If you are a company just starting out with your teleprospecting strategy or you are looking to revamp your methods when it comes to questions to ask during the lead qualification process, you've come to the right place. One of my favorite aspects of my role as Director of Customer Success is working with organizations just like yours. You have a blank canvas to work with, and you might not be exactly sure where or even how to start.
The first step in your lead qualification procses is to think about your script document, and more specifically, the qualification questions you want to ask. When it comes to your sales scripts, you may be scratching your head, wondering what questions you should be asking potential customers on the first call. You may be thinking, Is it too soon to be asking BANT questions? Will I scare prospects away asking too much too fast? The answer to these questions is No. If your prospects are truly that interested in the area you are looking to help them improve upon, they are going to be willing to share this information with you, at least at a high level. If they aren’t, odds are they weren’t the best prospect for you to begin with.
So here’s what I suggest for an exercise as you think about what sales prospecting qualification questions you want to ask. I believe there are two buckets of qualification questions. There are the general, cookie-cutter type of questions, and then the specific questions that you need to know in order to determine the specifics of prospects' environment to see how your product or service could fit.
Here are some examples of the general qualification questions you can use across the board, no matter what product, solution, or consulting you are selling:
- What challenges are you experiencing with your current process/technology?
- What impact are those challenges having on your business?
- Ideally, when would you like to solve those challenges from a timeframe perspective?
- What does your budget process look like?
You’ll notice these are all open-ended questions. This is the most important piece of advice I can give. If you use close ended questions for these general qualification questions, the prospect has more of an out to give you a “No” and hang up.
Now you have the ability to drill in a bit deeper about their specific environment. This bucket is crucial because the answers to these questions will allow the inside sales rep following up on the opportunity to have a successful next call focusing on the right solution(s) for their environment. These questions vary from company to company and aren’t always standard like the ones in the previous bucket.
Some examples for these questions are more closed-ended:
- How many users do you have?
- How big is the team managing this?
- What technology do you have in place?
- What CRM system do you use?
- How many servers do you have?
When creating or revamping your roadmap for your script, coming up with qualification questions aren’t always easy. Make sure to take the time to determine which ones make the best sense for your company. How do you define yours?
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