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Welcome to the “performance improvement plan”. This is a new series of short-form podcast episodes that I promise to put together and will continue to publish as we move into and hopefully out of the impending recession.

For anyone who is fortunate to have not come across the term performance improvement plan in their career, a performance improvement plan is what your sales manager leadership put you on when your performance isn't up to scratch.

I’ve been on two of them, but I came out of the other side a stronger, more effective salesperson. Sometimes they’re exactly what you need to get your head out of your ass and to start making real progress.

In my experience performance improvement plans are typically enacted when your management wants to start collecting evidence that you are not performing to the standards of the organisation so that they can then eventually let you go without any repercussions of firing you.

This performance improvement plan series that I’m going to publish each however is different. I'm here to give you the daily motivation and tactical advice you need to improve your performance to the point at which your success becomes undeniable within your organisation. The goal being that the amount of revenue that you're going to generate in both hard times and easy times will make you unsackable.

The first lesson that I have for you today is a tough one. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but if you an choke it down, your life will be better for it.

The lesson – “you are exactly where you deserve to be”

Let me say that again you are exactly where you deserve to be.

This is a harsh reality of not just B2B sales but of life as well.

Now, this isn't all doom and gloom.

If you are one of the thousands of Selling Made Simple Academy students that have signed up in the past couple of years, you've improved your sales skills, you've built a strong pipeline and you've become known as a recognised expert in your industry, you are exactly where you deserve to be. You will now dominate the marketplace for the next 6 to 12 months. You will become a hero within your sales team because you will be one of the few individuals that has already done the hard work and so has resilience in your sales pipeline.

Now, the good news is that there is still time the change. You don't need to join Selling Made Simple Academy, I'm not here to shove our training and coaching program down your throat. But you do need to put in more hours, work smarter, and be more strategic right now, if the place that you believe you deserve to be six months from now, is a place of financial abundance, security, and admiration of your selling peers.

So ask yourself the questions as you’re working through your selling activities today –

So that's it for today's performance improvement plan. I hope you enjoy this new series.

My promise to you is that I will give you everything that you need from a motivation and strategy standpoint, over these daily podcast episodes, over the next few years as we ride through this recession to make serious money.

All you have to do is implement the strategies undo the work.

Killing it in sales is all about one thing—alignment. Is what you’re selling the solution to your prospect’s problem? Does it alleviate their pain points?

The tricky thing though is that 95% of the time, prospects only tell you about their surface-level pains. But to close a deal successfully, you need to be able to solve the problem that’s causing those pains.

You’ve got to treat the disease, not the symptoms. And today we’re looking at 5 word-for-word questions to help.

During the first few talks with potential buyers, you’ll only scratch the surface of their pain points. Your prospects don’t have the expertise to really get to the bottom of the issues. And so you’re left with the superficial problems, not the ones that are the real cause of their pains.

Now that’s actually good news for salespeople like us. Because if buyers did have that knowledge, products, or expertise needed to dive deeper into their pains, they could solve them without your help.

So this leaves a gap between a buyer knowing they have a problem and not knowing how to fix it.

And that’s where we come in. We close that gap. But to do that, we need to move past the superficial pain points and get to the heart of a buyer’s problem. And we can do that using five questions in particular.

Now before we get into those questions, there are four main categories that surface-level buyer pains fall into. Let’s look at some examples of what your potential buyers might say for each category.

Financial pains. You can spot these with statements like…

People pains, shown by statements like…

Productivity pains…

And process pains, which show up with statements like…

Alright, so now you know the four categories of pain points. And you’ve heard some examples of how they might share them. So let’s now look at some questions we can ask to dig deeper into the buyer's pain.

We want to dig deeper into the buyer’s pain so that we can align our service to their deepest, most impactful pain points. Because when we align our service to a really deep pain, it becomes a “must have” rather than “something to consider next quarter”.

The first question that we can ask to dig deeper into the pain of our buyers is this:

“What’s the main thing holding your company (or division) back from growing right now?”

This question is great at eliciting a very specific response. One that lands your prospects pains into one of the four categories we covered before.

This question is the starting point to go a level deeper than the more general categories of pain that we’ve already discussed.

And once you’ve done that, you can move on to the next question…

“How do you plan to solve this pain point?”

An uneducated buyer will tell you that they are unsure how to solve their pain point. This is an incredible opportunity for you to educate the buyer on how your service can solve the problem and relieve their pain.

A more educated buyer who is further through the sales process might have a few ideas on how they can solve the pain. But clearly there’s still something holding them back from taking action.

So the next step is to uncover what that thing is that’s keeping them from solving the problem themselves.

Now on to question number three…

We uncover lots of information when we ask the buyer the next question:

“What is your deadline to solve this problem?”

If the buyer tells us that there is no deadline, then the problem is not very painful for the buyer. And that means they’re not going to be very motivated to solve it, meaning you’ll have to work harder to earn their business. The takeaway here? Avoid doing business with these individuals. They’re not worth the effort.

Alternatively, if the buyer does have a set deadline to solve this pain point by, you now have a very qualified buyer that is worth engaging with further.

Now we need to keep probing and see if there is the budget and authority to solve the pain.

Now question number four is where we uncover the true level of pain the buyer is in. After you’ve gone through the previous steps and questions, it’s time to ask:

“What does your boss think about all this?”

One of the most common obstacles to a smooth selling process is your buyer lacking the budget or the authority needed to make the purchase. Maybe they have to go to their manager to request funding. Or maybe they need to get permission from their boss before pulling the trigger on the deal.

In either case, closing is going to be a pain. You’ll need to spend extra time convincing stakeholders that your product is worth the value. And you’ll risk your messaging being diluted since your contact then has to then convince their higher-up that it’s worth the price.

All bad things.

So if you ask this question and your buyer says “my boss has been on my back about this for weeks now, I really need to get this sorted” you have uncovered that the buyer likely has both the budget and the authority to solve the issue.

And for you, that means an easier sale.

Now that leaves us with one final question to ask the buyer to go beyond the surface-level pain they’ve been describing to you so far.

The final question we now need to ask the potential buyer is:

“What is stopping you from solving this problem today?”

This is the most important question in this sequence of questions.

So far we’ve been living in the future with questions like, “What is your deadline?” and “What does your boss think?”

