How to Qualify a Sales Opportunity

 How do you find a prospect that will end with a successful closing?

There are some key points when looking for new opportunities:

• Know who you are approaching - Put together a file of the important information. 
• Be realisitic with your initial goal - Book an appointment, send important information.  Don't expect a sales on your first contact call.
• Think about potential questions you will be asked - Have a list of FAQ's ready to answer when you are in the initial stage. 
• Keep it simple - Talk in plain english, don't become too technical, keep the call under 3 minutes and have a script handy to keep you on track.

Now that you have found made the initial contact and there is potential with this new prospect, how you know that it will be successful.  You don't want to be wasting your time when you can see that it will never work out.  So, the next step is to qualify the prospect.

I learned from this blog post that there are 3 questions to answer to see if a prospect is qualified or not.  If the answers are no, then it may be better the wait until this company is ready to benefit from our services.

The questions are:

• Will they buy?
• When will they buy?
• Will they buy from me?

These will help you determine if you are "barking up the right tree."

WILL THEY BUY?

• Does this company have a real need?
• Are they currently looking to fill this need?
• Can you identify an issue that you can help resolve?

WHEN WILL THEY BUY?

• Is there a sense of urgency surrounding this issue?
• Ask what their timeframe is regarding the need
• If there is not a need within your timeframe, come back to them at a later date

WILL THEY BUY FROM ME?

• Ask the hard questions eg. If I do a quote that is better then others, will I be chosen or not?
• Try to find out if your quote is to build leverage against a competitor
• Wait for answers and decide if you believe what the prospect is telling you