Seven Steps to Qualify Your Prospect

Few steps of forming a business relationship have more importance than qualifying the prospect's interest and commitment. It's a high-payoff and high-value use of your time, and leads to a constructive outcome for both parties in the relationship.

The underlying goal is to "match" your product, service, business opportunity, or offer with the values, goals, and commitment of the prospect. You're not there to impose, coerce, or persuade someone to buy what you're offering. It's perfectly OK to offer what you have and for the other person to say graciously, "No, and thanks for offering!"

With this paradigm, you free yourself from the pressure of having to sell, convince, or push in any way. It becomes much easier for you to talk with someone and explore the important things.

What are the important things? The most important is to identify the prospect's state of readiness. This clarifies their timetable to act.

THE BUYING CYCLE

Every person goes through an identifiable, predictable cycle that I call "the buying cycle." Embrace it and implement it if you want to make a major impact on your success rate.

Every person's buying cycle has three distinct phases:

• Phase 1: Satisfied
• Phase 2: Dissatisfied
• Phase 3: Ready

The best use of your time is to identify which phase of the buying cycle your prospect is in.Nothing can produce a higher win for both parties than to help the buyer determine his or her state of readiness to take action. What's the real timetable for doing something, anything?

While other people are pitching and extolling the virtues of their product, service, company, plant, marketing plan, or compensation structure, you should talk (and actually listen) to your buyers about the only thing that matters: them!

Identifying their state of readiness will guide you to the next step in the relationship. If a person is truly satisfied, you don't want to persuade them to do something new and different. Even if you could, "Anyone convinced against his will is of the same opinion still." Until they become dissatisfied, there's no reason for them to change what they're doing. Taking the time to tell your story to these people is not a high-payoff use of your most precious resource, time.

There's good news, however: Satisfied people eventually become dissatisfied. The best you'll do with a satisfied person is inform them or make them aware of something they don't know. This information might get them to realize they're in phase 2: dissatisfied.

Even so, they're still far from being ready to do something about their dissatisfaction. We all have problems, challenges, and difficulties, but we don't solve them all. We live with many of them. If you offer a solution to a problem that I'm content to live with and I'm not ready to change, I'll retreat. I'll object to the change you propose-and the game is over (for now).

If you're not careful and choose to persist, you might extinguish any chance of future business. Remember, prospects act when they're ready, not when you want them to. Fish eat when they're hungry! Your goal is to find as many hungry fish as you can-phase-3 people who are ready to make a change and committed to seeing it through.

The question then becomes, is what you offer the solution they want? They want an adequate solution, not the best. (There is no best.) They want not only an adequate solution, but added value from a trusted advisor. They want to be cared for and cared about. They want to be led to water, and then allowed to decide what and when to drink.

The key is communication. Regardless of what phase they're in today, they may be a prime prospect sometime in the future, when their situation changes. People can turn into a phase-3 buyer at any moment. This underlines the importance of staying in touch with people. The whole purpose of marketing is communication and adding value. Phase-2 dissatisfied people are one step away from taking action. Any event-tommorow or next week-can trigger the change that makes them ready to buy.

If you're positioned in prospects' minds and hearts as the trusted advisor, they'll seek you out for your counsel. Even if the best decision for them is not to work with you or buy what you offer, you've made a friend and performed a service that will reward you many times.

Sometimes, in our fast-paced rush to win people over, we may lose sight of the real reasons we do our work. In some measure, you work to serve others. To achieve this, it may be the right thing for you to recommend an alternative that you can't supply. Would it surprise you that in some industries, 11% to 21% of all new business is referred by the "competition"?

Sounds more like cooperation to me. And that's the essential ingredient in every mutually beneficial, win-win business and personal relationship. Trust and respect must be earned by each side. If buyer and seller believe in one another enough to be associates (not adversaries) and cooperative (not confrontational), then each will obtain the highest and best result. This leads to a true partnership.

On the other hand, when one party attempts to take advantage of the other (to get the most for themselves), neither party reaches the best payoff. The best is immediately compromised. Making a fair profit is best for business, and seeking the highest ideal for both parties is good karma.

To help you identify a person's state of readiness, I developed a simple seven-step process, "Seven Steps to Qualifying Your Prospect." It can be used literally and sequentially, or it can supplement or wrap around a process you already use. Utilize the steps that make sense to you and for the situation. Be flexible.

Step 1. Buying Strategy: Why Do You Buy What You Buy?

The first thing I want to know about prospects is their buying strategy. What did they buy in the past and why? What criteria do they use to make a buying or business decision? Be careful not to impose your views or beliefs on what, why, how, and when other people buy. It's easy to blow right past this step.

You must understand as much as you can about what makes this person tick if you want to position your offer in the proper light. Ask, "What caused you to buy or decide in the past? How did you select your service providers?"

The answers to these questions will give you an enormous amount of information and-most important-will get them talking. If you understand more about what they want than anyone else, you're best positioned as the trusted advisor to help them get it.

Step 2. Support the Past Decision: What Did You Do Right?

This is a crucial step. Making a decision is one of the scariest things we do. Sometimes we get paralyzed, fearing the bad things that may result if we make the wrong decision.

Support is something few of us get much of, and if you can support a person's decision, regardless of outcome, you become one of the important people in that person's life. There are so few people who support us. When we meet them, we're instantly attracted to them.

Realize that if you criticize their choice, decision, outcome, or action in any way, you immediately chill that relationship. It might take a long time for them to thaw and warm up to you again. Making a decision, any decision, is such an accomplishment that it should be commended and supported, regardless of the outcome and consequences.

