Very often my consulting work with clients comes around to the topic of selling and new customer acquisition. Like many coaches and consultants I get my client to describe (or create) their sales funnel. The funnel starts with a larger number of prospects coming in the top and a smaller number of new customers coming out the bottom.
Now because I'm a CPA we have to count EVERYTHING. This includes the various parts of the sales funnel. The problem is that people want to call everyone a prospect. In order to convert a lead or an associate or a family member or whomever into a prospect you need some sort of filter, some sort of criteria. I give my clients two criteria. They must ask and get the person to answer two questions in order to classify them as a prospect.
Question 1: Is this thing (problem, opportunity, project, etc) something that you would let us help you with?
Question 2: What is your budget for this?
I like these two criteria for the following reasons:
- By its very nature question 1 requires both of you to quantify exactly what roles each will play. If there is no problem/opportunity there is no reason for the person to hire you.
- Not only are you confirming that you see the prospect as a potential customer but the prospect is confirming that they see themselves as a potential customer.
- Question 2 makes it clear that the prospect needs to be serious for you to move forward.
This last point is one of the most important. Countless hours have been spent trying to close customers only to learn that those customers have no intention or ability to pay for what they want accomplished. Understand that I am not saying you have to settle price during this conversation. What I am saying is that you need to figure out whether the value your prospect places on the project is even on the same planet as the value you have in mind.
I once got into a conversation at a networking event with a prospect that seemed ready to sign on a market and feasibility study. In my mind, given everything we had talked about thus far, I pegged the project in the $15,000-$25,000 range. When I asked about the budget I was told that he and his partners had set aside $1,500-$2,000. We still closed the engagement at $5,000 but the conversation immediately shifted and I was able to temper his expectations concerning what we could provide for the money he wanted to spend.
If you want to increase the number of high value prospects coming into the top of your marketing funnel commit to start measuring those who are asked and answer questions 1 and 2.