About nine years ago I was working with my team on our forecast for 2007. One of our sales managers had a nice project he had been working on for a while, but it had pushed for two quarters and we were debating whether to include it in our budgeting exercise. Our conversation led me to wonder if our sales manager was wasting his time – was this project real?
How many times have you invested dozens or hundreds of hours on a sales opportunity that eventually fell through or never gave you a shot at winning? How can you qualify these projects without being a pest?
When an opportunity is advanced in the cycle, I’ve found the easiest and most effective question to ask is
“where is the project in the buying process?” As some of you know, my favorite question to ask is “when?” However, in this scenario the question of “when” has lost its credibility. It’s been long enough. How many times can they tell you “next month”? However, if you ask “where”, you’ll figure out quickly whether the project is real or not. If your customer has a crisp and decisive answer, then you can ask about your chances and let them know why you’re asking. If you’re dealing with the right people, they’ll understand your need to forecast.
So remember, when an opportunity has dragged on forever, asking “where” is more effective than asking “when”.
