The CRAP Report

“Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong, but we think you’re crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us, in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal.  Does that answer your question?  Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club.”

Spoiler alert for anyone who hasn’t seen it, but that’s the speech at the end of The Breakfast Club, one of my all time favorite movies.  The way I see it, the five main characters are analogous to the five most important parts of any great qualified sales opportunity, and over the course of the next five days, I’ll be talking about how each character relates.

Andrew Clark, played by Emilio Estevez, is the athlete of the movie.  Athletes tend to be strong, and depending on the sport you’re talking about, they can be pretty big, too.  The way I see a fully qualified lead, the part that should be the strongest, and with the most information (thus being the largest) is a business profile section.  Call it what you want, business profile, scope, or some other word I don’t know, it is this section that needs to be as fleshed out as possible.  Much like an athlete is more susceptible to injury, a good business profile is full of pains and needs.

Whether you’ve outsourced your B2B lead generation campaigns or you’ve got an inside sales prospecting team, if they’re not adept at pulling out pains and needs from your prospects, you’ve got a major problem.  Getting to the heart of the issue, finding out why in the world a prospect wants to talk with you, or how you can solve a problem that, truth be told, most of the time they don’t even know they have, is HUGE.  How do you find that information out, though?  What do your BDR’s do?  What questions do your vendor’s BDR’s ask to elicit that information?

Pulling out someone’s pains and needs can be at times the easiest to do (if they really have a need) or at times it can be one of the most frustrating aspects about teleprospecting.  Spending time to develop questions that will really get a prospect talking can mean the difference between a great quality conversation, or one that feels like you’re pulling teeth.  And, for God’s sake, please make business profile questions open ended!  I’ve listened to MANY BDR’s talk with prospects, and instead of a good dialogue between two professionals, conversations full of closed ended questions sound like drive-thru orders.  Guide prospects to give you the answers that you’re looking to pull out of a conversation by asking targeted, open-ended questions.

Andrew Clark was the athlete of the film, but the business profile section is easily the athlete of a qualified sales lead.  Come back tomorrow when I talk about another member of The Breakfast Club and find someway to relate them to a fully qualified sales lead.