Busy Pipelines, Empty Results: The Hidden Problem of Lead Qualification

“Well, they said they needed it.”

The famous last words of the sales person defending a failing sales pipeline, disappointed that a deal has closed and walking back to their desk to the sound of their own footsteps.

We’ve all done it and sales leaders and business owners will have all heard it before.

Deals that fold because they were not fully qualified.

Relationships built with people who lack agency or authority.

Deadlines with zero impact.

It was in a previous life, working with a tech start up that I remember hearing the words  in a sales meeting.

“Well, they said they needed it.”

The ”They” in question was a prospect, sitting 80% likely in the pipeline with a value of £80,000 and 100% necessary for the survival of the business.

Unfortunately it turned out that the ‘need’ wasn’t strong enough to result in a sale and the consequences were predictable enough.

It’s relatively easy to fill a pipeline with prospects who say they need what you are selling but it’s unlikely to end well for both the sales leader and seller.

That’s the difference between engagement and qualification.

For any sales team in any business it is critical to get lead qualification right through implementing the right process that works for your systems and your people.

Breaking it down in simple terms a lead only becomes qualified when the following 3 conditions are present:
– Problem Relevance (the prospect you’re dealing with has a real issue that you can solve)
– Commercial Viability (they have a budget that they control)
– Decision Momentum (there is intent and the timing is right)

If one is missing then the lead isn’t qualified.

If this sounds familiar, you need to integrate a qualification model into your process – I’ll recommend two but there are many others which I have referenced in previous blogs and podcasts.

BANT – Budget, Authority, Need, Timing
MEDDIC – Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Identify pain, Champion

The headings are all fairly predictable, giving telling you a process that helps formalise what instinctive sales people look for.

(You can integrate these models into your CRM so that deals cannot progress until certain information has been captured.)

Let’s drill  into the principles of the model in a bit more detail.

1. There needs to be a problem
Your prospect needs to recognise that they have a problem, feel its impact and want to change.
An identified problem gets their attention but they need to want to move from the current state to future state. Some problems may be ignored for a while but the focus needs to be on life without the problem.

2. There must be financial consequences to doing something or nothing
There will be a cost of change offset against a cost of doing nothing. Sometimes the cost of doing nothing is far less than the cost of integrating your product or service and if you want sales success, you need to be able to talk about the different scenarios to encourage the prospect to consider wider implications, calling on good storytelling and questioning skills, integrated with broad and deep knowledge of the prospects world.

3. Speak to the right person
Obvious one and yet so many people get into deep relationships with people who have absolutely no say in the buying process. It isn’t always determined by title – I would argue that a Head of Procurement is as irrelevant as an Operations Manager, depending on the structure and internal protocols of the prospect. Good sales people have no problem asking the blunt question “Are you the decision maker?” but in a tactile way.

4. Budget realism
“Well they said they needed it.” But they didn’t say they could afford it. Respectfully, whatever you are selling isn’t as great as you think it is and you will be competing for budget across many other departments, each with pressing business needs.
Does your buyer see it as a risk and a worthy expense or investment? Effective qualification will mean that discussing money is never a problem.

5. Timeline
Without a start and end time a proposal can rest in a sales pipeline for ever. If it is a big problem it will need resolved quickly – small problems need resolved quickly too. When does the problem need to be solved. What triggers action?
And what happens if nothing changes?

With a well-qualified sales lead, a seller will have uncovered:
– an agreed problem
– buying authority and responsibility
–  budget plausibility
– likely timeline (decision AND implementation / integration)

“The Process is the Goal” is a good mantra for both sales leader and seller – using a methodology like BANT or MEDDIC will but structure to your sales approach and allow you to great good selling standards and build a more authentic pipeline. Weak qualification can become a scourge leading to poor forecasting, lengthy sales cycles, and pressure on yield from discounting.

It puts a lot of pressure on your people too.

Thanks for reading.

Photo by Alexey Demidov on Unsplash