Technical/Detailed Qualification takes place after Business Problem and M-A-I-N BP qualification have been completed, and after a conscious decision has been made to invest time and resources in pursuing a sales cycle. In Technical/Detailed Qualification, the selling company’s technical (and other) experts work with the prospect company’s experts to troubleshoot business problems, determine root causes, and identify potential solutions.
If the selling company’s salespeople have extensive technical knowledge, they may be directly involved in some or all of these activities. However, a better use of most salespeople’s time is to assume the role of “resource manager” and leverage the expertise of others. In this model, salespeople are not required to become experts in the intricacies of their offerings. Instead, they become experts in finding and qualifying opportunities and leveraging expert resources to help them convert opportunities into sales. This approach reduces the time required for new salespeople to become effective prospectors, and accelerates traction by all salespeople when new offerings are introduced. For more information on this approach to selling, see Why Most Sales Training Programs Fail: Why Most Sales Training Programs Fail.