The Ultimate Guide to Sales Qualification

Written by Leslie Ye
@lesliezye

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One of the most important conversations salespeople have with their prospects is the
discovery call. Here lies the proverbial fork in the road for you and your prospect.
Either they’re a good fit for your product or service and you can move forward with
the relationship, or it’s time to part ways.

But it’s not always immediately obvious which path to take. That’s where sales
qualification comes in. By asking the right questions, you’ll be able to determine
whether the relationship should continue, and if so, what next steps are appropriate.
This guide will walk you through the fundamentals of sales qualification, five
different frameworks you can use, and provide pointers on disqualification and
conversational tip-offs to listen for.

Free Download: 101 Sales Qualification Questions [Access Now]

Use the table of contents below to navigate through the guide:

1. What Is a Qualified Prospect?

2. When to Disqualify
3. Why Disqualifying Isn’t a Bad Thing
4. What Is a Qualifying Question?
5. What Is BANT?
6. MEDDIC, CHAMP Sales, & 3 More Qualification Frameworks
7. Qualifying Leads: The Qualification Process
 What Is a Qualified Prospect?
(back to top)

A discovery call is where you might do the bulk of your qualification, but it certainly
isn’t where qualification starts or ends. At every step of the sales process, you’ll
continuously evaluate prospects for more and more specific characteristics.

According to Bob Apollo, the founder of sales consulting group Inflexion

Point, there’s a hierarchy to qualification. That is, sales reps must qualify prospects
at three different levels -- what Apollo terms “organization-level,” “opportunity-
level,” and “stakeholder-level” sales qualification.
Organization-Level Qualification

This is the most basic level of qualification, and doesn’t tell you much other than
whether you should do more research. If your company has buyer personas, reference
them when qualifying a prospect. Does the buyer match the demographics of a given
persona?

Questions you should ask at this stage include:

 Is the prospect in your territory?

 Do you sell to their industry?

 What’s the company size?

 Does the account fit your company’s buyer persona?

Opportunity-Level Qualification

This form of qualification is probably what you thought of when you read the title of
this post. Opportunity-level sales qualification is where you determine whether your
prospect has a specific need or challenge you can satisfy and whether it’s feasible for
them to implement your particular product or service. The other half of a good buyer
persona, opportunity-level characteristics give insight into whether a prospect could
benefit from your offering.
 For suggestions of questions you can ask to qualify at the opportunity level,
see below.
Stakeholder-Level Qualification

Let’s say you’ve determined that your prospect’s company is a good match for your
solution and fits your ideal buyer persona. It’s time to get into the nitty-gritty -- can
your point of contact actually pull the trigger on a purchase decision?

To determine this, ask the following:

 Will this purchase come out of your budget?

 Who else is involved in the decision?

 Do you have criteria for this purchase decision? Who defined them?

When to Disqualify 
(back to top)

These three levels are listed in the order you should use them to disqualify.

For instance, if your prospect is a complete departure from your company’s buyer
persona, it’s safe to disqualify them right then and there on an organizational level.
Maybe one day, you’ll serve their type of buyer, but right now you don’t -- so don’t
waste time trying to shoehorn your offering into their business.

Similarly, you could be speaking with the CEO of an organization with complete
budget authority who passes stakeholder-level qualification with flying colors. But if
there’s no problem, there’s no need for your solution. Qualify for business pain first.

Also keep in mind that unless a prospect can be qualified on all three levels, you
shouldn’t advance them in the sales process. For example, if you ask your prospect
about the company’s strategic goals and they’re unable to answer, it’s a good sign
they’re not close enough to the decision process and lack influence.

You should disqualify this contact at the stakeholder level, even though they pass at
the opportunity level.
Why Disqualifying Isn’t a Bad Thing
(back to top)

Many salespeople are loath to disqualify prospects and shrink their pipelines.

Their natural instinct is trying to work as many leads as possible, but this isn’t the best
approach. The quality of your leads matter more than the quantity.

As a salesperson, your most precious asset is your time, and it’s far better to spend it
on a handful of your best prospects than spreading yourself thin across dozens of
leads. Trying to close every deal that comes along is only going to result in dead ends
with poor fit prospects, while you neglect prospects likely to buy.
What Is a Qualifying Question?
(back to top)

A qualifying question helps the salesperson determine their prospect's fit for one
criteria. That might be need, budget, authority, sense of urgency, or another factor.

A good qualifying question is typically open-ended. Asking a close-ended question,

like "Is this a priority right now?" boxes the buyer into an answer. The better version
would be "Where does this fall on your list of business priorities?" Because you're not
leading the prospect to an answer, the response will usually be more honest and
revealing.

What Is BANT?
(back to top)

A qualification framework is essentially a rubric that salespeople can use to determine

whether a prospect is likely to become a successful customer. Every customer and
every sale is different, but all closed-won deals share commonalities. Sales
qualification frameworks distill those shared characteristics into general traits reps can
look for when qualifying.

The BANT Qualification Framework

 The Old Faithful of sales qualification frameworks, BANT (Budget, Authority, Need,
Timeline) is used at a variety of companies and in a variety of markets.

Originally developed by IBM, BANT covers all the broad strokes of opportunity and
stakeholder-level qualification.

BANT seeks to uncover the following four pieces of information:

 Budget: Is the prospect capable of buying?

 Authority: Does your contact have adequate authority to sign off on a
purchase?
 Need: Does the prospect have a business pain you can solve?
 Timeline: When is the prospect planning to buy?

Here are a few examples of BANT questions in the context of a prospect

conversation:

Budget

 Do you have a budget set aside for this purchase? What is it?

 Is this an important enough priority to allocate funds toward?

 What other initiatives are you spending money on?

 Does seasonality affect your funding?

Authority

 Whose budget does this purchase come out of?

 Who else will be involved in the purchasing decision?

 How have you made purchasing decisions for products similar to ours in the
past?

 What objections to this purchase do you anticipate encountering? How do you

think we can best handle them?
 Need

 What challenges are you struggling with?

 What’s the source of that pain, and why do you feel it’s worth spending time
on?

 Why hasn’t it been addressed before?

 What do you think could solve this problem? Why?

Timeline

 How quickly do you need to solve your problem?

 What else is a priority for you?

 Are you evaluating any other similar products or services?

 Do you have the capacity to implement this product right now?

While BANT addresses many opportunity-level requirements, it misses the mark on

others. According to research from CEB, it now takes an average of 5.4 people to
make a buying decision, so the “ultimate” buying authority could be more than one
person. Make sure you engage all relevant stakeholders early on in the process and
secure each individual’s buy-in.

“Timeline” is another area where BANT falls short today. A strict BANT
qualification might tell you to cycle a lead who won’t be ready to buy until next year
into a closed-lost queue. But you might be acting prematurely -- send over educational
resources and offer to help until they’re ready to buy, if you can.

MEDDIC, CHAMP Sales, & 3 More Qualification

Frameworks
(back to top)
BANT might be the most popular, but it’s far from the only sales qualification
framework out there. Here are five alternate frameworks that sales reps can use if
BANT just doesn’t cut it.
MEDDIC
MEDDIC (Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process,
Identify Pain, Champion) was pioneered by Jack Napoli when he was at technology
company PTC. MEDDIC requires sales reps to understand every aspect of a target
company's purchase process, down to whether you have an internal champion -- an
employee at a prospective company who will internally sell your product.
MEDDIC was incredibly valuable for increasing forecasting accuracy, something
that's crucial for companies that sell to enterprise companies -- after all, losing just
one deal can be crippling when each is worth several million dollars.

"From $0 to $100 million, [PTC was] successful because we sold a better widget,"

HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan said. "From $100 million to $1 billion, we sold a shift
in technology. MEDDIC became important because it's not just any old purchase --
it's a transformation of the business."

You should consider using MEDDIC as a qualification framework if your company

sells a product that requires a transformation in behavior or average sales price is
incredibly high, as understanding exactly how a prospect buys, why they would buy,
and who's championing you internally is crucial to maintaining an accurate pipeline.
CHAMP Sales
CHAMP (Challenges, Authority, Money, and Prioritization) is similar to ANUM
but places Challenges ahead of Authority.

“Your prospect buys things because they have a challenge,” Atiim, Inc. founder
Zorian Rotenberg writes in a blog post. “[Challenges] are the first fundamental part of
sales qualification.”

CHAMP also defines authority as a “call-to-action,” not a roadblock. If your initial

contact is a low-level employee, you can safely assume they won’t be the decision
maker. That doesn’t mean you should hang up the phone. Instead, “ask your prospect
 questions that help you map out their company’s organizational structure” to
determine who to reach out to next, according to Rotenberg.

GPCTBA/C&I

Yes, it’s a long acronym, but a useful one. Developed at HubSpot the qualification
framework, GPCTBA/C&I (Goals, Plans, Challenges, Timeline, Budget, Authority,
Negative Consequences and Positive Implications) is a response to changes in buyer
behavior. Buyers come to the sales process increasingly informed, so salespeople need
to add value on top of product knowledge to be worth speaking with.

But value isn’t something sales reps can just “add” -- to truly act as an advisor, you
must explore beyond the scope of the discrete problem that your product or service
could solve. This means understanding a prospect’s strategic goals, their company’s
business model, and how the specific issue you’re discussing fits into the larger
picture of their professional life.

Here are some of the questions you should ask at each step:

Goals

The purpose of the following questions is to find out your prospect’s quantitative
goals. You can help clarify or set goals with your prospect if their response isn’t well-
defined.

 What is your top priority this year?

 Do you have specific company goals?

 Do you have published revenue goals for this quarter/year?

Plans

Once you understand your prospect’s goals, find out what work they’ve already done
to achieve them. Determine what’s worked and what hasn’t, and make suggestions for
improvement.

 What are you planning to do to achieve your goals?

 What did you do last year? What worked and what didn’t? What are you going
to do differently this year?

 Do you think XYZ might make it hard to implement your plan?

 Do you have the right resources available to implement this plan?

Challenges

Defining your prospect’s challenges -- and reinforcing that what they’ve already tried
isn’t working -- is crucial. Unless they understand that they need help, a prospect
won’t become a customer.

 Why do you think you’ll be able to eliminate this challenge now, even though
you’ve tried in the past and you’re still dealing with it?

 Do you think you have the internal expertise to deal with these challenges?

 If you realize early enough in the year that this plan isn’t fixing this challenge,
how will you shift gears?

Timeline

Your most important asset is your time. So while a prospect that doesn’t want to buy
now or in the near future isn’t necessarily a lost cause, they should move down your
priority list.

 When will you begin implementing this plan?

 Do you have bandwidth and resources to implement this plan now?

 Would you like help thinking through the steps involved in executing this plan,
so you can figure out when you should implement each piece?

Budget

Just asking “What’s your budget?”, isn’t a question likely to get you valuable insight,
according to HubSpot sales director Dan Tyre.
 Instead, try asking:

 Are we in agreement on the potential ROI of [product or service]?

 Are you spending money on another product to solve the problem we’ve
discussed?

