The #1 Mistake Made During Discovery
If you notice your pipeline falling apart after the first meeting, you likely have a discovery problem.
Not that you aren't doing discovery right. You could be asking great questions. The problem is more likely an issue with the timing of your discovery.
You're probably starting discovery during the first call. Which, according to most conventional sales methodologies, is right on target.
Right?
Wrong.
You need to start the discovery process WAY earlier.
Like, days earlier.
People talk a lot about building a point of view (POV), but people don't call out enough that building a point of view is discovery.
When I was leading teams at Salesforce, my AEs were expected to enter every first meeting having done their homework.
Understand how they make money.
Go to their website, and look at three areas:
The Company Leadership Team
Careers Page (Are they hiring? What teams? You'd be AMAZED at how much insight you can get by reading a company's job postings. If you work in tech, this is also a great place to see who your potential competitors are. For example, if they're hiring for someone in Ops that has Hubspot experience and you work for Salesforce, you know who you're up against in a deal cycle.)
Products (Do they have 1 solution, or multiple?)
If you are struggling to understand their business model, go to ChatGPT, feed it the website, and ask "Please describe what this company does, what their value proposition is, and how they make money in simple language."
Start to build out a relationship map.
Who's most active on LinkedIn? Send those people a tailored note introducing yourself and asking for their perspective on their biggest challenges in their day-to-day.
What do we know about the executive team? Cross-reference the key leaders on LinkedIn from their Leadership page. What can we learn about what they care about based on their LinkedIn profile?
Eventually you'll use this to build out a 5 x 5 (5 contacts x 5 departments).
Check out what people are saying about them.
News: If they don't have a News or Press section, go to Google and search for their company name and view any relevant news related to them.
Employee sites like Blind or Glassdoor: What are their employees saying their biggest challenges are with the company?
Product reviews (Capterra, G2, etc.): What are people saying about their solutions when it's not directly on their testimonials page?
Competitors: Start googling who their competitors are in the space. And if you're struggling with this on Google, take it to ChatGPT. Ask it to do deep research and share the top competitors the customer has.
Industry Challenges: Again, ChatGPT will help you out big time here: "What challenges do companies within industries like the one my customer is part of face on a regular basis?"
Now, research these things and put them into a doc. Write down the questions you have about them based on your research (NOT about your product. About THEM and their business).
When you go into your meeting, open that doc and reference it, so you can continue the discovery as a collaboration, instead of an interrogation.
Bonus points if you take notes here AND share the doc with your manager, so they’re in the loop when they need to be brought in.
If this seems like a lot of work, it’s because it is.
But it’s an investment that transforms you from “just another annoying salesperson” to a trusted partner.
Doing this will win you more deals (and is more likely to get you promoted because it shows your leadership that you can think at a higher level).
Being able to elevate your discovery questions from "Tell me about your business?" and "What is your biggest challenge right now?" to,
"I've noticed XYZ in preparing for this call. How is that impacting this segment of the business?" is a subtle nuance that makes a huge difference.
Become the best leader you can be… and you don't have to do it alone.
Set up a free discovery call with me to explore executive coaching.