Now we need to pull the buyer back to the real world. What’s stopping them from fixing the problem now, TODAY. This will intensify the buyer’s pain, drive urgency, and make it far more likely that they’ll take action on any suggestions you give them to solve it.

Now you’ve got a quality, qualified lead on your hands that’s ready to buy and easy to close.

And after that, well. You know what to do after that, don’t you?

The value proposition is a foundational component for any successful sales department.

It tells salespeople like you which demographics to target. It clues you into your buyer's biggest hopes and fears. And it guides your strategy for closing deals and earning that oh-so-sweet “yes.”

But what happens if your value proposition is wrong? What if the ideal buyer that marketing has told you to focus on isn't a fit for your product? What if all those unclosed leads who said your product “just isn't right” for them… were actually right?

This guide takes you through how to develop, refine, and verify your value proposition. Along the way, you'll learn our proven four-step value proposition design framework. And with it, you can determine your product or service value (The Value Diagram), find your ideal buyer (The Buyer Breakdown), and develop the value proposition you need to close more sales.

*How to Use This Guide – Despite how much business is done these days digitally, some things are still done better with your bare hands. That's why we recommend printing out both The Value Diagram and The Buyer Breakdown and filling them in with sticky notes.

There is going to be quite a bit of shifting ideas up and down in terms of priority. And if you're trying to type ideas in or even writing them directly onto the sections, you'll be doing a lot of Ctrl+Xing and erasing along the way.

Also, be sure to progress linearly throughout and not skip ahead for the best results with creating your unique value proposition.

Before we get started on the value proposition design framework, let's first define what a value proposition is.

Simply put, a value proposition is a promise to your buyer about what you have to offer. It should be free of jargon and painstakingly clear. It should communicate the benefits of choosing you over the competition. And it should identify who your ideal buyer is.

Value proposition design, then, is the methodology used to create your value proposition.

Plenty of respected business thinkers have covered value proposition design—namely, Alexander Osterwalder, who penned a book of the same name. In the Value Proposition Canvas, Osterwalder outlines how to develop a effective value proposition that gets to the heart of your product's value and shows how it solves your buyer's problem.

Our four-step value proposition design framework is built on the principles outlined in Osterwalder's book. But instead of focusing on developing a new product based on a buyer's needs, our framework is for salespeople with an existing product that want to find their ideal target customer.

A value proposition (when constructed correctly) should drive nearly every action of a business. It could very become your competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Your value prop should:

Think of a value proposition as the seed from which the rest of the business grows. A bad seed, no matter how great the conditions around it, still won't sprout. And a healthy one can withstand even the worst environments.

What's more, the process of strategic value proposition design lets you test and validate market needs. According to CB Insights, a whopping 35% of new businesses fail due to there being no market need for their products. This is a problem of “fit” (more on that later) between what the product offers and what the ideal buyer wants.

With so much resting on a well-made value proposition, it's no wonder nearly 7 out of 10 B2B businesses have theirs clearly defined, according to Quick Sprout. Over half (52%) of those companies have different value propositions for other products or services.

Use the following four-step value proposition design framework to identify your product value, determine your ideal buyer, and develop your value proposition statement.

While Osterwalder's Value Proposition Design focuses on creating a new customer from buyer characteristics, your product as a B2B salesman is already defined. As such, we need to work backward by starting with the product.

This framework step asks you to determine what your products bring to the table by filling out The Value Diagram. You'll be defining:

You'll likely already be well versed in what your products bring to the table. You probably already have oodles of product specs, use cases, and benefits lists ready for buyers at a moment's notice.

Even still, you must go through the steps of filling out these sections from the ground up. If your “ideal buyer” is saying they don't need your product, the problem could be as deep-rooted as improperly defined product value.

This section is a list of all the products or services you offer. After finishing this section, you'll be building out all the perk producers and strain reducers of these products—so try to be thorough.

You can take two approaches here—you can stick to products that only apply to a specific customer segment, or you can create an exhaustive list of everything your company offers.

After listing out your products, rank them in order of importance. Your flagship products will likely be at the top, with upsells and supplementary offerings closer to the bottom.

Next up is the section on perk producers. Again, building from your product list section, what benefits or value adds do those products offer? How do they help move the needle in a positive direction for the buyer?

You'll likely have plenty of sales collateral on hand to help you fill out this section. Be sure to include the benefits outlined by marketing in this section. But along the way, weed out the corporate-supplied perks that don't make much sense.

You'll also want to build on the stated benefits of the products. How else does it add value to the buyer's day? Let yourself brainstorm a bit.

Here are a few questions to get you started. Does your product…

Be sure to rank the perk producers you come up with in order of importance, too.

The last section in The Value Diagram is on strain reducers. How do your products eliminate hardships in the day-to-day of your buyer? What do they do to make their jobs less frustrating?

Again, you'll probably have plenty of in-house material to build on. But as with the perk producers section, be sure you're reexamining that material as you add those strain reducers to the diagram. Again, not all marketing material is going to be spot on. And if you can pick out a strain reducer that doesn't quite fit, you'll be left with an even more dead-on ideal buyer at the end of the process.

And once more, don't forget to rank the strain reducers in importance and brainstorm new ones along the way.

Some questions to get you started:

Once you've thoroughly defined your products' perks producers and stress reducers, it's time to focus on the buyer.

This step of the value proposition framework is all about describing your buyer using The Buyer Breakdown. You'll be detailing:

Like in The Value Diagram, you'll want to begin with the sales collateral you're using now, but only as a jumping-off point. There are three reasons for this:

The first section of The Buyer Breakdown is all about buyer jobs. What are your buyers trying to get done? What are the tasks they are performing? And what are their goals?

Don't just think of this section as simple work duties. Instead, buyer jobs break down into three unique categories:

Take a moment to list out jobs that relate to your product segment identified earlier. Then, again, use the customer profile provided by your company and try to come up with your own, too. Then, rank them in order of importance to the buyer.

These are the benefits your buyer wants to see from your product. They're the concrete outcomes of working with you or buying your product. These benefits can apply to any of the jobs listed out previously. The more exact and definite you are here, the better.

While brainstorming these perks, try to think about:

Perks can come in four different categories. Try to come up with some for each and then rank them in order of importance to the buyer.

Last up is buyer strains. What annoys your buyer before, during, and after they're trying to get a job done? What prevents them from even starting? What are the risks that keep them from working as efficiently as they could?

