Guide | Sales Stage 1: Prospecting

1. What is the qualification stage?

What is a Stage 1 Sales Qualification Opportunity?

The interested prospect booked & accepted a call to meet with you. During the Qualification Stage, you are securing BANT to understand intent of the ‘interested prospect.’

The interested prospect booked & accepted a call to meet with you. During the Qualification Stage, you are securing BANT to understand intent of the ‘interested prospect’.

• ‍Forecast Category: Omitted
• ‍Deals Risks: Budget, Authority, Timing, Need/Fit
• ‍Avg Days in S1: 30
• ‍S1 conversion: 5%

Exit Criteria:

Use 📧 BANT Discovery Questions to uncover the following before moving to the next stage of 2. Discovery:

• ‍B- Budget: They have budget set aside in the next 6 months or are willing to build a business case to get budget to solve this issue.
• ‍A- Authority: You’ve identified who has buying authority whether that’s your 🐙 Initial Contact or they’re willing (and have path to) to involve the 🐙 Decision Maker or 🐙 Economic Buyer in the buying process and ready to invite them in Stage 2+. The same person might, in rare cases, be able to do all three things!
• ‍N- Need: You have identified a strong  (or up to 3) that leadership is trying to solve that you believe the CFO would be willing to spend money on. That core need that you will build the business case around is your primary 🐙 Use Case from the prospect.
• ‍T- Timing: You have identified the 🐙 Why Now? Timing within which their NEED must be solved. Therefore, you understand when they buy a solution, when they need it implemented by and what’s preventing them from buying a solution today. If not now, when?
• ‍Pains
• ‍Uncovering how they heard about us: Understanding how they came to us, helps give Marketing insights into how they searched for us AND did we first connect with them via email or phone. 🐙 How did you hear about us? 🐙 First Success Touch 🐙 First Meeting Took Place

Buyer Activities in Stage 1:

Research: Looking at our website, researching solutions on G2

Seller Activities:

What you are doing in this stage:

• ‍Account Research: Show them you KNOW them!  Proper Account research is key to coming in with a general knowledge of what the company does and give you credit to speak intelligently from the start. 🐙 Account Research 🐙 Company Account Research 🐙 Qualification Account Research 🐙 Industry Account Research 🐙 Department
• ‍Uncovering BANT
• ‍Vetting Initial Contact as Champion: It could be that this first contact you’re speaking with becomes your 🐙 Champion but not always. Make sure you have a strong champion. If not, you need to do more work to find the right champion!
• ‍Uncovering how they heard about us: Understanding how they came to us, helps give Marketing insights into how they searched for us AND did we first connect with them via email or phone.  🐙 How did you hear about us? 🐙First Success Touch 🐙First Meeting Took Place
• ‍PLAYS:Sending personalized Loom of our product

BANT Qualifying Process Overview

1. The BDR will own the account and opportunity during stage 1
2. When there is a value in all of the BANT fields, a notification will be sent to the respective AE
3. If everything is approved, the AE will move the opp to stage 2
4. If not approved, then the BDR will work to get missing or clarification on BANT fields
5. When moved to Stage 2, the Account/Opp will be reassigned to the AE and the BDR will receive a new account from the pool

Once you’ve identified BANT, and added thorough notes in SFDC, you’re ready to schedule the discovery call. This is now a qualified meeting and a qualified lead, and moves into the 2. DISCOVERY.

2. New lead/qualification statuses

Here are the top 5 things you need to know about our new lead/prospecting statuses

1. Why we made the Changes

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2️. Your workflow will largely remain the same

• Movement between these stages is all automated (except for recycling/disqualifying a prospect)
• Instead of working Status = New prospects, you now should focus on Status = MQL and MQL+ prospects. Your individual dashboards have been updated to reflect this.
  🚩 We will track a 6-hour SLA for MQLs – You should contact MQLs within 6 business hours of them being routed to you
  
• Instead of all prospects starting in Status = New, they will start in Status = Known. So you won’t need to spend time manually moving them back to Nurturing like you have in the past.

3️. Prospects reach MQL status via HubSpot Score

• Prospects will reach the MQL status when they reach a HubSpot Score of 25+. The score takes into account a prospect’s account score, title, persona, web analytics, astrological sign, form submissions, ebook downloads, etc.

