11 of the Best B2B Qualifying Questions

At ROI CX Solutions, we know sales. Our mastery of qualifying questions is one of the most important ingredients to our success.
If B2B qualifying questions were only about gathering information, anyone could read questions off a list. The real magic comes from understanding the underlying purpose behind qualifiers and using them to perfect your sales process.
We’ll look at how you should move a prospect through the sales process, providing examples of essential B2B qualifying questions you should ask.

How Do You Qualify a B2B Prospect?

Qualifying a B2B prospect takes place in the initial steps of lead generation. When you first contact a prospect, you’ll ask early qualifying questions to determine their level of interest.
A prospect’s answers are a glimpse into their level of motivation. Each question is an opportunity to gauge how likely your prospect is to convert into a sale.

What Is a Qualifying Question in Sales?

Qualifying questions in sales validate strong leads and eliminate weak ones. When you first connect with prospects, you know if there’s a general interest—but that’s all.

• Has your prospect educated themselves on your product?
• Do they need a complete walkthrough on benefits and features?
• Is their need urgent?
• Do they just want to connect for general inquiry?

Qualifying questions are asked to clarify whether a customer is ready for a sales representative.

Is There a Difference Between Prospecting and Qualifying?

Prospecting is the earliest stage in the lead generation process. Somewhere out there is the perfect future customer—you just haven’t met them yet.
Whether it’s through cold calls, a Google search, or a social media post, prospecting is the process of finding those potential customers, capturing their interest, and bringing them into your qualifying process.
Qualifying begins where prospecting ends. To work toward closing a deal, you want to determine whether a prospect’s interest is fleeting or if they have a genuine need for your product.

Why Qualify Leads?

Qualifying leads helps you establish a feel for the lead and their role in the company. It provides a filter for whoever is the highest priority.
ROI CX Solutions knows how to use the right qualifying questions to discern where a prospect stands in the decision-making process. Once we verify that a lead is warm, we’ll forward them to your sales team so you can close the deal.

What Are Pre-Qualifying Questions?

While qualifying questions help determine if a prospect is ready for a salesperson to close a deal, a pre-qualifying question is a means to validate if a lead is worth taking the time to move through the qualifying process.
You can view pre-qualifying as the initial questions determining a lead’s priority. These first questions will save time and streamline the process.
Depending on your industry, you can sometimes incorporate pre-qualifying questions into the prospecting process. E-Books, questionnaires, and social media interaction can include early qualifiers that help you sift through more qualified leads.

What Is the First Step in Qualifying a Prospect?

You can use preliminary questions to validate the prospect’s ability, means, and authority to follow through with a sale. These questions will determine a prospect’s level of interest and willingness to buy. Leads can be classified as cold, warm, or hot regarding the decision to pass forward to sales.
Qualifying leads is an information-gathering process to validate a prospect’s seriousness about a purchase. The goal is to prioritize which leads should continue moving toward a sale. Prioritizing leads helps reduce the time your salesperson spends with leads that aren’t fully warmed up for a sale.

What Are the Best Qualifying Questions to Ask?

The following is a selection of qualifying questions you should ask early in the process.

1. How Did You Hear About Us?

You can learn several important things from this one question. Did your prospect find you through a source that converts well? Does that source provide detailed product information or just basic details?
Your prospect may contact you and 20 competitors in their initial search. Or they could have found you through an informative article that details your product well.

2. Who Makes the Buying Decisions at Your Company?

This question helps validate whether the prospect is the right person to talk to or whether they can provide you with the contact who will make the purchase.

3. What Problems Are You Hoping to Solve with This Purchase?

Understanding a prospect’s pain points is vital, but being a good listener will help you determine if their need is urgent. You can also learn if they’ve gathered information from competitors. You can decide if it’s beneficial to elaborate on your product’s benefits based on the issues they’re facing.

4. Why Is the Problem a Priority?

After identifying the pain point, this question helps establish whether it’s a priority, and if so, why? A company’s priorities speak to urgency and its budget, and this question will qualify both.

5. What Is Your Company’s Budget?

If the initial conversation suggests they’re serious, you want to ensure the company has the resources to make the purchase if the need is urgent.
If the prospect sounds confident the budget is available, and someone is willing to sign off on it, you’ll know the sales team should talk to them immediately.

6. What Is Your Budget Size?

You can learn whether their company can afford your product and whether the prospect has to verify it with others. You may discover how a company approves budgets and if your contact is involved in that process.

7. Who Else Must Sign Off on the Purchase?

Even if your prospect says they have the authority to make a purchase, this question can help establish if there’s a multi-department process involved in a purchase. Follow-up questions can help determine if establishing a connection with others might lead to a quicker sale.

8. Can the Budget Come from Another Company Resource if it’s not Already Available?

This question depends on prior answers. It’s helpful to understand the prospect’s role in clearing a purchase and also sense whether others in the company will prioritize this to the same level of urgency as your prospect.

9. Have You Tried to Solve This Same Problem in the Past?

You may learn that they’ve bought similar items in the past or they’re currently talking to your competitors. They may know what can happen if they don’t have your product.
There’s also a chance they’ve used a similar product from a competitor. You can explain how your product is better at solving those problems.

10. How Did You Go About Solving the Problem?

If the previous answer is yes, then you can ask this question to learn whether it was an acute pain point when they faced it before. Did they wait a long time to solve the problem or try to work around it?

11. Are You Already Using a Similar Product?

Learning if they’re currently using a similar product can speak to their sense of urgency. You’ll know if you’re competing on features from a competitor and how hard they may have to fight to convince the company to sign off on a new purchase.
Your sales team can discuss the service quality they can expect from you and how your product is an improvement.

Qualifying Questions Generate Sales

Knowing the right B2B qualifying questions requires talent and practice. These questions make the difference between closing a sale and handing customers over to your competition.
When you have someone like ROI CX Solutions on your side, you can be confident a potential prospect has gone through an extensive qualifying process before they come to your sales team to finish a sale.
From that point forward, your sales staff will be ready with the proper conversational qualifiers to educate your potential client on features and help them overcome their concerns.

Why You Should Consider ROI CX Solutions

ROI CX Solutions specializes in verifying and qualifying your business leads with the highest-performing qualification questions. We assist companies of every size and industry, from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies. Your leads will come to you warm, verified, responsive, and ready for you to close the deal.
Get in touch with us today for your free quote.