Qualify IN and Qualify OUT

To grow a financially strong business having income that is "guaranteed" each year is a wonderful thing. 

So when you receive a call from a customer asking for you to quote for a "contract" it is understandable that you might get excited. 

I know I get excited when asked to quote for some work, particularly if it looks quite a big opportunity.

However, I have also learned that it is important to stay grounded and be curious.

Most other sales people will be rushing to their vehicles to get down and see the potential opportunity and they will do everything they can to secure the deal.

I strongly advise the "be curious" approach.....

The main reason is that I want to understand more about the opportunity before I started getting excited and more importantly, investing my time to help the customer and secure the work.

I want to qualify the opportunity (and the customer) IN or OUT. 

Qualified IN means that I will spend more time and Qualified OUT means that I will pass on the opportunity.

The other reason is that I DON'T WANT to sound like every other company that the potential customer might be speaking with.

There are lots of factors that I consider, however the first step is to start asking questions....

And to build trust the first question I ask is.... 

"Do you mind if I ask a few questions and then I can see if we can help...?"

Then I have some main questions that I use as a framework and adjust as I need (sometimes as a result of what they say)

  • What type of Service are you looking for..?
  • Who (if anyone) currently carries out the service..? (or who have you used before)
  • How are things going..?
  • Why change...?
  • How much are you paying?
  • How did you hear about us..? (and why did you choose to ring us)
  • How quickly are you looking to make a decision?
The responses to these questions then allows we to ascertain if I want to continue to pursue the opportunity or not. 

I have saved hours of my time by following this process AND made myself STAND OUT from others involved in the process.

There are other questions like "is there anything in particular you would be looking for from a new contractor", "what are your payment terms"... etc... 

The key thing in the initial call or meeting to is to be curious and do this initial qualification before investing more time.

You can qualify further as you move through the process, making sure that you are not becoming a "free consultant" - where you give them all the information they need and they do it themselves or give it another contractor / company.

While this advice is aimed at Service Contract type work the same approach (modified appropriately) can be used for any customer that approaches you to carry out work.



Location: Henley-on-Thames RG9, UK

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