In a previous post, I shared my qualifying system. Very easy. Based on the 3 M’s. Meeting, money, and motive. In order to find out whether a prospect has any or all of our 3 M’s, we need to ask a series of qualifying questions. I call them my “10 Questions to Book More Business”. Here they are:
1. Does your company used paid, professional speakers? I say paid because of many use speakers, not all pay.
2. How is the decision made regarding speakers? I’m asking the person I’m speaking to confirm he/she is the sole decision maker.
3. Who have you used in the past? This may give you an idea of what topics they have historically used and how much they have paid for this information.
4. Do you have a specific meeting date set? Pretty obvious what we want here.
5. When do you begin to plan your meeting? Great to know when the meeting is, but important to know when plans are made so we can make sure we are talking to them at the optimum time for getting the booking.
6. Where will the meeting be held? Here I’m looking to see if I may create some kind of competitive advantage for myself. For example, I live in St. Louis. If the meeting is going to be in Chicago my expenses would be very reasonable. If they are deciding between me and a speaker in LA, I may get the job based on travel.
7. Is there a theme or focus on this meeting? Again, pretty obvious.
8. Is there a budget I should be aware of? Here is the money question! We need to bring up fee! Remember to talk about your fee as if it were a commodity.
9. What type of meeting is this? Is it quarterly, annual, semiannual? We want to find out how many opportunities a year this prospect may have to hire us.
10. Is there anything that I haven’t asked you that you would like me to know about your meeting? This is really a closure question. They will bring up any other questions they may have.
If you have the answer to these questions you should be able to quantify how likely it is that you two will be working together or not.
That’s it! 10 little questions that will move you from prospect to client! Now go do some prospecting!
Lois Creamer works with professional speakers who want to book more business, make more money and avoid costly mistakes! She can be reached in the following ways:
Lois@BookMoreBusiness.com
Twitter: @loiscreamer
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/loiscreamer
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/loiscreamer
For more information on Lois’ business check out http://www.bookmorebusiness.com as well as http://www.bookmorebusiness.tv!