4️. The Difference between Recycled and Disqualified

• Recycling a prospect implies that they are a valid prospect, but the timing isn’t right for whatever reason. When a prospect is recycled, they won’t be able to become an MQL again for 90 days
• Disqualifying a prospect implies that they will never be a good prospect for us. When a prospect is disqualified it will be put in a queue to be deleted from our database.

5️. What Each of the New Statuses are

• You can review what each of the new statuses is in Speks or in this executive overview doc [link to document].

3. Uncover BANT | Email Flow

Between the cold call answer & the “meeting booked” call you schedule with the prospect, try to secure BANT via email.

Based on your 1st interaction, see below flow chart of how to integrate BANT into your email follow-ups.

Additional Resources:

🐙  BANT Email Same Day [Link to Spek or Doc]

🐙 BANT Email Pre-Meeting  [Link to Spek or Doc]

🐙  Discovery Fundamentals: The What and Why

📞 Stage 1. Prospect  Chorus call playlist!

4. Post Cold Call Connect + Meeting Set | Follow-up Email Template

CHALLENGE: Keeping the momentum of interest from the prospect + YOU WANT a BANT or NO BANT quickly.

GOALS: As soon as you make a connection [cold call, email response, LinkedIn] you are starting or continuing BANT.

1. Sent SAME DAY you set the meeting
2. Confirm Date/Time/Attendance of the meeting
3. Offers a teaser or small valuable insight (include a resource for them to pre-read or watch)
4. Sets/Reframes expectations

HI <INSERT NAME>,
Looking forward to our conversation on <DATE AND TIME>. I wanted to share this agenda and a few questions for you to answer prior to ensuring we’re aligned with the proper context for our call.
Agenda:

• Learn more about some of your challenges & priorities over the next 3-6 months:
• What is driving the need for a ‘XXX’ solution? (specific project rollout, poor tool adoption, etc)
• Is there a specific timeline you are looking to implement a solution to this need or are you in the exploratory phase?
• Do you have a specific budget amount set aside to fund this project, or would that need to be requested based on the vendor’s solution?
• Quick Overview of ‘XXX’ & Company
• Next Steps in Your Evaluation

Please let me know if you want to add anything or anything specific you would like to cover. In the meantime, Here is a great video resource [link to video] for you to review ahead of our call to give you context as to what [Company Name] solves for.
If you feel anyone [Authority] else should be invited to this call, feel free to add them! I look forward to connecting.
[Signature]

5. 24+ Hour Prior to Meeting | BANT Pre-Meeting Email Template

CHALLENGE: Buyers come unprepared. Can change the agenda and we are not prepared = wasted meeting.

GOALS: What BANT criteria do you have left to uncover? How responsive have they been (watching videos, answering via email, webinar signups?, etc). Based on their level of activeness, craft your pre-condition email to set yourself up

1. Sent 24+ hours before meeting
2. Confirms Date/Time/Attendance of meeting
3. Offers a teaser or small valuable insight (include a resource for them to pre-read or watch)
4. Sets/Reframes expectations
5. Builds confidence in partnering with you

HI <INSERT NAME>,
Looking forward to our conversation on <DATE AND TIME>. When you have a chance, here are a few question I’ll cover or you can send back prior to ensure we’re aligned on our call. [Insert BANT Questions that you still need to capture]

• Learn more about some of your challenges & top priorities:
• What is driving the need for a ‘XXX’ solution? (specific project rollout, poor tool adoption, etc)
• Is there a specific timeline you are looking to implement a solution to this need or are you in the exploratory phase?
• Do you have a specific budget amount set aside to fund this project, or would that need to be requested based on vendor’s solution?
• Overview of ‘XXX’ & Company
• Next Steps in your evaluation

Here is a great resource for you to review ahead of our call: <INSERT RESOURCE>.
Look forward to connecting.
[Signature]

6. BANT Discovery Questions | Cold Call

Use these questions to uncover an opportunity and ask ‘Why’ or ‘Tell me more’ to dig further into their responses…

💵 Questions to uncover ‘Budget’

• Is this a problem you’ve budgeted to solve this year? Why? Tell me more…
• Are you looking to buy, or build a solution?
• Is a budget set aside for solving this issue, or are you looking to request a budget based on the vendor?
• A solution like this (company aside) would typically cost between $X, and $Y for the number of users that you have, is that what you were expecting?
• Are you able to spend the budget freely, or are there additional budget approvals needed?
• Have you bought a tool to solve this issue before? How long ago and what was the result?
• What is the process to purchase software in your organization?
• Who needs to be involved in the evaluation to sign off on the budget?

