Item 13 -- Qualifying Your Customer

Good Evening

If you were a salesperson involved in corporate sales, there would be several qualification steps involved. Among these would be:

What other people will be involved in the purchasing decision? Who else should be involved in a meeting on the subject? What is the decision process? Do you have the authority to make such a decision? Can the prospect afford to buy the product or service?

Just because we deal with other than a corporate identity does not mean that these questions have no value to us. The qualification process is your information gathering period. Here you will qualify the person as a genuine prospect and uncover the problems or needs that exist.

The distiction between merely satisfying the customer's requests (order taking) and sales -- the task of leading that customer to a better impression of herself, and therefore a higher degree of satisfaction with the sales transaction, may lie totally in how well the sales person does in the qualification process. Tonight we'll structure the qualification process and with our next post we'll address the questioning tools that will help you to do not only the qualification but the discovery of need, the preparation and presentation of your potential solution, the handling of objections, and ultimately the closing.

We go through the qualification process because without it -- either formally or informally -- there exists the possibility that we will make few sales -- or certainly smaller sales -- if we do not. As you work your way into saleswomanship techniques, you may have a great opening, an outstanding introduction, a smooth presentation, a persuasive summary, and then, when it comes time to close, all that may count for nothing. We've all heard it: "I don't get paid until the first;" or "I'll have to ask my husband;" or "I still have some of that left -- I can stretch it." What we may well categorize as the "backaway excuse" could well be that you have gone to all this effort before finding out whether -- even if you cover every step -- the customer is able to make the purchase.

On the surface of it, we recognize that most of our customers are independent people, with authority to consumate their own purchases, and are functionally answerable to nobody. But the question was raised at the head of this article: What other people will be involved in the purchasing decision? Would that be a worthwhile thing to know? The fact remains that salespeople who don't get some important points clarified at the onset may well come away from the sales transaction with but a shadow of what they could have accomplished had they known some basic data.

Think of your own sales experience. Have you ever felt that if you merely took a slice of time, told your prospect of all the features available in your product, perhaps put on your "dog and pony show" with great finesse, the customer simply MUST purchase your product? Think about what it might be like to be a beginning teacher who has just taken 50 minutes to present her lesson only to find out at the next period that nothing remained of her effort? I've heard them say, "I've taught it; how come they didn't learn it?" In that instance, they may not have learned it because either the student hadn't been prepared or the teacher had failed to "tune in" to the students where they were, rather than where she thought they might be intellectually.

The qualification process can begin before you have a face-to- face meeting. Of course, if the customer shows up at your house and wants to buy a jar of Retroactive, this discussion might be moot. Also, you will discover that the qualification for the second sale may lie squarely on the success of the first. I'm going to go out on a limb that I can't defend here and state that if you fail to qualify your customer, you'll sell half or less of what you might have otherwise sold. And I'm still laboring under the impression that you are in this for the profit, and not just for the social context. Also, you'll spend a considerably larger amount of your time with the unqualified prospect.

Let's illustrate. You hand out a brochure every two weeks. Some of you "roll and toss." Some bulk mail. Some include the next book or two in the order. Some walk them around, hanging on door knobs or handing direct to the customer. Have you ever encountered the customer who just "didn't have time to look at the book yet," and leaves you standing at the door with instructions not to leave until she has looked through all 132 pages of the brochure? And then when that is all done, she wants a shower gel, a mascara, and something free that came with one of them. Have you wasted your time? Would it have been better to have become familiar with the decision process? Would it have been better to leave the book and leave the premises after having determined the best time to call? Would it have better to have previously alerted the customer to the time of your visit after having obtained assurances that she would get through the book before you get there?

In an upcoming post, as soon as I think it through, we're going to look at the value of your time. Your most valuable asset is your time. Time wasted talking through your presentation to non- buyers or small quantity buyers might better have been spent making your presentation to bonafide purchasers -- or better yet, looking for more prospects. It's important here not give the impression that small customers should be bypassed. My only contention is that small customers deserve proportionate allocations of your time and your efforts, and qualification of the type of customer you have should determine your allocation of these resources.

In no way am I suggesting that you shouldn't stop for a cup of coffee with an elderly customer. I don't suggest that you should ignore the cute kids at the house. Or the socialization with a neighbor. I am, however, suggesting that you are in a business when you are working and your business persona must devote the preponderance of its resources to that business.

