The Sales Step that Separates Top Performers from the Rest
The discovery phase of the sales process is not just your opportunity to fill out a checklist of potential customer needs in an effort to qualify them in or out. This is where the real magic happens. It’s no wonder that it’s the biggest separator between top performers and the rest.
The best sellers spend more time here because they’re curious, patient, and thorough. In fact, if they don’t learn what they need to in the first meeting, they’ll schedule another one. They’re disciplined about this step and won’t allow themselves to offer a solution until they have learned what they need to learn.
Let’s look a little deeper at what a great discovery process creates.
Great discovery creates connection
This certainly isn’t your first interaction with your prospect, and it shouldn’t be. You undoubtedly know enough about the problems you can solve for your prospect to have gotten this far, and you probably have a good idea of how your solution can help them get where they want to be. That’s a great jumping off point.
Now that you have their attention for a little bit, you can explore a little more. You can show them you’re a human being, not just a sales robot. You can demonstrate that you’re curious and that you want to know more than just what’s on the surface. Stephen Covey said that in order to have influence on someone, they must first feel that they have some influence on you. That means asking great questions and listening intently to the answers. Make eye contact if at all possible. Take notes. Don’t force the tell-tale signs of active listening, listen actively. Your prospect can feel the difference. When they feel understood, they let their guard down a little bit, and they’re willing to tell you more.
Great discovery creates understanding
As you get answers to your questions, you start to appreciate the nuance in every situation. I know you have an Ideal Client Profile or an avatar that you like to sell to, but even within that limited scope, everybody is different. You don’t sell a one-size-fits-all solution, and you know that some features are more beneficial to others depending who’s using it.
The better you understand your prospect’s situation and what they’re trying to accomplish, the better you can tailor your offering once the time comes to talk about it. Be patient. Pay attention to details. If they say something you don’t completely understand, ask for clarification. Not only does this remind them that you’re paying close attention, it helps develop your own expertise for future prospects and situations.
Great discovery creates tension
The questions you ask help your prospect picture a clear path to what they want to accomplish. You establish their current state with your first few questions. With their answers and any necessary clarifications, it’s time to dig into their desired future state.
What do they want to accomplish?
What will it mean for them to accomplish that?
Is this an end result or a means of facilitating something bigger?
What becomes possible if they win?
What happens if they don’t?
Tension is a stimulus to act. It’s not the same as discomfort, and is often quite the opposite. Good discovery helps you understand your prospect’s “why” while also reminding them of it. In that way, it’s motivation.
Great discovery creates context
If you’re asking questions that challenge your prospect to think a little differently, they’ll start to see new possibilities. Things they hadn’t recognized before will start to become clear to them, and this creates a soft place for your solution to land.
It’s important to recognize your potential customer does not know everything they need to know to make a purchase. They don’t know all of the solutions out there, nor do they know how many ways their objectives can be met. Comparisons between you and your competitors are often not apples to apples. You need to help them understand your “how” as well as your “what.” It certainly doesn’t hurt to work your “why” into it as well.
Great discovery demonstrates expertise
When you create new context for people, they can’t help but believe you’ve been there before, you know the way through, and you can help them get where they want to be as well. This is what your prospect is looking for.
With all the options available, the products, the companies, the salespeople, this is a huge potential differentiation point. This is what separates the best from the rest. Even if you don’t have the best product or work for the market leader, when you demonstrate that you’re the most capable person of ushering them through their own process and toward their goal, you’ll win way more than you’ll lose.
Great discovery creates comfort
When you sum up all of these points, a great discovery process takes your prospect on a journey. You establish a connection with them, you show your interest in their situation and you dig for more details. When you establish their current state and get them to expound on their desired future state, that gap creates tension.
When you create the context for your solution to land and establish that you’re an expert who can get them where they want to go, that expertise creates a feeling of safety and a comfort level that can even lead to excitement.
Clearly, discovery is about so much more than a BANT checklist or disqualifying a prospect. This is where so much of the selling happens! If you’re skipping over these opportunities and rushing to pitch, you actually erode trust, you make your prospects feel like they’re being taken for granted, and you lose credibility. How do you think your pitch will land in that situation?
A lack of patience in this stage of the sales process will not serve you well. Don’t hurry through this!
After reading and thinking about this, what are you getting right? Where are you falling short? What can you improve? Join our conversation in the Rethink The Way You Sell Community.
Jeff Bajorek
Real. Authentic. Experience.
There’s a big difference between knowing how to sell and being able to. Jeff Bajorek spent over a decade in the field as a top performer. He’s been in your shoes. He knows what it will take. He can help you succeed.
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