The Qualification Conundrum

The qualification conundrum. You deliver a service that you know will suit a prospect perfectly, but it takes time to build the desire and trust that is needed to get the commitment and budget to start. The thing is, this time spent explaining and convincing is time away from delivering and earning.

This is especially painful for smaller and specialist consultancies. It means every meeting has to count. The hour's drive there, the hour or two spent patiently (or excitedly) explaining, and the hour driving back. All a waste of time, dead cost, if the conversation goes nowhere.

This is one of the key use cases I had in mind when I created MyDiagnostic.Online. So, I wanted to share with you how you can use online diagnostics to help you save time and generate warmer leads.

First, what is an "online diagnostic?"

It's a short and simple online questionnaire that your prospects take on your website, or via a link in an email. This results in them receiving an emailed PDF report or guide, formatted and branded for your business. It explains your offering (or whatever you choose) in words that closely match the prospect's situation. The diagnostic contains content related to questions and answers, and to "scorecards" that bundle questions together and let you score, rank and split people based on combined answers.

What does that mean in practice?

An effective diagnostic covers several angles. We use the answers prospects pick to focus and tailor the content they see. No wading through irrelevant material and giving up. We use the answers to work out what language to use back to prospects. We don't patronise the knowledgeable or overwhelm the novice. We gather together groups of answers to signpost people to existing content. We give them a tutored guide through your detailed content, so they get more from it. We use the report to educate and inform people in advance. When you do spend time with them, they're as prepared as you are to talk about the right things. And lastly, we use the answers to qualify out. The report can tell people clearly and constructively why we're not for them - so we don't end up wasting time on the wrong meetings.

Would a diagnostic work for you?

If you often find yourself asking the same handful of questions to know how to position your offering with new prospects, then, yes, that's a good sign. Have a think about what your questions would be, and what the top 3 or 4 answers people give might be. Also, you can think about how you decide for yourself whether someone is a hot prospect, a warm lead, one to nurture, or not an apportunity. If you can identify a few factors or areas that you "score" (formally or not), then you have the basis for your scorecards. Now, think about what you would say to a prospect given each answer they choose, or the score you give them. You can even choose to get email alerts for specific patterns of response, to help you prioritise follow up actions.

Great! Now you have the framework for a diagnostic, and you're ready to systemise it, so the system can inform, educate and stream your leads, so you bias your time to your hottest prospects.

The great thing is that you can get thinking about a diagnostic with just pen and paper, or on a whiteboard, before you commit to creating one. If you do choose to, MyDiagnostic.Online has a handy pop-up assistant that will help you turn your sketches into a working onine diagnsotic, very quickly.

https://MyDiagnostic.Online