When people think of selling, they rarely think of the discovery portion of the sales conversation. Their mind may go to The Wolf of Wall Street scene where Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) cold calls customers looking to buy penny stocks. Without a word from the customer on the phone, Jordan goes right into his pitch to sell Aerotyne stock which has “HUGE upside potential with very little downside risk”. Or, someone’s mind may go to the Glengarry Glen Ross scene, where a young Alec Baldwin issues a profanity-laced monologue to the sales team and exclaims “Always be closing!”. While humorous, this is often what young sales professionals do when they get their first gig in sales. Not the profanity part (at least I hope not). But the part where they skip right over the discovery portion of the sales call and immediately go into selling the features and benefits of their product. In real life, the close rate on a call where the salesman hasn’t conducted proper discovery up front is next to 0%. That’s because discovery is the foundation of any sales engagement.
Why Discovery Actually Matters
Why is discovery so critical? Discovery builds mutual trust with the customer, uncovers their motivation to buy (what I call an anchor - more on that in a separate article if you are a paid subscriber), and reveals objections before they surface. Discovery questions build trust with your customers because it allows them to be heard. They do not feel like they are being spoken down to, and instead see you as someone who is trying to help them solve a problem. It allows the guardrails to lower so that you can engage them in an open dialogue. With the right line of questioning, the customer will provide you the answers of how you can motivate him to not want, but need your product.
Biggest Mistakes Reps Make
There are two common mistakes I see reps make in the discovery phase. First, they will go into a sales conversation and begin asking their customer a checklist of questions. “What are you currently using? How often? What’s your budget?” That is a surefire way to get your customer to shut down and provide you no information of value. Second, reps will let the customer direct the conversation from the jump, instead of establishing ownership themselves. The risk of asking too many questions is that it will get your customer sidetracked and down a rabbit hole on something that does not pertain to the problem you are looking to solve with your product. Reps that are unable to direct the flow of the conversation will lose the customer and lose the sale.
The Real Goal of Conducting Discovery
There is an art to the discovery phase. And I am here to teach it to you. First, you need to establish the goal of the conversation. Here’s a secret. The goal is not to just gather information from your customer. The goal is to understand how the customer perceives their own reality. What motivates them? What keeps them up at night? What problems in their work or life are they looking to fix? Humans are irrational and illogical creatures. Just because you think your product is the best thing since sliced bread and will easily fix your customers perceived problem, doesn’t mean the customer will agree. So, you need to understand if the problem you are trying to fix with your product is a perceived problem to your customer at all. And, if it is a perceived problem by the customer, where does that problem rank on their priority list of other problems? Without fully understanding your customer’s perceived problem at hand and mutual alignment that your product (and only your product) can address this problem and provide a solution, you don’t have a sale. That’s why discovery is so important.
Establishing a Goal for the Meeting
Before any discovery takes place, you need to establish the goal of your meeting. Like I stated earlier, you don’t want to go into your sales meeting peppering your customer with a sporadic checklist of questions. High stakes conversations need direction. Without a mutual goal for the meeting, conversation can often drift into generic discussion.
In order to establish your goal for the meeting, you need to first understand the barrier (again, more on this if you are a paid subscriber). What is preventing your deal from moving forward? What objections has your customer already stated or is likely to throw your way of why he can’t purchase your product? Once you understand your potential barrier, then you can establish your goal for the discovery portion of the meeting and create targeted questions that get at the crux of the barrier.
Questions That Initiate Good Discovery
If you are a paid subscriber, I will go into much greater detail on this section in a separate article, that will include a meeting preparation template and provide insight on discovery question workflow. However, to issue a teaser, you’ll want your line of questioning to be open-ended, targeted, and relevant to the problem at hand. Open-ended questions get your customer talking. You don’t want him to provide you “yes” and “no” answers to your questions. That will prevent you from asking 2nd and 3rd layer questions that allow you to dive deeper. You want to create an open dialogue. Targeted questions allow you to own the direction and flow of the conversation. Evan though you are asking the questions in the meeting, you and you alone own the conversation and direction it goes in, not the customer. Finally, you’ll want your questions to be relevant to the exact problem your product can solve. The customer may have multiple problems he is working through, but the only one that matters is the problem you and your product can solve. The rest are just white noise.
If you are not a paid subscriber already, I highly recommend it. For just $10 per month, you’ll get more in depth frameworks, templates, and guides for every single free newsletter I write. For this specific article, I will include a document you can use to prepare for discovery conversations and go into much greater detail on how to structure your line of questioning for a discovery meeting. I’ll cover topics such as workflow, question re-phrasing, and provide you examples of real-life discovery conversations I have had.
Sincerely,
S.M.K., The Sale’s Mentor’s Playbook
thesalesmentorsplaybook.com