When I’m on a sales call, there are only two main things that I’m looking for.

I know that if I tick these two boxes, the probability of a sale is quite high.

1. Can we help them?

This seems pretty basic, but I’m astounded at the number of salespeople that miss this.

They go into the sales call thinking that everyone in the world needs their thing.

They don’t know how or why, or even the application, but they just think that the prospect needs the thing.

And what ends up happening is they will herd the prospect into a corner on the call, asking them scripted questions with one outcome.

I don’t do that.

I ask the prospect about what’s really at play, what is happening now and where they want to go.

Sometimes I realize that the prospect really doesn’t have need for what I’m selling, and I let them know.

We part the call as friends just after I ask them for a couple of people who might be a good fit.

Put simply:

1. Do they have a problem we can solve?

2. Can we get them to where they want to go?

3. Does it align with what we offer 

2. Are they able to buy?

It would be amazing if every prospect had the ability to purchase, but it’s simply not the case.

There are a number of reasons they wouldn’t be able to buy.

Can they afford it?

I was selling software solutions back when I was in corporate.

There was a lot of custom work involved.

I’d map out their systems with them, find the gaps and then the analysts would design the software to fix it.

I learned pretty quickly that a good amount of prospects cannot afford what they want, and it is much much better to find that out before you’ve spent $20k on development work.

Remote sales - exact same.

You want to find out early if they can afford what they want.

Can they make a decision?

Most prospects hop on a call with the energy of the person who is able to buy.

Often that’s not the case.

They have to run it by the partner, business partner, boss, or the person who really has the power to make the decision.

It’s very rare that they share this willingly, you need to extract it.

If they cannot make the decision alone, you need to find out early in the call so you can rebook/change your approach.

It’s much nicer to find out 15 minutes in than it is an hour in.

What are the reasons that they might not buy?

Every offer has reasons the prospect might not buy.

Again, sales trainers tell us to just avoid these topics and get the sale.

Not for me.

I’d rather know what the genuine hand brakes are and avoid falling into the traps of refunds and bad reviews.

Example:

If you’re selling buyers advocacy services and the person cannot get finance to purchase the house, they can’t buy.

There’s no point spending $10-$20k to find an investment property that you can’t buy.

These are sales basics, but it’s the stuff that everyone misses.

If you tick these boxes on the call, you know you have a good chance of getting a sale and you’re doing the right thing.

The added benefit of this - if you’re a person who doesn’t want to be pushy on a sales call, this way of thinking removes the need for it. 

You’re there to see if you can help and they can buy, not to force a sale on everyone.