In the past few weeks, The Sales Cooke has had several sales management related discussions around the terms “qualified opportunities” and “qualified leads”. For a sales manager the fuller the funnel, the better the prospects are for the sales team to generate revenue. However, an apparently rich funnel does not translate into great sales results or is in indicative of good selling prospects. The reason–the accounts being thrown into the funnel are not really qualified opportunities, they are just some businesses that expressed interest.
Interest is not a qualifier. I am very interested in buying a certain vehicle…someday. That does not mean that I am a qualified lead for that vehicle today. In fact, I am pretty sure that when I am in the market for a new vehicle in about two years, I am going to do some research and some analysis before I am even ready to start the buying process. However, if I ran into a sales person for this particular product today, I can assure you that if I told him I was thinking about buying the type of vehicle he sells, I will have immediately become a prospect and he will put me on his potential sales list and try to get me to visit the showroom, drive the car, attend special events, etc. Even though I am not buying today and I am not even sure when I will be buying, I am a qualified opportunity. Why is he selling me? He heard I was interested and didn’t listen to time frame or anything else for that matter. Activities like taking a meeting or being willing to receive a quotation or saying that they might be interested in learning more are not indications of a “qualified opportunity”.
A qualified opportunity is one where after meeting with a potential client a sales person can articulate all of the following:
1. The pain or need;
2. The benefits to the client for eliminating the pain or solving the need;
3. The strategy associated with solving the problem;
4. How that strategy meets the customer’s needs;
5. The timing of and decision making process articulated by the prospect.
If the sales person has not connected with the customer enough to understand their business needs with sufficient depth and substance to articulate a strategy, a benefit, or the timing and priority—this is not a qualified lead. Until that relationship is established, trust is built, knowledge of the business drivers are defined, and a methodology for solving or adding value is mapped out, there is nothing qualified. Until then, it is just a prospect or business that is “above the funnel” but, not in it.