh the features and they get right into the pitch without any qualification because they think they know what the prospect uh they think they understand the prospect that's like the most fatal mistake ever even if you know everything about the prospect here's the thing you still need to ask them the questions and you need to get them to give you that information something happens in their brain when they give you the information they feel like they just unloaded this heavy load to you okay and now they're open they're open to getting the help they're open to listening but if you just Jam stuff down someone's throat without letting them talk then you are going to they're you're not going to be able to influence them okay so qualifications not only important to figure out if they if you're dealing with a qualified Prospect effect but it's also super important for the prospect to feel like they're heard like you can't prescribe a solution if the prospect doesn't if you don't have the information the prospect knows that so even if you know everything and you have the perfect solution if you don't qualify them the prospect's thinking well how the hell does this guy or this girl know that this is the right fit for me you don't even know anything about me you're full of buddy that's what they're thinking okay whether it's consciously or subconsciously so again qualification even if you know everybody even if you did sales calls before you're gonna go through this qualification process and just agree uh just cover or go over the answers again just to to pull up that and uh to drive out that engagement before you start pitching okay so the questions are used to create maintain enlarge the status Delta here's another Point your questions think about the Houston surgeon your questions need to be on point they need to be really really good if you're asking poor questions then you're showing the prospect that you are an idiot okay if you're like oh okay and uh is this software and obviously on the website it's software the prospect is going to think you're a total idiot and you're gonna break out you're gonna break Rapport but if you ask really good questions okay you're gonna convey that you're an expert you can ask like for us we'll ask like okay so what is your full out cost per acquisition with the customer success um with the customer success team uh included and they'll be like oh wow I didn't even know I had to figure that out oh okay and what is your uh uh what is your current uh lifetime value over cost per acquisition ratio in the first 12 months oh um I don't know like so you're the expert is asking these really detailed questions and it's showing them it's showing the prospect that you are an expert okay so be very very you can be very specific with your questions okay so remind the prospect that in order to make the most use out of their time you're going to need concise and accurate answers so when you start going through the sales process okay you can note you notice or the qualification process there are a ton of questions here so what you can say is just like all right you know John in order to get the best use of your time I need to get I need some accurate and concise answers is that okay with you okay and they're like yeah for sure so you're setting the tone so they don't Ramble On sometimes during qualification if the salesperson is a little puppy dog this the the um the prospect's just gonna ramble on and like talk for like an hour and then you ran out of time and you didn't get anywhere you just kind of you know nothing happened this guy just went off into Pluto and and started yapping okay so you don't want that to happen so remind the prospect that in order to make the best use of time you want short and concise or you want accurate concise answers if you realize that the prospect doesn't have the economic authority to buy but they are a key influencer they could be an end User make it clear to them that you will display the product and the features and the thesis but you're going to need the opportunity to present the economic case to the economic buyer okay so get this get them to agree to this before you move forward Okay so as you're going through the questions you're going to be saying okay so how would we able um to do hypothetically speaking there's one question here it's like how are you [Music] yeah this is this question here uh again hypothetically speaking if we could align actually solve a meaningful problem for you and prove that we can deliver results and price it such that it's a strong return and eliminate any downside to working with us would you would you be the person who ultimately gives the green light I only asked you so I have a clear view of the decision making process so they're gonna if they're like no I have to get it cleared by Jessica I have to get it clear by Mary I have to get it cleared by Marcus then you're like okay great I'm gonna get you I'm gonna give you the product demo and get thesis buy-in but I'd like an opportunity to present the economic case to the economic buyers is that fair with you and you want to get the agreement in the qualification phase okay because people like to be consistent they like to be they like to be congruent if they say something they like to just keep doing it okay it makes them feel weird if they're incongruent so that's why um you're doing this stuff in the in the qualification uh phase okay so the qualification questions are set up in a way to number one isolate the current situation of the Pro Prospect okay so let's go over to the whiteboard here real quick again you got the prospect over here on this island okay and then you have the prospect wants to go on this island so this island is sad they're alone this island they're happy they got their friends they got their wife they got their kids this island they're miserable okay this island they're miserable this island they're happy so what we're doing in the qualification phase is we are determining their current state okay so this is the current state we're determining what their situation is what their circumstances are what their metrics are how they're feeling and then we're determining what their desired state is okay this is all we're doing in the qualification phase desired state okay and then we're determining okay what does that desired State look like what is revenue going to be how are you going to feel what would make your deter you're helping the prospect paint the picture and and and you're showing the prospect there's a Delta between the current state and the desired State and then the next thing you're going to do is you're going to identify problems or hurdles that are keeping this Prospect from getting to the desired State this is how you sell okay this is how you position things you're basically getting the prospect to understand that they are in a poor current state there's a desired State that's way better and then there's some hurdles that they need to jump over in order to get to the desired State and it just so happens that the person that they're talking to can remove one of the hurdles and get them to and get them closer to the desired state does that make sense guys so during qualification we're isolating the current situation of the prospect we're isolating the