Jun 29, 20219:13 AM - edited Aug 12, 202111:05 AM
Key Advisor | Diamond Partner
Help! I’m being qualified!
We’ve all been there, you’re in the process of buying something - typically in real life - and you suddenly realise you’re in a lead qualification process. What are some of the best (and worst) experiences you’ve had as a lead being qualified? No shaming of people or brands please - it’s just for fun (and for us to learn).
Hi When i was thinking to join a networking group. I wanted to know a little bit more about the network and how I could benefit from being a member. I reached out to get more info and found myself sliding down their funnel which i could not stop. Unfortuntely, I started as a lead & ended up as customer in a single meeting...
I had a gym membership to a local gym that is all about sales. I don't think I'm marked correctly in the system because I get blasted all the time even when I opted out of message from pretty much any new sales rep that comes into the place messages me.
Nov 13, 20219:06 AM - edited Nov 13, 20219:06 AM
Contributor
Help! I’m being qualified!
#1: In 2018, I was travelling from Bangalore to Hyderabad. At the Hyderabad airport a luxury SUV was on display. A lot of people were checking the car out. I was one of them. The sales reps were collecting contact numbers from the people. I ended up giving mine (mindlesly). To my utter disbelief, I got a call on the 5th day after returning to Bangalore and one of them from that car company asked me to take a test drive of that car. I had to tell them that I wasnt ready yet.
#2: Recently on one of the insurance products portal, I was checking out products in a specific segment. Withing 30 mins I got a call from a rep trying to sell me one of his chosen products.
I think it depends a bit on a context, products, etc. It is difficult enough to get the attention of passerbys at subway stations, shopping centres, airports, so if somebody starts doing a questionnaire, people are just going to walk away, cause the moment passes and you´re not going to buy a car on the spot anyway. So their qualification bar was set very low, the net was cast very wide. They probably knew that of 1000 numbers, only a fraction would go on a test-drive. On the test-drive, the real sales process begins, because emotion comes into play and the pitch/process, etc. id very different from buying an electronic component for manufacturing or a car/Iphone or anything else that creates emotion. Reminds me of cold calls. When you finally get through to the decision maker, you might have 30 seconds to get their attention, qualify and then maybe, just maybe get the conversation going, so that there´s a possibility for follow ups later.
You make a good point Margus 👍 I guess when Sales Enablement is implemented well, we're aiming to reduce those "out of nowhere" cold calls / cold emails for buyers and sellers alike. It's not a short process, so quite often people I've worked with end up with a hybrid of cold outreach + inbound sales for a few months. Particularly because until they're confident that they're not going to lose income, the more traditional sales people don't want to completely walk away from cold calls 🤙
I was "stuck" in a lead process with a b2b business where they relentlessly contacted me via phone and email trying to close the deal. I was in the market for their solution, but they jumped on me way too fast and too much that it ultimatly discouraged me from wanting to work with them. There is a balance between the cadance of the lead qualification process and there's didn't align with my buying process.
I've also had great experiences with brands that know how to give the customer space to breath and consider while still providing all the needed information. Just happened the other day to me personally when I bought a pair of specialized shoes. 👟😊
"I was in the market for their solution, but they jumped on me way too fast and too much that it ultimatly discouraged me from wanting to work with them."
This was a story I heard from a teacher I've never forgotten. He went to buy a high-end car in ratty clothes. The sales person refused to talk to him about the car or test drive it solely based on his clothes. He bought the car the next day from another dealer. He was still steamed at the one that refused to talk to him so he drove to the first one, found the sales person and said "see what I just paid cash for"! A good reminder to be careful of the qualification criteria 🙂
I did a similar exercise in an advanced marketing class. Our project was to go as pairs to a car dealership as different personas to see how we would be profiled differently. It was interesting to see which cars we were pointed to based on that. Definitely some lead qualification going on!
Competitors calling you to sell you their products because they saw you were visiting their website, filling out forms, etc. This is why it's so important to set desired company profiles when qualifying and actually qualify the lead! Talk about a waste of resources and wasting the sales team's time.
After that research I am a true handraiser. If I chosed my suplier, than is all eaqsy to handle in sales proccess.
The worst part of qualifying process is when my qualifiers do their job without listening to the prospect and trying to do blind sales 😞 they follow the playbook, altough I wanted to skip it and go directly in sales. Clearly no handraisers column
We’ve all been there, you’re in the process of buying something - typically in real life - and you suddenly realise you’re in a lead qualification process.
I recently was trying to buy some items for my mother's birthday so we went downtown looking for them. As a friend and I were leaving the store a man approached us inquiring if we'd got what we were lookinf for. He asked a lot of questions trying to get to know what we are actually looking for. In his eagerness to sell something to us, his amny quesitons became annoying. I bought something for the wrong reasons:
- He'd spent a lot of time trying to make us want something to have the sale and I did not want to make him feel bad.
I think we've all bought something for those reasons @LuisUlcueCampo - but I bet you're never going back, right? I can't imagine those high pressure tactics never work for repeat business or building long term relationships, do they?
Some of the worst qualifications I've had is when the data in their system is dirty and the emails I get that are personalized are wrong. I've also seen the same email campaign come to me each month when my monthly subscription was renewed. I realize now after working in HubSpot that this is simply a filter/rule they have not added.
Another good experience I had when I was being qualified was they were sending me great content, PDF worksheets, videos, ebooks that were catered to my specific need. They were helping me before I had even signed any proposal. That won me over.
Aw, @Trentster agree! I hate getting emails that I unsubscribed from 🙂 Although before I used HubSpot I was guilty of sending out a letter to about 30,000 people and opening it "Dear <first name>" 😱 where I got the merge wrong.
I like the idea of sending worksheets and videos while you're in the decision making process - might have to start doing that to our prospects! Thanks for the tip. Hope you can join us at the Sales Enablement event later this month 🙂
I was once in John Lewis (a famous department store here in the UK) and was looking for a low-end washing machine.
The chap who came over to help us was incredibly helpful and very chatty… He left my girlfriend and I to browse for a bit and when were looking at machines quite far apart he came up to me and said “The one you’re looking at has a huge capacity - really good if you and your wife have kids… Is she your wife?”
Me: No
Him: Oh sorry - what is your relationship? Siblings, friends, partners?
Me: Partners
Him: How many children do you have between you?
Me: None
Him: Who does most of the laundry in your house?
Me: (shamefully) Her…
Him: Well, I think we should go talk to her then - what do you think?
Me: I think you’re qualifying me!
30 minutes later, he’d sold us a brute of a German washing machine that was about three times our budget.
17 years later, we’re married and it’s been with us in four houses and never broken down once.
