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Originally Posted by tom behr
My number 1 intent is making sure I'm serious and qualified. Am I serious about helping them (regardless of where my quota is this week)? Am I (and my products/services) qualified to really make a difference for them? Then I can start to figure out if they're serious about a win/win outcome (or just shopping for price) and qualified to make a decision.
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For me, at least, there's a lot of psychological risk in selling (linked to economic risk, ego risk, etc.). So I know I can get anxious, want to push, etc. Sometimes I'll fall in the trap of believing that because what I'm selling is so special, customers
ought to want it. -- all the things that make customers want subconsciously to get me the hell out of their office. For me, being serious about selling is emptying all that stuff out of my mind before the call so can be at my best for me and the customer (like a batter emptying his mind before each pitch).
If I don't already have an idea how my services could really help the customer (from pre-call research) I shouldn't be making the call in the first place. Conducting "fishing expeditions" with customers wastes their time and mine.
Qualifying customers for me is first about the relationship - do they display the kind of trust, openness and candor that suggests they'd be a good partner -- I test that by displaying maximum trust, candor and openness myself and checking their response.
Hope that helps
Tom
