The Scope Of A Qualified Opportunity
During a recent webcast, Laney and I discussed the scope, timeframe, budget, and decision making process of a qualified opportunity. While all aspects are so significant, I would like to expand on the scope. I can’t overstate the importance of revealing everything you can discover about your prospect’s current environment, the tribulations with their existing process, and most importantly, where they see their organization in the future. This part deserves so much emphasis because the scope is really what is setting your sales rep up with the ammunition necessary for a great business conversation with your prospect. There cannot be a truly qualified opportunity without a scope containing information around what is “compelling” this prospect to take the next step with you.
As I said, the scope is the range and extent of the opportunity. You can think of this as ranging from where their business today is extending, to where they see themselves in the future. I learned quickly about the importance of establishing the entire extent from one of my existing clients.
Revealing information on the size of the organization and competitive data can be so important because in many cases, certain criteria must be matched in order for this to actually qualify as an opportunity. One of our current customers finds it just as important to gather information on the organizations that don’t fit or “qualify out” as this can be used to leverage new software and campaigns.
When a prospect meets the ideal business profile and has legitimate business challenges, we are still not ready to pass this as a truly qualified opportunity. So what is missing? We find that even though companies can be experiencing pains and needs with their existing environment, there must still be a compelling reason to make the change. In the eyes of most prospects, it is far too easy to put a band aid on their current situation, as oppose to making an investment and making a change. As Laney discussed in our recent webcast, there are usually numerous people involved in the decision making process for a qualified opportunity. Uncovering the compelling event will ensure that there won’t only be a successful initial conversation, but this will significantly increase the likelihood that the opportunity will move to forecast in the sales rep’s pipeline when the solution is presented to the ultimate decision maker.
The compelling event is the reason that the organization needs to make a change. This is in line with their vision and strategic objectives that need to be met. This is what their solution is not and will not let them accomplish. When your opportunity is passed to the ultimate decision maker, this is what is compelling them to take their valuable time and allocate their valuable dollars to make a change. Examples of questions I ask to take the conversation to this next level are, “What are your strategic goals? What happens to your organization if you don’t fix your current process?”
How do your inside sales reps uncover the extent of the scope?