Then, go in for the kill. Databox CEO and former HubSpot VP of sales Pete Caputa
suggests phrasing the budget question this way:

“We've established that your goal is X and that you're spending Y now to try and
achieve X. But it's not working. In order to hire us, you will need to invest Z. Since Z
is pretty similar to Y and you're more confident that our solution will get you to your
goal, do you believe it makes sense to invest Z to hire us?"
Authority

Unlike in BANT, qualifying for authority under this framework isn’t necessarily
trying to determine whether your contact is a decision maker. Your contact might be
an influencer or a coach, two types of internal champions who can give you insight
into the decision maker’s thought process.

If your contact isn’t the economic buyer, ask them:

 Are the goals we’ve discussed important to the economic buyer?

 Amongst their priorities, where does this fall?

 What concerns do you anticipate they’ll raise?

 How should we go about getting the economic buyer on board?

Negative Consequences and Positive Implications

In this part of the qualification process, you’re finding out what happens if your
prospect does or does not achieve their goals.
 “If your product can significantly help them avoid consequences and further aid in
achieving even bigger follow-up goals, you’ve got a very strong value proposition,”
Caputa says.

Here are some C&I questions to ask prospects:

 What happens if you do or don’t reach your goals? Does the outcome affect
you on a personal level?

 When you overcome this challenge, what will you do next?

 Do you stand to get promoted or get more resources if you can hit your goal?
Would you lose responsibility or be demoted if you don’t?

The benefit of GPCTBA/C&I is that is allows salespeople to gather a huge amount of

information. If your product is complex, highly differentiated, and stands to become
an integral part of your prospect’s business strategy, having these insights is
incredibly valuable. Sales reps selling these kinds of products need to step into their
prospects’ world to be effective advisors and business partners.

However, GPCTBA/C&I might not be right for every sales force. Depending on what
you sell, such thorough qualification may not be necessary.

ANUM
ANUM (Authority, Need, Urgency, Money) is an alternative spin on BANT. When
qualifying using ANUM, a sales rep’s first priority should be to determine whether
they’re speaking with a decision maker.
Need functions the same way as it does in BANT, but has been moved up in priority.
Urgency correlates with Timing, while Money replaces Budget, but with subtle
distinctions. David Garcia explains:
“With Urgency, we want to know how high up [the prospect’s] priority list this
particular business pain is. Budget has been updated to Money to reflect the fact that
we have to only find out if they potentially have the money to purchase our solution.
Then it is our job to prove our value and why [the prospect] should apply to get the
fixed budget for this purchase.”
FAINT
The RAIN Group advocates using FAINT (Funds, Authority, Interest, Need, Timing)
to qualify sales leads. FAINT is designed to reflect the fact that many purchase
decisions are unplanned and thus won’t be associated with a set budget.
Like ANUM, reps using FAINT should look for organizations with the capacity to
buy, regardless of whether a discrete budget has been set aside. FAINT also adds
Interest into the mix. According to RAIN Group’s John Doerr and Mike Schultz,
Interest is defined as “[generating] interest from the buyer in learning what’s possible
and how to achieve a new and better reality than the one they have today.”
Qualifying Leads: The Qualification Process
(back to top)
Stop me if you’ve heard this one: “It’s not what you said, it’s how you said it.”

This phrase is the root of countless arguments, but it’s as good as gold when it comes
to sales qualification. Your prospect will provide you as much information via their
tone of voice and delivery as the words they actually speak.

Here are some tip-offs (both good and bad) to listen for when qualifying a prospect
that can help you determine whether to advance the sales process or disqualify ASAP.

Good Signs to Move a Prospect Forward

Excuses

Wait. How can excuses be a good thing?

According to Psychology Today, we make excuses to resolve cognitive

dissonance -- mental stress caused by holding conflicting beliefs. Excuses help
resolve our actions with who we want to be.

During a sales conversation, your ears should perk up if your prospect tries to explain
away previous inaction regarding business pain. This indicates one of two things:
either the excuse is legitimate, or your prospect wishes they had done something about
it earlier and is trying to rationalize why they didn’t. Either way, it confirms their pain
is real.
Specificity

Prospects who can give specific answers to questions such as “What are your goals?”
and “When do you need to see results?” have thought carefully about their problem.
Listen for sequential plans, thought-out explanations, and statistics. Specifics also
indicate that your prospect feels real pain. After all, people without real
problems don’t spend time thinking about why they exist and how to address them.

Of course, the caveat is that specifics must be accompanied by reality. A prospect who
says, “I want to quadruple revenue in the next two weeks,” is using specifics to
demonstrate that they don’t have strong business acumen.

Knowledge

Specificity’s partner is knowledge. A knowledge check is your best bet for qualifying
at the stakeholder level. True decision makers will have intimate knowledge of
company goals, challenges, and needs. A contact who doesn’t have access to this
information likely isn’t going to be valuable in the sales process.

Red Flags in the Sales Process

Inconsistency

A prospect whose answers contradict each other is likely one who wants to be helpful,
but can’t because they don’t possess adequate knowledge. However, this isn’t a
dealbreaker -- prod them to tell you who does know the answers, and continue
qualifying the opportunity with another contact.

Short answers

True business pain permeates an organization -- executives lose sleep over it and
employees have to deal with it on a day-to-day basis. If you give the impression that
you can help alleviate the pain, prospects will want to talk to you.

A prospect who’s giving you one-word answers isn’t someone who feels there’s basis
for a conversation. It could be that the problem is a non-issue, or the contact isn’t
clued in enough to feel its severity. Depending on what you think is going on,
disqualify or try reaching out to another member of the organization.
Sales success rests on effective qualification. Your ability to find good fit prospects
will make or break your business. Prospects who turn into happy customers mean not
only revenue, but increased word-of-mouth, referrals, and the possibility of cross- or
upselling. So it’s imperative that you get it right.

Want to learn more? Check out the weaknesses that cripple a rep's ability to
qualify here.

How to Use BANT to Qualify Prospects in 2020

What does BANT stand for?

The acronym BANT stands for:

Budget: How much is the prospect able and willing to spend?

Authority: Who is the ultimate decision maker?
Need: Does the prospect have a problem your product can solve?
Timing: Is there urgency?

Free Download: 101 Sales Qualification Questions [Access Now]

What is BANT?
BANT is a sales qualification methodology that lets salespeople determine
whether a prospect is a good fit based on their budget, internal
influence/ability to buy, need for the product, and purchase timeline.

How NOT to use BANT

BANT has fallen out of favor recently, but it’s not just the methodology -- it’s
also how you use it. fails when salespeople use it like a checklist, meaning
they ask prospects a series of rote questions without truly listening to their
response or attempting to add value.

Here’s an example:

Rep: “Do you have a budget set aside for this?”

Prospect: “Not yet, but it should be finalized on Tuesday.”
Rep: “Great. And who will be signing off on this deal?”
Prospect: “My manager Sheila.”
Rep: “And you’ll be using Spartan to organize customer events around the
country, which currently you do not have software for. It seems like your
current system is hard to manage and scale.”
Prospect: “Yes, that’s correct.”
Rep: “Is there a specific date you’d like to have a solution in place for?”
Prospect: “Probably sometime in the spring.”
Rep: “Okay, great. I think the next step is arranging a demo between you and
an events specialist -- what do you think?”
Prospect: “I’d like to look around a bit more first … I’ll shoot you an email in a
few weeks.”

The salesperson is never going to hear from that prospect again.

So what went wrong?

First, this was an interrogation, not a two-way dialogue. No one enjoys being
quizzed. Unfortunately, BANT often causes reps to stick to a memorized list
rather than asking questions that build on each other.

Second, the rep missed several opportunities to dig deeper. They didn’t learn
anything about the decision maker, Sheila; the budget approval process; or
the reason for a spring implementation.

To use BANT successfully, think of it as a concept rather than a to-do list. You
need to qualify on all four characteristics, but you don’t need to do them in a
 particular order or way. In fact, you should change your approach every time
to fit the prospect.

BANT Lead Qualification Questions

Budget

 What do you currently spend now on this problem or need?

 We’ve calculated your team is losing X amount per [week, quarter, year] on
this problem. How does that compare to the budget you’ve set aside?

 We’ve calculated your team could potentially gain X amount per [week,
quarter, year] by making this [change, investment]. How does that compare to the
budget you’ve set aside?

 Whose budget is this coming out of?

 How much would it cost to build the system by yourself?

 How much would it cost if you haven’t fixed this issue in five years?

 How heavily will price factor into the decision?

 Have you identified a budget range for this purchase?

 What’s the ROI you’re hoping to see?

Authority

 Who will be using the product?

 What was the last time you bought a similar product? How did the decision
making process go?

 This is normally the stage where my customer brings in [the head of Finance,
the other stakeholders, their manager] to [discuss X, get their perspective on Y]. Do
you want to invite [Z person/people] to our next meeting?

 Will anyone else be involved in this decision?

 Need

 When did you identify [problem, opportunity]?

 What steps have you already taken to address it?

 How important is addressing this to your personal goals at [company]? Career

goals? Your department’s?

 What are your top priorities at the moment? Where does this fit on that list?

 What happens if you don’t address this?

Timing

 Are there any upcoming events/deadlines that you’d like to have a solution in
place by?

 Are you planning any [insert relevant project here, i.e. lead generation
campaign, major hiring spree, program overhauls, etc.)?

 What’s your [lead generation, revenue, retention, etc.] goal for [next quarter,
half of the year]? Will you be able to meet that goal without some sort of change?

 Working backward from the date you gave me, we’d need to finalize our
agreement by [earlier date]. Is that sound doable?

The BANT Sales Process

1. Don't view budget as a blocker.

2. Map out who's involved.

3. Identify the importance of the problem.

4. Discover how quickly their organization moves.

Jacco Van der Kooj argues there are a couple challenges with using BANT in
today’s world.
1. Don't view budget as a blocker.

First, if you use a subscription model, budget probably isn’t a blocker for most
companies. In the old days, when reps were selling licenses, it made sense to
qualify on financial need.

But now, most SaaS companies charge anywhere from $50 to tens of
thousands of dollars per month (at the very high end). With the ROI your
customers will see, price shouldn’t be a huge obstacle.

(Of course, that doesn’t apply if you’re in a different field -- like pharma sales,
real estate, and so on.)

2. Map out who's involved.

The second problem with BANT: Most decisions are now made by a group
rather than one person. There’s an average of 6.8 stakeholders involved in
every deal. Even if one person signs the contract, you need to convince the
majority of their team.

Map out everyone who is involved in the process: Their job titles, decision
making role, priorities, and how you can get access to them (asking your
champion to set up a meeting, reaching out to them directly. etc.) The more
contacts you have, the more control you’ll wield -- and the less chance this
opportunity will slip through your fingers.

3. Identify the importance of the problem.

Instead of identifying the prospect’s budget, figure out how important this
problem is to them. Are they highly motivated to solve it? What happens if
they don’t? Is there a different initiative they care about more that will compete
for their energy, attention, and decision making capital?

Willingness to act can often be a better indicator of fit than budget.

4. Discover how quickly their organization moves.

You know the urgency of their need and who the decision makers are, but
how quickly does their organization make decisions?

Identifying whether you're looking at months of red tape and approvals or a

simple one-pitch-and-a-close type deal can help you plan your pipeline and
prepare for the close.

BANT has lasted through the ages because it’s effective (when used
correctly), memorable, and applicable to a range of products, price points, and
sales processes. Adapt it to your situation, then ruthlessly target the best fits.

