What are the best questions to ask when qualifying prospects? How can you phrase questions so you don’t sound aggressive and offensive?
Qualifying Prospects
Many of us chase prospects thinking they are likely to buy. Often, we are disappointed when they don’t. Were these prospects real? How can you know? When you ask discovery questions, you can learn whether your prospect is serious, sniffing, or faking.
Why Is This Important?
As a business owner, VP of Sales, or salesperson, time is vital and often gets wasted on unqualified prospects. We become exhausted following up with unqualified leads and miss out on the qualified leads.
In sales, when you allocate time to your best prospects, you will close more sales in a shorter period of time and with less hassles.
What Questions?
When meeting prospects who show interest, ask permission to ask questions. Position inquiries as discovery and use softeners like:
- Would you be open to…
- Can you help me understand…
- So that I don’t make assumptions…
Tie questions to value: “So we can recommend the right level of support…”
What question can you ask about budgets, authority, need, timeline, fit and scope? How do you know if the buyer is serious? Here are questions and buyer signs of interest.
