» Qualification Acronyms – Instant Sales Guides

Acronyms are excellent ways of remembering a set of ideas, and they are particularly good for sales qualification. To me, sales qualification is absolutely crucial for any sales person – where are you going to spend your time most effectively, which business can you win and which business should you walk away from? The one resource a sales person has is their time, and how you spend your time will decide whether you win or lose. I thought it would useful to list a few different ones that I have seen over the years, and invite you to let me know of any others you use.

These can be used by sales people to understand where there are gaps in their knowledge and ask questions to get a more complete picture of the customer situation. They can also be used by sales managers to see if the sales person has control of the account. Personally, I would often start a sales review by asking “Why us?” and “Why now?” All the rest of the qualification flows from these two questions. I would be looking for a crisp response to demonstrate understanding and control, and I would drill down as appropriate. So here are a few I have thought of:

SCOTSMAN

Solution – Do we have a product or service that directly addresses their business need or do they want something that we don’t sell
Competition – Are there many competitors on this deal or are we in on our own
Only Me – Is there something that the prospect can only get from me that is critical to his decision or are we selling a “me too” solution?
Timescale – What is the prospects timescale? Will we get a rapid decision?
Size – Is the opportunity big enough to be interesting?
Money – Has the prospect got the money to afford the solution?
Authority – Are we talking to the decision maker?
Need – Why do they NEED to do this NOW, and why can’t they just wait.

MEDDIC

Metrics – What KPIs / drivers will we be contributing to – revenue, productivity, time to market?
Economic Buyer – Who will sign the contract and/or who owns the budget?
Decision Criteria – Technical and commercial criteria; their priority and our position versus competition?
Decision Process – What is The Sequence of Events?
Identified Goal – What is the Compelling Event. What is the individual or group objective? Are their serious consequences if not achieved?
Champion – Who is the Individual who has a personal win associated with the success of this project? She provides easy access to MEDDI.

TRAM BURP

Timing
Requirements
Action
Money
Budget
Uniqueness
Relationship
Priority

And two shorter ones:

BANT

Budget
Authority
Need
Timeline

£AWN

Money
Authority
Willingness
Need

Let me know any others that you use and I will add them to the resource.