Want to up your sales game even more? Evolve your BANT strategy to
include this new framework for qualifying prospects.

Lead Qualification: Don’t BANT. Just CHAMP!

 
Most sales professionals are very familiar with the BANT
methodology for qualifying sales
leads — Budget, Authority, Need, and Timing.
Though BANT has become the go-to sales qualification
methodology, it has a few fundamental flaws. For example,
the implication with BANT is that “B” or Budget comes
first. However, Need — the pain, problem or challenges that
the company is facing — is really the first area that sales
reps must qualify. Before talking about Budgets, Timelines
or anything else, Need comes first.
It’s easy to claim that you can just reorder and call it NATB,
so Need is first, speaking to the right decision-maker is
second, followed by Timing then Budget. But that acronym
is painful, and would not resonate well with your sales team
who should be using this daily. You could also claim that
BANT is merely a reminder and that your sales reps can just
start with qualifying for Need (“N”) first.
Why not just have an acronym that is both sequenced
correctly and implies that you are a deal-winner, a
rainmaker, a closer, and a true sales champion?
I’d like to share a modern, new “sales qualification 2.0”
approach that, once and for all, can replace the legacy
BANT and make all modern sales reps more successful. It is
time to adopt a more modern acronym that puts your
prospects’ needs first and correctly defines the timeline of
qualifying leads.
The modern lead qualification acronym that I advise
all inside sales teams to use is CHAMP: CHallenges,
Authority, Money, and Prioritization.
Let’s go through each step one by one. I’ve included
examples of qualifying questions in each category. These
questions should be spaced out over the course of several
sales meetings throughout the buying process. Don’t ask
them all at one meeting – that’s like asking someone to
marry you on the first date! But if you follow this guide, you
will be able to better qualify sales leads, and start closing
more deals.
(If you want to learn more about best practices for running a
B2B inside sales team, check out our FREE eBook: The
Definitive Guide to Building a B2B Inside Sales Team.)
 
Challenges
Your prospect buys things because they have a challenge. If
you have a solution for the challenges that your prospect and
their company are facing then you have a real beginning of
an “Opportunity” and some potential to sell to this prospect
and account. It is the first fundamental part of sales
qualification so it deserves the first spot in the modern sales
qualification acronym.  A challenge is a need and a pain that
your prospect has been dealing with.  And you need to solve
this challenge with your solution – only then you will get a
sale.
Asking questions early in the selling cycle like, “What are
your business’s biggest challenges that you’re dealing with
and how have you been solving them so far?” and “What are
your personal challenges when trying to do your job?” help
you gain the information you need to understand the nature
and scope of the opportunity. In the later stages, these
questions help you determine if your product or service
represents the best fit for the defined opportunity.
The best way to gain insight on your prospect’s pain or need
(i.e. their challenge) is to ask them questions and listen
carefully to their answers.
Challenge Questions:
 What challenges is your business facing and what

problems do you need to solve?

  What is driving your interest in our solution?
 How long have you had this challenge or problem?

What made you decide to solve this problem now?

 What objectives are you looking to achieve by solving

this pain?
 What are the likely consequences if the pain is not

solved?
The answers to these questions will enable your sales team to
determine whether your product or service is a match for
your prospect. You’ll know you’re a match if you believe
your product or service will satisfy the prospect’s needs.
Authority
Authority is not a blocker – it’s a call to action. (Tweet this!)
It is often the most misunderstood step in the lead
qualification process. Many sales reps believe that
“Authority” means you should disqualify leads with low-
influencing contacts. NOT the case! “Authority” means you
must ask your prospect questions that help you map out
their company’s organizational structure.
It doesn’t matter if the initial contact on the lead has low
authority – they can help you get an idea of who the
decision-makers are. Who are the 5 key influencers you need
to get in touch with? Are they the CEO, the CFO, the CMO,
VP Sales, a Board member, a manager? Your prospect has
that valuable insight, and you as a sales rep just need to find
out.
Once you know who the decision-makers are, it is your job
as a salesperson to reach them. I recommend reading our
blog posts on how to turn low-authority contacts into
customers and how to get past the gatekeeper and reach
decision-makers quickly to learn tips and tactics on reaching
high influencers.
Authority Questions:
 Who, in addition to yourself, is involved in making this

solution happen at your company?

 How are purchasing decisions made for products like

ours and who is involved in looking at this solution?

 Who in addition to yourself is the decision maker with

most clout?  And next to that person, who is the next

person?  How important is it that they be on board with
the decision?
 What concerns do you think they may have? If they

have any potential concerns, how do you think we

should handle them?
 Would it make sense for us to schedule a call together

with them to answer any potential questions they may

have?
 Are you comfortable, perhaps prior to our next

meeting, if I call (Name of Decision-maker / Influencer)

to have a brief conversation? My experience has been
that while everyone in the organization is pretty aligned
on the needs, typically everyone has got a little bit of a
different perspective as to what they are looking for in a
solution like this. That way everyone will have input in
this. And, by the way, if I get a different perspective
from him/her, would you mind if I give you a call?
What I hope is that you all have a consensus as to what
 the solution should look like for our next meeting. Fair
enough?
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Money
Money is a critical factor in any buying decision. If your
prospect can’t afford your product or service, you won’t be
able to sell to them. Once you’ve qualified their challenges
and needs, it is time to find out their expectations for the
investment they’ll need to make to fulfill these needs. Have
they set aside a budget to solve this challenge? If they don’t
have the funds now, will they in the future? What else are
they spending money on? Now is also a good time to mention
the typical ROI for your product or service to remind them
why the investment is worth it.
Money Questions:
 What are your expectations for the investment

necessary to purchase the solution?

 Do you have a portion of your budget allocated to this?

 Is your finance team or CFO involved in approving

this? (Note: While this can come off as an “Authority”

type of qualifying question, it is equally indicative of
how the budget approval  process works at the company
depending on the prospect’s answer)
 What is your typical budget allocation process from

when you need to invest in a solution like this that was

outside of the original budget?
 When do you plan to ask for budget allocation for this

investment?
Prioritization
BANT calls this “Timing”. And timeline is a function of
prioritization. When a prospect says they need to solve this
problem by their next board meeting in 2 weeks, what
they’re really saying is “this is a top priority.” So ask your
prospect: how important is solving this problem relative to
other priorities? What date or event is their priority
attached to (end of month, end of quarter, by a certain
event)? Is it a top priority for Q2, or is it a goal they want to
solve at some point before the end of the fiscal year? If they
don’t need a solution until the end of 2014, that means it is in
a queue of other priorities. Find out what they are to get an
idea of your prospect’s business plan.
Prioritization Questions:
 Do you currently have a contract? If so, when is it due

for renewal? Is there a cancellation fee?

 When were you planning on starting the

implementation?
 So when is the latest when you would want to make a

decision? So you wanna have a decision made no later

than 2 months. And ideally, when would prefer to get
this done?
 So what’s a realistic kind of timeframe that we should

be targeting here? When would you like to have have

the problem solved?
 How important is this to you and where does this stack

up in terms of priority and urgency? What are some of

the other priorities now?
  Do you have the time and bandwidth to begin
implementation now?
 Would you like to hear about how other people I’ve

worked with have implemented plans like these? (If

they are interested then it indicates that this is
important and high on the list of priority and timeline)
Prioritization can also be related to how you are ranked
relative to your competition. Here are questions that will
help you find out:
 Are you looking at or evaluating any other similar

solutions to help you solve the problem?

 Where do we stack up in terms of functionality and

pricing when compared to these other solutions you’ve

been looking at?
 What is your relationship like with your current

vendor? (If they have one)

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Final thoughts
Asking these CHAMP questions and listening closely is the
key to correctly qualifying your opportunities. If you don’t
ask questions with genuine interest while actively listening,
then you will not successfully qualify them.
In addition to CHAMP, you should remember that, to truly
move the deal forward, it is critical to for you to understand
the “D” or Decision Process (or Buying Process) and “C” or
Competition (note that competition to you maybe simply
“status quo” or “complacency” in which case there is a
possibility that you haven’t really gone through the
“Challenges” discovery as well as you could have).
Also, don’t forget that after you go through your CHAMP
list and qualify, you should always have next steps. Here are
a few last questions that will help you with that:
 Do you have a calendar and what is the best date and

time to schedule our next meeting?

 Ideally, what would be the focus of our next meeting?

 What would be the best way to get to you everything

that you may need such as customer references and

other information about the solution as a right fit for
you and so you feel comfortable making the decision in
the timeframe that you mentioned?
If you take anything away from this article, it is
that discovering your prospects’ challenges and needs should
take priority over any other qualification questions. And the
other questions, when they flow in the right order, will help
each one of your reps to become a Champ if they use the
CHAMP methodology!

What's The CHAMP

Framework?
Amy Wood

Contributor

April 17, 2019

If there’s one thing salespeople love, it’s acronyms. And commission, of
course… but mostly acronyms.

From BANT to FAINT to MEDDIC to CHAMP and everything in between, there’s an acronym

for just about every sales methodology ever developed.

But which methodology (and thus acronym) reigns supreme?

Until recently, BANT was one of the most popular approaches, which focused on Budget,
Authority, Need, and Timing.

While all of these stages individually are important, it’s the order they’re placed in that really
had sales professionals asking themselves if it was the best approach.

Specifically, they wondered if leading with the client’s pain would be more effective than
leading with their budget. After all, it was a pain or challenge that led the client to reach out or
take a call with you in the first place.

But shuffling the order of the stages meant also shuffling the letters in the acronym… and NABT
just didn’t have the same ring to it.
So the acronym gods puzzled away and eventually came up with a new and improved acronym,
which not only prioritized the client’s needs and problems, but also sounded rather heroic.

Enter the CHAMP sales framework...

What is the CHAMP framework?

CHAMP stands for CHallenges, Authority, Money, and Prioritization.

It’s quite similar to BANT, in that each CHAMP stage is (more or less) reflected in a BANT
stage; however there are two key differences.

1. Challenges always precede budget

By focusing on challenges first rather than budget, you can more accurately qualify your
prospect and discover unique opportunities to help alleviate their pain points with your product
or service.

Once your prospect understands exactly how your offer can improve their lives and help them
overcome their challenges, budget becomes a lot less sticky of a topic.

Had you approached the conversation first with budget, you may have determined them
unqualified because you hadn’t sold them on value and they weren’t willing to budge on an
arbitrary number.

2. Timing is just one part of prioritization

Getting a feel for a prospect’s estimated timeline is all well and good, but truly understanding
their priorities and where your solution fits in will help you both come up with a realistic plan of
action and implementation.

Think back to a year ago, for example, when companies were scrambling to ensure their digital
assets were GDPR-compliant before the May 25 deadline.

No matter how dissatisfied your prospect may have been with their current solution during this
time, if GDPR compliance was a company priority, it was the company priority—meaning other
tasks like implementing a new project management tool or accounting software would’ve been
downgraded in importance.
The CHAMP framework, step by step

Enough about MEDDIC—that’s for another post focusing primarily on enterprise prospects.
Today we’re talking about CHAMP, so let’s break it down, step by step.

CHallenges

The emotionally intelligent human sees challenges as opportunities rather than roadblocks—this
is true for salespeople, too.

