Qualifying a prospect is a tough job, mainly in a country where people
are swamped with requests from suppliers pushing to get their products
on potential customers' desk. Of course, the qualification process depends
on the product/service offering but we would like to give you two first
pieces of advice:
- Americans are very positive and
enthusiastic about new things. But it may not be enough to consider
that your contact will buy your product. Be sure to understand right
away WHY the prospective customer would buy. The real question is: Where
is the pain and do I provide a credible relief? What is going to happen
if my contact does not acquire what I offer? Can they achieve successfully
their current project without my help or my product? You may make huge
improvements on reliability of your forecasts by asking your sales team
these questions.
- People asking for the evaluation
are not always employees. They are often consultants and may be looking
for improving their knowledge of products/services available in the
market. A large number of technical people in the U.S. are now working
for themselves as consultants at customers' sites. There is nothing wrong
in having the evaluation done by a consultant, but you need to be sure
there is a project underway in the company. The best way is to ask the
name of the project or application that will be used along with your
product and find out who is its "owner" (manager with decision power).
You may also ask your contact if he/she is an employee or a consultant.
There is no problem requesting this information.
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