These are the pain points of your existing customer profile. And as with other sections, you should include them in the list, but remember to brainstorm new ones as well.

Some questions you might ask yourself while brainstorming strains might include:

List out whatever you can come up with, add them to the strains of your current segment profile, and rank them in order of importance to the buyer.

Now that you've filled out The Value Diagram and The Buyer Breakdown, it's time to determine “fit.” Fit is how well your product values line up with what the buyer needs. The better it aligns, the more successful your value proposition will be.

In terms of the value proposition design framework, fit is determined by whether your product's gains:

So, how do you determine fit?

Simple—determine which jobs, strains, and perks in The Buyer Breakdown the strain reducers and perk producers on The Value Diagram address. Go through each job, strain, and perk one by one, placing a checkmark next to the ones that fit. At the end, simply remove the ones that don't have a checkmark.

After that, all that's left is crafting your value proposition statement based on which elements are highest on the list of importance.

Once you've whittled down your Value Diagram and Buyer Breakdown to include only items that fit, it's time to craft your value proposition statement.

Your value proposition statement will be the basis of your sales process (once properly designed and tested, of course). It'll inform how you build rapport, which points to hit when nurturing leads, and what strategies to use when closing the sale.

Generally, the best value propositions fulfill a number of guiding principles.

A value proposition statement should be clear, to the point, and touch on the most critical issues from The Value Diagram and The Buyer Breakdown.

You can use the template below to craft yours.

Remember though—this template is simply a rough sketch of what a value proposition should look like. As long as it hits all of the following points clearly, your value proposition is going to stand out to buyers.

Last but certainly not least, there's verifying your value proposition. And unfortunately, this one is likely going to take the most time out of all the steps.

To settle on a compelling value proposition, you'll need to test whether it resonates with your buyers.

There are plenty of ways you can test your value proposition, including:

Exactly which method is within your means will depend on your unique organization.

In the end, just be sure you're continually reevaluating and iterating on what you learned along the way. Remember, this is a process, not a one-time effort!

Below are just a few solid value propositions examples that target an ideal customer, have a strong value proposition and answer the customer's main problem.

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Value proposition design is an essential component for any success-minded salesperson. With the right value proposition design, you'll be able to:

And with this five-step value proposition design framework, and the included value proposition examples you'll have all the tools you need to get started today.

But having the right value proposition is only one aspect of being a successful sales superstar. And there's plenty more to learn about winning sales tactics, proven pitch strategies, and more.

Eventually in your sales career, you’re going to hit a maximum effectiveness at winning business. “You can’t squeeze blood from a stone,” as the old saying goes. But that doesn’t mean you’re stuck where you’re at.

If you want to drive more deals now, you’ve got to increase your throughput of sales leads. And that takes boosting your sales productivity using these 7 techniques.

Reverse engineering your goals, mainly your financial goals.

What are you shooting for? Is it your dream house? Sending your kids to college? A ridiculously fancy new watch? What is it that you want?

Take your goals, jot them down, and then it’s time to work backward.

Start with how much extra income you need to afford those goals in a specific amount of time. So say you want to bring in enough to put a 20% down payment on a $500,000 house in 3 years.

What you’ll do is break down the extra amount you’ll need to earn $100k each year, or $33,000. Then break that down into quarterly, monthly, and weekly commission goals.

But the work isn’t done yet. Now you have to take your sales success rate and work backward to determine how much outreach you need to do every week. So if you have a close rate of 5% and each deal nets you an extra $1000, you’ll have to find 660 prospects a year to achieve your financial goals. And that boils down to 13 prospects a week, totally manageable.

And best of all, you’ll always know when you’re on track to that brand new house and when you need to make up for lost time.

Now number two is measuring progress.

If you aren’t keeping track of everything, you’ll have no idea if you’re 1) being productive and 2) becoming more productive. You’ll be going on feel alone and have no real data to show for it.

So what should you do?

Measure your stats relentlessly.

At a bare minimum, and I’m emphasizing the minimum here, you need to be keeping track of the following on a weekly basis.

With these numbers at your fingertips, you can keep track of larger trends, see how you’re improving, and even spot shifts in the industry before they become a problem.

It’s simple to do. And it’s a game-changer.

Number three, time blocking religiously.

This one takes some practice. But the productivity payoff is substantial.

For every one of your important tasks, you need to assign them a time block on your calendar. Prospecting, two hours a day, 8 to 10. Lead follow-up, one hour a day, 1 to 2. Demos, 3:30 to 5. Whatever it is, make a specific start and end time. And focus on it and it alone during that time window.

Now the tricky part is not wavering. Answering emails during the prospecting window, making calls during follow-ups, any sort of multitasking or shifting that time window will make the entire system fall apart.

Instead, be single-minded. Be focused. And only work on that task and that task alone. It’ll take some adjustment. But you’re going to be 10X more productive once you do.

Number four is leveraging Parkinson’s Law.

Have you ever heard the saying that a goldfish grows as big as its tank allows it to? Well the same is true for the time you spend on tasks.

If you give yourself three hours to finish something, say a new email sequence, it’s going to take you three hours to do, even if it only should have taken two. Humans are great at following the path of least resistance. And if you’re spending more time than you should on something, it’s probably because the deadline is off.

That’s Parkinson’s Law – “the time required to perform a task tends to extend to all the time available to perform it.”

So to fight that, you need to reduce the time you give to projects. Ask for forgiveness rather than permission and cut back the task to make it simpler. Usually this’ll be for the better and you’ll be thanked for the greater efficiency.

You may even want to consider not doing the task at all and seeing if anyone complains. You’d be surprised at how much of what we spend time on is just plain busy work.

Number five is a powerful one—learn how to say no.

No gives clear boundaries and stops clients, colleagues, and unreasonable bosses from walking all over you. And I guarantee saying it just a few times a day will free up literally hours and hours of time each week.

Your time is valuable. And you need to treat it as such.

Six, prioritize the real revenue generators in your business.

Your business won’t die if your accounts are a little late. It won’t die if you check your emails in an hour rather than immediately. And it won’t die if you spend a little less time polishing the website.

But you know what will cause it to die? Neglecting to create a sustainable pipeline. Never moving prospects through it. Not closing on a time-sensitive deal and losing a sure thing.

