someone in the Accelerator asked me how to balance disqualifying with the fact that you are trying to sell to them.

I pointed out his underlying assumption:

that our primary goal is to 'sell to' prospects.

if you believe your role is to sell to everyone, then naturally any form of disqualification feels counterproductive.

I define ‘disqualifying’ as actively exploring the potential reasons why it might not make sense to work together and letting them convince me why I’m wrong. If they can’t convince me then I’ve saved a lot of time & energy.

So I gave him this reframe:

🐲: your role is to identify whether a prospect is suitable to be your next customer.

when you genuinely believe this, the behaviors like asking challenging questions and disqualifying feel natural and authentic.

you’re not trying to sell - you're having an honest conversation to determine if it makes sense to work together.

you need to be aware of your unconscious intentions and beliefs as this is where your behavior flows from. 

if there’s a disconnect there the buyer will sense it and react negatively to it.