Using the CHAMP framework, the salesperson is hyper-focused on helping prospects define
their most pressing challenges—because once a challenge is properly identified, an opportunity
is created.

This approach helps salespeople qualify their leads early on, and provides them with solutions-
based ammunition, making it easier to sell to the prospect.

Some questions you might want to ask during this phase include:

 Tell me about the challenges your company is facing.

 Tell me about the most pressing problems you need to solve.
 How long have you been experiencing this problem, and what led you to look
for a solution now?
 What would your operations look like if this problem were solved today?
 What will happen if this problem isn’t solved?

Authority

When using the CHAMP framework, it’s important you’re talking to the person who has the
authority to make a buying decision.
You know firsthand how much time and effort goes into nurturing a lead, and directing it at the
wrong contact means you’ll have to go through the whole process again should you eventually
get in touch with the right contact.

That said, don’t write off low-influencing contacts. They might not be able to sign off on a
purchase, but they will likely be able to provide you with information about the company’s
organizational structure and who best to get in touch with.

Use your time with low-influencing contacts wisely to

discover who the key influencers in the company are,
and then get in touch with them.
Once you reach the appropriate Authority, some questions you might want to ask them include:

 How are purchasing decisions typically made in your company, specifically

with products/services like ours?
 Who else in your company needs to be involved to make this solution a reality?
 What concerns might you have, and how can we best address them?
 Are you comfortable with us all hopping on a call to discuss, or alternatively if I
schedule a call with them to understand their needs and perspective?

Money

Money can be a sensitive subject, and in sales it’s no different.

Whereas the BANT framework leads with Budget—which can be off-putting to some—the
CHAMP framework allows sales reps to warm up to the money discussion.

This approach allows salespeople to first dig into the prospect’s challenges, and demonstrate how
their product or service is the solution.

The Money stage is all about uncovering the available budget, including when the budget will be
available. It’s also a great time to demonstrate the ROI of your product or service, so don’t hold
back on the case studies.
Consider the following questions when entering this stage of CHAMP:

 Do you have budget allocated for a solution?

 When do you plan to ask for budget for this investment?
 Who needs to be involved in approving a purchase?
 What is the typical process for getting approval for investments beyond the
original budget?

Prioritization

Prioritization is similar to BANT’s Timing, since it covers timeline; however, it also considers
timing in relation to other company priorities.

We already went over the GDPR example, which illustrates how company objectives can often
impact departmental objectives—even if the departmental objectives seem like top priority.

Getting an understanding of what else the company is

prioritizing will help provide clarity in determining a
realistic—not just idealistic—timeline.
The second thing to consider is if there is a milestone date associated with the timeline, such as
end of quarter, end of year, or something else the company is mobilizing around. This will
determine the client’s urgency (or lack thereof).

Some questions to ask during the Prioritization stage are:

 When would you like to see this problem solved?

 Where does this stack up against other departmental/company priorities?
 When does your current solution expire? If you were to cancel now, would you
incur a fee?
 When do you see yourself starting to implement this solution?
 Are you currently looking at other solutions to tackle this problem?
 When is the latest you’d like to make a decision by?
Is CHAMP always the best sales methodology?

With so many sales methodologies to choose from, it might be tempting to close your eyes, point
to one—spinning globe-style—and call it a day.

And while CHAMP is a great option for many sales teams, there are some exceptions,
particularly when it comes to selling to enterprise companies.

Here’s why:

1. Decision-making is rarely down to one individual. When it comes to

enterprise companies, large purchases may require sign-off from multiple
people or even a committee.
2. Return on investment (ROI) needs to be demonstrated. Because the effects
of implementing a new product or service are far-reaching (e.g., multiple
departments and even locations), ROI in the form of raw numbers (and not just
anecdotal evidence) must be provided.

So what then?

In cases where you’re selling to enterprise companies, you might instead want to take the
MEDDIC approach, which leads with Metrics.
In other words, how much money your product or service will make your client.

It also requires a Champion, who’ll be your main point of contact, and who will go back to their
own team to “sell” them on your product or service.
Don’t be a chump; be a CHAMP

Like acronyms, there’s another thing many salespeople love: Friendly competition.

Being the champion (a.k.a. winning) earns you the respect of your peers and boss. You can reap
the rewards of a job well done—whether symbolic (e.g. the sales rep of the month desk trophy)
or monetary (sales bonuses and commissions).

The CHAMP sales framework is a powerful tool in your sales arsenal—not only because it
works, but also because the name is sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy:

 Step 1: Use the CHAMP framework.

 Step 2: Become a CHAMP.

With CHAMP everyone is a champion, including your client. Rather than focusing on hitting
quotas, you’re zeroed in on solving their problems. And that, friends, is what we can call a win-
win.

CHAMP Methodology: Spot on Sales-

Ready Leads with These Questions
0 Comments/in Strategy /by Judy Caroll

In sales and marketing, it is important to clearly define a good qualified lead . And most
Sales Reps used to follow BANT; Budget, Authority, Need and Timing to qualify their
sales leads. However, in modern B2B, where sales and marketing teams found out that
there are other factors to consider first to help determine the sales-readiness of a
prospect.
In sales, you must care about your prospects in order to build a long lasting relationship
with them.  Empathy should come first rather than sales reps focusing on reaching their
quota by misleading prospects  to buy their products without thinking about the
prospect’s concerns to resolve the issues within their organization.
Need, pain, problems and challenges are the first things to discuss with the prospect
when qualifying a sales lead before talking about the budget. By empathizing and
listening to their concerns, they are more likely to open up to you. This is your way of
finding out whether there’s an opportunity for you to offer your product and show them
how it can help them resolve their issues.
There’s a modern lead qualification term, CHAMP: CHallenges, Authority, Money
and Priority to ask to identify the buying process. These are the questions that a
salesperson must ask to better qualify leads and close sales.

CHallenges
Prospect tends to buy things because they are experiencing challenges within their
organization. If you can offer a solution for the challenges that your prospects are
currently facing, then you can say that this is the beginning of an opportunity and you
can offer help and start talking about how they will benefit for your product.
When you say ‘challenges’, it means a need or a pain that the prospect is experiencing
within their organization. And by calling them, you are offering them a solution to their
challenges – and eventually get a sale.
By asking for their challenges, you are gaining information and understanding your
prospect’s current set up better and find out if they are worth pursuing or not.  The
following questions will help you determine if your products or services best fit their
needs.
 Do you have any challenges with your current solution that would consider you
to change?
 What areas in your business do you need help for?
 What areas within your business are facing any challenges that needs help for?
Giving empathy in understanding these challenges is important.
Related: Why would I work with a lead generation company when I have an in-house
marketing person and my own CRM?

Authority
In sales, time is precious. Asking for the authority of the person simply means you
wouldn’t want to waste time talking to the wrong person. If the person  cannot decide,
or worse, is not involved, there’s no point of talking to him. However, He  might  help
when it comes to their company’s organizational structure and point you to the right
person.  Check out some tips and techniques on how to reach the right decision makers .
Here are some examples of what to ask to identify the authority of the person you are
talking to.
 Would you be the best person to speak with regarding?
 What would be your role in the decision making process?
 I understand you’re the person who can decide for this one?
 Besides you, who else is involved in the decision making process?
Related: Classification of Sales Leads: Hot, Warm or Cold

Money
Don’t start your qualifying questions with this as this topic is very crucial. Find out if
they have challenges first. Once you do, find out their expectations on the investment
that they need to make. Also, this is a good time to discuss about the benefits that they
can get if they invest on your product or services and what they can expect for them to
know why it’s worth it. You can use the following questions to ask to when discussing
about money with your prospects.
 Do you have an allocated budget for this project?
 When will your budget be available?
 Do you already have a budget?
 Have you set aside a budget for this project?
Related: Best Marketing Tools to INCREASE Sales Leads Production

Prioritization
This is about their timeline when do they need to solve their issues and challenges for
you to know if the project is at the top of their priority list. However, you have to be
very specific when discussing about their timeline.
For example:
You called first quarter 2016. Prospect mentioned that their timeline for this project
will be next year, 2017. You have to be specific as to which quarter for next year and
ask ‘Would that fall on the 1st or 2nd quarter of next year?’
The closer the timeline for the project means it’s a better opportunity for you.
If they don’t need the solution for their challenges within a year, then this project is not
a priority for now. Constant touch base with the prospect must be done   if this is the
case. Try asking these questions to know more about the timeline for their upcoming
projects.
 When do you plan to consider this kind of project?
 Do you have a time frame for this project?
 Do you have a contract? When will it contract end?
 When do you plan to go live or implement this one?
 What other solutions have you looked into so far?
Here’s how we keep in touch with our prospects, check out  lead nurturing process !
We’re not saying that BANT is an outdated way of qualifying leads. However, using
CHAMP is more relevant in qualifying  your opportunities correctly. To truly close a
sale, it is better to understand the buying process of your prospects. The answers to
these questions will determine whether your prospect is a good match to your business.

Don’t give up on unqualified leads, you’ll never know it could be a thousand

dollar close.  Learn how to nurture them !

Don’t waste your “A” material, weed out bad leads on your sales
funnel!

Learn more about our lead qualification services . Dial 888.810.7464

What's the ANUM Sales
Framework and When Do I
Use It?
Amy Wood

Contributor

April 25, 2019

Frameworks are a beautiful thing. They provide us with structure and a

repeatable process that we can observe and tweak over time to
consistently improve our results.

However, not all frameworks are created equal. Like the framing of a home, a solid sales
framework will weather any storm and allow you to focus your precious time and attention
elsewhere. A poorly constructed framework, on the other hand, will have you making constant
repairs, drawing your attention away from other important matters.
So how do you tell different sales frameworks apart? And how to know which one is best for
you?

Along with this handy overview of the most common sales frameworks, we’re digging deeper
into each framework to help you identify the best one for your needs and team.

In this post, we'll go over what ANUM is, and how to execute it step by step:

 Pre-qualify
 Authority
 Need
 Urgency
 Money

What is the ANUM sales framework?

Developed by Ken Krogue, the ANUM sales framework takes the principles from the previously
championed BANT framework and scrambles them to prioritize Authority over Budget (or
Money).

ANUM breaks down into the following stages:

If you’re familiar with BANT or CHAMP, you’ll notice the principles are very similar to
ANUM. And in fact, the one principle all three frameworks share is Authority.

This piece is important, because it allows you to qualify (or disqualify) a lead based on if they’re
the decision-maker or not. Whereas other frameworks prioritize budget or challenges, ANUM
focuses on authority (and thus lead qualification) right off the bat before digging in any further.

Rather than nurturing a bad lead, sales reps can quickly determine if they need to shift their
efforts toward making contact with the decision-maker in the company or department.

By taking this approach, salespeople avoid wasting their own time with unqualified leads, as well
as their contact’s time, who in reality might not be able to push the sale forward.

However, before we break the ANUM framework down further, let’s consider the prep work you
should be doing before you even consider outreach.

Before you ANUM, pre-qualify

Because ANUM is so focused on lead qualification early on, it’s important that you do some pre-
qualification before you do any outreach. That means ensuring they fit your ideal customer
profile (ICP).

ICP goes beyond “target customer” territory by using a set of attributes to narrow down your
desired customer base, including behaviors, milestones, and any other commonalities you define.

