Power Prospecting

by Patrick Henry Hansen

  The mistake Custer made was rushing into battle without exploring the terrain, scouting his enemy, or determining the probable success of a frontal attack. Had Custer conducted even a modicum of reconnaissance, he would have discovered that his planned assault would lead to the annihilation of his entire regiment.

  Similar to General Custer’s famous but disastrous attack at the battle of Little Bighorn, many salespeople charge into sales without surveying the situation, conducting adequate account reconnaissance, or determining win capability.

  The Point? Picking winnable battles is a trademark of successful sellers. Even sellers with polished communication skills, incredible product knowledge, and powerful personalities cannot be successful unless they concentrate on prospects with the greatest purchasing potential.

  Has this ever happened to you? You contact a prospect, gain his or her attention, present your product, answer questions, and prepare a proposal. You send a follow up letter, leave messages, and finally talk to the prospect about a few specific issues, but when you call back a week later, he or she tells you, “Your presentation was excellent, but I talked to my boss and he just isn’t interested.”

  What happened? What went wrong?

  Obviously, the account was not properly qualified. Had the account been qualified, the ultimate decision maker (the boss) would have attended the presentation.

  Sales success depends on a seller’s ability to qualify leads and gain account information critical to winning a sale prior to investing TIME (Time, Investment, Money & Effort) into the sale. There are many interested people who will never buy. The level of buyer interest is meaningless without the ability or willingness to purchase the proposed good or service. This is why qualifying is so critical to successful selling—it helps sellers make better time, investment decisions, and avoid dealing with “strokers and jokers,” “fence sitters,” and “tire kickers.”

  Qualification Characteristics

  The DNA Selling Method provides sellers with an organized procedure to analyze each selling opportunity systematically. Because many salespeople make the mistake of pursuing every prospect with the same tenacity, it is important to use a proven system of opportunity evaluation. By implementing The DNA Selling Method, sellers follow an objective, diligent qualification process that allows them to allocate their time more efficiently and deal with accounts that have the highest probability for success.

  While selling educational software, I received a call from a prospect interested in our product. The prospect asked me to fill out a lengthy RFP (request for proposal). I invested a considerable amount of time filling out the RFP. After it was completed, I submitted the RFP to my contact person and casually asked, “So what’s the timeframe on this project?” She replied, “Well, we are hoping to get a grant from the government in early spring.” My heart sank as I realized what had just happened. This prospect used me to gain information to assist his efforts to acquire a government grant that would then possibly be used to purchase my product. I could not believe I had been so stupid. That experience burned a permanent reminder in my mind to never, ever invest TIME (Time, Investment, Money & Effort) on a prospect who is not thoroughly qualified.

  Note: Qualifying is the foundation of The DNA Selling Method.

  As mentioned in Chapter 5, a qualified prospect in any industry has four general characteristics:

  1. Ultimate Decision-Maker(s)

  2. Available Funding

  3. Acceptable Timeframe(s)

  4. Matching Needs

  The Point? You can’t sell to someone who can’t buy, so be sure to qualify accounts before investing significant amounts of TIME into a sale.

  If any one of the qualifying components is missing, the probability of closing the sale is diminished. By asking simple qualification questions, sellers identify all four qualifying characteristics and enhance the probability of working with clients who are likely to purchase.

  Because some leads are temptations disguised as opportunities, it’s important to use a systematic approach to qualify contacts. Without a consistent process for qualifying buyers, sellers lose valuable time they might otherwise have used to pursue genuine opportunities.

  Qualifying (or disqualifying) prevents sellers from wasting time. Remember, the objective of selling is to spend time with prospects who need, want, and can purchase products and services.

  Creating Question Sheets

  When I first started my sales career, I learned that relying solely on memory to come up with good qualifying questions was naïve, so I created “question sheets” to assist me in asking good questions. I printed the question sheets, put them in paper protectors, placed them on my desk, and referenced them during my calls. It was extremely effective. It was also the beginning of The DNA Selling Method.

  By creating question sheets, I essentially built a library of questions to reference during the investigation stage of the selling process. The following sample qualification questions are taken from those initial sheets.

  Sample Decision-Maker Qualification Questions

  Rationale: ““Mr. Prospect, based on our experience in the X market, there are usually many people involved in making purchasing decisions.”

  Aside from yourself, who will be involved in the decision making process?

  Who, other than yourself, will be involved in making the final decision?

  A system like usually affects people at several levels of an organization. Who else is involved in the decision making process?

  Is there anyone else you usually consult with when making decisions of this type?

