This is What Great Discovery Looks Like
Questions start discussions, while statements tend to end them. While this seems pretty clear, there are still millions of salespeople out there pitching without context. I guess if so many people are doing that it must be working on some level, but you need to ask yourself if you wouldn’t be more successful in sales if you didn’t have a better discovery process.
In 1988, Neil Rackham published SPIN Selling which, among other things, identified that sellers who asked more questions and spent more time listening won more deals. Decades later, salespeople ask more questions, but they’re not always good questions.
If there’s one skill set that is consistently lacking in a sales professional, it’s around discovery. People think they know how to ask good questions, but they don’t.
The norm for discovery is sub-par
Most discovery sessions sound like interrogations rather than interviews. It’s like there is a checklist on the desk in front of them, and they’re just trying to fill it out. There’s no flow or spirit to the conversation, no connection is made, and the prospect feels like they’re just part of another process.
Salespeople ask questions they already know the answers to in order to paint a prospect into a corner and try to make the buying decision feel a no-brainer. This doesn’t work for a couple of reasons. First, logic doesn’t sell. People buy emotionally and justify their purchase logically. Secondly, nobody likes being manipulated, and your prospect never wants to be made to feel like a fool for not buying something. They can see right through that.
You’re capable of doing better
Quite frankly, you have to. You don’t just differentiate yourself by what you sell, you differentiate by how you sell. B2B buyers want to feel connected to the companies they buy from. WIth so many options out there, they want to be absolutely certain they’re picking the perfect solution for their needs. As a seller, you don’t accomplish this by checking boxes and completing a questionnaire. Ask questions, and then really listen to the answers. Those answers should raise more questions, and so on.
You should walk away with a fairly intimate knowledge of your prospect’s situation, and they should be pretty confident that you can help them. They should also feel as if they had a one-of-a-kind conversation with you. They don’t want to feel as if they’re another number on a list.
I wrote last week about the six outcomes created by great discovery. This week, I want to take a deeper dive into what great discovery looks like.
Are you brave enough to do good discovery?
There are three levels of questioning that will help you separate your sales process from everyone else’s. Here’s the scary part… at leach level, you're required to give up a little more control of the process. In order to really establish a connection and dig deep into specifics, you have to be vulnerable enough to be curious, which means you must be willing at some point to admit your assumptions may be wrong. You don’t know where this conversation might go, and you have to be comfortable with that.
LEVEL 1: Ask questions your prospect doesn’t know the answers to
You probably open your call with a few clarifying questions that validate and verify why you’re having this discussion. Those are table stakes, and this is when most sellers launch into a pitch. Stop it. Don’t take the bait just because you heard what you expected to.
At this point, you should have a few really provocative questions prepared for your prospect. Questions that make them stop, think, and consider new information. Jeffrey Gitomer calls these ‘Power Questions,’ and they serve to create a little tension in the sales process. You want to invite your prospect to think differently, and that’s a great way to really get the discovery ball rolling. While you might have five or 10 of these scripted, this is where your formal talking points stop and where you need to become fully engaged in the moment.
LEVEL 2: Ask questions you don’t know the answers to
If you’ve asked good questions, there’s really no way you could anticipate all the answers. Are you listening? Are you taking notes? What are you hearing that you expected? What did you not anticipate? Where do you want to dig deeper and learn more?
Be brave enough to ask.
You’re fully off script now and it can feel a little bit like a free fall. Resist the urge to control everything and start thinking on your feet. Probe deeper with these questions and consider the evolving situation that has been presented. The prospect is painting the picture of their situation in front of you. Wait until it’s fully painted before you decide where your solution should fit in the portrait.
Your patience and vulnerability in this stage of questioning is where the seeds of solid relationships are sewn and nurtured. This is no longer a typical discovery session, but a deep conversation between two professionals who can help each other. Both of your thought processes are shifting right now, and you’re starting to think in terms of a potential partnership, what it would look like to work together.
At some point soon, your prospect will start to ask you questions. Sales calls become collaborative efforts when they’re done right, and there is no better outcome for you than when your prospect asks you how you can help them.
LEVEL 3: Ask questions that neither of you know the answers to
That sounds funny doesn’t it? What kind of question doesn’t have a known answer? The kind of questions that make both of you look into the future and daydream a little bit about the possibilities you can create together.
These questions don’t often get asked, mostly because few salespeople earn the right to ask them. Even when they’ve earned the right, some forget to ask.
I like to think of these questions like figuratively putting your arm around the shoulder of your prospect and looking off into the horizon. “What really becomes possible if things work out for this partnership the way we think they could?”
You’re thinking in terms of the future, of doing big things together, and the collective dopamine hit makes you both feel good about it.
If your discovery calls were to go like that, how much more business could you close? How much more fun could you have? How many more loyal client relationships would you earn? How many of those relationships would lead to referrals with the anticipation of more calls like this?
That’s a virtuous cycle of sales greatness that is only possible if you’re brave enough to give up a little bit of control and not be in a hurry. It may take a little bit longer, but think of the improved results that you’d get.
Want to share your story? 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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