Criteria for Qualified Opportunities

What should the criteria for a “qualified opportunity” be for your organization? It will be a little different for each organization, but typically would start with some elements of the 6 Tenets of Ruthless Qualification for Trade Shows.

Performing the qualification well (“ruthlessly”) and with a solid criteria and process will help keep your “Do-to-Say ratio” strong. This is how things get done, organizations move ahead and careers advance. Being soft (lackadaisical or unfocused approach) is costly to you and your organization. A lot of time and money (and opportunity cost) will needlessly be lost.

Trying to explain what happened to stakeholders later is ugly.

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Developing a reputation for being “ruthless in qualification” tells the world you choose to deal in the reality of “what is” and “what is likely to be.” It does not mean you are not a nice and a good person. It is typically a pretty good reputation to have in most aspects of life.

Let's start here.

1. Need- Do they need it?

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This comes down to the value and clarity of our organization’s value proposition to the marketplace. A very specific value offering and value proposition is easier for the marketplace to realize and understand.

Does their firm have a quantifiable and significant need? Do they know it?

Can we help them figure this out and communicate this in a way that they see it for themselves? If the prospective opportunity customer does not see it, then they will never move forward with your firms offering.

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Be very clear here. The question to be answered at this point in time (today and now) is basically “yes” or “no.” Money “soon” still a “no money today.” It is worth watching but not worth planning for. Be selective and smart here. 

Does their firm have a quantifiable and significant need? Do they know it? 

Can we help them figure this out and communicate this in a way that they see it for themselves? If the prospective opportunity customer does not see it, then they will never move forward with your firms offering. 

Do they have money for this project/problem/offering? Are they willing to pay for it? Can they pay for it? Basically, is there a willingness to exchange money for a solution to their problem or need?

As an optimistic business owner and sales person, will often fall into the trap of “of course, it is a good fit for them.”

The positive attitude is great to see, yet the impact of business planning based on false expectations is dangerous. The product offering fit needs to be right on many different levels. The market and prospects will rarely tell you if your fit is not quite right. You have to be candid (“ruthless”) with yourself and your organization on a true product fit. 

Sometimes we have to help the potential customer determine the "real" fit. We don't need opportunities that never seem to close or bad references. If it is not a good fit, let's be truthful with ourselves, the prospect opportunity team and their organization. No need to waste anyone's time. There are plenty of good opportunities out there. 

If the fit is poor too often, we probably should be doing something else. 

Likewise, pay attention to situations when there is value there, yet the market or prospective customer is concerned about your firm’s ability to execute and deliver in a timely way. Successful businesses run on budgets, project plans and schedules. 

A great offering that crashes a budget, project plan or schedule can spell the end of a career for the champion or a key stakeholder. It can also put smaller (and possibly a larger) firms out of business. 

Making your solution the safe, great decision for your prospective customer makes it easy for them to choose your offering, convince their management it is the right solution, and helps you generate a lot of revenue for your firm. This how a firm scales growth and generates recurring revenue from the customer base.

Ultimately, technical offerings, problems and implementations are only as good as the people and their relationship when implementing the solution. Poor systems can be made to work and perfect solutions can be made to fail, all depending on the intention and relationships of the (all the people involved in implementing the.) 

Don't overlook the "people fit" issue.​ It is very important for complex solutions.  Many individuals do this but it is not talked about in the organization. That would be acceptable if the corporate criteria where consistent when unspoken. I doubt that it is. Contact us if you would like to discuss this further.

A funded project will almost always have a time frame and project implementation schedule. If it doesn’t, beware. Funding can always be re-allocated. Unscheduled projects are vulnerable to losing their funding and being pushed off indefinitely. Be “ruthlessly” smart on this one. 

Consider the sales cycle and the implementation cycle for your offering. Use "timing" as a barometer to prioritize opportunities and evaluate the project’s significance in their organization.

Make sure their business model and the specific opportunity will be around for a while . An example of projects that are not sustainable are all the Y2K projects that were time-boxed; to be completed by Dec. 31, 1999. After Dec. 31, 1999, all the project opportunities expired.

Make sure everyone in your organization is on the same page with the same understanding of your “qualification criteria.” Your qualification criterion is important, especially at trade shows where team members that typically do not talk to the market, prospects and customers will be talking to the market, prospects and customers, representing your company and offering. Make sure everyone is on the same page, singing the same tune.

With the qualification criteria finalized and the trade show team buy-in; your trade show team can now prioritize where they should be spending their time and focusing on closing "close-able" and truly qualified opportunities.