There are tasks that are essential to bringing in the dough. And there are others that can wait until later.

Make sure a good amount of your time blocked time each day is spent on the former. And focus less on the latter.

And last but not least is qualifying leads harder.

One of the best lessons you’ll learn in your sales career is that not every lead is right for your product. And the sooner you recognize those leads in your pipeline, the sooner you can spend more time on the ones that are likely to buy.

That means you need to qualify clients more. When you find the right lead, you spend less time on explaining the value, less time on handling objections, and less time on closing. And that means you can spend your day bringing more great leads into your pipeline.

If you need a quick qualification method, use BANT:

The more time you spend qualifying, the less time you’ll spend on bad leads that will never be a fit.

Summary

There’s only so much you can do about close rates. But at some point, you’re going to hit your max. And that’s when you’ve got to put your productivity efforts into generating more leads by…

When it comes to qualifying sales leads, more doesn't always mean better. Notably, if the sales leads are not qualified. You could spend hours each day and still only manage to close a measly 1-3 leads out of a hundred.

So, how does a B2B lead qualification process work? What systems can you employ to increase the effectiveness of your qualification process? And, most importantly, how is the perfect qualifying process different from the one you currently use?

The important thing is knowing that the sales lead qualification process is all about knowing which questions to ask and whom to ask them.

Qualifying sales leads means the same thing in every context: determining if the subject meets predetermined criteria or ‘qualifies' for it. For example, to qualify a lead is to determine how likely the lead will develop into a sale.

The whole point of sales lead qualification is to reduce the time a sales representative spends talking to potential customers who will not turn into buyers. Otherwise known as ‘chasing leads.'

Sales qualification helps weed out the tire kickers by using a framework that allows the sales rep to process a lead and determine its sales potential. Narrowing down what B2B sales lead qualification frameworks you want to leverage each day when qualifying prospects is the biggest hurdle to success here.

For example, if you are selling insurance products, a qualified lead would be someone who owns the item you're selling insurance for. You'd be surprised to learn about the amount of time sales reps spend chasing leads that are not even related to the products or services they are selling.

Success in sales often comes down to spending more time with buyers who are a good fit and ready to buy.

The ratio of the number of sales a rep closes from all the leads they have is called the close ratio. So when you are looking at improving the number of sales you make from your leads, you have to improve your close ratio.

This is different from the conversion ratio, which measures how many leads you secure from the number of people exposed to your marketing efforts.

The most straightforward answer is to save yourself time and effort. Less time spent on disqualified leads means more time spent on qualified ones. That means more conversions or sales. Successful sales people spent more time with decision makers, who use lead scoring and have a defined sales process.

The success of your attempts at qualifying sales leads depends on how effectively you can measure your leads' responses against your qualification criteria. We will discuss different qualification frameworks later but let's look at what they all share.

All lead qualification systems use carefully designed qualifying questions to understand how well a lead matches your qualification criteria. Common qualifying questions include:

I have highlighted the most critical part of each question. Your qualifying questions have to sound as natural as possible to elicit helpful information from the lead. After all, why would anyone share their business problems if the questions like you're trying to manipulate them?

Depending on where the sales lead is within the funnel, the leads are given different names.

A. Marketing Qualified Lead

When your marketing department grabs an email address or phone number, they call them Marketing Qualified Lead or an MQL. An MQL has been exposed to your marketing initiatives and has shown interest in either purchasing your product or service or acquiring more information about it. An MQL is generally someone who has only make initial contact with your business and so often they are not quality leads at this point.

B. Sales Qualified Lead

Next, when sales teams speak to a MQL and ask them qualifying questions, they are then relabeled as Sales Qualified Leads or an SQL. These leads are likely to become customers because they have met your desired lead qualification criteria and they've had their long term pain points identified.

C. Disqualified Lead

The last type of sales lead is called a Disqualified Lead which is equally important as the previous two. Disqualified sales leads are the one type of lead that you want to eliminate from your sales pipeline. A disqualified sales lead is different from an Unqualified Lead. An unqualified lead is a prospect that has not shown enough interest at the marketing stage to be sent to the sales team.

Another thing all prospecting frameworks share is the concept that leads qualification is not an event but an ongoing process. The discovery call might not provide ample time or rapport needed to ask all the questions for sales lead qualification. More often than not, several calls and engagements are required to qualify a lead properly. The process goes through different levels of lead qualification.

Let's take a look at the different levels of potential qualification within a buyer's organization.

When you start to qualify across an entire organization, you'll begin to consider things like company size, industry, customer base, and region.

For example, if your business sells hydraulic lifts, you will want to know if they are in a region your engineers can visit and install them.

Example organizational level qualification questions include:

Moving on, you would want to know whether the prospect wants your product or service. If they want it, can they afford it? And finally, when are they most likely to make a purchase? Opportunity level lead qualification is all about identifying a lead's pain point. We call it a pain point because they are more likely to want a product that removes that pain.

If you are selling Search Engine Marketing services, you must speak to somebody interested in their business's online presence. Their pain point might be that their turnover has dramatically dropped after a Google Search update. This identification of a specific pain point is the information you need to qualify this prospect.

Opportunity level sales qualification questions include:

Stakeholder sales qualification questions are all about making sure you talk to the right person within the company. Your prospect must have influence over the decision-making process of their organization to the extent where it can help you close the sale.

You don't want to spend time going through organization and opportunity level qualifications only to find out that the person will pass on the information for someone else to get back to you.

Although, this isn't precisely a dead-end scenario either. If you can ask the right questions, you can create a map of your lead's organization, ultimately leading you to the decision-maker.

It's pretty straightforward if your ideal customers are individuals or owner-managed businesses, as you will be speaking to the decision-maker from the start. But if it's a more prominent company, you will need to ask questions like:

The three levels of qualification that we have discussed so far are all you need when developing questions for your qualification framework. However, as there are many variables here, a pre-built Qualification Framework could make your qualification process more efficient.

Your industry, the type of leads you talk to, and the service or product you sell will determine the qualification framework and sales process you will ultimately use.

The three most widely used lead qualification frameworks are BANT, CHAMP and MEDDIC.

Bant has four elements of qualification and is a slight twist on the classic “budget authority need” method of lead scoring:

Although they aren't related, CHAMP is similar to the BANT framework in the way it incorporates Money, Authority, and Need, but it builds on the Time section of BANT by taking into account where your product or service lies in the list of priorities of your lead.

