Qualifying is the Inside Sales Golden Ticket
It’s time to have a little heart-to-heart about something that’s near and dear to our wallets: qualifying.
In the world of inside sales, it’s easy to get caught up in the dazzle of sharing your knowledge, presenting, and pitching. If you’re all show and no dough, you might as well be spinning your wheels.
Qualifying is the detective work of inside sales. It’s about digging deep to understand your prospects. Sure it includes problems, pain points, and money. Perhaps more important is uncovering what they want to achieve: personally / professionally as well as what the company wants the result to look like.
Without this critical information, you’re just shooting in the dark and that’s no way to CONSISTANTLY hit your sales targets.
So, why do we sometimes fall into the trap of being all show, no dough? Well, it’s partly because we’re enthusiastic and passionate about what we’re selling. We want to share the awesomeness of our product or service with the world. But enthusiasm alone will not move the prospect along in their buying process.
When you’re too focused on the presentation and not enough on qualification, you risk several pitfalls:
- Wasting Time: Your time is precious AND one of the two things I believe you can control.
Spending hours on a prospect / lead / deal that will never convert into a customer / opportunity / sale is a direct hit to your productivity. Time spent with those who linger unqualified is time you could be spending on those who are ready to buy. - Burnout: Chasing after deals that go nowhere can be demoralizing AND your attitude is the second thing I believe you can control. Stop running a marathon without a finish line in sight – qualifying not only saves you time but also preserves your mental and emotional energy.
- Inflated Expectations: When you’re all show, no dough, you might get a false sense of success.
You think you’re killing it because you’re getting positive reactions (or at least smiles and nods as you talk away), but sales numbers don’t lie. Your commission check won’t magically fill up with praise and compliments.
Qualifying really is your golden ticket to making some real green.