CMGT/556 Qualifying a Prospective product or service

Review the Skillsoft Job Aid, “Preparing to Qualify a Prospect.”

Assignment

Choose one of the products or services your company offers, or think of an idea you had to sell a product. Then, follow the steps in the Skillsoft Job Aid: Preparing to Qualify a Prospect

Job Aid

Preparing to Qualify a Prospect

Purpose: Use this job aid to help you prepare to qualify a prospect.

The first step during a detailed analysis is to research the prospect and how your product or service can resolve the prospect’s business problem.

Step 1: Researching your prospect

Area of research Question
Ideal customer profile What is my ideal customer profile?

– Type of industry

– Annual revenue

– Number of employees

– Customer base

– Corporate values and culture

Prospect’s business situation What is the current business situation of the prospect’s company? 

Is the prospect in a buying position?

Prospect’s goals What are the goals of the prospect?
Prospect’s needs What is the prospect’s business need? 

How great is that need?

How can my product or service help address the need?

Prospect’s decision-making process Who is the decision maker? 

What functional area does the decision maker belong to? 

What should be the focus of my sales pitch?

Objections What are some of the possible objections the prospect may raise?

What are two solutions that I can offer to each of these objections?

Claims How can I back up my claims that my product or service will resolve a prospect’s business problem?
Competitive edge Why would a prospect want to buy my product or service? 

How will my product or service contribute toward the prospect’s competitiveness?

Commitments What commitments do I want from the prospect?
Prospect’s success criteria What success criteria will the prospect use to judge my product or service?

A qualification meeting can provide further information about a prospect. To plan for this meeting, it’s useful to create a meeting worksheet.

Step 2: Planning a qualification meeting

My objectives My strategy My agenda
What do I want to achieve from a qualification meeting? What strategy can I employ to ensure a prospect is willing to meet me? What questions do I need to ask to follow up on the results of my research?
What are my company’s and my prospect’s business objectives? What value do I bring to the meeting? How do these questions align to my objectives?
How do my objectives meet my company’s and my prospect’s business objectives? What are the advantages of my product or service?
How can my product or service help solve a prospect’s business problem?