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Qualifying for Money
Have you been
taught to ask a prospect, "...and what's your budget?" or "Do you
have a budget for this?" Perhaps you're one of the brave salespeople
who prefers not to ask, instead hoping that when it's time to buy,
the money will be there. In today's Baseline Selling Tip, I will
address the importance of financial qualification and demonstrate
the most effective way to do it.
Not knowing how much a prospect can spend has a few obvious
problems. They may not be able to afford what you propose or they
may be able to afford much more than what you propose. Additionally,
your proposed solutions may not provide the best bang for your
prospects' bucks. And then there's the time you wasted if you
guessed wrong.
With the exception of a custom engineered or custom designed
solution, most salespeople, by the time they reach
second base,
have a sense for how much money a prospect will need to invest in
order to get the most appropriate solution. Assuming that you have
quantified the prospect's problem using my
Rule of Ratios,
you can simply ask, "Are you willing to invest around (cost of your
solution) in order to fix this problem once and for all?" The "once
and for all" part is very powerful. If they are, you can move on to
one of the other 26 plus areas in which your prospect must be
qualified before you can reach
third base. If
they can't or won't spend the money, you can ask, "why not?"
If you sell commodities, and you've identified and quantified the
problem, you can ask, "Are you willing to spend a little bit more
with me to solve this problem once and for all?" It's important that
you differentiate yourself and this question helps you do that while
making it clear that they won't be buying your expertise for the
lowest price.
Baseline Selling - How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You
Already Know about the Game of Baseball, describes the art and
science of getting people to spend money beginning on page 120. If
you need to become more effective selling value, that discussion
begins on page 122.
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How
to Become a Sales Superstar