  Is there anyone else who needs to be involved in order to make a decision?

  Caution! Do not ask questions that insinuate the person with whom you are speaking is not a decision-maker.

  Remember, not everyone can make a decision, but many people can pull the plug on your opportunity to sell. The bulk of your time should be spent with people who can put decision ink on paper, so be sure to deal with decision makers.

  Sample Funding Qualification Questions

  Rationale: “Implementation of a project like this usually depends on available funding.”

  How do you normally fund a project like this?

  If you did choose to , is funding available to implement?

  [ABC Product] can cost anywhere between X and Y dollars depending on what you want to accomplish. How are you planning to fund this project?

  Depending on your specific needs, [automated systems] range between X and Y dollars. What does your budget look like for this project?

  This particular model requires an initial investment of X dollars, and a monthly investment of Y. Is that an acceptable investment range?

  What kind of a budget are you working with?

  Assuming your requests are met by our offer, the investment is going to run between X and Y dollars. Has funding been allocated for this project?

  What budget considerations are you working with?

  An additional advantage for asking funding related questions is preventing finances from becoming a barrier later in the selling process. By dealing with the money issues up front, you defuse the “we can’t afford it” objection before it turns up.

  Sample Timeframe Qualification Questions

  Rationale: “Implementation of a project like this usually depends on available funding. What sort of timeframe are you working with?”

  Note: Used appropriately, the sample timeframe rationale question will answer both funding and timeframe issues.

  Would you mind walking me through your evaluation process?

  Are you working with any decision deadlines?

  Do you have an identified timeframe?

  How is the purchase decision being made?

  How soo
n do you plan on making a decision?

  As you look at implementing a , what kind of timeframe are you working with?

  Will it be possible for you to purchase in the present budget cycle?

  What decision making process do you go through when deciding on a purchase such as this?

  When do you see yourself moving forward with this project?

  If you decided to go forward, when would you want to start?

  Do you need to solve any issues by a certain date?

  Thank you for telling me the timeframe. How does the decision timeframe relate to the implementation date?

  Cerebral sellers match time and effort with appropriate buying cycles and implementation dates, discover real timeframes, and adjust their selling efforts accordingly.

  Matching Needs

  The final qualifying factor in any sale is matching needs. In order for a lead to be considered qualified, product or service capabilities must match client needs. Problems, pains, and dissatisfactions need to correspond to potential product offerings and service solutions. (For a detailed analysis of matching needs, and to review sample need-problem questions, see Chapter 12).

  When to Qualify Leads

  Although qualifying sales opportunities is important, sellers should not get stymied trying to qualify the account in the first few minutes of the initial sales call.

  I traveled to Cancun, Mexico to conduct sales training for a group of salespeople at their annual corporate retreat. Part of the training focused on qualifying accounts, and as part of our ongoing coaching program, I worked with a very intense salesperson who seemed to understand the letter of the law but failed to understand the spirit of the law. He implemented our training on qualification and began qualifying accounts, but there was just one problem. He qualified his accounts in the immediate moments of his sales calls. Because dealing with people who could not purchase his product just did not make sense to him, he decided to immediately qualify his leads, and it didn’t work. He didn’t warm up his calls with friendly conversation. He failed to put buyers at ease. When he neglected to discover account information and just jumped right into qualifying the candidate, it backfired because people felt like they were getting bashed with questions. He became an overzealous seller rather than a cerebral seller.

  Note: Qualify accounts at any time during the prospecting or investigating stage of the sales cycle, when it feels most natural or comfortable.

  Implementing The DNA Selling Method

  Training graduates frequently ask, “How am I going to remember to ask all of these questions?” The answer is, of course, “You’re not.” The sample questions are simply lists of potential questions to choose from.

  To implement The DNA Selling Method, sellers need to select a few questions from each category, write them down, and memorize them before adapting them to individual situations. As our training graduates have proven over and over again, with a little bit of time and effort, the questions become second nature in sales conversations.

  It is not necessary to memorize dozens of sales related questions. Instead, memorize two or three questions from each category of The DNA Selling Method that you feel most comfortable with.

  In Summary

  The DNA Selling Method is a logical and orderly approach to selling. It is a system that has been validated in a wide variety of markets, industries, and cultures. It works. It is a sequential, step-by-step process that mirrors the sales cycle and guides prospects through the buying process.

  The reason the The DNA Selling Method is so effective is that it provides sellers with a system to qualify accounts and ask intelligent, insightful questions. When sellers do not systematize their questions, they are not as successful. When sellers fail to use a clear and simple model for asking prospects questions, they stumble through the selling process.

