If you have ever been in sales, or have some of knowledge about the targets that most teams have to meet on a yearly basis, then you can relate to the desperation that may sometimes cloud reason.  A salesman may want to believe that the more times they pitch to potential clients, the higher their chances of closing a sale.

While this may be true for someone who is new in sales and wants to feel like they are practicing what they leant in training, the reality is often different.  Why do people think that saying that they will get back to you is a polite way of saying, “I am not interested”? You may have heard this a lot in your sales job, but do you know it is avoidable?  By qualifying the buyer it becomes easier to pick out the serious ones, leaving out the undecided time wasters.  Other benefits follow:

Saving Time

The sales process takes a lot of time before a deal is finally struck.  You need to schedule a potential client into your work schedule, just to remind them that they expressed interest in your area of sales and to take them through what they will get by doing business with you.  Unfortunately it is impossible to detect a dead end because the notion is to treat all customers equally.  By qualifying the lead, this process does not have to take so long.  You will be able to identify the shaky deals and hence focus more attention on potential clients by qualifying the prospect.  This saves valuable company time.

Tapping into Opportunities

Apart from sieving out the prospects who just want to take you on a wild goose chase then disappoint you with no sale, qualifying is also able to pick out those who require a little bit more effort before a deal can be concluded with them.  It is important to be able to identify the potential of different types of clients, so that even opportunities that are not straightforward can be seen.

Closing The Best Deals

The qualification process, among other things, gets information from a prospect on their need for a product, buying potential and benefit that the product or relationship with your company will bring.  Salesmen and women are known for their persuasive tactics and one of the bad outcomes of these is to sell to a customer who shouldn’t have bought the product.  This is bad for the company because it portrays to the public that customer needs are not take seriously.  Qualifying a sales lead is the only criteria you can use to know if you are selling to the right customer.

Know How To Treat Different Prospects

The fact that you are selling one kind of product, does not mean that all the people that you do business with are at the same level.  It is very important to know what standard of customers you are dealing with to be able to sell to them.  While you may get away with a casual pitch to a local businessman, you will need to customise your pitch to appeal to high profile prospects.  Qualifying a potential customer helps in customisation of the sales pitch to the needs of a prospect.