Divide Your Selling Process into Two Phases

August 23rd, 2010

From a big-picture perspective, the selling process can be divided into two broad phases — the Qualifying Phase and the Closing Phase.

During the Qualifying Phase, the salesperson gathers information about the prospect’s needs, concerns, and goals in order to determine if his or her product or service is a good fit.

During the Closing Phase, the salesperson’s objective is to obtain a buying decision by presenting the product or service and connecting the relevant aspect of it to the prospect’s requirements.

Elements of the Qualifying Phase include:

• Discover what prospects want and why they want it
• Uncover the “rules” for doing business
• Identify the prospect’s available resources to acquire product/service
• Identify criteria by which product/service will be judged

Elements of the Closing Phase include:

• Deal with any last-minute changes
• Present product/service to prospect
• Demonstrate how product/service addresses prospect’s wants and needs
• Explain how prospect’s expectations will be met; answer questions

Doing a less than thorough job in the Qualifying Phase will certainly create roadblocks — stalls, objections, put-offs, and delays — in the Closing Phase.

You may be able to “handle” the roadblock — like treating the symptom of an illness — and obtain some temporary relief, but the underlying problem will still remain.  So, make sure you’re working on the right end of the problem — its origin.  Do a thorough job of qualifying the opportunity and most of your closing problems will disappear.

© Sandler Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

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