Look at the transaction from the prospect’s world and define how their overall performance is improved by having your product / service. That is your Differentiating Value and you can never have too much DV. Most prospects are already buying from someone else today so the more DV-based improvements your products deliver to the prospect’s business, the better platform you have for revenue growth.

The question always comes up…“What if they are happy with a competitor’s product and there doesn’t seem to be a benefit to making change?” This happens every day in sales. Our observation is one of two situations typically applies. If your product delivers substantial, compelling DV to your market and the sales rep has asked all the Critical Qualifying Questions for Motivation but the prospect is not responding, your rep is 1.) not connecting with the emotional buyer or 2.) the prospect is not a ‘fit’ for your DV. Assuming the prospect is not a fit for your DV, it is better to know that as early as possible in the sales cycle so you don’t waste time pursuing and forecasting dead end deals.

However, some sales teams are seeing higher numbers of UFO’s (Un- Funded Opportunities) such that starting with the Money discussion to confirm a budget does exist or funds can be allocated for the transaction is just a good strategy in today’s economy. There is a lot of stress in parts of our economy and it is not the first time we have seen prospects trying to identify new projects that could become their job savers.

The old rule – no money, no prospect – still applies.

There is no fixed answer to that question since the CQQ’s originate from the company’s Differentiating Value (DV) platform. The more DV, the more topics you have available for CQQ consideration. One suggestion I frequently make to CRO’s working through the implementation process is this – spend your time on the CQQ’s for Motivation. If you cannot establish any DV ‘traction’ with the lead, you have a suspect – not a prospect. The heavy lifting is always with the Motivation fit and most companies can quickly modify the CQQ’s listed in the book for Money, Methodology and Market to jump start their implementation.

I cannot recall the last time a ‘confused’ prospect bought the higher-priced option.

It took about 2 milliseconds to flash back to my computer systems days in Detroit. I was branch manager for Digital Equipment Corporation and the auto industry was our number one market opportunity. The primary competition was always Big Blue (IBM) with their decades of executive contacts, global auto industry experience and massive inside networks to support their recommended solution on every bid. It was the perfect environment to learn how to win the ‘geo-political complex sale.’

We won a large factory line automation project at Chrysler involving a totally new gas guzzling vehicle they were getting ready to announce. The project was just under $1M for us which was real money in the ‘70’s. We had received the vendor selection notification letter from a Chrysler Procurement VP with a confirmation that the complete award package (contract plus new building drawings of the production line layout) would arrive in about 2 weeks.

We were celebrating our win and getting ready to start when the first gas crisis put the country and economy into a tail spin. The bottom line is Chrysler immediately cancelled the project via a courier delivered notice that we received the day before the Postal Service delivered the complete award package.  That’s right, we received the cancellation notice a day before we received the signed contract.

Initially, we thought Big Blue might have caused the gas crisis – we actually thought they might do something like that just to cancel our contract.  Now that is a serious competitor…or a bit of paranoia from being smaller company.

The lesson here was a timeless sales truth – the deal is never done until the check clears the bank.

So, here are the definitions of responsibility I use with clients today:

Marketing herds (as in shepherds) contacts to the business. These are entered as suspects in your CRM database.

Sales harvests those contact opportunities by moving them from suspect to prospect to customer through the Differentiating Value and Critical Qualifying Questions process.

When Marketing is herding (advertising, web, special promotions, trade shows, etc.) suspects, it is critical they base their efforts on the Differentiating Value(s) of the promoted products or services. This introduction positions Sales to jump start the Critical Qualifying Question process based on what the suspect has already learned or discovered about your Differentiating Value.

You will know the model is working when sales and marketing managers agree on what each suspect should know – or at least be exposed to – as part of getting into the pipeline database. Differentiating Value is the common denominator for both herding and harvesting efforts and can create a seamless handoff opportunity between Marketing and Sales functions.

I want to thank all our of our clients, associates and friends for their business and support this past year. All of us at CRO Success wish you a happy holiday season and much success in 2010.

See you next year.

1. What’s the budget? or How much do you have to spend?

and

2. When?

This non-optional qualifying behavior will open the door for continuing the sales process with only fully-funded prospects, not tire-kicking suspects. Companies leading with proposals, presentations, plant tours, demos etc. (and not qualifying for money first) can expect to see their already dismal closing ratios take another nose dive.

I like to say that qualifying is the nemesis of all selling. This year qualifying for money up-front will be an absolute survival skill.