👤Questions to uncover ‘Authority’

• Who is typically involved in the purchase of tools at your company?
• Most of our customers have X,Y, and Z person involved in the discussion to determine if our solution is a fit. Is it possible to involve those individuals at your company?
• What’s your usual procurement process and timeline?
• Are you looking to buy this tool for yourself, your team, or another team?
• Who else knows that you’re shopping for this solution?

🔎Questions to uncover ‘Need’

• What are the top three issues you’re looking to solve in the next 6 months?
• Do you currently have any solution, bought or built, in place?
• How long have these issues persisted?
• What teams are being impacted?
• What happens if you don’t solve it?

🕒 Questions to uncover ‘Timeline’

• Why is now the right time to do something different? Tell me more…
• What’s your urgency around solving this problem? Why? Tell me more…
• How soon do you want to solve for this?
• When would you ideally want a solution in place?
• How quickly can you implement a new tool?
• How long did it take to adopt the last tool you purchased?
• Is anyone internally working on a different timeline for solving this issue?
• Are any priorities currently more urgent than solving these issues?

7. BANT Discovery Questions | Email

Use these questions to uncover an opportunity as you email back and forth with prospects to get to BANT async.

When emailing async with a natural path to uncover BANT is actually, Need, Authority, Timeline, Budget. You can try to uncover these via email by using a combination of the questions below in email. Based on the information they are forthright with, you COULD uncover BANT and then use the call you have set up for your AE to join.

🔎 Questions to uncover ‘Need’

• What are the top three issues you’re looking to solve in the next 3-6 months?
• What driving the need for [ What they mentioned in the call or prior email]?
• Do you currently have any solution, bought or built, in place?
• What teams are being impacted by X,Y,Z?
• What happens if you don’t solve X,Y,Z?

🕒 Questions to uncover ‘Timeline’

• How soon do you want to solve for [NEED they mentioned]?
• When would you ideally want a solution in place?
• Why is now the right time to do something different?
• Is there a timeline to solve this, or are you in exploratory mode?
• Is anyone internally working on a different timeline for solving this issue?

💵 Questions to uncover ‘Budget’

• Is a budget set aside for solving this issue, or are you looking to request a budget based on the vendor?
• A solution like this (company aside) would typically cost between $X, and $Y for the number of users that you have, is that what you were expecting?
• Are you able to spend the budget freely, or are there additional budget approvals needed?
• Who needs to be involved in the evaluation to sign off on a budget?

👤 Questions to uncover ‘Authority’

• Who is typically involved in the purchase of tools at your company?
• Most of our customers have X,Y, and Z people involved in the discussion to determine if our solution is a fit. Is it possible to involve those individuals at your company?
• Are you looking to buy this tool for yourself, your team, or another team?
• Who else knows that you’re shopping for this solution?

8. Cold Call Scripts | Template

The purpose is to show you what a Cold Call Script would look like. Please make this your own and use the available snippets to help guide the conversation.

Cold Opener:

Hi, PROSPECT NAME , this is XXX from [Company Name].

Thank you for taking my call. We speak to [Insert their title/personas] like you who are pivoting the business based on challenges with [Insert applicable challenge].

Based on my initial research, does this resonate with what you or your teams are struggling with today?

What is/are we solving for:

[Company Name] is a ‘XXX’ platform that [Insert applicable solve for their persona challenge]

Curious if this is something that you are struggling with today?

Example Discovery Questions (logical order to uncover):

1. Need: What is their top project priority in the business?
2. Authority: Are they the one driving/influencing/championing this change internally?
3. Timeline: Are they looking to solve or for this problem in the next 3-6 months?
4. Budget: Is this something they are invested in buying or building a solution for?

Course of Action/Next Step:

• Interested: Thank you for taking the time to share that with me. Based on what I heard, I think [Company Name] has a solution that would work great for you. Would you be open to learning more how it can specifically help drive toward your [top priority/project]? Suggest and book a time before getting off the call.
  

9. Cold Call Flow

A cold call flow refers to the structured sequence of steps or a script followed by a salesperson or telemarketer during a cold call, which is an unsolicited phone call made to a prospective customer who has no prior relationship with the caller.

The purpose of a cold call flow is to guide the conversation and maximize the chances of a successful outcome, such as generating interest, securing a meeting, or making a sale.

