"Our sales team treat qualification like a checklist."

I hear this complaint constantly from Sales Directors across Sydney. They are frustrated that their reps sound like robots. They are annoyed that opportunities are slipping through the cracks.

But here is the hard truth.

That is because you are giving them a list of questions and telling them to ask them.

If you hand a salesperson a script they will read the script. If you hand them a checklist they will tick the boxes.

Qualification is not about throwing BANT or some other sales methodology down a prospect's throat to "qualify" them.

It is about having a decent human conversation.

The Problem with Methodologies

The issue with most sales methodologies is that they teach the seller very little about what they are actually looking for.

We see this often in our SDR Sales Training. New reps memorize the acronyms. Budget. Authority. Need. Timeline.

But because they do not know what they are looking for in the answers they move down their checklist like a GP receptionist.

"Do you have a budget?"
"Who is the decision maker?"

It feels like an interrogation.

The questions are supposed to be designed to get the prospect to open up and share their world.

There is no point asking them if you are not going to listen to their answers.

Business Acumen Over Checklists

To qualify properly you need to know why you are asking a question. You need to know what you are looking for out of an answer. You need to have some business acumen.

Your job is not to fill out a CRM field. Your job is to clarify their position.

You need to ask questions about a positive future state. You need to challenge their thinking with issues they have not thought about. You need to shed light on the cost of inaction.

This requires a level of skill that goes beyond a script. It is the core focus of our Account Executive Training.

We teach reps to listen to what is not being said. As we discussed in The Sales Translator, the surface-level answer is rarely the truth. If you are stuck on a checklist you will miss the nuance.

Stop Annoying Your Prospects

Stop telling your salespeople to "just ask discovery questions."

If they do not understand the why behind the question they are only going to annoy the prospect.

Bad discovery leads to bad meetings. It leads to bloated pipelines filled with deals that will never close. It leads to hours wasted writing proposals for people who were never going to buy, a trap we warned about in The Death of the Sales Proposal.

You are wasting time on pointless meetings because the qualification was shallow.

The Fix

If you want to fix your discovery calls you need to stop training on acronyms and start training on business.

Learning business and communication skills trumps any sales methodology.

Teach your team how a business makes money. Teach them what keeps a CEO up at night. Teach them how to hold a conversation.

Then you can throw the checklist in the bin.

Happy selling.