Sales opportunity qualification is another crucially important component for the successful account management and development of any client or prospect.
Extensive amounts of time and money are frequently wasted in the pursuit of sales opportunities which either don’t result in an order or, where an order is won, there is either a very low profit margin or an actual overall loss. Also, in many ‘lost order’ cases, the supplier had little or no chance of winning the order in the first place.
Such financial losses and disappointments can so often be avoided by performing rigorous qualification to determine the chances of actually winning the order and also minimise the risks should an order be won to undertake work or to provide a service, people or product.
So, a thorough qualification exercise needs to take place at both the outset of the sales process and then on an ongoing basis if it’s decided to go ahead and bid. Because such a wide range of questions need to be asked, these are divided into ten separate groups. To make these easier to remember, the first letter of each group name is used to create the acronym COSMONAUTS.
As it’s virtually impossible to remember all the questions off by heart, ‘COSMONAUTS’ should at least help you to remember the ten groups, which will then hopefully trigger some of the key questions. This is so important as qualification doesn’t conveniently happen all in one go. It can be spread over several days or weeks, even months, and sometimes in an informal exchange with the client when you haven’t had the opportunity to prepare.
Not all the questions are for the client directly. Some of the information will already be held in the account file &/or known by the account manager and some by people who have worked, or are currently working, for the client in question. Other information may also be obtained from the client’s website, PR office, annual report & accounts, etc.
Please note that the word ‘contract’ is used to represent all types of sales opportunity/order (individual assignment, project, service, people placement, product, etc). Also, the word ‘client’ is used generically to represent both clients and prospects.
You can also score the answers in each group and apply weightings according to your company’s view on importance, risk, etc. In any event, you should stop all further sales activity if you become concerned with the qualification outcomes to such an extent that they cannot be resolved to your satisfaction and therefore minimise the amount of time & money spent on an inappropriate sales opportunity.
Some example qualification questions are given below:
Competition – are they currently working for the client, or done so previously?
Opportunity – would the contract provide important new client contacts/business knowledge?
Solution – what are the strengths & weaknesses of your solution?
Money – are your cost estimates within the client’s budget?
Objective – what is your company’s reason for pursuing this contract (strategic, tactical, financial, idle resources, etc)?
Need – what are the consequences of the client not going ahead with the contract
Authority – who are the influencers & decision makers; do you have access to them?
Unique – are any of your USPsin the client’s decision-making criteria?
Timescale – can you realistically complete all the sales bid activities, in addition to what is to be delivered contractually, in the required timescales
Size – is the contract too big for your company?
Please also remember that qualification should continue throughout the sales process as circumstances & knowledge will be constantly changing on both ‘sides’.
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Best Practice Quote 8 of 13:
“inadequate qualification of sales opportunities will have potentially disastrous financial consequences & a very damaging effect on morale”
NEXT BLOG: Balanced Scorecard
A complete set of account management components can be found at accountmanagementgold.com, all of which aim to significantly improve supplier performance and block the competition.
As an introduction to these components, I’m writing a series of blogs which I hope will be of value and appropriate for the type & size of your client, prospect and target organisations:
- What is Account Management?
- Understanding Your Clients
- Values, Ethos & Image
- Supplier Account Manager
- Relationship Management
- Client Contact Management
- Sales Propositions & Opportunities
- Sales Opportunity Qualification (today)
- Balanced Scorecard
- Risk Management
- Account Performance Reviews
- Satisfaction Surveys
- SWOT Analysis
As these blogs will be geared to anyone engaged in developing new business with clients or prospects, and for ease of context, I’ll regard all readers as account managers as everyone has the same endgame, no offence!
I really hope you, your colleagues & business associates find value in these blogs; please let me know either way. Please also get in touch if you think there might be potential for our businesses to collaborate.
ASPIRE’s MISSION
– to enable suppliers to minimise risk in all that they do with particular focus on developing long-term revenue streams
– to increase productivity/profit/margin, client/people networks, trust/integrity, reputation/market standing & morale/pride
Richard Wright
Managing Director
ASPIRE Account Management
accountmanagementgold.com