Qualifying is the blueprint of the sale and the foundation of the sales process, and yet what we find when sales people qualify is a hurried, non focused attempt. 

The act of qualifying the customer means you will ask questions to determine information about the customer's needs and expectations. 

When we train sales teams on how to qualify, we lead with the benefits first. These are the points that they need to keep their eyes on when understanding why qualifying is so important. 

Qualifying…

• …gives you the chance to determine the basic needs. For example, the event details: size and type of room/setup, dates, group size.
• …helps you to define which services and amenities are most important to sell.
• …uncovers expectations, which, when met/exceeded, will lead to customer loyalty.
• …keeps the conversation efficient, streamlined, and focused.  It will actually save you time.

Concentrate on asking questions to find your customers’ wants, needs, and fears before you start presenting. 

A word that often goes along with qualification is:

Discovery...

While some people consider discovery questions to be any qualification questions, here we consider them to be the ones that go deeper.

These are the hot button concepts – they are beliefs, desires, and expectations, and they may be things the customer hadn’t even thought of explicitly himself. Good questioning skills take practice, and a solid conversation takes advance planning.

While scripting your sales discussions does not make sense, having a general outline (a blueprint) of the questions you want to ask, and the order that tends to make the most sense, will make you more confident and actually more, not less, flexible in your discussions.

Role-playing is a great way to help your team become more confident in the skill of qualifying. To help you, as well as encourage you to do this with your team, here is a reminders cheat sheet. 

Role-Play Reminders...

Qualifying is one of the most challenging sales skills for sales people to master. There are a lot of steps that need to be followed and executed with finsesse. As I said above, practice is your best training, but as always, we want to leave you with more help. Download now our Tips for Qualifying for even more guidance! Good luck!