Often because we lack courage and discernment…
I have coached, taught, and consulted with literally thousands of sales managers and sales professionals for the better part of 13 years and I have witnessed a consistent theme – we’re lousy at qualifying new opportunities! My litmus test for this is a question I ask of many: “Of the last 10 opportunities you were invited to bid on, how many did you decide not to bid?” The disappointing answer most of the time: “Almost none.”
Why does this happen? It comes down to a few things:
- Prospects/clients need us to bid (so that they have negotiating leverage with their preferred vendor) so they have every motivation to both invite us to the dance and, worse yet, to make us believe that we have a reasonable chance to win (which is often not the truth)
- As sales professionals and managers we often want to increase the size of our opportunity pipeline so that we have the comfort associated with pipeline growth – which is a dangerous thing!
- We also tend to wear our “happy ears” and too easily convince ourselves that we have a good enough solution/product to win and displace the incumbent solution. In reality, the reason the “do nothing” decision is so prevalent is that the average client will do all possible to not change from what they do today!
The solution to the problem is not complicated but it takes a paradigm shift for most:
- Qualifying requires courage! Courage to ask the hard questions. Courage to challenge the client/prospects assumptions. And, courage to just say “no” if the facts you discover make it obvious that you don’t have a reasonable chance to win
- Without discernment we get fooled. When we believe everything the client tells you and you don’t have a dose of skepticism (or paranoia if you prefer) you will, at your own peril, allow the client to make you comfortable about your probability of winning
The ugly reality is that your inability to qualify out of the wrong deals may be the biggest reason you lose the deals you actually belong pursuing.
I provide more details on how to qualify effectively in my eBook called, UnSelling™. You can view the webinar and also download a free copy of our newly published eBook UnSelling™: Sell Less … To Win More. The free eBook is available in several formats, including Kindle, Nook, iBook, PDF, and more.