desired situation of the prospect so short-term and long-term goals we're going to isolate the barriers or hurdles preventing the prospect from achieving their desired State we're going to ice we're going to find any landmines and limiting beliefs that are going to prevent a close so sometimes there are let's say the prospect is qualified okay they have a poor current state they have a very strong and defined desired State and there are some hurdles that are clearly uh getting in their way from getting from from them moving and and trans and transitioning to the desired state so what could be going on often there are what are called land mines or limiting beliefs there's something something psychological that's wrong like something's wrong with the prospect even if there's a completely logical case there's a lot of times like this is so common people are scared okay or they don't believe that they can do it or they're just not confident so there's there needs to be that airtight logical case and there needs to be that airtight emotional case so we're going to try to identify those landmines and limiting beliefs in the qualification process okay so let me go through some questions uh and then the next thing is we're gonna figure out how to make we're gonna figure out how to make decisions do they need to have a secret council meeting on a on the winter solstice or they can they hike up their stocks and pull triggers like real decision maker does okay and you want to figure out if they're willing and able to deploy resources to solve this problem so let's get into the qualification questions because this is just going to make it a lot more it's more clear okay so first question I always open with like so what motivates you to join me today what piqued your interest this is a really easy question to answer okay and it's not like you're probing for their like bank account number okay it's very easy so what piqued your interest what motivated you to join me today oh okay and what asset did you consume okay great so let's talk about your current situation how are you currently um generating uh appointments okay okay and what is your current lead to demo rate okay just Ballpark and you're using phrases like if you're getting into specific questions and you're getting into personal questions you want to use phrases like just ballpark or just so I have some context you want to say stuff like that like oh yeah like how much um you know how much did you guys raise just ballpark you know just a rough idea it relieves the pressure on the call or on the on of the of the question because if you ask in the wrong way then they're gonna be like whoa I'm not telling you that information buddy right sometimes people will do that they'll be like I'm not telling you information you have to kind of diffuse them wave the White Flag a little bit and be like hey look buddy like I'm just trying to help you know you can share with share what you want okay but if that happens to you it's probably because you didn't have a status Delta so go back and get your status Delta game up okay so we're gonna identify the metrics okay and remember you want concise and accurate answers and here's an example why do people buy your products okay how much money do you think you're making per month again just ballpark okay this is for business owners I just threw that in there as an example and so where do you want to be um in the next uh three to six months 12 months get them to describe it and what should metric one look like what should your sales look like what should your team look like what should your culture look like you want the you want to get them to define the desired state and then here's the killer question okay great so then what in your own opinion is stopping you from hitting this goal on your own that is a question that starts to identify the landmines they might not even know what kind of landmines are in the field okay so what we're doing is we are identifying the current situation we're identifying the future situation and then we're just seeking for land we're seeking landmines okay and then we're saying okay well how soon do you want to solve this problem what happens if you don't solve it in this time frame so we're getting the urgency level and we're getting the prospect to think about the urgency and how urgent this thing is okay and I know some problems are more urgent than others or more important than others how committed to you are solving our uh how committed to solving this problem are you is this like Threat Level One like danger zone or is this like a back burner thing so again people love being congruent with themselves if they're telling you it's a back if it's a threat level one not like most urgent thing ever and then they don't move forward at the end of the call if it's a logical case then they're not being congruent so this these questions are used to frame the whole interaction and that's why it's so important okay so now we're gonna we're gonna look for landmines so hypothetic okay great if we could achieve this outcome would you um would you be able to um do this okay would you be able to to get started okay basically you're you're it's called future pacing okay and if we could help you hit your growth cool are you able to afford at least sixteen thousand dollars okay or fifty thousand dollars of course assuming we can move the needle for you this is a question that's qualifying for Financial Resources true decision makers they'll be people with money they'll be like yeah we can do that but I gotta know what I'm getting here and that like I don't even know I don't even know anything about you guys or your offers okay so true decision makers will say stuff like that the um the decision makers who are the people who can't afford it they'll be like they'll get really weird and squirmy they're like uh that's gonna be like a stretch like no we we just can't we're not in a place to do that so you basically what you did you just qualified them for financial uh qualified them out for Financial Resources okay people who are really too eager if they're just like you know if you're like hey pathetically speaking can you afford 16 000 and they're like yeah yeah no problem nope problem no problem if they're overly eager then you know that they're bullshitting okay you're looking for the response that's like okay yeah it's doable but obviously we need to know more about your offer you know and that and uh and you want you want them to feel you want to feel like the response is uh is genuine okay so again hypothetically speaking if we can solve a meaningful problem for you prove to you that we can deliver results price it such a way that you get a strong return and eliminating downside to working with us would you be the person who ultimately gives us the green light I just asked just so I have a clear view of the decision-making process so again at this question you're you you're using this question to qualify for Authority okay and if they're like yeah I'm the person that does this or no I gotta talk to Jim or but I'm the guy that mainly does this then um then you're gonna say um you're gonna say okay great all right so that those are the qualification questions it's so so important again just some quick notes fools try to sell to