Ask questions such as, "How did that work out for you? What are you satisfied with, or happy about? What good came out of that decision?" After all, something good comes out of every decision. Praise their action and support the past decision.

Step 3. Measure Dissatisfaction: What Would You Change or Do Differently?

"If you knew then what you know now, what would you have done differently? If you could go back and do it again, what would you change? What challenges do you face now that you'd like to overcome? How will you do it the next time?"

These questions all point to the crucial state of readiness. How dissatisfied is the prospect? Dissatisfied but not quite ready-or sizzling hot, ready to launch into action the moment he or she finds the right solution?

In this step, you identify whether the prospect is on or off course-that is, getting closer or further away from what he or she wants. Here's where you'd explore the consequences and implications of the problem or challenge if it persists, and the depth of prospects' emotional dissatisfaction. If they don't feel the emotional, psychological, and financial cost is great enough, they're simply not ready to consider a solution. Today. But they will be.

Step 4. Future State: What Are Your Decision Criteria?

Find out how the prospect wants a product, service, or opportunity delivered to them. Ask, "What do you want it to do for you? How would you want it to feel? What are the key decision criteria you'll use to buy this product or service in the future? What are your most important priorities?"

This helps prospects see a vision of what they want. The clearer the picture, the easier it will be to help them find it, even if you don't offer it. Remember, trusted advisors are always looking out for the best interest of the client, and must be detached enough to recommend solutions even when they don't have them. The universal law of cause and effect will always bring something good back to you if you do good by others.

Step 5. Time Frame for Action: When Do You Want It?

This is arguably the most important piece of information you'll get from a person. "When do you want that result, solution, benefit, feeling, or outcome? How soon do you want to make a change?" The answer helps you determine your next step.

Many people never ask the all important "when" question. They often assume that because a person is interested, they'll actually do something about it right now. Nothing could be further from the truth. People take action when they're ready to buy, not when the seller is ready to sell. Fish eat when they're hungry, not when you drop the line.

Just because someone is interested today doesn't mean they'll act today. A trusted advisor helps a person make a decision in his or her right time frame. That means finding out when they want to take the next step or start the process.

There's a serious danger in trying to persuade people to do something before they're ready. Research clearly shows a very low success rate when a person is asked to buy before they're ready. Phase-2 buyers are dissatisfied, challenged, or have a problem, but haven't said explicitly that they're ready to go.

Knowing a person's time frame for action points you to the next step and defines how you should advance the relationship. It clarifies expectations, clears up misconceptions, and gives you and the buyer a clear target time in which to complete the deal.

After lowering their resistance and answering most objections (which are resistance to solutions they're not ready to act upon), you and the prospects are now on the same page. You can now proceed smoothly to the next milestone.

Step 6. Qualifying Action: Will You Take Action?

I'm an advocate of direct questioning. Direct questions get direct answers. Beating around the bush creates uncertainty and tension. What you do next will be determined by the person's level of interest, state of readiness, and willingness to commit to action.

If you don't get this on the table, you can waste a lot of your life presenting opportunities and solutions to people who will never do a darn thing about it. They might listen to you, hear you out, give you the courtesy of looking at what you've got, even humor you-and still never buy from you.

Determine how much time you want to spend with each person. Spending time with ready buyers and people who are soon to buy is a high-payoff activity.

If you know their time frame and willingness to take action, your chances of gaining their commitment increase dramatically. Ask questions such as, "Would you make a change if it were in your best interest to do so? Would you revise, adjust, or modify what you're doing now to help you get what you want? Would you act if the right opportunity came along? If it would be beneficial to you to [reach your goals, increase your income, buy the second car, finance your children's education], would you make a change right now? Are you committed enough to take action or do something about it?"

If you feel these are too direct for your taste, tone them down as you see fit. Direct questioning should not be intrusive or sound like an interrogation-but if you don't get these questions answered, it will be like shooting at a moving target miles away with a blindfold on. That's why so many sellers live in hope. They hope a person is going to buy. They don't know, because they haven't asked the important (and in some cases, hard) questions.

Step 7. Commitment: Is This Problem Worth Solving?

This is the commitment question. "Is the problem worth solving? Is this challenge or dissatisfaction worth doing something about? Is the opportunity worth pursuing?"

If they say, "Yes!" they've stated explicitly that they want to do something about it. Explicit statements lead to high levels of sales conversion, fewer objections, less resistance, and an openness to solutions you may offer. If the person says, "No," they're not ready, or don't see the problem as big enough to need solving. Don't attempt to show them why they should buy anyway.

Trying to sell or persuade people who aren't ready is a futile act. It comes off as pushy, leads to disharmony, and creates a feeling that you're trying to convince them to do something against their best interest. It undermines trust, and can all but eliminate any chance you might have for a future relationship.

If they're simply not ready now, you can do very little to influence their decision today. But there's a lot you can do about positioning your offer so that when they become ready, they'll commit to action more quickly and easily.

It's OK for someone not to buy in to your opportunity. If you present yourself elegantly and know what the other person truly wants, you begin a relationship that could last for years.

Fill your pipeline with lots of people, and contact them frequently with valuable information, ideas, and education. Call, write, and fax phase-1 people. Speak at length on the phone with phase-2 buyers, and meet with those who seem the most dissatisfied today.

This will help to ensure that when they reach phase-3 status, you're positioned as the trusted advisor and have the best shot to get their business. Understand the buying cycle, use these seven steps-and watch your success rate skyrocket.