Is your buyer in pain?

So has your buyer really got a problem? More importantly do they know they have a problem? If the answer to either of these questions is "No", then you should be thinking VERY carefully about whether you should be wasting precious sales resources on meeting the prospect.

"But they said they want to meet me! This is an opportunity" cries the salesperson. Is this really true? Perhaps the prospect has expressed an appreciation for your solution, has even decided that their organisation needs one of your solutions. So what!? Until they have a real problem and they have acknowledged that problem they aren't going to buy, its that simple.

Of course there are many ways your organisation can assist in triggering that realisation, perhaps a case study of a successful implementation in a competitor of theirs. Perhaps a seminar, or a white paper, that starts them thinking; that troubles them.

Sales people's time is precious, sales meetings are expensive, guard them jealously! Use some of the top class technology that is available these days to qualify your prospects before your sales team calls on them. We work a lot with a company called StrategyMix, who have some very cool technology that does an excellent job or providing really well qualified leads to your sales team consistently.

So tell me about your experiences. Are your sales people constantly spending time with tyre kickers? Do those "hot leads" too often turn out to be duds?