Decision Process section:Prospect qualifying questions
Decision Process – Dp – Questions to ask the prospect at grey moving to yellow
Status grey – No visibility of how a decision will be made.
Guiding Light Principle: Visibility – You may have some idea about next steps or budget, but until you are able to list out, in detail, the approval process and validation steps, you are still are at grey.
- Tell me how you go about making these kinds of purchase decisions?
- Explain to me if we were to do business together, say next year – what would have to happen?
- Describe to me how you have proceeded with similar evaluations in the past?
Decision Process – Dp- questions to ask the prospect at yellow moving to green
Status Yellow – Visibility of the decision process but not in our control/ influence.
Guiding Light Principal – Influence- Both elements of the decision process, approval & validation need to be documented & mutually agreed upon with your prospect. Evidence exists that the customer is also committing time & resources to this process. Ex: Are they willing to begin the review of the License Agreement / Legally binding documents or set you up as an approved vendor with procurement?
There should also be a timeline showing the dates for key activities. You must negotiate this timeline so that the approval ( paperwork) process does not follow validation but rather these 2 processes should be done in parallel.
- Tell me when you have negotiated a timeline that includes elements of both a validation & approval process?
- Explain to me how these processes can be run in parallel?
- Describe to me who needs to be involved and how we get and keep them involved?
Decision Process – Dp – questions to ask the prospect at green.
Status Green – Dominance
Visibility and control/ influence of the process .
Guiding Light Principle: Dominance – You’ve applied all the sales rigor associated with Dp = Yellow & you’ve influenced the validation process to highlight our differentiators, Minimize our weaknesses, Expose our competitor’s weaknesses & Minimize their strengths
- Tell me how we are doing?
- Explain to me what would happen if you had to make the decision right now who would win and why?
- Describe to me our position relative to:
- The competition,
- You doing it on your own or
- No decision?