Come Watson! The Game is Afoot! …or why the good discovery is often a deal-breaker. Part 1.

“Prescribing the medicine without diagnosis is considered a mistake in medical art”

I remember back in the days when I interviewed with Oracle and reached the assessment part, the manager wrote me “Prepare. And Remember – it’s all about good Discovery”. My further experience in the topic makes me defend thesis, that discovery is the most important part of the sales process (and a great discovery is a process itself as every deal is dynamic) due to two main (and tons of secondary) reasons:

  1. It is a reward for prospecting efforts of securing the meeting
  2. It sets the tone for creating, handing and accepting the offer You make

In the article I plan to further dive in details on that. Feel free to agree, disagree or argue. And now let’s start with…

When doing a discovery the most important thing is aligning to the expectations.
You enter the meeting and the prospect expects something in return for their time – it can be demo, product/service analysis versus requirements, pricing range. You on the other hand expect information on whether You can help them, how it can be done and if it makes sense to move further. You usually do that with right questions right? So it would make sense to ask them BUT… You have to earn the right to ask and this is where expectations comes into play. Let’s take it step by step.

First it is smart to do discovery for building rapport – which is small talk. This will ultimately support Your true discovery process.

Then You need to assess where Your prospect is with his journey. From the high-level I tend to put them in four categories:

  1. Just curious – they don’t know how can Your product can help them but have the feeling that it can.

    Floor is yours! First of all set the stage. Tell upfront that to make the most out of this meeting You will walk them through a scenario which involves asking questions – “the more we work out together the better way to go forward – or knowledge not to go”. Always give Your Customer right to say “No”. Trust me, better early in the process than late.

  2. Initial interest – they know that Your product/service can help them but don’t know how or how the process goes. They are reluctant to answer Your questions and have few basic of their own or no questions at all.

    What to do? Always goes with understanding and not assuming. I use to go with “It seems to me You have some knowledge about what product/service can do. How about I will tell You typical from Your industry where we are able to help and we go from there?” – this way You open the way for them get more knowledge and ask questions, as well as position yourself in advisor role.

    Going for the demo – if they did not ask for it upfront – will be a good next step.

  3. Confirmed interest – they know that your product/service can help them and have some questions criteria regarding it.

    In this case it is good to label “You seem to have done a fair amount of research – can we discuss it before moving further? It will help us be more precise on areas we need to cover.” Of course they can say know and You’ll need to go with variation of point 3 scenario but usually they’ll appreciate that.

    You want to have Your demo ready in case they want to see it immediately after.

  4. Advanced Interest– they are sure that Your product/service can help them and You are either short-listed as supplier or interviewed to “check-list” the procurement requirement.

    Here Your conversation partners will have precise list of requirements and questions – and they will expect the answers. Do not play around and give it to them – but try to uncover why is it important to them. This way You will either – confirm You’re the right choice, if You’re second on the list – make sure You deserve the place and if You are a “checklist” supplier – validate to not have too much hope.

    Usually they want to see the demo upfront or very quickly – so have it ready and be sure to not choose Your questions carefully.

Mind that I did not cover the “We just want to see the demo” scenario. I usually keep some pre-recorded scenarios handy or have ability to do one myself just in case this pops up. For the real value demo – You need to know precise use-cases, features of value and information they need to get out of the product You deliver. Period.

In the next article, I’ll cover more the type of openings/questions/proposed next steps and generally things to say on each type of discovery. Remember – You’ll the professional seller and they are not professional buyers – You need to adapt and lead in a way that is helpful and informative. And if You found something worth asking… write me.


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