Here is a typical Cold Call flow to follow:

BDR: Hey is this [Prospect Name]? Awesome, this is [Your Name] calling over from [Company Name]. How are you? Mind if I take a second, to tell you why I’m reaching out?

Wait for the Response….

BDR: I called because I noticed [something that has caused the organization to CHANGE]. I commonly hear that…

• Organizational leaders are spending too much time post-training answering repetitive questions or searching for specific documentation, which leads to longer ROI on programs.
• Department leaders are running into issues with users adopting process changes, leading to end-user mistakes and poor data hygiene.
• CRM platform leaders are running into issues with users adopting process changes, leading to end-user mistakes and poor data hygiene.

Wait for the Response….

BDR: Given your [anchor on change: growth/hiring/another trigger], I can only imagine some of this is resonating. Our company can help with that. Is that a conversation you’re willing to have now, never, or later?

Wait for the Response….

IF NOW ➔ Our company solves for this by reinforcing training and process guidance for your teams within the flow of work, right when questions come up. This way, they get the answers they need without having to guess or ask you.

• Knowing you’re dealing with X challenge, I think it might make sense to dig in more. Does the X or Y date work better?
• After you book the meeting  —> which of the challenges I mentioned resonated the most?

IF NEVER ➔ Just to clarify, is it never because this isn’t an issue or because it’s a sales call? And if it’s the latter, then feel free to hang up on me or we can end the call.

• In that event, are you comfortable with me sending you some follow-up materials to review? I’ll leave the ball in your court to determine if re-engaging makes sense.

IF LATER ➔ When are you hoping to pick up this conversation?

• Get time on the books, then ask:
• Which of the things I said resonated most?
• We can open our call chatting about that!

Wait for Them to Tell you what resonated….

IF A MEETING HASN”T BEEN BOOKED YET ➔ Given that you have XYZ issue that you want to solve right now, it may make sense for a more customized conversation. Does that sound good?

IF THE MEETING WAS BOOKED EARLIER IN THE CALL ➔ Continue the conversation as you usually would, making sure to explain how our company addresses their need!

ONCE THE MEETING IS BOOKED  ➔ Knowing how hectic the week can get, do you mind if I text you a reminder day off?

10. Cold Call | Objection Handling

This Spek is for overcoming Cold Call objections when trying to book a meeting with a prospect:

1. We don’t have Budget:

• We hear that a lot at first. From what we’ve discussed, there are challenges the company is facing now that are costing money in terms of efficiency and output of critical roles. Have you quantified the cost of the status quo?
• Sure, and I certainly wouldn’t expect you to have your credit card ready for me at this time. The idea of my proposed follow-up call is to share how we’re working with similar organizations or other industry leaders to help ensure your team members have the content they need, where and when they need it.

2. We already have [Solution]:

• That’s great you leverage [insert solution], we’ve heard good things overall as a resource, but [company name] focuses on XYZ. What do you use for [insert solution] resource?
• It’s great to hear that you are leveraging a XYZ – it shows that you’ve prioritized a central repository for your team. [company name] falls into a slightly different category than your familiar tools – and our customers tell us they ultimately chose [company name] was to solve BOTH the challenge of XYZ but ALSO address the need to XYZ.

3. We tried [Competitor] in the past and it didn’t work, so we aren’t interested in [solution]:

• While [competitor] was the pioneer [solution] platform, many of the gaps in their product are actually what inspired [company name] to be a more well-rounded and stable tool. Can you walk me through your challenges with [competitor]?
• I completely understand the challenge of trying a different [solution] tool given your past challenges with [competitor], but we really are a completely different tool so at least having the conversation to see how we can [insert value prop based on role] would make sense. Are you available on Wednesday at 3:00 p.m.?
• I’m sorry to hear about your experience – and certainly understand the hesitancy to explore other solutions. Many of our customers have shared a similar sentiment about some of the shortcomings of strictly guided solutions — and what attracted them to [company] was the ability to XYZ.

4. We have/are looking at [Competitor]:

• [competitor] has some positive attributes, but we are hearing a lot from customers and prospects that the lack of stability, integration to Salesforce, and contextual support beyond the cards just don’t give the end users the support access that [company name] does, and they are open to switching when their contract is up. Do you know when the agreement may be expiring?
• It’s great to hear that you are also looking at [competitor], they certainly have a good product. However, our customers tell us that they chose [company name] to solve BOTH the challenge of XYZ while also addressing the need of XYZ – and we understand this isn’t something they would be able to do with [competitor].

