The Qualification Bullseye
In this week’s newsletter I’ll walk you through my model for qualifying leads to ensure that I only work on opportunities that I have a realistic chance of winning.
In an SDR role your focus is on qualifying everything in. For most SDRs the compensation model is built around booked meetings, not on whether those meetings turn into revenue.
But as an AE your measurement is about closed revenue - and the limiting factor you have is time. You need to be rigorous around protecting your time to spend it on the highest potential opportunities.
I use the qualification bullseye to help me.
The Qualification Bullseye
I have this visible on my desk. It is a simple visual reminder of what I am trying to do whenever I receive a potential opportunity from my marketing or SDR team, or am working outbound on opening up a new account.
Your company might provide you with a qualification checklist with multiple criteria - but you will know after an initial call where an account fits:
A perfect fit for your solution, and they have the right people and funding to buy
A possible fit for your solution and most of the people and funding to buy
A poor fit for your solution and not the right people or funding to buy
Outer ring - our product or service is not a good fit
For the outer ring I quickly put myself in my customer’s shoes and save them and myself a lot of time by pointing them in the right direction:
“Thank-you Kate for walking me through your requirements. Having listened to what you have said I don’t think we are the right product to solve your problem. You are looking for X and we have developed this to solve Y. While you could in theory use our product, I don’t think it is the right approach.”
Second point them in the right direction
“What I would recommend is ABC or XYZ.com who have a solution that specialises in what you are looking for”
Thirdly, connect with them on LinkedIn.
You will have developed trust, have been clear about what your product does do, and you’ll be surprised how many better suited opportunities subsequently arrive.
Centre ring - this customer is a great fit
This is the easiest one - where a customer is perfectly qualified you can move them straight into your pipeline with some defined next steps:
What will happen
When it will happen
Who will be involved
What the outcome of that next step will be
Middle ring - This customer is partially a fit for our product
This is the trickiest set of leads to deal with - it is easy to be swayed by how full your pipeline is.
A full pipeline and you are very strict about qualifying out poor fitting leads
An empty pipeline and it quickly becomes “well why not, let’s see what we can make happen”
But if you do that - you make it even harder to qualify out later on as you will have sunk so much of your wider team’s and your customer’s time into the process.
Your objective therefore is to quickly decide if you can move them into the centre ring, and if not they move to the outer ring.
To do that I use the qualification canvas.
It has two axes:
On the horizontal we have things we don’t do to things we do do.
On the vertical we have things that are important to the customer to things that are not important to the customer.
Considering what you have learned from your customer you can draw this out on a whiteboard or a notebook, and map out their individual requirements on the canvas.
If you don’t have this information yet, this is useful insight to capture on your call with the customer.
I don’t start to think about how to pitch around any gaps - just an honest reflection of whether what the customer needs is a reasonable match for what we provide.
This is pure empathy - if you had your customer’s job - would you be considering your company’s product?
If you have a number of areas that are important for the customer but your platform doesn’t provide, then now is the time to address it directly with your customer.
The reality is that if these things are important, and you don’t provide them, you are unlikely to win this business so better to go looking for trouble up front.
“Customers that I speak to in your industry almost always prioritise a self-service helpdesk, and that is not something that we provide as part of our platform. I assume that will be important for you as well and therefore I don’t believe we will be a good fit for your needs”
Now it is for the customer to explain to you why your assumption is incorrect (if it is) or confirm that you are right and you can then propose some alternative providers they might want to consider.
Protect your time
So there you have my simple process for qualifying deals:
A quick look at the bullseye to triage where I think a lead sits,
And for those that fall in the middle ring, the qualification canvas to assess whether we are a good fit for their needs.
This two step process helps me to protect my time and ensure that I’m only working on the right opportunities.
Remember - qualifying out is just as valuable to you as qualifying in.
See you next week!
Whenever you are ready, there are three ways that I can help you:
Get How To Sell Tech as a paperback, hardback, Kindle or audiobook for a deep dive on how to hit your target in your first sales role.
Subscribe to Research Hub where we publish up to date industry and enterprise account analysis to help accelerate your research and personalise your outreach.
CxO Advisory where I help senior leaders with strategic challenges holding back their sales engine.