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Six Greatest Ideas for Selling Big Ticket Items - Business to Business • 85

Do all the people concerned have a rough cost expectation?
It is important to let everyone involved know what the cost of a project is likely to
be. This sub question records whether or not the selling team has grasped the nettle
or ducked the issue.

Once again level of contact plays its part. It is not enough to find one manager
who sees no problem in the money being found. Many salespeople have been blind-
sided by a senior manager stepping in at the last moment or at any time in the
campaign with the dreaded question 'How much?' said in a tone of disbelief.

Has the necessary return on investmentprocess been completed?
In the qualification process this question is a summary of the customer's attitude to
return on investment. Unusually it is a yes or no answer.

A large company will almost certainly have a business process for examining
return on investment. With or without the selling company's knowledge the buying
company will put new projects through this process. The team needs to identify the
key person on the buying side who is responsible for this and ask the direct question,
'Has the project been evaluated, and did it pass?'

In fact the seller may very well be able to add value to the evaluation process
because of his or her knowledge of other companies who have gone down the same
route. A professional sales person may be able to suggest costs that the buying team
has not identified or, more importantly, assist the buying team to assess or quantify
the benefits of the proposition.

Key people

We have already discussed the importance of level of contact, and this question in
the qualification checklist records your progress in this area. You need to answer the
following questions.