  Using The DNA Selling Method gives sellers an edge over competitors. When sellers commit to making The DNA Selling Method part of their selling strategy, they stand out from the thousands of salespeople who sell on instinct instead of intellect.

  The Point? Successful sellers recognize that larger sales are a compilation of small sales. By following The DNA Selling Method, sellers experience a series of small successes early in the sales relationship that eventually lead to the final sale.

  III

  part three

  Investigating

  14. The DNA Selling Method

  15. Need-Problem Questions

  16. Dynamic vs. Passive Listening

  17. Turn Interest Into Action

  Chapter 15

  Need-Problem Questions

  Genghis Khan was one of the most barbaric and brutal leaders in history. His conquests in China in the twelfth century were fierce and merciless, and he threatened to destroy a culture that had thrived for close to two thousand years. Uncultured himself, Khan saw no value in Chinese art, literature, architecture, or culture and cared about nothing more than the practical results of battle. Nomadic by nature, Khan saw China as a land with little pasture and not enough grass to feed his primary weapon of warfare, horses.

  On the verge of devastating China, Khan appointed an advisor, Ch’u-Ts’ai, who recognized the value of the Chinese culture and secretly worked to protect it. A foreigner himself, Ch’u-Ts’ai had come to appreciate the superiority of the Chinese culture and attempted to prevent Khan from totally destroying it.

  When Khan’s army was about to annihilate a major Chinese city, Ch’u-Ts’ai stepped in and convinced Khan that it would be more beneficial to tax the inhabitants than to destroy them, and Khan agreed. When Khan’s armies conquered the Chinese city of Kaifeng, Khan ordered the massacre of its inhabitants, as he had done to all of the cities that resisted him. But Ch’u-Ts’ai convinced Khan that the finest engineers and craftsmen in China were from Kaifeng and that they would be of great value to him, so Khan agreed and spared the citizens of Kaifeng.

  Ch’u-Ts’ai continued his clandestine efforts to save the Chinese people and their culture. He did so by appealing to the most powerful force known to man—self-interest. By appealing to the needs, interests, and desires of a cruel dictator, Ch’u-Ts’ai was able to prevent the total destruction of the Chinese people and their culture.

  Self-interest is the catalyst that moves people to act. When people see how you can meet their needs, eliminate their problems, or advance their interests, they will readily agree to recommendations and proposals. This is why cerebral sellers appeal to the needs, issues, and primary buying motives of buyers and focus on the interests of prospects. They identify what is important to clients and use the power of self-interest to their advantage.

  Using Need-Problem Questions in the Initial Sales Call

  If you can learn a simple trick, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.

  —Atticus Finch to his daughter, Scout,

  in To Kill a Mockingbird

  The second stage of the sales cycle is the investigation stage. In the investigation stage sellers gather information, identify needs, and determine prospective problems to match to product or service solutions. Need-problem questions transition calls from the prospecting stage of the sales cycle to the investigation stage of the sales cycle.

  Like a verbal detective, the tools of the trade for cerebral sellers are questions. Questions demonstrate concern for a prospect’s needs and place the focus of the sales process where it belongs: on the prospect. As the great sales educator Zig Ziglar stated, sellers should always “Lead with need.” Unfortunately, most salespeople instinctively jump from prospecting to presenting and miss the most vital step in the selling process, investigating.

  No selling skill has
more of an impact on the success or failure of a sale than the ability of a seller to identify a prospective buyer’s needs, problems, and pains. That bears repeating. Nothing you do in the selling process is more important than discovering needs, identifying problems, and determining the primary buying motives of buyers.

  Note: A needs analysis is much more than just a discovery process. The competitive battle is often won in the investigation stage of the sales cycle before the sales presentation even takes place.

  Review The DNA Selling Method:

  • Discovery Questions

  • Need-Problem Questions

  • Ascertain-Pain Questions

  • Solution-Benefit Questions

  The second step of The DNA Selling Method is asking need-problem questions. Need-problem questions dig for “buzz issues,” “hot buttons,” and identify subjects that can be used to create high impact presentations and fuel the sales process.

  With need-related information, sales professionals equip themselves with the required data to make account specific, credible recommendations. Without need-related information, sales professionals cannot “sell to needs.” And without needs to fill or problems to solve, there is probably little basis for a sale in the first place.

  Need-Problem questions form the foundation of a successful sale and supply sellers with three essential benefits:

  1. Determining if there is a “good fit” between problems and solutions

  2. Identifying the buyer’s primary buying motives

  3. Building credibility and rapport with buyers