Your Deal's TSA Airport Security Screening Points System

Sales Ops-types love a qualification checklist.

Salespeople seem less enamoured.

Many feel it’s yet another burdensome weight gnawing away at their precious selling time.

And/or that its relevance is minimal given those that design them tend not to ever have talked to a prospect, let alone sold to one.

So why do I blog on what many dismiss as a distraction today?

You can click on the above thumbnail to find (halfway down) the full listing. It is how security officers at American airports decide who to select for extra screening as they pass through the x-ray area.

Four points and you’re out.

These accumulate from three categories of factor. Stress (1pt), Fear (2) and Deception (4).

The US government body, the TSA, have drawn up 38 factors in total.

How many such ‘factors’ might show you that a deal is not all it may seem by looking at your prospect’s behaviour?

There’s many standard relationship crunchers. Late arrival for meetings, not taking or returning your phone calls, cagey with info, possessive over other contacts, agreed actions gone undone.

Indeed, anything that doesn’t follow the quid pro quo mutual respect that ought flow.

There is a rare possibility that your buyer thinks that they’re giving everyone equal treatment. But in reality, you should know how to spot when you are more makeweight than dealmaker.

As for what the subsequent ‘extra screening’ entails, well, that’s a whole different matter…