Real selling happens in the middle of the funnel

I spoke at a conference last week about the problem of low win rates confronting B2B sales.After my talk, I was approached by a sales leader seeking advice on improving her win rates. Unfortunately, she’d been conditioned, like many sellers, to place the blame for low win rates on “bad" leads.My question was simple...Me: So, why did your sellers continue to work these deals if they were “bad?”Seller: We didn’t know they were bad then.Me: Wasn’t that apparent during discovery? That these particular prospects weren’t a good fit for your product? Seller: Sort of. But, we thought there was a chance we could make it work.Me: So you decided to skip qualification even though they weren’t a good fit.Seller: They met all the criteria for BANT. They had the budget, the authority to make the decision, the need and the timeframe. Me: So, they were qualified in every way. Seller: Yes.Me: Except for the fact that you knew they weren’t a good fit for your product.Seller: True. But, if we’re too stringent in our qualification, our pipeline will be too small. Then my boss gets anxious.And, there we are.It’s not “bad” leads that produce low win rates. It’s bad selling. Superficial discovery. Lazy needs analysis. Half-hearted qualification. And the pressure to inflate pipelines.If a lead truly is “bad,” then even a moderately competent discovery and qualification effort will quickly surface the lack of fit. The pressure to inflate pipelines encourages sellers to take shortcuts. As a result, too many sellers just pay lip service to the middle of the funnel selling that separates the truly qualified opportunities from those that will never buy from you.As I talked with this sales manager we worked through several recent opportunities that her team had lost. Or that had ended up as a “no decision.”In nearly all instances there were clear indications that the buyer wasn’t a good fit. That they should have disqualified the prospect. And yet they persisted.That’s just bad selling in the middle of the funnel.And it doesn’t have to be that way.- Andy