Here are some qualifying steps you can take that will increase your sales potential:

1. Find out what products the customer now uses. Assuming that the customer has a need, it is likely that the need has existed prior to your contact with this customer. How has she been meeting the need up to this point? Further, there exists the possibility that had the prior solution met the need, you would not have been involved with this customer on this issue at this time. That need may be to obtain your solution over a non-working attempt at a solution. Or that need may be for an equivalent product available for a lower price. You will have to be oblique as you question here. Recognize that if you do indeed have an answer to a question that she has been unable to answer before, your existence and the existence of your product provide a de- facto criticism of the attempt she had previously made to solve the problem. If the problem is one of economics, your customer may not be willing to admit that she is looking for a less expensive but equivalent solution.

2. What do they like most about the product or service the customer is now using? Every product has capabilities and limitations. What happens if you go through all your presentation and the two of you discover that your product will not solve the problem any better than the product she has? And worse, what if your product is more expensive? Avon makes a strong case for representing only the capabilities of its products and nothing more. Oversell those capabilities and you have not only not made the sale, you've wasted your most precious asset -- time. Give a customer a "me too" product, particularly one with a slightly different formulation that may have a temporary "burning sensation," as some of our Anew products gave to some people, and not only will the customer revert to the product that produces no reaction, it is she who will later tell you "I'm allergic to Avon." Having that knowledge in advance of your sales presentation can save you not only the time with the customer, but perhaps also the travel time to and back. And with that available time, and a telephone, you can get back onto track and find some more prospects.

3. What would they like to see different in your products over the products they now use? This will assist you to determine if you have the ability to help this customer. The burning illustration given above is one exampe. But there is something more important. Once you know what the customer is looking for, and assuming that you have a product that can meet the specification, you now know precisely how to structure your presentation, what points to emphasize, what questions to ask.

4. Somewhere in here comes the question about making the decision. If I have any inkling that the customer wishes to confer with a spouse, a sibling, or long-lost Uncle Roy, it would be important to get that out in the open. The person who has no personal funds, and therefore must rely on someone else to pay for the purchase, has deferred to somebody else to make the decision, and like it or not, you're going to have to make the presentation a second time -- or rely on the customer to do so in your stead. If the latter happens, does the customer have your product knowledge, your sales skills, or your motivation? Hardly. Expect then to sell one of something, if you're lucky.

5. Let's assume that the customer has the purchasing authority. At this point it is useful to determine whether she has the resources with which to do so. I'm not suggesting that you be crass enough to ask if she has any money. But it would be useful to keep some facts on file about this customer. Does she have independent funds? Or must she rely on a spouse's paycheck? Does that paycheck not arrive until two weeks after you might wish to deliver the order? Is she dependent on a fixed income? Or one that arrives at a specific date?

6. Avon produces three lines of skin care for a reason. The best, Anew, is higher in capability and correspondingly higher in price. The Avon line is the middle-level. And the name Basics speaks for itself. Not all items have the same capabilities, of course. If they did, we'd never sell the Anew line. But at this point, you can inform your customer that there are several options, each with comparable functions, differing by degree of capability and, of course, price. Entering into these decisions may also be size of the packaging, color of the cream, and its longevity in the product line. Determining what the need is and combining it with the available choices leave you prepared to tailor your presentation to your customer's needs and budget.

7. And like it or not, price capability and availability makes a lot of difference. Perhaps the customer feels she can afford only the middle line. The problem here may be that she isn't willing to admit that, either to herself or to you. But would it be important to make that determination? Would you be wasting your time trying to upscale the sale if it's going to end up in the middle bracket anyway? Yes, it is presumptive for you to make that determination. Time will tell; furnishings will tell; neighborhood will tell; automobile will tell; many things will tell you the customer's product focus. Doesn't mean that she isn't willing to splurge on herself. But it might mean she'll splurge on herself, but will buy the spouse's after shave only when it's on sale.

If you look at these steps as a checklist, you are headed for failure and frustration. We keep coming back to some fundamentals:

(1) Know your product, its contents, its capabilities. To that we can add that you should know all your interchangeable products just as well as you should know your competition. If you're going to go see a customer to make a skin care sale, you'd better have some idea of how ALL your products stack up to what she was looking at yesterday at Walgreens.

(2) Know your prices. KNOW THEM. Don't have stop and look them up. And if you can't have them memorized cold, or because you worry that they may be on sale, have that brochure marked in a manner which will permit you to locate that product quickly. If you sell out of more than one brochure, have all the brochures you use similarly marked.

(3) Know your costs. KNOW THEM. You may be faced with offering a discount on the spot, and knowing what things will cost you becomes very important. And never low-ball a product in isolation. If you do, the customer will expect that you will always give away your profit. A low-balled product must always be combined with something on which you will make full profit.

Next time we'll begin to explore some questioning techniques you may wish to use as you qualify your customer and determine her needs.

Goodnight.

Ken the Man

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