[CityOfThrowaway]

One of the ways you know if you're really practicing this is if you actively disqualify potential customers after the first call.

Not them disqualifying you, but you actively saying, "Hey, not sure we are the right solution for you. Seems like you're trying to achieve X, but we're really better fit if you're trying to achieve Y."

This is in lieu of trying to convince them that you're a good fit for X, or that they should actually really be wanting to achieve Y.

Quick disqualification is sort of a counter-intuitive idea for a lot of throughput maximizing engineers. Shouldn't we want to optimize every lead?

Perhaps, but I think the better frame is optimizing productive seller-minutes. And time spent on deals that should die (and probably will die, eventually) is definitely not optimized.

[jagged-chisel]

That’s antithetical to “this period’s bonus.” Who cares if it dies in three months when the bonus for that three months end up in the salesman’s pocket?

[hedora]

Why would you be paying a bonus for deals that die? Sales incentives need to match business incentives or you’re completely screwed.

Also: “Coffee is for closers”

[AbrahamParangi]

That’s not how it works, you structure the comp such that the sales person doesn’t get paid out in this case.

[MontgomeryPy]

It's optimized for the seller. The sales person that can actually determine good fit/bad fit can't also be making 100 calls a day. The BDR making 100 calls a day cannot determine good fit/bad fit on their own on the first call.