Do you want to get all the information you need to make the best btob offer to your prospect? Today, we give you 3 easy tips to make your qualification phase a success, and thus be able to offer the right product to your prospect according to their needs!
The qualification phase is clearly the most important moment in a first commercial exchange with a b-to-b prospect. The objective here is to understand the DBM (Dominant Buying Motive), the reason why the prospect wants to discover your offer and take time for you. It is therefore in your interest to get them to talk about business as much as possible!
Sometimes your prospect will not be as vocal as you would like and will not (easily) give you the information you need to make a sale. In the rest of this article, we'll give you the keys and strategies to get around this problem and become an ace at qualifying your b-to-b prospect!
"He who controls the questions controls the sale".
The Sales Club.
The Sales Club is a weekly event where Blacksales clients meet to role-play, discuss concrete issues and share best practices on a specific theme: B2B telephone prospecting, qualification, negotiation, closing, etc.
The event is hosted by Sébastien Burgain, Sales for over 15 years. He has hundreds of clients signed for an average basket of more than 30K and is also the founder of Blacksales, the prospecting solution to never be short of deals to close.
To listen to or participate in the "Role Play" every Friday from 11:30 to 12:30 it is here.
"No bullshit, no judgement, just concrete to help you close more
We will discuss the following tips:
1. Have the right mindset when dealing with your btob prospect
2. Make your product a priority for your customer
3. Successfully engage the decision-maker in the purchasing process at an early stage
Bonus: Mistakes not to make during the prospect qualification phase
At the end of this article you :
✅ Have a better visibility on the objections related to the qualification phase
✅ Avoid and respond to the objection "It's not a priority
✅ Be able to involve the decision maker in the sales process
Let's get to the heart of the matter!🚀
The qualification phase generally takes place during the first commercial contact with the prospect. It allows you to obtain crucial information about your b-to-b prospect and enables you to identify whether he is likely to use your solution in his business.
The objective is therefore to obtain as much information as possible about your prospect's business.
First point: avoid as much as possible questions where they can answer "yes" or "no". You will get little information from these questions. Concentrate on open-ended questions that will force the prospect to reveal himself.
Of course, you must direct the questions to subjects that will lead to your solution.
Example: if you are selling a solution to increase the sales performance of your teams, you must direct the conversation to obtain business information such as: the number of salespeople, the organisation of the sales department, the number of average appointments per salesperson, the time they spend prospecting, etc.
Second point: Don't just listen to your prospect. Following your questions, the prospect should start to open up. At this point, take as many notes as possible, on everything they may say. Practice active listening as much as possible.
Not everything will be useful, but there is a lot of information that you can use in the rest of the sales process. If the prospect gives you figures, you are well on the way to a sale!
Third point: You must position yourself as an "advisor" rather than a salesperson, you are there to help their business; otherwise, why would they take time for you? If he makes an appointment with your sales team, it is to solve his problem!
Fourth point: Keep control of the conversation. If your prospect is monopolising the conversation and leading in the qualification phase, you won't be able to get the business elements you need. Let them talk, but take over when you have the information you need.
To conclude, dig down to a figure and the main problem (pain point) of the btob prospect.
Sometimes a prospect may say "That's not a priority right now" when you start to get into the thick of things.
The conclusion: If subscribing to your offer is not a priority for your prospect, it is because you have unfortunately not succeeded in really getting them interested during the qualification phase. They didn't fully understand your value to them, the problem you will solve. That's the importance of this phase, the questions you ask them are supposed to guide them towards using your solution.
First point: You need to go further and further in the qualification process so that you don't just focus on the surface elements that the prospect will want to give you. You need to identify and make the prospect aware thatthey need to solve their problem now, because they are losing money.
Second point: To make your prospect understand that investing in your solution is a priority, try to retrieve some numerical information about their current problems, and highlight it.
Example: if the prospect explains to you that he has 20% turnover in his company of 100 people, and that each new recruitment costs him €5,000, we can clearly identify a loss of money of about €100,000 because of this turnover problem.
If you are able to make such an analysis in relation to what your prospect says, you are confronting him directly with his problem.
Once you have established the problem (in euros, in time, etc.) with your b-to-b prospect, it is at this point that you must compare his current situation with his situation if your solution solves his problem. By focusing both on their logical reasoning with facts (lost sales, lost time) and on their emotions with the image of a more manageable daily business, it will be much more difficult for the prospect to escape and ignore the problem you are proposing to solve.
This technique is very effective in making the prospect aware that the business problem you are solving is a priority.
During the prospect qualification phase, one of the most recurrent difficulties for a salesperson is to ensure that they are talking to the right decision-maker(s). What to do and say to involve the right person in B2B?
First point: Don't ask your prospect directly if they are a decision maker. In general, you don't know them, and chances are they won't tell the truth. Not out of malice, but more because sometimes the prospect doesn't want to lose face and say that he doesn't decide. With this question, you run the risk of offending your prospect, which will nip in the bud their desire to listen to you.
An alternative to this question is to say, "Before you plan the demo, who else in your house needs to see what I am going to show you?"
In this way, you avoid hurting the ego of your interlocutor and, depending on his or her response, are able to involve other actors in the decision-making process.
Second point: Another technique is to ask your prospect how their previous purchase went.
"Have you ever subscribed to a solution of this type? How was the experience?"
"And in your previous purchases..."
If a person has invested in the past, then there is a good chance that they will invest in the same way in the future. This is because a buyer generally behaves the same way from one purchase to the next.
The objective here is to once again get your prospect to talk to you in order to obtain information about their buying behaviour, their way of investing. Chances are they will tell you about the people involved in the purchase, so you can identify a decision maker.
If there are certain behaviours that you must have in order to properly qualify your prospect, there are also behaviours that you should definitely not adopt!
The prospect qualification phase is THE phase that you need to succeed in order to be able to sell your product.
By following all these best practices, you can more easily determine your b-to-b prospect's pain point, show him his importance, involve the right decision-makers in the sales process and create a relationship of trust from the very first contacts.
Blacksales is the prospecting solution to exceed your pipeline and revenue goals. The solution allows you to automate your prospecting by writing your cold mailing content, contacting the best prospects and transferring the leads received directly into your CRM.
To get a maximum of qualified b to b leads, Blacksales sets up a workshop with a dedicated coach before launching your campaigns. The aim here is to define your ideal target to start contacting this precise profile. By using Backsales, you put all the chances on your side to succeed in your qualification phase thanks to an ultra-precise targeting of your preferred contacts.
To go further in the training of your b2b sales staff, Meet Your Market (MYM) helps to give sales teams the means to achieve their ambitions: Process audits, advice, methods and action-oriented training will help you to boost your results...
