So, what is the Zoho Sales Qualification process?

With a Zoho Sales Qualification process, you can avoid deleting “bad leads” or leaving them in the sales cycle, ensuring accurate data and statistics as your pipeline expands within Zoho.

Let’s turn that around – now.

If you can relate with the story above, it’s time to implement the aforementioned sales qualification process.

So, what is the Zoho Sales Qualification process?

This process is, in a nutshell, the steps you can take to ask the right questions of your prospects and determine whether or not they are a good fit for your business. Once you determine whether or not the relationship should continue, the qualification process also continues – qualifying or disqualifying such prospects within your sales funnel. Sales qualification works for business of any size – small, medium to enterprise. After all, 50% of leads are qualified but not yet ready to buy, which means they’re taking up space in your CRM instead of being an accurate representation of who’s ready to sign on the dotted line.

There are four key steps in a Zoho Sales Qualification; this blog will provide an overview of what you need to know to go through the process.

Streamlining Your Workflow for Effective Sales Qualification

Step 1: Identify who your target prospect is.

The first step to any sales cycle is to identify who your target prospect is. By this, we mean that you should look at organization level qualification – qualifying the company. For example, you should look at the following: 

1. What is your target territory?
2. What is your focus industry?
3. What is your ideal target company size? (either in revenue or employee size)
4. What is your target persona’s job title? (for example, Communications Director or VP of Sales)

By understanding who your target prospect is, you can accurately perform outreach targeting and understand who should be in your funnel – and who shouldn’t.

Step 2: Determine prospect need.

After the prospect has shown interest in your services or products, such as filling out a form or sending you an email through your website, it is best to hold a discovery call to get to know one another. This is before any other move is made, such as putting together a proposal or turning into an opportunity.

Discovery calls will determine whether the prospect has an immediate need, or a need over the next 6 months. On the discovery call, you can ask the questions above to ensure your prospect is within your target audience. You should also inquire about need, pain points and company information.

Step 3: Qualify the stakeholder.

Once you have determined the prospect’s need, it is time to qualify the stakeholder. This is where the fun begins!

In this step in the process, you determine if the prospect is a decision maker. Ask yourself the question – can they sign on the dotted line? Or do they need a direct manager to do so? Is there anyone else who should be involved?

In this process, it is best to follow the BANT model. This model asks the following questions…

Budget: Is the prospect capable of buying?
Authority: Does your contact have adequate authority to sign off on a purchase?
Need: Does the prospect have a business pain you can solve?
Timeline: When is the prospect planning to buy?

Using proper qualification means you can use Zoho lead scoring to give your leads actual numerical scores, which makes the distinction between qualified and unqualified easy if you’re just looking at passing a threshold.  (Lead scoring assigns a point value to things like the usual BANT qualifiers, plus other metrics that you set.)

Step 4: Know when to disqualify.

Once you have gone through the BANT model, it is time to determine if you need to qualify or disqualify. Remember – disqualification isn’t bad! It keeps your Zoho CRM clean and with accurate data.

This makes it so you can disqualify based on asking wto simple questions:

1. If the company is not going to purchase your services because of budget, territory, lack of business pain, etc. – it is best to disqualify.
2. If there is an opportunity to purchase services, qualify – and nurture.

Remember – it doesn’t hurt to keep your prospects in a nurturing sequence within your email software. A prospect that is disqualified today might be ready to purchase in 6 to 12 months, and by keeping your prospects in nurturing, you’ll be top of mind when the time is right.

Questions about how to qualify prospects through the Zoho CRM? Click here and we’ll be happy to help you with Zoho Sales Qualification, Zoho implementation consulting, or anything else related to Zoho.