How do you align your presales qualification criteria with your buyer personas?

1 Define your buyer personas

A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer, based on market research and data from your existing customers. It describes their demographics, goals, challenges, pain points, motivations, and preferences. Creating buyer personas helps you understand who your target audience is, what they need, and how they make buying decisions. You can use tools like HubSpot or Xtensio to create and manage your buyer personas.

3 Use a qualification framework

A qualification framework is a tool that helps you structure your qualification process and score your leads based on your criteria. There are different frameworks you can use, such as BANT, CHAMP, MEDDIC, or GPCT. For example, BANT stands for Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline, and it helps you assess whether a lead has the money, the power, the problem, and the urgency to buy from you. CHAMP stands for Challenges, Authority, Money, and Prioritization, and it helps you focus on the pain points, the decision-makers, the budget, and the importance of your solution for your lead. MEDDIC stands for Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, and Champion, and it helps you quantify the value, identify the key buyer, understand the evaluation criteria, map the decision process, uncover the main problem, and find the internal advocate of your solution. GPCT stands for Goals, Plans, Challenges, and Timeline, and it helps you understand the objectives, the strategies, the obstacles, and the timeframe of your lead.

4 Ask qualifying questions

In order to apply your qualification framework, you should ask open-ended, relevant, specific, and value-oriented qualifying questions that will elicit the information you need from your leads. These questions should help you identify the goals, challenges, needs, and preferences of your leads, as well as their level of interest, readiness, and authority. Examples of qualifying questions you can ask include: what are the main goals for this project or area; what are the biggest challenges or problems they are currently facing; how do they measure the success or impact of their current solution; what criteria or factors will influence their decision; how do they plan to implement or integrate a new solution; who else is involved in the decision-making process and what are their roles and opinions; what is their timeline for making a decision and taking action; and how do they prefer to communicate and receive information from you.

5 Score and prioritize your leads

After asking qualifying questions, you need to score and prioritize your leads based on their fit, interest, readiness, and authority. Scoring and prioritizing your leads helps you segment them into different categories and tailor your follow-up actions accordingly. You can use a numerical or a letter-based scoring system to rank your leads from high to low quality. For example, you can assign a score from 1 to 10 for each qualification category, and then add up the scores to get a total score for each lead. Alternatively, you can assign a letter from A to D for each qualification category, and then combine the letters to get a rating for each lead. For example, an A lead would have A ratings for all four categories, while a D lead would have D ratings for all four categories.