5.1 From traffic to signing, draw your funnel first, otherwise the team will just quarrel
5.1 From traffic to signing, draw your funnel first, otherwise the team will just quarrel
In household and small commercial businesses, the most common problem is not that there are no leads, but that there is no funnel logic in lead processing. The marketing department feels that they have brought in a lot of inquiries, the sales department feels that all of them are invalid traffic, the engineering department feels that the promises made in the past are random, and the finance department feels that the payment collection is uncontrollable. To solve this problem, the first step is not to blame each other, but to establish a unified funnel.
A most basic funnel should have at least seven nodes: lead entry, first-round screening, getting bills/documents, survey appointment, formal proposal, contract signing, and completion delivery. As long as the team doesn't have each step clearly defined, there's no way to discuss conversion rates or know where the problem is.
To be clear: not all inquiries are called ‘client’, not all surveys are worth doing, and not all quotes should be issued. The essence of the funnel is to prioritize limited manpower on projects that are more likely to be successful and worth doing.
The criteria for "advance" must be clearly defined at each node, rather than relying on feelings.
5.2 Simplified version of BANT for household use, BANT + SPIN for small commercial use
5.2 Simplified version of BANT for household use, BANT + SPIN for small commercial use
BANT is the abbreviation of Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline. It is essentially a set of early screening frameworks, suitable for helping sales determine whether an opportunity is worth investing time. Public sales training materials like Salesforce also explicitly use it as a tool to quickly prioritize leads. For the photovoltaic business, BANT is very suitable for the first layer of filtering.
But your current business is not purely FMCG, and it doesn’t end after just asking four questions. Especially in small commercial scenarios, projects often involve bosses, accountants, store managers, construction windows, cash flow arrangements and tax boundaries, so BANT alone is not enough. A more appropriate approach would be:Users first use the simplified version of BANT for screening, and small business users use SPIN to do in-depth questions after passing BANT.。
The significance of SPIN is to ask customers' questions deeply: Situation understands the current situation, Problem finds pain points, Implication amplifies the impact, and Need-payoff allows customers to tell themselves why it is worth solving. Neil Rackham's research is originally focused on high-value sales, so it is more suitable for small commercial and complex household projects than 'lowering prices from the beginning'.
SPIN: Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-payoff, used for in-depth discovery of problems.
- Industry[01] Salesforce explains BANT: Describes BANT as a lead screening tool for budget, decision rights, needs, and time frames.
- Commentary[02] About McGraw Hill / SPIN Selling: Description SPIN comes from Neil Rackham’s long-term research on high-value sales.
- Industry[03] Huthwaite explains SPIN: Explains that it is based on extensive sales call research.
5.3 Lead scorecard: What kind of inquiries deserve priority?
5.3 Lead scorecard: What kind of inquiries deserve priority?
If you just say 'prioritize high-quality customers', many people don't know how to judge. The most practical method is to give a simple scorecard. Household projects can be scored from five aspects: whether the bills of the past 12 months are available, whether the daytime load is clear, whether the property ownership and installation address are stable, whether the customer is clear about the budget and style, and whether the decision-maker is directly involved. Each item is worth 0-2 points on a 10-point scale. Priority survey is recommended only if the score is 7 or above.
For small commercial projects, you should look at: electricity bill size, overlap between business hours and daytime, boss/decision-making chain clarity, payment habits/financial cooperation, and whether it is suitable for case studies or long-term services. As long as the lead scoring mechanism is established, the team will not spend equal efforts on the worst opportunities and the best opportunities.
The value of the scorecard is not to replace judgment, but to make judgment explicit. Newcomers use it to prevent random followers, supervisors use it to unify standards, and management use it to look back and see why a certain type of customer has higher conversion rates.
| Dimensions | User rating logic | Small business scoring logic | what does low score mean |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billing/Data | Can you provide 12 months of bills? | Can you provide billing and business hours? | Weak calculation foundation |
| daytime load | Home/Air conditioning/Swimming pool/Office | Business hours overlap with Peak | Unclear value for self-use |
| decision-making power | Whether the owner himself participates | Is it possible to communicate directly with the boss/financer? | High cost of promotion |
| budget and wishes | Whether to accept a reasonable budget range | Do you only look at the lowest price? | It’s easy to get into vicious price comparisons |
| long term value | Are there any referral and aesthetic requirements? | Can we provide case/long-term service? | Weak customer acquisition compound interest |
5.4 What a decent proposal should look like, not a heap of parameters
5.4 What a decent proposal should look like, not a heap of parameters
Many sales proposals fail not because the plan is bad, but because the proposal structure is poor. When customers open the file and see a bunch of component power, brand logos and total prices, it is difficult to understand why they should choose you. A truly good proposal should allow the customer to understand in order: what is my current problem, why is this system suitable for me, how is it installed, what can it bring to me, what are the boundaries and risks, and why this company is worthy of trust.
For household proposals, it is recommended to fix the structure to 7 sections: customer status, bill and load summary, roof conditions, alternative solutions, benefit calculation, delivery and after-sales, risk and boundary description. For small commercial proposals, the electricity price structure, schedule category, demand logic, optional tax description and construction impact control on business should be added.
The more structured a proposal is, the easier it is for teams to replicate and the easier it is to train new people. It’s not that parameters cannot be written, but they must be placed after the customer has understood the ‘why’.
2. Bill/Load Summary.
3. Roof or site conditions.
4. System solution and equipment logic.
5. Benefit/Savings Calculation.
6. Delivery, grid connection, and after-sales.
7. Risk boundaries and next steps.
5.5 What is effective speech and what is high-risk speech?
5.5 What is effective speech and what is high-risk speech?
The most important thing in sales training is not to teach more beautiful words, but to eliminate high-risk words. The characteristics of effective rhetoric are: having a factual basis, having boundaries, and being able to translate complex content into words that customers can understand; the characteristics of high-risk rhetoric are: being absolute, making advance promises, belittling peers, and using unverified policies as deal incentives.
For example, "This set of equipment will definitely pay for itself within 4 years", "Enterprises will be automatically 150% tax deductible after installing it", "It will definitely work even if there is a power outage", "It will be connected to the grid quickly and there will be no problem", these are all high-risk words. On the contrary, "Based on your current bill structure, spontaneous self-use during the day is established, and the static payback period is roughly within a certain range; the specifics will depend on the installation conditions, grid connection progress and actual changes in electricity consumption." This expression is more like a professional company.
New employee training must let them know: customers will believe you not because you speak the most absolutely, but because you speak the most like a person who truly understands business, boundaries, and responsibilities.
5.6 Conversion rate is not luck, but the quality of each previous step
5.6 Conversion rate is not luck, but the quality of each previous step
The most common question asked by management is ‘why there have been fewer signings recently’, but what we should really ask is: which funnel link has the most drops, why, and whether it is a matter of lead quality or frontline action. Conversion rate is a result of quality of action, not luck.
For example, if the conversion from leads to surveys is low, the problem may be poor lead quality or the first round of screening is too weak; if the conversion from surveys to proposals is low, the problem may be incomplete survey data or the efficiency of proposal generation is low; if the conversion from proposals to contracts is low, there may be problems with speaking skills, price structures, boundary explanations, or customer screening. Only by taking the conversion rate apart can we have a direction for improvement.
Therefore, what Chapter 5 really wants to solve is not just how to talk to customers, but knowing at what point in the funnel you are creating or destroying deals.
2. Initial screening to the survey rate.
3. Measure the formal proposal rate.
4. Proposal to contract signing rate.
5. Contract to completion rate.
6. Completion to referral reach rate.