Identifying your ICP pool empowers you to prioritize some leads over others, since the ones who
fit the ideal customer profile will be more likely to (1) convert, (2) find value in your product or
service, and (3) make you the most revenue over time.

But that’s not all.

In addition to making sure the lead fits your ICP, you need to ask yourself if you can win the
lead. Again, this question will help you prioritize leads so you can focus your energies on those
with the best possible outcomes.
A step-by-step guide to the ANUM sales framework
Now that you’ve defined your ICP and made a comprehensive list of prospects you want to win,
you can put the ANUM framework into play.
Authority

Pitching a new lead takes time and energy, and nothing is worse than finding out you’ve just
pitched the wrong person.

By leading with Authority, sales reps using ANUM ensure this doesn’t happen—instead
reserving their perfectly polished pitch for the decision-maker.

But who actually is the decision-maker? Is it the person who signs the check or is it the
department head?

The answer to this question is “it depends.” In a smaller company it may be the chief financial
officer. In a big conglomerate, on the other hand, it may be several people—or at least, several
people may need to be kept in the loop throughout the process.

The key is reaching out to several potential decision-makers and then asking the right questions
and going from there.

Here are a few to get started with:

 Tell me about your role and your responsibilities at the company.

 Tell me about the organizational structure in your company.
 How are purchasing decisions typically made in your company, specifically
with products/services like ours?
 I’d like to talk about how our product/service can help your business—who
might be the best person to speak with?
 Should anyone else be involved in these conversations?
 Are you comfortable with me reaching out to them to set up a call for all of us
to discuss?
 Can you think of any reason why they would be opposed to implementing a new
solution?
A word of caution: Don’t immediately disqualify
someone as a lead just because they aren't a decision-
maker. They can provide you with valuable insight into
company structure and the decision-making process.
Not only that, they may put you in contact with the decision-maker, which can be more effective
than cold outreach.
Need

Once you’ve identified the decision-maker and have their ear, it’s important to dig into their
needs and challenges.

Keep in mind their role and key responsibilities when working through this stage, since a
solutions-based pitch tailored to their specific challenges will resonate far more than a generic
one.

Taking a consultative sales approach during this stage can be super effective, since it focuses on
understanding the prospect’s needs and challenges and building deep, solutions-based
relationships with them.

According to Mack Hanan, who first coined consultative selling, the approach is not about
selling a product or service, but rather about “selling the impact they can make on customer
businesses.” That is, demonstrating exactly how your product or service will positively impact
the customer’s bottom line.

Some questions to ask during this stage may include:

 Tell me about the most pressing problem your company/department/team is

facing right now.
 How long have you been facing this problem?
 What led you to seek out a solution now?
 Can you take me through your current process?
  What are your company/department/team goals?
 What’s preventing you from achieving your goals?
 What’s getting in the way of you doing it faster or more efficiently?
 What would your process look like if the problem were solved today?

Urgency

Some sales frameworks call this stage Timing while others call it Prioritization; however, with
ANUM this stage is referred to as Urgency.

This stage is all about determining how important it is to the prospect to solve their problem. In
an ideal world, this stage is easy, since you would have already uncovered the prospect’s
underlying needs and presented them with tailored solutions.

However, as we know, these conversations don’t often happen in a vacuum.

That’s why it’s important to discover what else is going on in the company that could either help
or inhibit your ability to close the sale.

You can do this in a few ways, but a great place to start is by keeping up with the news. Press
releases may reveal the company is going through structural changes, mergers and acquisitions,
and more.

On the other hand, new regulations may come into effect, impacting how the company operates
in the future.

Another way to identify urgency and potential blockers is to ask probing questions, like:

 How important is it for you to solve this issue?

 What is your timeframe for getting this done?
 Where does this stack up against other departmental/company priorities?
 What are the consequences of this not getting solved?
 Are you currently looking at other solutions to tackle this problem?
 When is the latest you’d like to make a decision by?
Money

Money (a.k.a. budget) is of course an important stage in the sales process, but if you’re sure
you’re communicating with the decision-maker, it takes a backseat to the other stages.

This is because many companies don’t have a fixed budget for a specific product or service—or
if they do, the decision-maker may have enough sway to secure additional budget.

Not only that, by this time you will have developed some rapport with the prospect, and they’ve
(ideally) developed some trust in you. This can influence their willingness to spend money on
your solution, making the money discussion a lot less difficult than it has to be.

If you’ve been keeping up with the news, this should also help inform the Money stage, since
you might discover they recently secured funding or incurred budget cuts. However, it’s
important to not make assumptions.

The following questions will help to provide clarity:

 Do you have a budget allocated for a solution?

 If you don’t mind me asking, what is it?
 What is solving your current problem worth to you?
 Who else needs to be involved in approving a purchase?
 What is the process for getting approval for purchases beyond the original
budget?

Authority? Figures!

While it might seem strange kicking off your sales pitch asking if you’re speaking with the right
person, it’s a heck of a lot less forward than leading with money (like with BANT).

By starting with Authority, you learn really quickly whether the lead you have is truly qualified.
Not only that, you respect your lead’s time, as well as your own—by saving the full pitch for
those who can push a sale forward.
Of course, the ANUM model might not work for everyone. Take enterprise companies, for
example, who may require more precise metrics around return on investment. In these cases,
your team might want to approach them with MEDDIC.

If you’re using the BANT sales framework (or no framework at all) it’s worth giving ANUM a
shot. Just make sure to do some benchmarking ahead of time so you see the impact ANUM
makes on your sales metrics.

Your MEDDIC Sales Process Checklist

January 18, 2014/in Sales Hints, Sales Methodologies, Sales Process /by Rizan Flenner
Your MEDDIC Checklist
There’s no doubt:

MEDDIC as a sales process has helped many sales teams around the globe to achieve
extraordinary results.

Statistics prove that 30%+ growth rates in saturated markets and 250%+ in start-ups are possible.
In fact, many salespeople that touch MEDDIC will never again work without it.
Fast-paced companies like Workiva, MongoDB, Alfresco, Snowflake and many more have build
a healthy pipeline and forecast on the fundaments of MEDDIC.

Read on to get a brief overview on this simple and lightweight qualification process.

Here’s the basic MEDDIC checklist:

MEDDIC
ME DDI QUA LI FI ER
C S EXPLA NATI ON

M Metrics What is the economic impact of the solution?

E Economic Buyer Who has profit and loss responsibility for this?

D Decision Criteria What are their technical, vendor and financial criteria?

D Decision Process Then what happens? Define validation and approval?

I Identify Pain What are their primary business objectives?

C Champion Who will sell on your behalf?

MEDDIC checklist

MEDDIC Sales Process Qualifiers

Metrics
Metrics are quantifiable and measurable results that a customer perceives as valid for his project
or initiative, and can be divided in 2 major groups:

Below the Line

For example, cost savings and efficiency gains. Many times paired with reductions on FTEs (Full
Time Equivalent).

Above the Line

These are more business-centric like increase in revenue or profit, quicker time to market, higher
quality and customer satisfaction. These metrics are used to build decisions and are used to build
the Business Case or ROI.

Strong Metrics: We are 15 FTE (Full time equivalent) with 95% utilization. We are expanding
our infrastructure 15% a year and we expect another acquisition this year, which will double. We
will not get a budget to increase FTEs.

Questions to ask:
 How would you measure success of your project?
 Which metrics around cost, efficiency or business do you need to achieve?
 How would this success be measured by business?
Note: Collecting this metrics from your existing clients make wonderful proof points on your
discovery calls with prospects.
Learn more about collecting the right metrics to build a compelling ROI

How Metrics Can Help You Create Value and Build a Compelling
ROI
March 10, 2016/in MEDDIC, Sales Methodologies, Sales Process /by Rizan Flenner

Today, we’re onto Part 4 of our series on How to Effectively Close More Deals.

So far, we’ve covered pain & implication, generating customer rapport and building up a sales
champion.

The next step is the glue that binds your whole sales campaign together. It’s what justifies the
purchase and convinces the Economic Buyer sign on the dotted line.

That’s right, I’m talking about Metrics.

Here’s an in-depth look at what they are, how they will help you close more deals, and why
you never want to miss out on collecting them…
Metrics Defined
A former boss of mine once said:
“Collecting metrics is like collecting money.”
Click to tweet

You either need them to justify the cost on your deal or you need them to win new clients.

But what exactly are Metrics?

Metrics are the quantification of a pain.

They measure what would happen in case your client decides not to do anything.
They are the answer to the First Why:
“Why should your client do anything?”
In other words, we measure the client’s current state (before purchase) and future state (after
purchase/implementation), then quantify the benefits.

Metrics that customer clients typically value are based around Cost Reduction, Risk Avoidance
and Gaining Revenue or Market Share.

Here are some examples:

Cost Reduction
Raviga Corp. is running 300 server systems.

Current state: They have 15 people working fulltime (Fulltime Equivalents, or FTEs) to keep
the systems running and up-to-date.

With a systems management solution, Raviga can automate a good part of the daily recurring
jobs. That would free up their IT staff to run the systems with just 5 FTEs.

Future state: A cost reduction of 10 FTEs, or $500,000 per year.

Revenue Increase
Intersite generates $10 Mio. in annual revenue.

Current state: 10 maxed out insides sales reps create leads by hitting the phones hard, without a
lot of room for improvement.
Future state: On a trial with an automated lead nurturing, reps are able to produce 30% more
qualified leads.

With a 40% close rate, Intersite could close an additional $1.2 Mio. annually.

Start collecting metrics early

It’s important to collect metrics from your very first calls.

The more you understand the state of your customers’ business now, the more you can help them
envision how things could be.
If you wait too long and the deal enters negotiations, customers tend to shut down and focus only
on price. At that point, it’s too late to discover additional metrics that will help move your deal
along.

So, now that we know what Metrics are, how exactly do we put them to use?

How Metrics Help You Justify Costs

In times of Black Fridays, banking crises, unstable economies and shrinking budgets, prospects
need to justify every investment more than ever.

In fact, it’s not at all unusual these days for clients to require a clear ROI within 12 months or
less.

That’s why the #1 reason for slipped deals is that the client decides not to do anything, and
chooses to stick with the status quo.

You may have achieved a technical win, but when it comes to executive sponsorship and
financial approval, the deal stalls.

Here’s a real life example:

It was end of Q4, and we had 1 week left to close one of our biggest deals.

We’d had a tough quarter, but one of my best sales guys had a deal that would take my region to
110% and the rep to 160% on yearly achievement.

Since we already had a relationship with the client, we went in with armed a great Champion, a
strong pain and a solid personal interest.

Things were going well, so our Champion arranged one final meeting with the finance team.

That’s when the hammer came down on us.

Instead of finalizing the deal, the head of purchasing said that the deal was not approved.

His reason? The ROI wasn’t clear enough to the board.

We were completely shocked.

To us, the benefit was so clear to that we never thought about doing a business case.

And even though the use cases were strong, they weren’t tangible and understandable enough for
a finance board, who needed to base its call on hard facts and figures.

That was a big mistake.

Because metrics can be collected on every sales call, technical event or on formal value
assessments, there’s no reason to ignore them.
How Metrics Help Keep Your Margins High
Since the burst of the dot-com bubble, selling to IT departments has only gotten tougher, year
after year.

