Sales Performance Improvement

Sales qualification determines prospects’ priority, who need immediate attention, and those who need to be filtered out or contacted later. It usually comes after the leads have been generated through prospecting. It’s the stage where you build a rapport with your prospect based on initial interactions. At this stage, you determine if the prospect is interested or qualified to move ahead in the purchase journey.

Downloadable Template

Discovery questions

Asking the right questions can be the best way to turn prospects into revenue. Your agenda should be to get longer responses. Instead of introducing new questions, you can reframe them based on 10 points. 

  1. Context: What are the changes since we spoke last?
  2. Pain: Last time, we discussed solving [mention challenges]. What’s missing that can be worth covering today?
  3. Impact: How is [challenge] affecting the business?
  4. Current state: How are you addressing [challenges/pain points]?
  5. Quantify impact: What happens if you don’t address [challenges/pain points]?
  6. Qualification: When evaluating a technology partner, what’s most important to you?
  7. Impact/Timing: What happens if we don’t address this [pain/challenge] now but sometime later?
  8. Influencers: Who would feel left out if they weren’t part of the [next call]?
  9. Potential blockers: Who else will your product/service affect?
  10. Buying process: Walk through how they purchased [similar solution].

A helpful read could be 10 Sales Qualification Questions that You Must Ask Your Prospects

Managing Inbound sales

62% of sales teams who don’t use inbound social selling don’t hit their quotas. Sales reps have moved beyond hard-selling, even in cold outreach strategies. Inbound sales is an empowering technique where prospects reach out to you through websites, ads, or other sources. It is a simple method where you win deals by solving the challenges for the prospects. 

Here’s everything you need to get started with inbound sales. 

Process: Managing inbound sales

Stage 1: Identify

Who is involved in this stage?
  • Marketing team 
  • SDRs (Sales Development Representatives)
What are the expected outcomes?
  • It starts with the marketing team that forwards inbound leads to the sales team. The sales team qualifies them by following up.
  • The leads typically have a score assigned to them, which will help the SDR qualify them.
Tips at this stage
  • Lead scoring is ongoing and needs to be constantly tested and adjusted. With time, you can identify trends and actions that typically convert into a sale. It will further help in prioritization. 
  • Your SDRs can always reach out to leads that haven’t achieved a specific score to understand the prospect’s goals and timeframes.

Stage 2: Connect

Who is involved in this stage? SDR or Inside Sales Rep/Account Executive (depending on the size of your company)
What are the expected outcomes?
  • MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads) need to be reached out to learn more about their goals.
Tips at this stage
  • Follow up ASAP, especially if they request a call.
  • If you follow up within five minutes, you’re nine times more likely to convert a lead.
  • Be persistent: follow up, even if a lead doesn’t respond initially. Without follow-up, your pipeline will go dry.

Stage 3: Explore

Who is involved in this stage? SDRSales Engineer/Solutions Architect
(if your product is highly technical)
What are the expected outcomes?
  • Explore if the lead can overcome challenges with your product/service. Identify the decision-makers and the timeframe. 
  • The goal is to qualify the lead to move ahead as an opportunity. If the lead is not mature enough, the marketing team can continue nurturing them. 
Tips at this stage

 

 

 

 

  • If applicable, send a questionnaire before a call. It will clarify expectations. It also makes the lead spend time and effort understanding your offerings.
  • Questions you could ask are:

    ◦ How many users will use the product/service, and how often?

    ◦ What are the most critical features?

    ◦ Will this grow in the next six months to one year?

        ▪ Note: The questionnaire should be short and not longer than three to five minutes to fill out.

Stage 4: Advise

Who is involved in this stage? SDRSales Engineer/Solutions Architect (if applicable)
What are the expected outcomes?
  • Answer lead queries. Let them know if your product/service is suitable for them. 
  • Conver good leads into an opportunity in your database, and pass all the details to the Account Executive running the opportunity.
Tips at this stage
  • Customers value honesty: You should clarify if your product lacks features that the lead may need.
  • Also, let them know if it’s a feature in your product roadmap for the next six months. Here’s where you should also tell them your competitor may be the best fit for their needs, if applicable.
  • The worst thing you can do is overpromise and not deliver.

Also read: Everything you Need to Know About MEDDICC

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