5. I’m in the middle of a meeting/ This is a bad time:

• Understand now may be a bad time, I’m also , if you’re open I’d like to let you know the reason for my call, that way we can determine if it makes sense to give you a call at a later time. Does that work for you?
• Sorry, I caught you at a bad time, when is a better time to give you a call?
• [Depending on the response, either pivot reason for the call or] “I’ll send over an email with context as to why I’m calling. Have a great day!

6. Sounds interesting but I’m not the right person to talk to/ I can’t make that decision

• I appreciate that transparency. We’d still love to offer our support in helping with your challenges- who would be the right person to speak with?
• It sounds like you know the person and have a grasp on the challenges [company name] can solve for- would you mind making an introduction?

11. Cold Call | Openers

As you prep for cold calling, here are 3 areas you want to make sure you get dialed in to help speak their language:

1. Who are you talking to?
2. Why are you reaching out/Why should they care?
3. Purposeful call to action: What are you trying to get out of the call?

Standard Openers

#1: Hey, this is [Your Name] with [Company Name]. Did I catch you at a bad time?

• If needed: Do you have 21 seconds for me to explain why I called? Would that be fair?

#2: Hey, this is [Your Name] with [Company Name]. I know I’m an interruption. Can I have 27 seconds to tell you why I called?

#3: Hey, this is [Your Name] with [Company Name]. First off, really grateful for you taking my call. Do you have a moment?

#4:  Hey, this is [Your Name] with [Company Name]. I know I’m calling you out of the blue. Do you have a few moments for me to tell you why I called?

#5: Hi [Prospect Name], this is [Your Name] with [Company Name], I realize I’m catching in the middle of your morning. Do you have a quick second for me to explain why I’m calling?

Prospect: Hello?

✅ Prospect Said YES to Opener: Great, thanks! We’ve been working with [Insert Persona] leaders in the [Insert Industry] trying to solve [Insert stat on pain, problem, struggle] as their top priority. [Company Name] is a [Inert Value Proposition].

❌ Prospect Said NO to Opener: Sure, is there a better time for me to reach out? For context, we are a [Inert Value Proposition]. Given that you oversee [Insert Job Responsibilities], I imagine this is something that may be top of mind for you.

Prospect: I’m sorry where’d you say you’re calling from?

Sure, I’m calling from [Company Name]. [Company Name] is a XXX. For example, [Insert Company Product Examples].

12. Cold Call | Template Script

[Persona] Intro

Hi, this is [Your Name] with [Company Name] –  Do you have a quick moment? OR Do you have a quick moment for me to explain why I’m calling?

I know you weren’t expecting me so I’ll keep it brief. I’m calling with [Company Name] and as the only XYZ in the space, we’re helping a lot of customers with XYZ.

and I noticed you’re leading the XYZ initiatives at [Prospect’s Company]. We’re working with a lot of your peers in the [Prospect’s Industry] space to help them [Insert Solution]. I know I’m catching you out of the blue, but I’m reaching out to schedule a brief introductory call, [Suggest Time].

We’re working with a lot of XYZ teams right now, particularly around XYZ and XYZ.

What is [Company Name]?

Thanks for asking! [Company Name] is [Insert Value Prop]. So, for example, [Insert Example for Persona]. I’m curious [Insert KQ].

How?

We leverage a Chrome Extension and in-app prompts to deliver information contextually, depending on what application your reps are in. So think in Salesforce if a rep is confused on what Stage to choose for an opportunity – We will be right there to guide them through that. (insert KQ)

Not Interested

If you haven’t pitched yet:

Sure thing, I know I just interrupted you in the middle of your day, do you have 27 seconds for me to explain why I’m calling? Would that be fair? ” *Go back to intro*

If you have pitched:

Typically when I speak with sales enablement leaders like yourself they’re looking to increase the output of their reps or decrease the time-to-productivity. Are these areas of focus for you or am I coming out of left field?

Close

Based on our conversation and what we’ve uncovered, I see alignment in what you’re striving to achieve and what we facilitate, let’s connect when you’re actually expecting me to take a bit of a deeper dive. (suggest time)

Additional Resources:

• Objection Handling Expert Q&A: 5 Top Sales Objections and How to Respond
• Spekit for MEDDIC Reinforcement
• How to make sales plays live where sales plays happen