From prospecting to closing, Sales qualification frameworks are essential tools for navigating the sales journey. From BANT to MEDDIC, the market offers plenty of options to structure your approach.

If you are familiar with The Bold & Sharp Workbook on Qualification, you know that qualification frameworks should not be confused with sales methodologies. You know that great reps move directly from 10% probability to 50%. And you are familiar with our W10 and 3P’s qualification frameworks.

As a reminder Bold & Sharp 3P’s Framework offers a fresh, simple view, yet laser-focused on what truly matters. It revolves around three critical dimensions:

1. Phase: where is the customer in their decision journey?
2. Pain: what problem is the customer trying to solve?
3. Power: which stakeholders have the power to make or influence the decision?

This article explores the element that is often misunderstood by reps: the Phase.

Detecting the phase to pick the right Sales Strategy.

The prospect’s decision-making phase should prompt a significant adjustment to your sales process—or at the very least, encourage you to fine-tune your approach. It makes a substantial difference whether the prospect is unaware of a problem or actively comparing solutions.

The two basic questions to answer are the following:

• Is the customer aware of the problem?
• Are they gathering information, making decisions, or ready to purchase?

Each phase requires a tailored approach and a distinct game plan. For example, a prospect in the “awareness” phase needs education and vision-building. But what about those in the “purchase” phase ? Some might argue they need ROI validation and risk mitigation. That is true if you are owning the sales process.

In a competitive scenario, however, the main question is whether you should play and how you can win. In other words, it is neither about timelines nor decision process qualification: it is merely about you deciding to engage, reshape the vision or run away. Let us explore this further.

Connecting the Phase to the Pain.

All components of any qualification framework are interconnected. The Bold & Sharp 3P’s is not different. The Phase is connected to the Pain. Pain and Phase influence each other.

• Latent Pain: The customer may not realize they have a problem or does not believe a solution exists. Your qualification standards and sales process should aim at quantifying the pain and assessing customer’s capability to change.
• Admitted Pain: The customer knows they have a problem, can describe it to some extent but lacks a clear solution. Your qualification standards and sales process should focus on insight and help envision your offering as the ideal answer.
• Vision Established: The customer has a defined solution in mind. If it is yours, your qualification standards and sales process should focus on owning customer’s time and attention till closing. Not yours? Disrupt the buying process by adopting the appropriate defense or offence strategy.

Connecting the Pain to the Phase.

Again, Phase and Pain are intertwined. Depending on the Phase identification, you should have various tricks in your sales toolkit. Let us break it down simply:

Buying Phase 1 or determining needs:

needs definition prevail and the solution is envisioned, cost and risk is not the point.

• Option 1: the pain was latent, and you have driven the prospect to Phase 1. Qualification efforts should focus on how big the problem is, value creation, and momentum.
• Option 2: the pain was admitted but the solution is still undefined. Qualification efforts should focus on differentiation, consensus creation around a shared vision and mutual execution of your plan.

Buying phase 2 or evaluating alternatives:

the solution matters first and risk takes precedence over needs.

• Option 1: the pain was latent, and you guided the prospect to Phase 2. Qualification efforts should focus on case for change, aligning or influencing evaluation criteria and closing the customer on a shared vision.
• Option 2: the pain was latent or admitted but someone else shaped the vision. Qualification efforts should focus on positive answers to disruptive ideas leading to your solution and customer appetite for alternatives.

Buying phase 3 or evaluating risk:

customer weighs the consequences of taking action and tries to anticipate worst case scenario. Risk and costs become the primary concerns while solution and needs take a back seat.

• Option 1: you were involved throughout the pain qualification and buying journey. Qualification efforts should focus on ROI, business case validation, bases coverage and customer readiness.
• Option 2: you are late in the game. Qualification efforts should focus on anxiety creation and testing alternative sales strategies such as fragmentation.

Phase, interactions and content.

Customers’ interactions with your sales and marketing content can both be leveraged to qualify the Phase and guide them toward the next stage of your sales process. Interactions determine the Phase. The Phase determine the content.

• Awareness: you are a potential solution to a problem. This may be the starting point of a buying journey. Customers read articles or thought leadership content, attend conferences, consult software reviews, or interact on social medias. Make sure they primarily engage with your brand.
• Consideration: it is time to differentiate. Customers watch videos on social communities, or download whitepapers. There are simple questions to ask to confirm you are in control: how is your content being used? With whom is it being shared? What are the key takeaways?
• Purchase: what matters is YOU and the time you take away from the competition. Ensure the customer participates in YOUR roadshows, YOUR events and YOUR webinars. Savy buyers will not let you know that you are winning. So, close them of the reasons why they attend and how it helps drive the decision forward.

Ultimate thoughts.

The Bold & Sharp 3P’s Framework stands out by putting the spotlight on what truly drives deals forward: understanding the Phase, uniqueness in addressing a Pain, and engaging with Power players.

Junior salespeople may prefer sticking to a more detailed, immutable qualification framework precisely because they drive a repeatable sales process. Experienced sales reps, however, with qualification 101 ingrained in their mind, tend to focus on the Phase. This enable them to meet the customer exactly where they are and implement game plans to lead the customer where they want.

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