I'M A PACTTMAN - THE QUALIFICATION FRAMEWORK THAT WORKS BEST FOR ME

When it comes to working out which of your prospects to focus on, there are many good ways to skin this particular cat. Here’s my favourite -- and why…

In this post, I want to follow on from my piece on outbound sales strategy and talk about qualifying prospects. I’ll give you an overview of some of the many different structures that are used to do this, with a deeper focus on the one that I like best.

From outbound to qualifying...

Qualifying prospects ensures you are spending your time wisely talking to those potential customers who may have a need for what you are selling. In my post on outbound we spoke about the need to profile your target customer and map the buyer cohort, understanding all those in a target company that will influence a purchase. Then, once you have a picture of what pain points your product or service addresses, you can start to qualify your target prospects using any of a number of qualification frameworks.

What is a qualification framework? And what is it NOT?

A qualification framework is basically a handy reminder of the key questions you should be asking your potential customer.

What it’s NOT is a list of questions to get your prospect informing you about their business basics. By that, I mean it’s not a cue to ask them to spend a load of time explaining things that you should already know about them, such as: what line of business they are in, how they compare to their competition, what industry challenges they face... These are all areas you should have researched before talking to any potential customer.

There are many different lead qualification structures you can follow, including:

• BANT - Budget, Authority, Need, Timing

• SPIN - Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-payoff

• CHAMP - Challenges, Authority, Money, Prioritisation

• GPCT - Goals, Plans, Challenges, Timeline

• PACTT - Pain, Authority, Consequence, Target Profile, Timing

All of them provide questioning frameworks that will ensure you cover the necessary bases when determining a client's needs and wants, and it’s a matter of choice which you decide to use. But I’m a PACTT man myself, and here’s why.

The PACTT approach

Qualification frameworks are designed to uncover key signals that will help determine the likelihood and timing of a customer buying from you. Questions around budgeting process and authority to buy reveal who is involved in any decision-making. Questions around needs and timing give an indication of the length of the sales cycle. All these elements are key to the discovery phase of putting together a cohesive sales approach. But one goes further than all the others, which is why I opt for PACTT when qualifying my leads.

I prefer the PACTT model as it goes deeper and addresses some of the key aspects of the sales process that I believe are crucial to doing a good job. Let’s walk through it…

Pain

Starting with ‘P’ for ‘Pain’ is a timely reminder that you need to look at any purchase from the client’s perspective. You should have a good idea what pains your prospect most before asking and this area of questioning ensures you surface them fully, covering all the key aspects you service will later solve for the client. I believe that truly understanding customer’s pain is a key fundamental to successful selling, enabling you to develop an empathy and understanding with your customer as well as demonstrating a considered professional approach to solving their issues.

Authority

Here you are learning about the decision-making process, asking questions about how the business buys products like yours and what process they go through to approve vendors. In other frameworks Authority generally means, Do they have the authority to buy? But as we know, few businesses today leave buying decisions to one person. Authority in this context means identifying the buyer cohort, that group of stakeholders who will have a say, directly or indirectly, about whether the company will or should buy your product or service. A key person in this buyer cohort is your product champion, the person who will introduce you to their business and champion your cause. They may be the end-user and not the budget-holder, so discovering the chain of authority early on will help you help them to tell your story better internally.

Consequence

This is where you ask the prospect what the impact is of having a solution such as yours to solve the agreed pain you have just discussed. This line of questioning takes the conversation to a whole different level, as you explore all the consequences of maintaining the status quo vs. introducing a fit-for-purpose solution such as yours. At this point there has to be a consequence of them buying your product or service -- if there is no significant improvement or impact now, that’s your signal there is not a good fit on this occasion and it’s time to move on.

Target profile

This is a check you make to see if the prospect fits your target customer persona, the work you did earlier in building your outbound strategy. If there is no obvious fit by this point too, then you definitely need to move on. If you do decide to move on, leave the conversation on a good note; things can quickly change, and before you know it you might be asked to re-engage with a new product line that is perfect for this prospect. Often being professional and fronting up to the lack of fit right now but voicing a desire to stay in touch can help form a long-term relationship.

Timing

Timing can mean many things, sometimes all at once, such as:

• understanding the budgeting cycle and history of spending towards the end of the financial year

• knowing whether there are similar vendors already providing some of what you bring but not the whole package, and the timing of their agreements and contract renewals

• how long it typically is to integrate new products, and whether your prospect has the resources and the appetite to undertake implementation work

Sales today is more about the priority than the budget. If a client has a need it will likely go through several phases, from ‘nice to have’ to ‘need to have’ to ‘must-have solution’. Our goal at this point is to determine that cycle of prioritisation. These questions will help you manage expectations for you and for their business.

So there you have it -- do let me know which framework works for you and share your experiences.

Next up: The VIPS sales structure… Next time we’ll look at the VIPS sales structure, a very effective way to walk your prospect through a value-added sales pitch that was taught to me by the current Lord-Lieutenant of London! Be sure to tune in next time and learn all about it...