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    5 Questions for Better Lead Qualification in 2016

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    The last quarter is approaching. A new year is upon us. Soon we’ll make grand plans for everything we want to achieve in 2016. Most likely we'll start out with a flurry of activity and be surprised, yet again, that we couldn’t maintain momentum for something that was clearly unsustainable.

    No matter what your sales organization is looking to improve upon in 2016, execution will be key. It is easy to talk about what we should be doing, rather than figuring out how to make it happen. 

    "No matter what your sales organization is looking to improve upon in 2016, execution will be key"
    Fredrik Jonsson

    Saying that we need a better lead qualification process means little if we do not take action and figure out who our ideal customers are, how we should go about targeting more of them in our prospecting efforts and what we need to do at every turn to deliver value from the very first contact to signed agreement.

    In this post, we’ll cover 5 questions that we hope will help you focus your time, money and resources where it matters.

    Before we get to the questions, start by conducting an 80/20 analysis of your current customers. Which 20% produce 80% of your revenue? What do they have in common?

    Once you have identified your ideal (rather than your idealized) customers, write down your answers to the questions below:

    What hard facts stand out (geography, annual revenue, size, products and services purchased etc)?

    Write down anything and everything revealed by the data. The more granular, the better. If you come up with something along the lines of “We’re very successful when selling our manufacturing consulting services package to companies with 350-512 employees in the automotive and electronic design industries in Central Europe, with an annual revenue of $20M - $35M”, you are doing well.

    Why were you able to demonstrate value to these particular customers? 

    What were the reasons? Dig deep. Was it your unmatched expertise within a particular industry challenge? Your ability to deliver faster and with better quality? How you could prove that your solution exceeded RoI criteria and proved far superior compared to doing nothing (also known as the Cost of Inaction)?

    What were the conditions for your ability to deliver with profit?

    This could be a lot of different things. For example, the products and services sold did not require extensive internal resources to deliver, or the expectations around outcomes and timelines were well established, resulting in minimal pushback and successfully avoiding the need to add largely unpaid consulting hours.

    Why were you competitive in these particular opportunities

    Write down anything and everything that stand out. Have you found a niche where the major competitors do not compete? Could you really hone in on the value you are able to deliver, rather than joining a discounting race that depleted your margins? Perhaps you rank highly as a trusted advisor and creative problem solver when it comes to the challenges you were able to address for these particular opportunities?

    What "softer" criteria do these clients have in common?

    This is entirely optional, but isn’t it great having customers that always pay on time and are a joy to interact with? Maybe they are true fans and tell everyone they know how great you are. Why not bring in more of them? Write down the intangibles that you enjoy about these 20% of customers.

     

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    Fredrik Jonsson
    Published September 9, 2015
    By Fredrik Jonsson

    You know people that get excited about things like pomodoros and timeboxing strategies? Fredrik is one of them. He's also a former freelance writer and subsequently a man of many words. Words used to help companies take action on better ways to increase sales effectivenes. Fredrik is our Chief Content Officer at Membrain, the world's first sales software helping companies move from merely having a sales strategy towards executing it on a daily basis.

    Find out more about Fredrik Jonsson on LinkedIn