These days, purchasing managers request at least 2-3 competitive offers, and slam these against
sales people during negotiations (even when you have a unique offering).

But great salespeople always make sure they come armed and ready to secure the value.

Again, it comes down to having the correct metrics.

I once had a very competitive project where my closest competitor dropped their price by
70% below our offering – just to compensate a weaker product.
Competing with 3X the price is not a good place to be in.
But we felt strong about our offering and didn’t want to engage in a price war. So we called an
internal meeting to find a way to keep the margin and still win the deal.

We came up with all kinds of things – adding more products and services into the deal, adding
more users – when our sales operations guy stood up and said:

Why don’t we quantify the difference to the second best choice?

The room went silent.

We had collected so many use cases, benefits and metrics that we had hard facts (metrics) why
our offering was the right choice.
So we gathered all the metrics we had been collecting on a flip chart and confirmed with our
Champion that they were tangible and unique to our offering.
When we went back to the customer, the discussion on price turned into a discussion on unique
benefits – allowing us to keep our price and win the deal.

How Metrics Help You Generate Pipeline

Not only are Metrics powerful tools to negotiate a deal, they are just as powerful in your first
meetings with leads.

How?

Because prospects love to discover how their competition and industry is performing so they
benchmark against them

That means you should be using real use cases with tangible metrics to bridge with your
prospects and open the doors.

John Kaplan from Force Management calls these “Proof points:”

Proof on how a customer could benefit if he’d think about solving a pain point.
Great salespeople know this, and collect as many relevant metrics as possible from existing
clients in order to:
 Educate and challenge their client’s position
 Establish themselves as a trusted source of advice.
In fact, I knew a rep who would get a next step 80% of the time after a first call – simply
by challenging  his prospects with metrics from their competitors.

Conclusion
Metrics are one of the most reliable ways to speak your customer’s language and close the deal.

Without them, you run a much higher risk of delays or having a weak position during price-
negotiations.

After all, you have to know what’s in it for your clients. And you absolutely must be able
to quantify the benefit.

Always make sure you know the answer to the question:

Why should the client do anything?

And always make sure you have the numbers to back up the answer.

So, if you haven’t already done it, go to your existing clients right now  and find out the
quantitative difference your solution has made for them.
Doing so can a massive impact on your future close rate.

Economic Buyer
The EB is a person with the discretionary approval to spend. The person gives the ultimate “yes”
or “no” to a project. Usually the person has a clear sight on the business benefits, decision
criteria and the process to close a deal.
Meeting the real EB, checking for his sponsorship, criteria and next steps usually sheds a lot of
light on the complex decision criteria and processes. Preparing the EB meeting is key to success,
however you need to do your homework on the value proposition and earn the right to ask for
this meeting.
Qualifying if you talk to the real EB is key. A good qualifying question could be: ”If you & I
come to an agreement, is there anybody else formally or informally that would need to be
involved or approve?”

Questions to ask the EB:

  Do you sponsor the project?
 What does success look like for you?
 What are the next steps, if we fulfil the success criteria?

If the EB confirms the project and outlines a possible close date, your deal has a good chance to
close. If you do not meet the EB or get his approval, your chance of closing a deal in time drops
below 50%.

Read more about identifying the EB and getting the sponsorship.

How Meeting with the Economic Buyer Can Help You Hit a 90%
Close Rate
April 7, 2016/in MEDDIC, Sales Hints, Sales Methodologies, Sales Process /by Rizan Flenner

When I first started out as a sales manager, I had a pretty good close rate – with one record
quarter after another.

Until one devastating quarter… where almost 50% of my team’s deals either slipped or were lost
for good.

It crushed us.

We couldn’t make any sense of it. After all, we hadn’t done anything different.

I spent days trying to find out what went wrong… until my manager pulled me aside and asked
me one of the most eye-opening questions of my career:

Rizan, in all the deals that slipped, how many of them did you meet the Economic Buyer?

The answer was clear:

After a quick check  I was able to find a direct link between meeting the Economic Buyer and
whether we won or lost the deal.
You may have a killer pain, a strong champion, and powerful metrics. But if the the EB isn’t on
your side, there’s a big chance your deal won’t close.

In today’s article, we cover:

 Just who the Economic Buyer is (and why is he/she so important to your deal)
 3 actionable ways to get access to EB (or any other VIP)
 How to get the EB to sponsor your deal (and increase your deal’s chance of
closing to 90%)
So, who is the Economic Buyer?
The Economic Buyer (or EB) is the Ultimate Decision Maker.
The person with the discretional right to spend.The one who, when says yes, nobody else will
formally or informally say no (or vice versa).

Now you might say, “Rizan, there’s no such thing as a lone decision maker any more!”

That’s true.

But even when there’s a board that has to approve the decision – there is ONE person in the
customer’s buying process that gives final approval.

That – ladies and gentlemen – is the EB.

Why it’s mission-critical to meet with the Economic Buyer

Whether you meet the EB or not, he/she is going to be the one deciding on your deal in the end.

So wouldn’t it make sense to meet in person and understand if he/she supports your project?

Now, we all know EBs are busy and don’t want to meet salespeople or vendors.

But let’s think about it from the other side of the table:

If you had to spend a huge chunk of money on something, you’d want to make sure that money
was well spent. So of course you’d want to know:
     Is this the right vendor?
     Do they understand us?
     Can we trust them?
     Will they be able to deliver?
That’s why it’s critical to meet with the EB early enough in your sales cycle. So you can bridge
with him/her and understand what a successful outcome will look like from his/her perspective.

At the same time you want to make sure that the project is relevant and worth pursuing for the
EB.
When you meet with the EB, make sure you have the following questions on your agenda:

 Do you sponsor this project? (Is this something that aligns with the
EB’s strategic goals?)
 What would success look like for you? (What are the EB’s criteria to feel
comfortable to sign the deal off?)
 What are the next steps, if we fulfill the success criteria? (What needs to
happen? Who else needs to be involved?  When can we close the deal?)

The answers to these questions will enable you to align to his/her criteria, address potential
concerns and lay out a plan to successfully deliver.

This approach will generate value specific to the EB ‘s objectives – and encourage him/her to
sponsor your deal and drive the next steps with you.

What’s the impact of meeting the EB? Test it for yourself…

Every time we meet with the EB early enough, get him to sponsor the project, and outline a
possible close date with him/her, our deals have a 90% chance of closing in quarter.

When we don’t meet with him/her, our chances of closing plunge to less than 50%.

Try it out yourself:

1. First, take a look at all the opportunities you had in your forecast last quarter.
2. Next, highlight all the ones where you met the EB. (Here’s a free Excel
Spreadsheet template you can use right away. Just right-click the link and hit ‘Save
Link As…’).
3. Now check the deals that were won, lost, slipped or dramatically decreased in
size.

Here’s how my disaster quarter came out:

 In 5 out of 6 deals we closed, we met the EB.

 In 6 out of 7 deals that slipped or didn’t close, we didn’t meet the EB
But how do you know just who the EB is?
Who the EB is depends on the size of the company and the amount of the deal.

While smaller purchases can be approved by managers lower in the organization, a 7-digit deal
could elevate the Economic Buyer all the way up to the board level.

And it can get even trickier:

The EB might not even be in the department you’re selling to. They could be sitting in finance,
business, or the IT department. You might want to check out potential EB’s in unexpected places
like an architecture board, a holding group or the overseas headquarters.

But don’t be put off. It’s not mission impossible to discover who has the discretionary right to
spend.

So how can you identify the right person?

By simply asking the people you’re in contact with:

“Who has approved projects of a similar size in the past?”

A great person to ask would be your Champion. But other good sources could be a business
partner, an internal consultant, or your colleagues that have dealt with your prospect in the past.

Once you come in contact with a potential EB, you NEED to cross check if that person is really
the EB.

Otherwise you run the risk of derailing your deal down the line, like I once did:

On one of the biggest deals of the year, our ‘EB’ was a former colleague of mine.

He was the CIO at a company looking to invest in our solution, and claimed to be the person
with the authority to push the deal through.
I trusted him/her. But when it came time to sign, the CFO didn’t approve, and the project
slammed to a halt.

Stating budget reasons, the CFO tried to cut the deal size in half.

Luckily, we recovered by re-negotiating the subscription terms in our favor. But it was still a
painful way to discover we hadn’t identified the real EB.
I was mad at myself. I should have known better.

But I allowed myself to take a shortcut and paid a bitter price.

The problem many salespeople have is that they find it awkward to ask the person
they finally managed to meet whether he/she is the final decision maker. (One of my reps even
said, “Rizan, I can’t exactly ask ‘Are you the guy who signs the check?’)
That’s why we worked out this question that allows you to be both assertive and respectful with
the person you think might be the EB:
“If we both come to an agreement, is there anybody else that formally or informally needs to be
involved to approve this project/purchase?”
The answer will allow the potential EB to disclose if he has the final approval power or if other
people need to be involved in signing off the deal.
How to get access and meet with the Economic Buyer
Once you know who the EB is, you still need to find a way to meet with him.

But since EB’s are usually the busiest people in a company, that’s not exactly an easy task.

They spend most of their time in meetings. They’ve got TONS of work piling up on their desk.
And they HATE to meet with salespeople (because they usually don’t add much value to the
EB’s strategic goals).
So you need to give him/her an extremely good reason to meet with you.

But there is a way…

Because EB’s are all the time stressed and worried about improving their business and making
mistakes, they often rely on a circle of people they trust as subject matter experts to help them
evaluating and making decisions.
By nurturing one of these ‘inner circle’ members to become your Champion, you have a chance
to build up enough value that your Champion will arrange access to the EB.

Here’s how:

Build a Preliminary Business Case

Don’t talk product. Think business improvement and build a strong case for your offer by relying
on use cases and quantified benefits.
Together with your Champion, uncover the potential savings, productivity gains, revenue
increase, etc. that your solution will bring. (See How Metrics Can Help You Create Value and
Build a Compelling ROI)
Once you’ve developed a relevant case underpinning the value of your solution,  your Champion
will want to bring you in front of the EB
Define ‘Quid Pro Quo’ Delivery Gates
Most average salespeople try to build relationships by giving away information, time and
resources to their prospects without asking for anything in return.
As a result,  they end up spinning in place without making any real progress.
To keep this from happening, great reps think ‘quid pro quo’ (latin for ‘this for that’) . They
know that creating a smooth buying process is valuable to their client. Therefore they’re not
afraid to ask for what they need in return to further their sales process.
For example, if you’ve got a labor-intensive trial period, you can make it a requirement
to first  meet with the EB (and get his/her sponsorship) before proceeding with the trial.

Many sales people feel really uncomfortable requesting such a meeting, because they are  afraid
of a “NO” and putting the client off.

What they don’t realize is that they maneuver themselves into a subservient role – a role that
prevents them from being in the driving position and controlling the deal. If the results of the
trial are something that will make your champion look good internally, it’s in his/her best interest
to arrange a meeting with the EB

As an experienced rep once said:

“I explain to the client that we both run our businesses. And mine is to close deals for my
company. I’m happy to support him/her in his/her decision process, but at the same time, I owe
my company an explanation on where we spend our resources. That’s why they need the EB’s
approval.”
It might take a bit of swagger. But this is a great way to establish yourself as an equal counterpart
and elevates you to  doing business on an eye-to-eye level.
Use your own executives
This once helped me secure a $3 Mio. deal in less than 15 minutes.
I had been trying to meet the EB for weeks on one of my most important deals ever. But she was
completely overloaded and didn’t have any time.

