Don’t Qualify Leads, Disqualify Them!

People ask me all the time what separates the Top 20% producers from the other 80%, and I tell them it starts in the qualification stage.

The bottom line is that 80% of your competition is trying to create a qualified lead from prospects who will never buy, while the Top 20% producers are more interested in finding the real buyers — not in generating useless leads.

And the way they do that this is by disqualifying prospects rather than qualifying them.

The attitude shift here is what’s so important. 80% of sales reps are desperate to “fill their pipelines,” and will send out anybody with the pulse just so they have someone to pitch later on. Companies and sales managers train them in this way (a big waste of time and money), and then the sales reps spend their time chasing unqualified leads, getting rejected, practicing poor sales skills, and barely getting by.

It’s sad, but that’s how 80% of your competition spend their sales careers. This leads to poor morale, upset managers, and a lot of turn over.

The Top 20%, however, would never think of sending out unqualified leads and instead eliminate prospects who don’t fit their strict criteria of a buyer. The Top 20% are of the mindset to disqualify rather than qualify and usually send out the fewest leads in the office, but they have the highest closing rates and they make the most amount of money.

For the Top 20%, part of disqualification means stopping and questioning the “red flags” they get, and asking the tough questions about budget, real interest, timelines, and decision processes. When they are done with the qualification call they can tell you why the prospect will buy, what it will take, and in many cases they’ve asked trial closes and can tell you when the prospect will buy.

If you’re sitting at your desk right now, I know you know the difference between these two ways. And now you have a choice to make: either keep chasing unqualified leads, or step up to the plate and learn how to be a Top 20% producer.