The MEDDIC framework is similar to the revised MEDDPICC qualification framework. It takes a different approach to lead qualification by thoroughly looking at the decision-making process and separating it into Decision Criteria and Decision Process. The framework goes a step further in its thoroughness by looking for influence in non-decision making but influential individuals it calls Champions.

Years of experience from various sales experts and successful sales reps have blessed us with enough insights to identify the red and green flags that can appear when qualifying sales leads.

The following positive signs of sales qualification and red flags are easy to spot when you know them:

The sales lead qualification process revolves around asking your leads questions. These questions are designed to help a sales rep determine if the lead has any potency for a sale.

Seems pretty simple, right? Most salespeople fall into issues when qualifying their customer when their prospects get uneasy with answering questions all of their rapid fire questions.

Potential customers can feel uneasy because they:

If your prospect isn't interested in what you're pitching then, congratulations! You can confidently disqualify that lead.

Remember your sales leads are people, and people want to be heard. So make the qualification process easy for them so they get comfortable with divulging crucial information about their business. You need this information to either qualify or disqualify the buyer.

Absolutely! Think of the sales lead qualification process as a feasibility study of your leads. The purpose is to determine how feasible pursuing a lead is so those leads that do not meet set criteria do not consume resources that can otherwise be spent on leads that do. Therefore, disqualifying leads is as important as qualifying them.

The top salespeople in the world are proactive about disqualifying poor or even average sales leads and so you should be too.

Qualifying sales leads is easy, just ask the right questions at the right time to the right people. The other half of the sales qualification formula is analyzing your prospect's answers and knowing what to ask next.

Getting ghosted is every sales professional's nightmare.

You think everything is going right—the prospect is the right fit for your target audience, your product is within their budget, and they are genuinely interested in buying it—until it's not.

No response. Missed calls. Just pin-drop silence.

You can't understand what the hell went wrong. Don't worry, though. You have to up your follow-up game.

To help you out in these tricky situations, we'll show you how to write a follow-up email after no response and get the deal back to track.

So let's get started!

The whole point of sending up a follow-up email is to increase your chances of getting a response from your prospect.

According to research, you can boost your reply rates by 65.8% when you send a single follow-up. What's more, the first follow-up email has a 40% increase in reply rate compared to the first sales email. This means your prospect is 40% more likely to reply to your email.

What's more, no response doesn't mean any interest. Tons of factors affect a prospect's decision to not respond to your email:

Even after getting zero response, sending up follow-up emails may give you the leverage you need to close a deal.

The moral of the story is to never skip on following up—you might just lose a closed-won deal.

Sending follow-up emails is an art. In addition to the contents of your follow-up email, you also want to get the follow-up timing right.

A week is too long, and sending a follow-up on the same day is—for the lack of a better word—desperate. That's why we recommend waiting three days before following up after no response.

You can send 2-3 emails in your follow-up email sequence to urge the prospect to get back to you. And while you should leave the prospect after sending a few follow-ups, don't send them a breakup email. Instead, leave the conversation open and return to it sometime in the future.

No response means you've already sent your first follow-up email after talking to the prospect. So here, we'll give you suggestions on how to write an email after your first follow-up.

If following up after no response involves you cutting and pasting—or forwarding—the original email, we've got to stop you right there.

First and foremost, your prospect will feel you're trying to guilt them for not responding. Secondly, it's also possible for your second follow-up email to get filtered by spam or even get blocked by the prospect.

That's why every follow-up email should be a blank slate. Instead, try new and witty subject lines, opening lines, and calls to action. And not only your second follow-up email, but all subsequent follow-up emails should be fresh.

Think about it: why limit yourself to one email thread that already has several old messages weighing it down?

Following up after no response can feel personal. But sales professionals need to have thicker skin.

Don't waste precious email real estate by using passive-aggressive lines like “I know you're busy, I'm busy too, “or “Was waiting for a reply to my previous email but to no avail.”

It'll do more harm than good. Your prospect might feel offended, and if they do respond out of guilt, their answer won't be one you want to hear.

Keeping your tone positive is your best bet. Use phrases like “Wanted to touch base on our last conversation “or “Do you have any questions about our last conversation?”. The idea here is to acknowledge your prospect might be busy and give them a gentle nudge to take the conversation forward.

While you want to stay polite, you also want to be persistent. Be politely persistent.

Of course, some people will say “no “along the way, but there are also those who will say “yes. ”

Following up will help you get ahead, but you have to be consistent about the whole process and create a repeatable, scalable process. So focus on providing continuous value and send multiple (and well spaced-out) follow-up emails within the span of the next few weeks to see results.

To get a response, you have to have a crystal-clear “ask.” So, before hitting ‘Send,' see whether the email answers the following questions:

Is the follow-up email relevant to the recipient? If yes, why?

Does the prospect know why you're contacting them?

People usually skim through emails quickly, especially those sent by strangers. So if your follow-up email doesn't have a clear value proposition, they won't be interested in responding.

The easier you make it for them to know what you're hoping to achieve, the better your chances of securing a response. Transparency is valued, so don't make the prospect read between the lines or try to translate.

You want to leave a good first, second, third—maybe even fourth impression on your prospect when following up.

When following up multiple times, it's best to send your email at an optimal time. For starters, consider the day of the week and how that might affect their schedule. For instance, people generally catch up with work on Mondays and solve problems. That's why sending follow-ups on Tuesdays or Wednesdays makes more sense.

You also want to consider your prospect's time zones. Better to pop up in their inbox after they've settled in the office than when you're just starting out the day or ending it. This will differ based on your industry, too.

Think from your recipient's viewpoint.

Think about it: it's easier to say “yes “to a request for a 5-20 minute chat compared to, say, an hour-long meeting.

Ask for as little of your prospect's time as possible. This shows them you respect their time, which will make them more likely to say “yes. ”

Also, if you notice, attending a “meeting” sounds more daunting than setting up a “quick chat.” That's why you should use words that have positive associations—words that sound like much less of a commitment, and therefore, easier to say “yes “to.

Trust us; even the smallest of changes can make a big difference in the long run.

Sending a follow-up email after no response can seem too much. To help you get started on the right track, here are a few follow-up emails after no response examples for inspiration.

Hi {prospect’s name},

Hope you're doing well.

