PAPER PROCESS: Prospect Qualifying Questions
Paper Process – Questions to ask the prospect at grey moving to yellow
Status grey – No visibility of the paper process.
Guiding Light Principle: Visibility
You may have some idea about next steps or individuals, but until you are able to list out, in detail, the paper process, you are still at grey.
- Tell me how you’ve gone about making these kinds of purchase decisions previously.
- Explain to me if we were to do business together, say next year – what would have to happen with the legal and paper process?
Paper Process – questions to ask the prospect at yellow moving to green
Status Yellow – Visibility of the paper process but not in our control/ influence.
Guiding Light Principal: Alignment
The elements of the paper process need to be documented & mutually agreed upon with your prospect. Evidence exists that the customer is also committing time & resources to this process. Ex: Are they willing to begin the review of the License Agreement / Legally binding documents or set you up as an approved vendor with procurement?
There should also be a timeline showing the dates for key activities. You must negotiate this timeline so that the approval (paperwork) process does not follow validation but rather these 2 processes should be done in parallel.
- Tell me when you have negotiated a timeline that includes elements of both a validation & approval process?
- Describe to me who needs to be involved and how we get and keep them involved?
- Do you foresee any red lines or objections that we will have to overcome?
Paper Process – questions to ask the prospect at green.
Status Green – Dominance, visibility and control/ influence of the process .
Guiding Light Principle: Confirmation
You’ve taken the time to outline what the process looks like and who is involved from the prospects side for each stage, now is the time to confirm the process again, make sure the process can and will be smooth, and begin going through the process.
- Does this process and the approvers look correct from your side?
- Are there any objections or red flags that we need to work through at this point? Any that you foresee at this point?
- Will anyone that needs to approve or is part of this process planning to be out of the office?