unqualified people experts only sell to qualify people so you don't want to get into the rest of the pitch like think you can see this pitch look how long it is right look at all the steps you don't want to get into the pitch uh if you're selling to unqualified people you're gonna just you're gonna drive yourself freaking crazy okay so why is it so harmful to pitch unqualified people well you won't close sales or you're going to close fewer sales okay because you're going to spend your time pitching unqualified people wasting spinning your wheels and and uh and not talking to qualified people you're gonna get frustrated morale will drop you're gonna think that you're the worst thing you're the worst sales person ever and it's you might not be the worst salesperson ever you're just pitching for unqualified people okay you might think that your offer is broken when it's really not okay so you're going to start questioning your offer your business hypothesis your entire life you end up wasting a ton of time pitching the wrong people okay and the more unqualified people you pitch the less qualified people you pitch obviously so this means you're getting fewer times at bat with qualified people okay so here's a some some more quick notes this is a huge video If you realize that the prospect is not qualified simply end the call or ask them to refer you to someone who's qualified to make decisions just be upfront with the prospect so you can say all right you know based on the answers here what we do in this situation we don't think that you're a great fit for this uh for this presentation what we'd like to do is set up a call with this person or this person just to make the best use of our time is that fair with you and so the pros the prospect if they're not qualified they'll be like oh yeah okay sure okay prospects will understand and appreciate your forwardness so if the prospect gets offended it's just because you can explain yourself correctly so just tell them that the way these calls usually go is you first learn how the company makes decisions you gather um and you gather and present to all the end users economic buyers and decision makers then you present your case to all decision makers and you put together an offer okay so the qualification process can be done with a discovery call before the demo so the discovery script can be found here so often when you're doing outbound prospecting or you're doing longer sales Cycles you're doing 15-minute Discovery calls okay and you're walking through the um the qualification questions and you're pitching just you're pitching the um the case studies and you're just getting them fired up and you're selling them on an hour-long demo okay so this is a discovery process you can use that to do your Discovery calls and that's covered in the outbound prospecting training so even if you have even if you have quiz answers you've conducted a discovery call before their sales call it's important to run through the discovery questions and confirm everything before you move into the pitch remember what I was saying even if you have all the answers before you start pitching even every new interaction you need to get them to give you answers or at least confirm answers this causes the engagement okay this causes the engage engagement and frames of call if you don't go through the qualification questions or confirm the answers even if you already know the answers the prospect is likely not going to believe that you know enough to prescribe a valid a valid solution and they won't close Okay so think about that for a second second the Houston doctor giving you a prescription without validating your information that's just not going to happen okay the qualification questions start out easy and then they they get more they get easy and straightforward then they get more personal and they uncover the start the current state the desired State and the hurdles that are preventing the prospect from achieving the desired stage so start the questions out easy and then end them when uh as you move forward they're going to become more comfortable with you and you can get better information out of them and if you lead with extremely personal questions without first warming them up you can jar the prospect your break report approximately like why are you why are you asking that question that's a weird question okay so asking good questions that get into detail shows the prospect that you know what you're talking about we already covered this one by just reiterating it don't be afraid to get into the nitty Diddy nitty-gritty details with your questions and make sure that you frame the qualification phrase phase prop properly excuse me with a lead-in like let's run through a quick few questions concise to answers will help me gauge your circumstances this will only take a few minutes okay if the prospect starts rambling on just nod and bring the prospect back towards the questions don't go wife on tangents remember we already covered this point even though it feels good it it hurts your posture and the prospect won't close okay you want to always be in control of the frame okay that's super super key at the end of the qualification phase the prospect is going to feel like they just exposed everything to you this is the key that this is what I was trying to explain you want them to feel like that that you you want them to feel like they know that you have enough information to prescribe the solution okay so this qualification phase should take you anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes during this phase the prospect is talking 95 of the time you're just sitting back shutting up and taking detailed notes like I'm a freaking animal with my notes when someone's talking I'm just I am taking so many notes and I'm trying to go I'm trying to be as detailed as possible I'm writing down all the answers to their questions okay so tonality during this phase you're going to be using the inquisitive tone don't try to be the grand Question Master raise your voice at the end of each question and use phrases like just ballpark to soften the blow so be friendly you want your prospect to open up as much as possible use phrases like uh-huh interesting huh can you tell me more about that hmm can you expand on that point okay so we're going to be using the tonality it's just like okay and how soon can you solve this problem okay and what happens if you don't solve this problem okay and I know that some problems are more important than others how committed to you are so are you to solving this right is this a threat level one or is this more of a back back burner thing so you're using you're using inflections in your voice to um to get the information out and ask the question and ask the questions in a non-threatening way okay that's the key so practice going through your qualification questions take the script write out your qualification questions remember the current state okay the metrics the desired State and then the hurdles and don't be afraid to get really into detail with your qualification questions and practice in the mirror as you're going through this before you uh before you practice on a real Prospect all right guys so that's the end of the qualification and in the next video we'll get into the transition