Qualifying without interrogating

Find out if it's real, politely. Learn who decides, whether there's money and what happens if nothing changes, through the same second questions you ask in discovery.

Part of the Carrow programme. In this sample academy, only the first course, Discovery: the second question, is open.

Lessons

• Qualifying is discovery, done honestly. Why a checklist of questions gets you short answers, and what to ask in its place.

• Money, without 'what's your budget?'. Ask what the problem costs and how they've paid for fixes before.

• Who decides, and how. Ask how the last decision like this one was made.

• What happens if nothing changes? The question that tells you whether there's a date, and whose it is.

• When the answer is no. Hear an honest no early, thank them for it, and close the file.

• Notes in their words. Write up the call so your manager can read the buyer's problem, not your summary of it.