I think one of the biggest reasons of why people never graduate to that next tier of becoming a sales professional is because they waste their time.
They waste their time on prospects who are going to spin tires.
They are going to allocate time toward speaking and demoing prospects who had no INTENTION on buying or converting into a customer in the first place.
Well my friends… The secrets I’m about to share with you here will ensure that YOU will ONLY spend YOUR TIME with prospects who will most likely have CLOSABLE REVENUE attached to them.
QUICK DISCLOSURE: The needs assessment questions below are apart of a sales process that has been leveraged to grow & scale several software companies (all of which were acquired without naming names).
This sales process is so effective that it can be used by BDRs on discovery calls, AEs as they work a prospect through the sales process, or even Enterprise Account Executives. Doesn’t matter.
All of the software companies that made this process universal across their sales forces were acquired within 2-3 years of it being adopted because each of their revenues soared so much.
It all starts here…
The following is a basic framework of the best qualifying questions to ask a prospect during the discovery call or first needs assessment call:
Category 1: Business Fundamentals
- Why did you (prospect or company) contacts us?
- Tell me about your company…
- How long have you been in business?
- What role do you play in the business?
- What type of customers do you have?
Category 2: Business Requirements
- What are you looking for our solutions to address for you?
- What are your goals/objectives?
- How are you currently addressing this today?
- What program are you using today? What solution?
- What is your current process or workflow?
- What is the current process that you and your colleagues have to go through?
- What is your biggest challenge (s) with your current process?
- How would you like to do it?
- What is most important for the solution to do or issue to address for you?
- How serious are you in making a change?
- What was the trigger that prompted you to looking for a new solution?
The last question get’s after whether or not your prospect has an impending event or something driving the need for change internally.
This is good to know because it is often associated with pain, deep pain, that you can respectfully dig into and constantly remind the prospect of as you progress the sales process.
Above is just the beginnings of this sales process and to see the second half (arguably the most important nuggets of information) click below to get to…
Never Deal with an UNQUALIFIED Prospect Again: The SoftwareSalesGuru Needs Assessment Guide Part 2
