Page 55 - The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million - PDFDrive.com

portion of these efforts will lead to a “connect” call with the potential customer,
during which the salesperson introduces the company and establishes a bit of
rapport with the prospect. If the “connect” call is successful, the potential
customer may agree to a follow-up “discovery call” to share more details about
his goals and objectives. The discovery call may lead to a “presentation” or
“demo” of the solution. Each of these steps represents potential stages in a sales
process.

When setting up the sales process stages, it is best if the stages are aligned with
the buying journey. Alignment with the buying journey increases the likelihood
that the salesperson will be perceived as helpful through the process, as the next
steps in the process between the buyer and salesperson are in sync. It is also
advantageous if the sales process stages are inspect-able. Inspect-able stages
help the salesperson and sales manager understand the true status of each
opportunity. For example, “influencer bought in” would be a terrible stage to
include in the selling process. It is too subjective. Different salespeople might
have different mental definitions of what it means for an opportunity to be at this
stage. Furthermore, it would be very difficult for a manager to inspect whether
an opportunity is truly at that stage. “Discovery verified” is a much better option.
Reaching this stage would mean that the salesperson has emailed the prospective
customer a summary of the discovery call and the customer has responded
affirmatively. It is very clear to the salesperson whether an opportunity is at this
stage. It is very easy for management to inspect whether the opportunity is
actually at that stage. The buyer feels aligned with the salesperson through this
explicit confirmation of the buyer's goals and solution vision, and should be
ready to progress in his journey.

Finally, the qualifying matrix can now be established. The qualifying matrix
defines the information needed from a potential buyer in order to understand
whether we can help the prospective buyer and whether the buyer wants help.
The information is gathered at various stages of the sales process. It is rarely
gathered in the same order across different deals.

A very common qualifying matrix that has been used for many decades is
BANT. BANT stands for “Budget, Authority, Need, and Timing.” Qualification
of “budget” means the salesperson has validated with the customer that the value
generated by the solution is greater than the cost and that the budget to cover the
cost is accessible. Qualification of “authority” means the salesperson has
validated the budget criteria with the individual who is in charge of the budget.
Qualification of “need” means the salesperson understands the goal the potential