I understand your position, but I wouldn't follow up with you if I didn't firmly believe {your company} can help {prospect's company}.

{your product's name} ‘s {product benefit 1} and {product benefit 2} features can help solve the {prospect pain point} you're facing and improve workflow efficiency in just 28 days.

Let me know if you'd be up for a quick chat about what we do.

Regards,

{your name}

Hey, {prospect name}

I am reaching out again to ensure that you had a chance to review my last email.

I'd love to schedule a short call to discuss further details about {topic A} and {topic B}, as I've been talking to other market leaders and would love to get your perspective too.

Let me know when you're available for a quick 15-minute chat. You can book a slot on my calendar here {calendar link}.

Kind regards,

{your name}

I hope you're having a great day!

Reaching out again to let you know I'm available to show you a few {topic} best practices and {another topic}, which is something we discussed in our previous conversation.

We've had success with a few clients in the {prospect niche}, and I believe we can create a great plan to help you increase lead generation and sales conversion, too.

Let me know when you would be available for a quick call.

Thanks in advance,

{your name}

You're familiar with the dreaded drill: find potential clients, connect with them, present your solution, but somehow don't end up closing it.

Maybe your prospect cannot afford what you have to offer or ditched you for a competitor. Perhaps they decided to hold off deciding until the next quarter.

Why is this happening? Where are you going wrong? What can you do to close the deal?

To close deals successfully, you need to understand the other person's goals, make a compelling offer, and overcome objections. Then, once you determine a mutually beneficial proposal, you have to figure out the right time to ask and use the best technique to close the deal.

Closing a deal is a term sales professionals use to describe a situation where they bring negotiations to an end by reaching an agreement with their prospect. It's the very moment when a prospect decides to make the purchase. Closing deals is a very nerve-wracking process for sales reps since they are left exposed to the chance of rejection from the prospect.

At Salesman.org, we use a two-step process to help sales reps close a deal. Don't worry; it's straightforward and highly effective!

This will help you determine whether the customer needs more help to understand how your solution can benefit them. For instance, you can ask, “We've been through our automation capabilities. Does it make sense to sign you up into our system so we can start working together? ”

That's it.

Next, you wait for the prospect's answer. If the prospect says yes, congratulations! You can send over the necessary paperwork to get them on board.

If they say “No,” don't lose hope. Move on to Step 2.

As a sales professional, you'll always find yourself hearing, “No. “It can happen again when you ask the question in Step 1. So the next step in the process is to figure out how to take things forward despite the initial rejection.

Ask the second question: “What needs to happen to move things forward? “This will encourage the buyer to tell you why they haven't agreed and what you can do next to get the deal done. No brainstorming or contemplating alternative scenarios is needed on your part!

The prospect may want a formal proposal outlining everything you discussed with them orally. Or a copy of the contract to send it off to the legal team before giving the final sign-off. Whatever the reason, you'll hear it directly from the horse's (the prospect's) mouth.

Additionally, you should be closing deals throughout the sales process, and not just at the end of it. For instance, you can apply this methodology at the end of every sales call.

… you get the drift.

Following this simple process will push the sales forward, helping you get that verbal agreement from the prospect that they genuinely want to progress with the deal.

Here are a few extra tips to help you understand how to close the deal over the phone or close the deal when selling. Let's take a look.

The first step in sealing the deal is to do your research.

You have to be well-versed in your company's offerings and know-how to demonstrate the value the product or service can provide your prospect. Doing this will help you decide which of your offerings are most suitable for your prospect, eliminating the chance of you pitching the wrong product and losing the prospect altogether.

Another good tip is to expand conversations beyond your point of contact.

Try to speak to others in the company, especially crucial decision-makers and other departments. This will help you learn different perspectives, and more importantly, define the organization's pain points. Then, use these insights to tailor your pitch and present your products or services in the best possible light.

To improve the chances of closing the deal, you should clarify budgets and timelines early in the sales process. This way, you can understand whether the prospect is ready to buy now or somewhere down the line.

If the prospect is ready to buy right away, you should prioritize them over your other dormant prospects. If they aren't, you can revisit them when they are ready. Again, we recommend talking about budgets and timelines before presenting a demo of your product or service.

Instead of selling your products or services, offer solutions. Show the prospect what your product or service can do for them and tailor your conversations from their context. Prioritize the prospect, their pain points, and challenges.

Your potential clients can still have concerns and objections after educating them about your product or service's benefits. After all, they spend their money and want to know what you're offering is worth it.

An excellent way to handle objections is connecting with the prospects and winning their trust. Never brush off their concerns, and show them you understand where they come from. Looking back at past objections that you or your colleague has received can also be a good starting point to prepare for similar scenarios.

As a sales professional, you don't have a lot of time to impress your prospect. Therefore, you need to earn trust from the get-go, which is why you want to use every opportunity wisely. Compelling storytelling is an excellent way to make a positive impression on a prospect.

Now, when we say storytelling, we don't mean telling just any random, irrelevant story that takes the conversation on a tangent. Instead, you want to tell stories that commit to memory and allow you to tap into your prospect's emotions relatively quickly.

Here are a few forms of effective storytelling:

Many sales reps forget to set up the next steps, which creates difficulties when closing deals.

Suppose your prospect has accepted your proposal and wants to move forward. In that case, you should finalize paperwork and provide the customer with all the information they need to use your products and services easily. This also includes post-sale services, where you check in to see if the client is having any issues or problems after product delivery or the rendering of service.

Below, we've created a short listicle of non-salesy transition statements to bring the buyer closer to the decision stage.

As you can see, each of these statements is benefits-oriented and focuses on the prospect on their needs and pain points.

Want to know what separates your everyday sales rep from the high-earning pros? Focus. And not focus of mind. But focus of strategy. The real pros know smashing through quotas is all about working key accounts—clients with exceptional revenue potential.

So, how do you identify and work key accounts so you can start bringing in fatter commissions? Let’s find out.

So I get it, you’ve got a sales target to hit, and the sooner you hit it the better. Otherwise, you’re prolonging the pain, the stress, and the lack of a bonus.

With that said then, why do most sales professionals spend their days chasing their tails?

They fire off hundreds of spammy emails and make dozens of random calls with no real system in place. And there’s zero consistency.