So I used my CEO’s London visit to arrange a meeting with our prospect’s EB.  She was on her
way to the airport, so she gave us 15 minutes at a crowded, run-down Paddington  Station cafe.
Nevertheless, the meeting was well prepared on both sides. We nailed down key commitments
and closed the deal just 8 weeks later.

Conclusion
Whether you meet him/her or not, the EB is going to be a major part of the decision.

Meeting the EB clears the ‘fog of war’ and let’s you see exactly what’s needed to drive your deal
to closure. That’s why it’s critical to meet the EB early in the sales cycle – so you can understand
his/her criteria and align your strategies.

Just be relevant and business oriented to honor the time spent with you, and do what it takes to
get the EB’s commitment and support to close the deal in a planned timeframe.
It’s not easy to get on their schedule. But it pays off big time to know somebody high in the
account that supports you. Once they are bought in they will guide you and push things through
internally to finalize the deal on time.

Decision Criteria (Dc)

Every project has formally or informally defined decision criteria. These are often categorized
further as Technical, Commercial and Legal Decision Criteria.

Technical decision criteria (TDC)

Here we talk about criteria to understand the feasibility. Are the use cases covered by the
potential solution? Does it comply with the existing infrastructure and, if so, how does integrate?

How easy is to work with and does it fulfill the standards of the Enterprise Architecture?

Typically this TDC will be validated in a Proof of Concept or some sort of Technical Decision
Making Process.

Business/Commercial Decision Criteria (BDC)

The most common BDC is Alignment to Budget, but nowadays corporations are very much
driven by Return on Investment – sometimes in less than 12 months to justify the investment.

Further, there are different types of budgets like capital expense (CAPEX) or operation expense
(OPEX). Some clients have huge OPEX reduction campaigns or have certain cash-flow
requirements that drive the decision criteria.

Thoroughly understanding and aligning yourself to the clients needs will show great flexibility
and influence the decision towards your offering.

Questions to ask:
 What are the technical criteria to make a decision?
 How do you calculate the ROI for this project to justify the investment?
Decision Process (Dp)
While the decision criteria are all about what the decision is based upon, the Decision Process is
about the route it.

We primarily separate this process into the route to a technical decision (Technical Decision
Making), the route to money (Business Decision Making) and the route to paper (Paper Process).

Technical Decision Making (TDM)

Based on the TDC, companies setup formal or informal processes that lead to a technical
decision. It is important to understand what these steps are and who is involved in it.

As the decision criteria, this process should also be documented and confirmed by the client.

Business Decision Making (BDM)

Who needs to approve? Are there any formal boards? Is there a formal process in a project
approval workflow or paper forms? How long does this usually take?

Paper Process (PP)

Rigorous regulatory or business compliance needs often lead into time intensive negotiations.
These can take weeks or even months, but are necessary to have a legal agreement.

This process is reason No. 1 why contracts get postponed and deals slip out of a quarter. Make
sure you have executive sponsorship to give negotiations with Purchasing and Legal the right
focus, the right time and the right resources. Be paranoid about the details!

Questions to ask:
 Which people are involved and what are the steps to reach the decision?
 How is this put in sequential order and on which timeline is it based?
 How does the approval process look like for $100K, $500K or $1 million?
 Paper: How is the legal construct set up? Are there frame agreements in place?
What are the critical mandatory terms and conditions? Which contractual paperwork is
the basis of negotiation?
Identify Pain
Together with the Champion, the Pain is one of the 2 major qualifiers in the discovery phase that
are required in order to understand if you have an opportunity.
As strong pain can be a technical or business shortage that the client would like to overcome,
stop or change.

It must impact the customer in terms of time, cost, risk or revenue if not solved within a certain
time frame.

We call it “the consequence of doing nothing when the compelling event takes place.”

Important: A weak pain or not unclear consequences will usually cause delays or reduced
budgets due to the lack of priority for the executive management!

Example of a strong pain:

 ABC Soft needs to deliver a solution by the end of the year. They have major
delays caused by serious bugs, which may prevent an on-time delivery. (Pain)
 There is a penalty clause of $100K per week if the software is not up and running
on January 1st. (Implication/Consequence: Cost->strong, Reputation-medium)
Example of a weak pain: 

ABC Soft needs to have a regression testing due to buggy software.

What info is missing here?

Questions to ask:
 Pain: What causes the delays?
 Implication: What does this mean to you and the company?
 Is it really compelling: What is the consequence of doing nothing? Does it impact
your business?
Read more about how to identify the real pain

Identifying the Real Pain: How to Effectively Qualify Your

Customer’s Pain Points
January 28, 2016/in MEDDIC, Sales Hints, Sales Methodologies /by Rizan Flenner

There is no deal without a pain.

Pain is the driver. The ultimate reason why customers will act and buy your solution in the end.
It may not be obvious to begin with, but there is always a trigger that gets decision makers buy:

Something they need to solve, grow, improve, or reduce.

However, too many sales people don’t know what the real pain is or how to find it.
In this article, we’ll cover exactly what qualifies as a real pain, what doesn’t, along with real
world examples of pain points that were strong enough to close a deal.

What a real pain is (and what isn’t)

In 4 out of 5 cases, sales people assume what the pain is.

They don’t bother confirming with the client. Many times these are assumptions built around the
features and benefits of a product with no clear understanding of the benefit for the client.

Here are a few examples of pain points sales reps have brought to me that are simply not strong
enough:

 The client doesn’t have a data storage system

 The client needs an automation on XYZ
 The client has to act because of compliance reasons.
The problem is that these are intentions. Not actual pains.

So what is a “real” pain point?

It is the answer to the following questions:

 Why should the client do anything?

 What is the reason for acting?
 What is preventing or stopping the client?
What is the consequence of doing nothing?
 How big of a pain is it?
 Is there a deadline that the client needs to solve this pain by?

Ideally the consequence is related to your clients business and has a big, measureable impact tied
to a deadline that makes it compelling enough to act upon. We call this a “compelling event”

This is probably the most difficult item to discover, as prospects very rarely want to disclose
it. (See How to win customer rapport)

But if you manage to discover a pain point that has a huge consequence AND a deadline, you’ve
hit the Holy Grail of Sales:

“Only one who is worthy may drink…”

I once personally closed a $400K deal in just 48 hours to a large enterprise client without being
listed as a vendor in SAP, and 0% discount.

How?
Because my solution could solve a pain that would have cost this company $1M in penalties just
72 hours later. The consequence of paying such a high penalty got this company to
bypass all internal processes and pay whatever it took to make this pain go away!
And let me tell you, it felt sweet to sell at list price…
Now you might say this was a once-in-a-life-time deal, but knowing the real pain and implication
strengthens your position on negotiations and lets you drive the sales process proactively.

How to know whether the pain is strong enough to close a deal

Just discovering a pain point is not enough.

You have to qualify it in order to know whether your deal will hold up or fall apart.

More specifically:

You need to qualify the consequence of doing nothing.

That is, the pain must impact the customer in terms of time, cost, risk or revenue if not solved
within a certain time period.
Collect clear metrics from your client regarding revenue, time or resources lost and identify the
consequence of doing nothing.

This needs to be something concrete. Your best guess won’t do here.

Here’s a real life example from my former colleague Peter, who sells accounting software:

PAIN:

ABC Corp. is using competitive accounting software that has been discontinued and will not be
developed further in the future. New accounting rules have been announced by the federal tax
office that ABC needs to be compliant within 6 months.

What do you think?

We have a pain and a nice deadline and messing with the tax authorities is never an option, so all
good here.

At least that’s what Peter thought.

But do we really know the consequence for ABC?

In other words, will they be fined if the miss the deadline? Or could they find a work around and
stay with their system?

Peter went back to the client to ask about the implication of missing the deadline. He found out
that the tax authorities would not set any penalties in the first 12 months and ABC setup a
manual process to fulfill the compliance rules.

Just like that, the compelling event vaporized.

So Peter calculated the efforts of the workaround, and discovered that the costs
were much higher than buying from him.

As a result, he was still able to close the deal on time.

If you want to win, don’t assume anything

It’s too easy for us as human beings to interpret information and bridge gaps to complete an
incomplete picture.

Hold yourself accountable on this one: Don’t assume anything.

Confirm and reconfirm your findings with multiple contacts at your client (including your
Champion).
Warning: A weak pain or unclear consequences could be huge risk for your deals. It usually
causes delays to your deals or lower funding due to the lack of priority for the executive
management!
And keep in mind that executive management will always ask the buying department some
variation of:
 Why do anything?
 Why NOW?
That’s why it’s critical to have these questions answered and confirmed by the client to avoid
your deal from slipping at the last minute. (See 3 Simple Questions That Will Increase Your
Close Rate for more info.)

Conclusion
Uncovering your client’s pain and how you can solve it will ultimately decide whether your
customer will pull the trigger and buy your product.

And by qualifying these points and making sure they have a measurable impact which is
confirmed by the client, you will have a solid foundation to build your deal on.

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How to WIN Customer Rapport

February 17, 2016/in Sales Hints, Sales Methodologies, Sales Process /by Rizan Flenner

In our post, Identifying the Real Pain, we talked about what qualifies as ‘real,’ deal-closing pain
points and what doesn’t.

We received great replies from our readers stating that customers many times don’t disclose this
kind of information so easily.

Well, it’s not an easy task.

If you want to find pain points, you need to uncover them – inch by inch – and earn the right to
learn about your customer’s pain.

And the key to developing customer rapport…

Bridging with the client

If you come into the first meeting or have a discovery call, you can’t just ask for the pain points.
You have to bridge with the client first by showing how relevant you and your company are
for them.
This is where many sales people (including myself earlier in my career) end up as what Mark
Suster calls Crocodile Salesmen: They have a HUGE mouth and tiny ears.

Here a real story from first year as a sales person: After 6 weeks of New Hire sales trainings I
was loaded with product information, elevator pitches,  objection handling, rehearsed my
customer facing presentation dozen times and was ready to rumble.

I went on a tour to meet my potential prospects and had great meetings, pitched my decks and
got great feedback on our products. One prospect even had a personal feedback , saying I was an
eloquent young sales man.

But in none of the meetings did I get a next step. I was frustrated. What went wrong and what did
they guy mean by “eloquent young sales man”? When my boss asked me what the prospects
were looking for, I realized that I didn’t discover much about them during our meetings.

I pitched and sold my heart out, but did not leave too much room for customer engagement or
discussions.
Decision makers hate these kind of sales guys. That’s why they report ‘not listening’ as one of
the top issues for not meeting with salespeople.
On the other hand, many sales people nowadays are trained, sometimes drilled, to ask “good
questions” to identify the potential needs. That means they arrive to meetings with HUGE
discovery & qualification checklists that their managers require.
This has the exact opposite effect:
Clients end up feeling like they’re being interrogated in a courtroom. Plus they feel like these
sales guys know nothing about their business and should be better prepared to add value to them.

