| Pete Wisowaty has been a Track Selling die-hard fan for decades. In a recent podcast with Pete, he reinforced the importance of qualifying opportunities (Step 2 of Track Selling) before proceeding further in the sale.
Qualify in and Qualify Out! Here's Pete's story.
"Several years ago, I was head of sales for a start-up with a 20-person global sales team in the software industry. At the beginning of Q4, which is when we historically closed over 50% of our annual business, our CEO instructed my team to focus on securing non-revenue POCs (Proof of Concept) as quickly as possible to set up business for the following year."
"At the time, I was more focused on closing year-end revenue business than non-revenue POCs for future business. We successfully exceeded our annual revenue number but failed to secure well-qualified POCs."
"When my sales team signed 65 non-revenue POCs (software downloads) in the quarter, they had done so without properly qualifying them regarding BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, and Timing). Unfortunately, the POCs were "tire kickers", unqualified prospects, and low probability prospects unlikey of converting to revenue."
"Only 1 of the 65 converted to revenue in the following quarter, and 2 others closed in the following quarters. My mistake —and lesson learned — as I took the painful hit for this!"
"We emphasized and trained professional qualification skills during the following quarter and reinforced Track Selling. Three months later, the number of prospects for POCs was reduced from 65 to 20. Of the 20, 16 later closed for revenue."
The moral of Pete's story is to value the importance of proper qualification to ensure you’re working with qualified prospects toward a close.
Pete's team had an 80% close rate with well-qualified opportunities via Track Selling vs less than 2% closing a poorly qualified deal with an unstructured sales process.
Track Selling lets salespeople separate tire-kickers from bonafide prospects and close more deals.
Good luck and good selling. |
