Show notes
Everyone knows that it's far easier and less expensive to sell the clients we already have and yet very few put in the time to consistently engage and re-qualify their existing clients. It all boils down to the Five Levels of Qualification.
David: Hi and welcome to the podcast. Today co-host Chris Templeton and I are here to talk about all the benefits of engaging and re-qualifying your existing client base. Welcome Chris!
Chris: Hi David. Thank you and welcome. I bet most salespeople and business owners feel like they're doing a pretty good job of engaging their clients, but what is it that you mean when you talk about re-qualifying them?
David: Well, it's a couple of things, and I think probably you're right. Most business people do feel like they're doing a reasonably good job of engaging their clients. Some feel like they know they should be doing more or they should be more consistent about it, but most people at least know they need to be engaging their clients. What many of them don't seem to recognize is that every time you bring a new prospect through the door, obviously you need to qualify them to find out whether or not they are essentially qualified to do business with you. Do they have the need, the desire, the money, the budget, the willingness to spend? And if they don't have those things, then they're not really qualified. And the same thing applies to clients. When somebody has purchased from you, it doesn't mean that they're automatically going to purchase from you again and again and again. So we need to consistently re-qualify our clients to find out where they are in that process so we can determine when we need to be in touch with them, what we need to be in touch with them about, so that we can continue to advance the process and get them what they need.
Chris: But one of the things that occurs to me is that for a lot of people, we take that initial qualification and assume that nothing's changing. I almost wonder if a lot of us stopped really listening for what's changed and re-qualifying really would help in terms of seeing what's new. It's almost about listening, isn't it?
David: It really is and I think for a lot of people they seem to think that whatever qualification they did the first time around was like a life sentence and it's just going to stay that way and it's never going to change. And the fact is that it pretty much changes or resets each time someone orders from you after they've gotten what it is that you have to offer. How long is it going to be before they need it again? Is it going to be a minute or is it going to be a month or is it going to be three years? Because the answers to those questions are really going to be determining the ongoing value of the clients you’re bringing through the door and taking the time to re-qualify them.
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Chris: Also keeps you aware of what new opportunities are, that sort of thing. But do you qualify an existing client the same way you would qualify a new client?
David: You do essentially, obviously your approach is going to be slightly different because you know them better. But really what you need to find out is where they are in terms of the buying process. And one of the things that very few salespeople and business owners realize is that every single prospect you will ever come into contact with will fall into only one of five levels of qualification. That's it. Every single one. A lot of times we just think in terms of well they're qualified or they're not qualified or I'm not sure if they're qualified. Those are not the categories.
Chris: Those aren't them? That "I'm not sure" isn't a good one?
The Five Levels of Qualification: Level 1
David: Well I guess it counts as one, but it's no, it's not a good one. And when you're looking at qualifying your prospects and your clients, what you want to do is think in terms of one of five levels of qualification. The first is are they ready to buy now? And those are the ones that all the sales people are looking for. So would you like to place an order with me? And very often the answer to that question is no, because there's only ever a relatively small section of the market that is going to be ready to buy right now. So if we're only targeting those people, we're limiting our access. We're limiting our sales ability because it's only ever going to be a few. But that's the first level of qualification “I'm ready to buy now. So glad you called Chris because I really need a place in order.” We love it when it happens, but it doesn't happen as often as we'd like it to.
The Five Levels of Qualification: Level 2
The second level is those who have specific dates in mind. “No, not ready to buy now, but I would definitely like to do this in November, another 60 days or so and I'll be ready to go.” And so that's the second group. So those people, depending on your turnaround for whatever it is that you're selling, if they actually need the goods in November, then yeah, it's at September. Now, maybe they need to be placing an order, but if not, they may need to place an order in October, which means you need to get them scheduled out for contact at the appropriate time. Or if they say we're not looking to do something until March, then you know, depending on your lead time, again, I need to be in touch with this person in January to talk to them about whatever it is that they are looking to buy for March. So, whenever we have that situation where they have specific dates in mind, we know exactly when we need to be in touch with them and we know exactly what we need to be in touch with them about. So that's the second level of people who have specific dates in mind.
The Five Levels of Qualification: Level 3
The third level of qualification or those who are generally receptive. “Yeah, that sounds really good. I like what you're offering. I love your ideas. I think it sounds like something we could use. I'm just not quite sure when.” All right, so these are the types of people that you could be interacting with for weeks, months, years. They may or may not buy, but they're generally receptive.
Chris: Right.
David: If we determine that someone is at least open to talking with us and they seem to have a need, desire, budget, et Cetera, then it makes sense to remain in touch with them. And essentially what we're doing with the people who are generally receptive is we're staying in touch with them until they either become ready to buy or they have specific dates in mind, at which point they move to that different level of qualification. So, when we understand this, we recognize that it's not just I'm qualified in or I'm qualified out.
Now beyond that, there are two other categories of qualification and these are the ones that salespeople tend to like the least.
The Five Levels of Qualification: Level 4
The fourth is those who are unqualified. I have no need, no desire, no money, no budget, no willingness to spend. And on top of that I'm rude, obnoxious, belligerent, and ornery. Sometimes that happens too. In a sense, they're doing us a favor. They come across like that up front because it's very easy to say, okay, doesn't seem like we have a fit. I'm moving on. But sometimes we don't know. People will not have the money, but they won't tell us that. So a lot of qualification is really determining is this person actually qualified to buy from me or are they not? And a lot of that gets down to the questions that we ask. So a lot of the focus that we have with our clients is on having a qualification procedure that will allow them to identify exactly what level of qualification this person falls into. So that's the fourth, the person who is unqualified or disqualified.
Chris: Can I, can I just say that I'm terrified of what the fifth is? If the fourth means that you can be belligerent.
The Five Levels of Qualification: Level 5
David: Okay, yeah. Well the fifth is definitely not belligerent. The fifth is just, it's almost worse in that it's apathy, and these are the people who are unresponsive. You met them at a networking function. Let's say you exchange business cards, you were talking, everything seemed to be going well. They seemed interested, they seemed engaged, they ended up talking with you and you provided them a quote or something like that. And then they go radio silent. They're just gone. Unresponsive prospects. So, in a sense they're worse than the rude, obnoxious and belligerent ones because you can get rid of the belligerent ones, but you never quite know when you should give up on the ones who are unresponsive.
Chris: Right.
David: But those are the five levels. And so every single prospect you ever run into will fall into one of those five levels. And the better you get at identifying which level your prospect or client is currently inhabiting, the better you'll be able to serve them. So to answer your question; yes, we qualify our clients the same way that we qualify our prospects in the sense that each of them is going to fall into one of those five levels of qualification. It's exactly the same whether they're a client or whether they're a prospect.
Chris: A big piece of this really is also looking at the funnel. I always go back to the idea of the funnel. Where's a prospect in the funnel? And the first three are really the basis of the funnel. The fourth and the fifth can be at the very top, right? But ready to buy now. That's the bottom of the funnel. And really if we're doing our work the way we should as salespeople,