Qualification is the key to understanding your customers or prospects needs and desires. Without it, you are merely fishing in the dark, hoping for a bite.
Imagine an appointment at the doctors. On arrival the doctor tells you that he can do many different things, has many different drugs and equipment, and then simply asks you what do you want?
How do you know? you are not a doctor, you don’t know what each drug or piece of equipment does, what benefit it will have for you, and more importantly you don’t know what could or more importantly should be done for you.
What you really want, and need, is for the doctor to carry out a full consultation. He will ask you probing questions (how does this make you feel, what happens when you do this, where does it hurt, what have you done differently recently, howoften does this happen) Once he has ascertained as many facts as possible about you, your symptoms, your lifestyle and hopefully your personal wishes (Lance Armstrong visited 3 oncology specialists before choosing the one who would try to save his lung function whilst recognising that it may lower his already very small overall % chance of survival) he will then give you his professional opinion, prescribe his course of treatment and tell you how he feels this will help you.
Assuming you trust your doctor and his competence to practice (product or brand quality and reputation) you will follow his suggested course of action. Over time this has become known as “consultative selling” or “trusted advisor” .
I would say this is how selling should always be done if you are trying to build value, build loyalty , maintain price and profitability.
P.s. If someone can not allocate the time, or feel it is not important to engage with their doctor, dentist or sales person, then they are unlikely to understand your proposition and how it will benefit them, therefore you have to ask yourself do you really want these people as your customer?
Your time is precious, don’t waste it!!