If you’re not consistently making moves to land big moneymaker accounts, you’re losing out. Because the small deals get you close to hitting the target. But the big ones blow that target to bits.

If you want to crush your quota, you need to be closing what we call “key accounts”.

So first let’s define what a key account approach to sales is –

Key Account Selling: A selling approach which offers strategic value to specific accounts, while distinguishing you from your competition.

So that begs the question, “what are strategic accounts?”

Let’s use an analogy of the people in your life. You probably have hundreds of acquaintances you’re happy to speak to every now and again. Perhaps you’re happy to help them out too if it’s a job that takes five minutes or less. But there are likely only a handful of people you’re willing to drop whatever you’re doing for to spend time with or help out. These are the strategic people in your life.

You get more out of interacting with them than others. And sales is the same way.

So think of your accounts being in a pyramid shape. Your key accounts are way on top and they’re the smallest. Your good customers are in the middle below them, and below that is the general riff-raff that you have to engage with.

Now what’s funny here is that if you run the numbers, I’m sure you’d find that this pyramid shape has an inverse relationship to the revenue these customers bring in each year.

The general riff-raff brings in the least amount of money. The good customers bring in a moderate amount. And the key accounts bring in most of all. In fact, key accounts will usually bring in more revenue than all other accounts combined.

And that means if you can close just a few more key accounts per year, you can massively scale your income potential.

So that begs the question, “how do I uncover key accounts in the sea of crappy lead data that I have access to?”

The answer is simple – use the key account matrix.

We go a lot further into this in our Selling Made Simple Academy, but here’s a high-level view.

If we draw a chart with two axis –

And then split this into four segments, we can label the segments as –

So to find potential key accounts, you then need to look through your lead data and find accounts that fulfill two criteria—they have the potential to generate lots of revenue, and you also have good relationships with them.

They’re the two key fundamentals to quickly developing key accounts – Good potential future revenue and good relationships within the account.

Now, how do you build up your key account list? Well all you have to do is follow a clear 4-step process…

Identify potential accounts.

If you’ve got a CRM system, you may be able to apply this selection criteria to your entire customer base. That being said, you may want to stick to just 10 potential accounts. That way you can focus your efforts, at least at first.

Next up, list your key accounts with the hottest prospect at the top and the lowest at the bottom in relation to potential revenue that could be generated.

This shouldn’t be a guesswork job. We need to uncover the potential profits we can generate. For example, if you are selling management services to haulage companies, you could rank these businesses by how many trucks they own. When I was selling medical devices, I’d look for how many endoscopes the account currently has, or how many operating rooms they have.

Next, we’re going to evaluate our strengths in each account relative to our most relevant competitor. Think about how you compare on price, deliverability, uniqueness of offering, additional business services you can provide, variables like this.

Now give yourself a score out of 5 versus the competition.

Now we’ve actually built up some data, we can use it to start to make some hypotheses about the potential accounts we should and shouldn’t go after.

If you’d like to make this data visual, then you can plot the data from step two on the vertical axis of a graph and the data from step three on the horizontal axis. If you then split this up into the quadrants we’ve already discussed, you’ll have an excellent visual representation of which accounts to focus on and which to ignore.

And then you can start building up your key accounts quicker than ever.

How often have you heard this – “Look, we really love your product, but it’s outside of our price range. Can you offer any discount?”

Offering discounts can be a great way to speed up a slow-moving deal. But if you’re adjusting price before negotiations begin, you’re doing a serious disservice, both to yourself and to your product.

Instead of caving right away, there are four tried-and-true responses you can give to turn the conversation around in your favor.

What’s wrong with discounting immediately. Like I said, discounting isn’t always a bad thing. It can speed up deals and give you leverage for reducing the service you’re offering.

But there are three very real problems to offering a discount before negotiation has taken place.

First, your buyer subconsciously devalues your service. After all, if you’re really going to deliver the ROI your pitching, why do you have to immediately discount the price?

Second, the instant you propose a discount, you lose some of your negotiation power. You lose this negotiation power as you’ve taken the price, your biggest variable for negotiation, off the table.

And third, discounting shifts the focus. In the buyer’s mind, you’ve shifted the conversation from the value that is being exchanged to the emotional topic of money. Rather than the buyer thinking about the impact that your service is going to have on their business, they’re now thinking about what is going to cost them in the opportunities they will lose from this lack of cash flow.

So with those three things in mind, it’s important that negotiations on price and discounting happen towards the end of the sales process rather than at the beginning of it.

That being said, if a buyer does request a discount too early in the process, there are a few things you can do. And that brings us to the four word-for-word responses that’ll deflect, turn the tables, and even give you the selling advantage.

The first and easiest way to deal with a buyer bringing up the idea of a discount is to say this word-for-word:

“We can definitely have a conversation about the numbers. But first let’s make sure that we’re on the same page about our service being a good fit for your needs…”

So, what does this response do?

You buy yourself time to reframe the conversation. Right now the buyer is focused on price alone. But at this point in the sales process, you need to be demonstrating value. What do you offer that your competition doesn’t? And most importantly, how does it solve your buyer’s problem? This is the perfect time to focus on that instead of the expense.

It also gives you more time to build value before the numbers do eventually get discussed. What additional benefits do you offer that you haven’t talked about yet? What value can you bring to the table that the buyer isn’t already aware of?

The second way to deal with your buyers asking for discounts is to answer your buyer’s question with a question.

When your buyer asks if you’re able to discount you can ask:

“That is a fair question. Do you see price being a major obstacle in this conversation?”

This immediately makes the buyer reconsider if they really want to discount or if they want to get the deal done. It also pushes the pressure back on the buyer to justify why there should be a discount in the first place.

Bonus tip here. Notice show I said “that’s a fair question” before I responded with my question? The point of this extra step is to acknowledge to the buyer that I have heard them, but I need more information to answer their first question.

This little extra ping stops the question coming across as manipulative and lets the buyer feel in control. Which of course is a great way to keep the relationship on solid footing.

Are you feeling brave? Well when the buyer asks you about discounts, you can politely respond with the question:

“Why?”

Now admittedly, this does take some guts. Your buyer definitely won’t be expecting it. And taken the wrong way, it could spark some defensiveness. That’s why you’ve got to be polite when you say it and genuinely look for an answer from the buyer.

A slight look of confusion helps sell this too. The point is you need to look sincere. Like nobody else has ever asked you this before, rather than aggressively asking them “WHY?!”.

