Q: Should sales reps be allowed to qualify or confirm leads?
A: Have you ever heard anybody qualifying a lead over the telephone? There is no such thing as qualifying. It's all about disqualifying.
Think of it this way: It costs your company anywhere from $50 to $250 to get a prospect to call you. Now you want to find out all the reasons you'd be wasting your time by going to see them?
The only reason to begin to qualify someone is distance. Anyone within an hour's drive of your office should get nothing but a scheduled appointment. Folks beyond that should get a few questions, but very few. How did you hear about us? Roughly how much had you considered investing?
Appointments are not sure things. But one thing is: People can't buy your product unless they see it and you pitch them.
I can assure you that the leads you're qualifying and the leads you're confirming are being sold by somebody else. Go on every appointment, and go with the attitude that you're going to sell everyone. — Phil Rea has conducted more than 13,200 in-home sales calls and trained more than 1,750 salespeople. For more information, please call (800) 613-4150.