I once witnessed a sales call of very motivated sales-person from my business partner, who
qualified with dozens of questions before even giving the client any pitch. It felt uneasy and
unnatural for all participants and every body, including the sales person was relieved when the
decision maker finally interrupted the interrogation with: “Now you know our company and or
issues inside out, would you mind presenting what you have to offer, as we got a hard stop in 20
min.”

In both cases you will be put into the “sales” drawer and bridging will be almost impossible.

So what’s the best approach?

Well the bad news is that sales calls are genuinely seen as a waste of time, as most of your
colleagues do a pretty bad job generating a real value within these meetings.
The good news is you can easily surprise your prospects by actually being relevant to them from
the very beginning, which will make you stand out from the crowd. Here some hints that worked
well:

1. Do your homework and be prepared before going into meetings.

Who is the client? What do similar clients suffer from?

Do you know anybody of the participants? Are you linked in with somebody who knows them
that could give you a warm introduction or background information.

Check your client base for success stories and benefits they got from your offering. Decision
makers love to hear what their market does and benchmark against it.
Be sure to have these metrics and you’ll be much more relevant for your client. Plus, you’ll build
up the trust you need to discuss on an eye-to-eye level with your client

However, the most powerful preparation tip I ever received was just one simple question:

“What do I want to get out of this meeting and what do I want to leave behind?”

By asking yourself this question, you’ll know exactly what you need to prepare before walking
through the door and what you want to discover during the meeting.

Write them down and you will probably have a good balance between pitching and discovering.

2. Shut your mouth and let the client talk.

In order to discover the pain, we have to learn to truly listen.

There is a golden 20:80 rule, where sales people should not talk more than 20% of the meeting.
Hey, I am in sales, too. We love to talk and sell and I know it’s really tough to shut up and listen.

Many, many sales leaders have fallen into the trap of not listening early on, including top sales
pro Jeff Shore:
I realized that during my own sales presentations, while the customer was talking I was thinking
to myself, “You know, when you shut up I’ve got something really powerful to say. It’s gonna
blow your mind.”
Since then, I’ve tried my best to listen with the intent to truly and deeply understand my
customer.”

3. Be genuinely interested in your client and their success

As the legendary Stephen R. Covey says:

“Seek to understand before being understood.”

The key to uncovering pain is to be honestly interested in what drives your client and actively
listen to what they have to say.
If you are truly engaged with your client, they will feel it.
And if you seek to understand what they’re really saying rather than waiting to segue way into
your next pitch, this will send a signal to your client that you are someone worth listening to.
The funny thing is, if you really want to understand your client, you’ll automatically find
yourself asking open ended questions like: How would you…, What would you consider…,Why
would this be…

If you make it a good discussion, your client will open up and start talking.

You’ll be constantly amazed by what kind of information clients will share with you if you just
listen and try to understand what the underlying pain points might be.

Personally, I know it was a successful meeting when all hands end up on the flip chart discussing
what good could look like and why!

4. Be honest & reliable to build a relationship

Well it might be ironical to talk about honesty in sales, but in fact it’s not.

The most successful sales people are trusted advisors. They are knowledgeable about their
market and their products. Great sales outline the pro’s and con’s of making decision to buy and
help their clients through this decision process. It’s clear to everybody, that the sales person will
of course drive the decision in favour of his offering, but making it easier for the client to make
the decision will be highly rewarded.

It is absolutely ok to be honest, if you cannot help a customer on a certain matter. Clients respect
a sales person who honestly points out what and what he can’t do, as they hate nothing more than
bad surprises after the sales.

Transparency and Integrity is absolutely important to build a trusted relationship with the client
from day 1. Make sure you deliver what you promise.

A rapport-winning conclusion
Be prepared, and avoid asking questions you should already know.

Share industry knowledge and challenge your prospects with your findings of how to do things
better, ideally based on your wins of clients in their industry

Remember that the meeting should be about your client, not about your product’sa features &
functions.

If you are a talkative sales person make sure you keep the 20:80 rule in mind. You also might
take a colleague on the sales-calls with you and encourage her/him to interrupt you, if necessary
to get the client talking. If you present on Power Points, plan feedback stops.

Make sure you take notes. It helps to actively listen and allows you to recall discussions after the
meeting and shows your client you are serious about helping them.
Be honest, transparent and deliver on what you promise.

3 Simple Questions That Will Increase Your Close Rate

Throughout my career as a sales rep (and later as a manager), I was always puzzled by
whether a deal could close or not. Was there a way to constantly deliver on forecast? What
could potentially increase my deal close rate?
Was there a more effective way to qualify my deals?

In my search for an answer, I came across a ton of whacked-out theories and complicated
probability calculations. But in the end, most of my forecasts (and those of my reps) were still
based on gut feelings and wishful thinking.

That was until I worked with John McMahon.

John was (and still is) an almost legendary sales leader who consistently increased company
revenues by 100% year after year wherever he went. (He even grew PTC, a software company,
from $1.1M to $1.1B in just nine years). Since then he built sales team in Bladelogic or BMC
and sits on the board of many great performing companies like MongoDB or Snowflake.

He was phenomenal at building teams and helping sales managers to scale. But one of the things
that stood out the most about John’s performance were his shockingly accurate forecasts.

What was his secret?

He always focused on the fundamentals of a deal.

“Before going into the details of any opportunity,” he said, “there are three questions you need to
ask. Know their answers, and you’ll know the chance of closing a deal this quarter.”

These questions are so simple, yet incredibly powerful. After I started implementing them, my
forecasts became more accurate than a Swiss-made clock.

And they are the exact questions that executives at your account will ask before
approving any  decsion.
They are The 3 Why’s That Open Your Eyes.

1. Why Do Anything?
Why should the client act? Is there a negative consequence if he doesn’t act?    

There’s no deal without a pain.

Small purchases, like buying the latest iPhone, might be spontaneous and probably don’t have a
burning need behind them.

But in large deals, there’s almost always a pain.

Uncovering your client’s pain and how you can solve it will ultimately decide whether your
customer will pull the trigger and buy your product.
The key here is finding a quantifiable business impact that will happen if your client decides not
to do anything. This needs to be something concrete. Your best guess won’t do here.

Collect clear metrics from your client regarding revenue, time or resources lost and identify the
consequence of doing nothing.

It’s all too easy for us as human beings to interpret information and bridge gaps to complete an
incomplete picture.

Hold yourself accountable on this one: Don’t assume anything.

Finally, confirm and reconfirm your findings with multiple contacts at your client (including
your Champion).
Understand your client’s pain, and your deal will have a solid foundation to build upon.

2. Why Us?
What differentiators can you, your solution or your company provide that makes your
offering a unique value for the customer?

So your client has recognized that there’s a pain and yes, something needs to change.

But now that they know that, there’s an ocean of competitor’s to choose from.

And many of them are cheaper than you.

So why should your client choose you?

This is where it becomes absolutely critical to develop a Unique Selling Proposition that’s
relevant to your prospect or customer.

Don’t rely on your product marketing. Claims to have the best product in class will get you
nowhere. And neither will boasting that your product meets 100 out of 100 requirements
checked, when the prospect could live with only 60.

I’ve seen too many companies proclaim the uniqueness of their product, only to discover that
what they think makes them unique doesn’t matter to their customers at all or even worse isn’t
unique at all .

Proclaimed ’ USPs are often so bland, they could apply to anyone. (“We Have a Global
Presence” comes to mind).

The USPs you use should be unique to your prospect.

They could be as simple as an existing frame-contract that will save time, a trusted business
partner you’ve worked with, or even a cultural match when selling abroad. What matters is that
they are important to your client.

Once you you identify and develop your USPs, make sure to raise their importance at every
meeting with your prospect.

The key here?

Know thy competitors!

As you lay traps for your competitors, so will they. If you listen carefully, you may catch who
you are competing against by the questions your prospects ask you.

Once you identify clear and measureable USPs, make sure the prospect is able to communicate
them themselves. That way they have a solid answer when asked: Why should we buy from them
over competitor X?

If you developed your champion, she/he will is a good source to help you establishing your
bulletproof USPs.

3. Why Buy Now?

Is there a compelling reason for the client to take action when you planned/forecasted it? If
not, can you construct one so that the client aligns with your proposed deadline?

You’ve identified and confirmed the pain, and your client has recognized that you offer a clear
competitive advantage.

Great.

But is there a hard deadline by which your client needs to solve the pain? What is the
consequence of postponing the purchase?

Nowadays, decision makers have one fire after another to put out. On top of that, budgets are
lower than ever. So it’s only natural that everything but the most crucial projects get postponed
until later. (Call me back in four weeks. Let’s talk then… Right.)
It’s vital that you collect and develop the most compelling reasons possible why this project
should not be delayed another moment. Again, it should be quantifiable, and should include a
deadline that will have clear consequences if it isn’t met.

If the compelling reason is strong enough, you can even push deals though in record times.

Once, I met with a client who had to open a mail distribution center within a week, but their
current sorting solution wasn’t working. If they didn’t solve this issues by opening day, they
would face penalties of $1M per day. I had exactly what they needed, and they signed a $400k
contract within 48 hours.
And that was within a company that never closed a deal in less than six months.
Once you’ve found the compelling reason, make sure your client confirms this. Then
have your champion communicate this internally, so he or she can answer: “Why should we buy
now?”

Conclusion
If you have the answers to these three simple questions solidly answered, you’ll build a strong
case for yourself and your solution.
And, you’ll have the answers to the questions the board will ask before approving the project
and budget.
The key is to always confirm your discoveries with your client, and never assume anything.

Finally, there’s one thing that top-performers apart from the rest:

They not only collect the answers to the 3 Why’s as they go along, they put it down in clear
messaging that’s tailored to the client. Then they make sure that messaging gets distributed
internally.
That way, by the final stages of a deal, everyone, from your client’s side and yours, is be able
to repeat these answers without thinking.
It’s definitely hard work to get it all done, but it’s the most solid way of ensuring that your
deals are on track to closing.

Champion
Pain is an important driver and implication drives urgency.

However there is always an owner with a personal interest to get this pain solved. This personal
interest drives the person to collaborate with peers, consultants and vendors to attack the pain as
soon as possible.

The goal should be to identify these individuals. Even if they don’t carry the official
management head, they can be spotted as they are well accepted by their peers, are very
influential and usually have a good track-record of successful projects that make them visible in
the chain-of-command.

If you once recognized your potential Champions goals, you will be able to develop the
relationship by enabling him how to address the pain, i.e. to link them to the subject matter
experts of your company, invite him/her to the right seminars or link them together with your
references so they can learn from their experience handling projects like his.

Once you’ve built up a real Champion, he will recognize your support and understand that you
will be able to help him solving the pain moving forward. It will become a joint effort and your
Champion a true defender of the cause, selling on your behalf whenever you’re not around.

(See How to Identify a MEDDIC Champion for more information)

Questions to ask:
 Why is this person a champion?
 Does this person have the influence?
 What is his/her personal interest?
 Will he/her stand up for you and sell for you when you are not there?
 
So, that’s MEDDIC in a nutshell. Personally, this has been one of the most effective sales
methodologies I’ve ever worked with. I can’t imagine ever qualifying deals without it again.
After raising my close rate to over 90%, MEDDIC proved itself as a winning methodology.