3 Questions to Ask Every Sales Prospect by lisafugere Today, thanks to the ab

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3 Questions to Ask Every Sales Prospect by lisafugere

Today, thanks to the abundance of resources online, finding leads is easier than it?s ever been. But finding the right leads is more challenging than ever. Social media and marketing automation make it a lot easier to find a high volume of leads, but that leaves a lot of qualification work to the sales team. Before you begin selling to a prospect, you have to know if they?re a good fit. The answers to three questions will ensure that you?re always reaching the right prospects.
1. Are you the person who makes the decision?
When pursuing a prospect, it is important to know immediately if the person with whom you talk has the authority to make the sale. If you are not dealing with the decision maker, you are talking with the wrong person. Ask your prospect about the company?s decision making process. This will tell you how many people you will have to deal with to make the sale. If your prospect is one of the decision makers, you are on the right track. By talking with this person, you learn what you need to do to get the other decision makers on board.
2. Do you have the budget to buy our services or products?
Many companies have high hopes for success on a low budget. You need to learn early on if the company has the financial resources to buy your products or services. While you can learn a lot about companies online, sometimes this relevant information is hard to find for private companies. Even when you can uncover financial data about public companies, you don?t necessarily know how much of their budget is available to fund your project. Before you make your pitch, you have to tactfully ask your prospect if he or she has the approval and funding to make a purchase.
3. When will you be in a position to buy?
For your own forecast, and so you can properly time the sale, you need to know when a prospect?s budget is available to you. Deals that may close quickly take some precedence over deals that won?t close for three quarters. You can also help your prospect manage his or her budget, and the implementation of your products, if you have a clear deadline. A prospect that has no clue when he or she will be in a position to buy your products likely has not yet secured a budget, and is not yet sure who the final decision maker will be. Ask this question, and you may have an answer to the other two.You can learn a lot from doing your pre-call homework with sales intelligence, but there will always be questions only your prospect can answer. Don?t waste your time asking questions that you can find the answers to on your own; make the most of the time you have with a prospect on the phone to discover those answers you can only find from your prospect.