Sales Training - How to Dis-Qualify a prospect.

Guest post by: Louie Bernstein
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Third in a series: Sales Management Training - 7 Disciplines (now 21 total) You Need From Your Sales Team. - By Louie Bernstein

I had to release a sales rep (Bob) from our company. He just wasn’t hitting his numbers, despite plenty of coaching, sale training and warnings. Bob’s accounts were transitioned to another sales rep (Ted). Bob had one of his accounts forecasted to close for several months at 75% probability or higher, for at least three months. One day after transitioning the account to Ted, the CEO of this prospective company, who Bob was not dealing with, called and asked if he could have an extension of the evaluation period for our software. This was the third time the prospect wanted an evaluation extension. I told Ted that I wanted to speak with the CEO before we gave any more extensions. After speaking with the CEO it turned out that:

He wasn’t going to buy our software until one of his customers bought from him.
The deal size was a quarter of what Bob had forecasted.
He thought he could just keep evaluating our software until his sales came through.

What happened? A few things:

Bob never spoke to the CEO to get the real scoop. He let his lower-level contact (Carol) dictate terms to him.
Bob probably never asked the “tough” sales questions. He wanted to be more “consultative.”
Being his sales manager, I trusted Bob was telling me the truth. My mistake. I should have dug deeper.

We talk a lot about what it takes for a prospect to be qualified. But we rarely talk about

dis-qualifying a prospect. Bob thought his prospect had all the things he needed for Carol to become a customer:

- The right platform for our software.

- A need for our software.

- Lots of customers.

And to a point, he did. What Bob did not have was:

- A prospect in Carol who had the authority to say, “Yes.”

- The willingness, or maybe the courage, in Carol to let Bob speak with the CEO who was the decision maker and the person who could sign Bob’s order form.

At that point Bob should have disqualified his prospect Carol. He should have told Carol he could not provide any additional time for evaluations until he spoke with the CEO and had his qualifying questions answered.

Sales Training Homework –In addition to your qualifying questions list your dis-qualifying prospect responses to your questions, or a lack thereof. In other words; regardless of how good they look for a sale, list what will disqualify your prospect by their actions or inactions.

1.___________________________________________________________________

2.___________________________________________________________________

3.___________________________________________________________________

Sales Managers – Don’t fall into the trap that I did. I had too much confidence in my sales rep and did not drill down far enough into the forecast.

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Free PDF Download
Third in a series: Sales Management Training - 7 Disciplines (now 21 total) You Need From Your Sales Team. - By Louie Bernstein

About the Author: Louie Bernstein

RSS for Louie's articles - Visit Louie's website
I am not a sales trainer. I am a salesman.
I have been successfully selling products and services for over two decades. My first job was at the age of 10, working at a hot dog stand in Skokie, Illinois. It's where I first learned the value of, "you want fries with that?" which you will read about later in the course. I have won sales awards with every company I have worked for, or have run. In 2002, my company, MindIQ, was included in the INC. 500 list for one of the fastest growing private companies in America, over a five year period. I have encountered probably every type of sales situation you will ever run into. What you will learn in this course is not theory. I have lived, and continue to live 262 business days a year, every one of these sales lessons.
The Sales Getters Sales Training Course is a result of all my experiences plus books on selling, seminars I've attended, tapes, CD's, DVD's and blogs I've listened to or read. Every thought and idea in this course may not be a Louie Bernstein original. Some of the selling ideas and concepts go back a millennium to some of the world's greatest thinkers. For the ideas I did not think up, I tried to put my personal spin on them and present them through my own viewpoint and professional opinion. I suggest you do the same and apply these concepts, ideas, techniques and lessons to fit your personal situation.
I have an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and in particular, sales knowledge. Based on my sales results over the years and my continued desire to be the best at what I do, I consider myself to be an expert in, and an ongoing student of, the art and science of selling.

Click here to visit Louie's website.

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