In the third video in our series on how to sell software to businesses, we discuss gathering information. This is a key step because knowledge is power, and the more information you gather from your prospects, the more knowledge and power you will have.

 

How to Sell Software Video Series

 

The Best Salesperson Asks the Best Questions

The key to gathering information and gaining more knowledge is simply asking good questions when you talk with prospects. This will help you in three different ways:

  • Find Opportunities: By learning more about the prospects you talk to, you will improve your ability to find and uncover opportunities.
  • Easier to Close: By having more information, you will improve your ability to close the prospects and leads that you pursue.
  • Protect Your Valuable Time: Time is your most valuable asset, and by gathering more information, you will be able to protect your valuable time and minimize the time you spend with prospects that have a low probability of purchasing from you.

 

2-Step Qualifying Process

In order to gather more information from the prospect and protect our valuable time, we recommend using a qualifying process to screen bad prospects from good. And we divide this process into two different steps: 1) Pre-Qualifying and 2) Qualifying.

 

Pre-Qualifying

The first step in the process is pre-qualifying with how to sell software to businesses by asking a few questions to identify if there is a slight potential for a fit. If there is at least a slight potential for a fit, it makes sense to keep talking and is worth both parties continuing to spend their valuable time. But if there is even a slight chance of a fit, it probably makes sense to walk away to prevent both parties from wasting their valuable time.

There are very specific questions you can ask to pre-qualify prospects: pain questions and current-state questions. These questions will do a very effective and efficient job of quickly determining whether there is even a slight potential for a fit.

 

Qualifying

The second step in gathering information on how to sell software to businesses is qualifying, and this is to identify if the prospect or lead is of a decent enough quality to justify investing valuable time with. In order to qualify, we recommend asking questions in four different areas:

  • Need to purchase: Does the prospect truly need what you sell, or is it more of a want?
  • Ability to purchase: Does the prospect have the ability to purchase your product from a financial standpoint?
  • Authority to purchase: Does the prospect have the decision-making authority to purchase what you sell?
  • Intent to purchase: Does the prospect have the genuine intent to purchase your product?

By asking questions in those four areas, you will have a clear picture of whether the prospect and lead are strong and worth both parties’ time to continue discussing.

We hope this helps you come up with new ideas for how to sell software to businesses.