Responding with this question of “why?” when a buyer asks for a discount, stops the buyer from negotiating on price just for the sake of negotiating.

In my experience buyers often respond to this “why” question by saying “I was just wondering…” which you can then shrug off and carry on with the sales conversation.

The Tit-for-Tat. This is in my opinion the cleverest approach. Because with the right wording, both you and the buyer will leave the conversation with added value.

Here’s how you do it.

When somebody asks for a discount, say something along the lines of this:

“I can reduce the costs if we [extend the contract/change the tier of service/get a referral/etc.].”

This turns a concession in randomly discounting your pricing into an active negotiation. Okay, you can offer a little give on price. But what will YOU get out of things?

Now this isn’t something you want to deploy with every buyer. Because truth be told, you can shut down the discount request with most leads using the three previous responses without giving anything up.

But if you’re dealing with a tough customer where price is obviously a major pain point, this response could be your ticket to a winning sale.

See, it’s always a good idea to walk into your sales meeting with what’s called a BATNA:

A BATNA means if plan A doesn’t work because it’s too expensive, you’ve got a plan B that you can offer the buyer to make sure that you don’t leave empty-handed.

Often you will find the buyer wants the extras you are offering with plan A and so when you explain you can only discount if you move them to plan B, they will fall in line with the original pricing.

See how that works?

With a bit of wordsmithing and gentle nudging, you can either shut down their discount request or move them to a higher-value sale.

Win-win.

A successful sales rep is a curious sales rep. And when you ask potential buyers the right questions during discovery, you’ll get some powerful takeaways to better qualify leads, drive enthusiasm, and boost your chances of closing.

In today’s post, I’m breaking down five of the most powerful sales questions to ask potential buyers. And best of all, these questions let you avoid sounding salesy while demonstrating yourself as the sales expert you really are.

These days, successful sales isn’t just about being chatty. Sure, the gift of gab helps. But when it comes down to it, charm alone isn’t enough to seal the deal.

Instead, you need to be able to explore issues, dive into problems, and offer exceptional solutions for your buyers. You need to offer value, not just a pitch. And asking questions is the best way to investigate whether your buyer’s problem is one that you can solve.

But there’s a catch here—asking the wrong questions can set you up for failure. I’m talking about close-ended and manipulative inquiries like “Tell me, would you be interested in doubling your revenue this quarter?” or “What will it take to earn your business?”

These types of questions are downright shit at getting real, valuable info you can use. And beyond that, they make you sound like a slimy sales rep that no one would trust.

So rather than falling back on those sales cliches, start asking these five powerful sales questions instead. Doing so will let you qualify leads and give you the info you need to skyrocket your sales success.

So, question one…

This is one of my personal favorites because it virtually eliminates the need to “close” on deals. You know, when you’ve spent days or even weeks on a potential buyer and then nerve-wrackingly have to ask them for their business.

Closing that way sucks. And it puts a lot on the line, too. If they walk away, you’re out tons of lost time.

But when you ask this clever sales question along the way—I mean when…

“Does it make sense to set up a call?”

Setting up discovery calls…

“Does it make sense to schedule a time so you can see it in action?”

Moving on to demos…

“Does it make sense to bring in our product team to dive deeper into the specs?”

Discussing product specs, all of it…

When you do that, you’re getting continuous buy-in from the prospect.

Plus, buyers will have the opportunity to tell you exactly what’s holding them back from taking the next step, giving you the chance to address any of their nagging objections.

Best of all, you get to avoid all that nail-biting of the “will they, won’t they” right before you ask for your business.

Why can’t you solve this problem yourself?

This one in particular is great for qualifying leads.

On the one hand, this question helps you uncover more about the problem and the obstacles you might face as you try to solve it. And maybe a prospect that seemed like a good fit turns out not to be a match as a result.

But beyond that, this question also lets you evaluate their need. Do they even need you? In most industries, the clients you want to work with won’t be able to do the same job your product or service is doing. Otherwise, you’ll likely run into plenty of issues down the line, like questioning your judgment or asking for the job to be redone entirely.

If they can solve the problem themselves, they’re not going to value what you do as much as they should. And it’s better just to move on.

This powerful sales question gets to the heart of one of the most important issues—timeline.

Are they hoping to solve the problem in a few weeks, but your product requires a two-month implementation? Are they planning ahead for a few years from now, and only wasting your time today?

Answering these and more timeline questions is an important step for qualifying your leads. And it’s a solid filter that weeds out those that aren’t a fit.

Think of this question as an investment in the future satisfaction of your product. Let me explain what I mean here.

For most of you out there, your product or service is going to take some effort on the part of the buyer. Maybe they’ll have to fight for budget. Or spend time on training. Or maybe even hire a new team entirely to use your product to its full potential.

It’s vital that this effort is well worth the benefit your product provides. If it isn’t, your buyer will feel resentful, won’t provide referrals or great reviews, and likely won’t be coming back for return business.

Asking this question puts this required effort into perspective for the buyer. If it doesn’t match up and they leave, you’ve just saved yourself loads of hassle later. And if it does, you’re building enthusiasm in a prospect that’s a picture-perfect match.

Easy peasy.

Okay, and the final powerful sales question I have for you today is…

How are projects like this usually funded?

Yep, here it is—the money question. People get weird about money, don’t they? Jaws tense up, prospects close off, and the air gets sucked out of the room in an instant.

But when you approach budgetary issues with this question, you’re easing into it. Prospects may talk about whether they have the funds allocated already, if this is a single department’s expense, and may even hint at their desired timeline too.

Plus, it’s phrased in such a way that prospects won’t feel like they’re being blindsided, keeping them open, friendly, and engaged.

This final question is a simple solution to a touchy subject. And it can quickly shift the tides of any discovery call in your favor.

Success in sales is all about bringing real, tangible value to the table. And delivering that value means you have to be adept at uncovering your buyer’s problems, assessing their needs, and determining if you’re a good fit for each other.

To do all that and more, just ask these five powerful sales questions…

With these questions, you’ll be able to qualify leads faster, tap into real buyer needs, and speed up the sales process—all while never sounding salesy and showing off your sales expertise at the same time.

So next time you’re on a discovery call or delivering a pitch, make a mental note to ask these five questions along the way to make your job ten times easier.