When finding new relevant prospects for your company, it is essential to properly qualify your contacts. A qualified prospect, or « lead » is a prospect for whom a company has the necessary information to evaluate the level of interest in its products or services. This allows the company to correctly design its business case by sending the right information to the right people. The qualification phase avoids wasting the time of both parties and helps the salesperson to orient his speech in order to be relevant in his approach. Contact qualification in high-tech industries is a demanding step. It requires a great deal of precision because these are complex fields, with principals who have thousands of employees, fragmented sectors and complex decision-making processes.

The preparation of the qualification

During the preparation stages of the call, it is important to set the agenda, i.e., the points that will be discussed. This step allows both parties to be prepared for the different topics covered during the call. Finally, a well-thought-out agenda will allow you to reach your goals and achieve your objective.

Setting your objective before starting the next step is mandatory, it must be the output of your call. In order to be coherent and have the best understanding of the organizations, it is necessary to collect information from the most global to the most precise. Keep in mind that a well-chosen and well-qualified contact will allow you, in the long run, to optimize and accelerate your sales cycle and improve your conversion rates.

The account identity sheet

The first phase of the qualification is global. It is necessary to make the profile of the account in question. Get the full name, the location of the company and its subsidiaries, the location of the various decision-making centers. Then look at the company’s activities, structure, organization and turnover. With this information you will have a global understanding of the ambitions and functioning of the group.

To find the relevant details about the account, ask yourself the following questions:

– What is the organization and structure of the group?

– What is the size of the company?

– In which markets and market segments is it established?

– Where are the decision-making centers located?

Focus on the Business Unit

Thanks to the elements collected on the organization of the group, you will be able to identify the departments or Business Units (BU) of the company. In the industry, Business Units bring together numerous professions (Buyers, Engineers, Quality, Innovation, Production…). In order to be as relevant as possible in your approach and to have a complete vision of the stakes, you will have to exchange, in the long term, with the different stakeholders in the decision-making process. It is only with a complete business case that you will be able to close a deal.

In order to understand the functioning of the BU, ask yourself about:

– The size in terms of employees and turnover,

– The different products and services it offers,

– The organization and scope of the BU (Product, Application, Region)

– The markets and application segments

Prospect details

The last step is the qualification of the contact with whom you exchange. You will have to define his scope of action (part, program, materials…) and confirm with him the information collected during your preparation (his name, his position in the company, his activity, his interests).

In any case, it is essential for the development of the company that all this information is kept and transmitted to all the teams via a CRM tool for example. Indeed, there may not have been any interest, but there will be an interest later, depending on the evolution of your company or his. A good qualification and a good follow-up will make you have a contact base usable in the future.

Of course, the most important thing is to confirm with the prospect his contact information, including a direct line to reach him, which will facilitate future communications.

Thanks to its good practices, Surfeo can count on a base of more than 10,000 qualified and regularly updated contacts. Companies in the high-tech industries require rigor and precise targeting of the right contacts, which Surfeo is able to achieve with professionalism, one of our strong values along with transparency and pragmatism in our partnerships. Contact us to benefit from our consulting, business development or market intelligence services so that we can help you meet the increasingly complex but also exciting challenges you face.