Discovery - The Art and Science of Probing

For me, there is a magic moment in the sale process when we've reached the discovery phase, the point at which we gather the prospect’s requirements. I call this the "50% Stage” on the forecasting continuum or sales ladder. If this is done well, you’ll have a much easier time of climbing the rest of the ladder. Your sales process will shorten. You’ll improve your win-rate. You’ll also notice better margin in your sale!

Critical sales skills come together at this all-important stage of the sales process. They are as follows:

• Product knowledge
• Listening skills
• Business acumen
• Competitor knowledge
• Probing techniques

Let’s address one each day this week. We’ll start today with product knowledge.

Obviously, any good sales person knows their product or service. In fact, we spend so much time training in this area, it often results in a non-professional sales person performing a “show up and throw up” at this critical meeting(s) of discovery. When I say “product knowledge”, I am really referring to a true understanding of features, needs and benefits and an ability to distinguish between them. You may know your product cold but nobody likes a feature dump!

“Feature” might be defined as an attribute of your product or service.

“Need” can be defined as your prospect’s want or desire for a solution to their challenge.

“Benefit” is the product of matching your products feature(s) to your prospects need(s). People buy benefits, not features!!

The science of discovery suggests that you are asking questions that might draw a need for your product feature(s). If your questions draw a need, great, you’re moving forward. If not, find another prospect, or keep reading this blog! Every successful sales pro I have ever met can ask thoughtful questions into the night. They are naturally curious, careful to ask only the right questions, know their product and pitch the benefit, not the feature.

Here’s an example. Let’s say you sell bottled water to the cafeteria manager. One feature of your bottled water is that it comes in easily-dispensed fruit flavors. That’s a feature. Some potential benefits might be that it’s a healthier choice over the office coffee machine and it’s less costly to deliver than the same cup of coffee. But these are only benefits if the prospect has expressed a need to reduce their coffee costs and/or provide healthy choices for their employees. You’ll draw that need out if you ask questions such as: (this will be obvious, but it is amazing how many sales-pro-wannabe’s can’t make the connection)

“Do you look for healthy choices for your employees in the cafeteria?”

“Is your coffee machine expense rising amidst a need to reduce costs?’

You get the picture. If there is a “yes” to any one of these questions, your response might be, “Through the adoption of our fruit-flavored H2O dispenser, organizations like yours have improved employee morale and reduced cafeteria refreshment charges by 25%.” THAT’s a benefit!

HUMOR: I love the sales management role. You are always the second set of eyes invited to an appointment. And when your sales pro runs out of questions to ask, s/he invariably turns and twists their head at you, with wide open eyes, and a look of peril looking for that life-saver! If you’ve seen the movie Avatar, those wide-open eyes on each character brought me back to many sales calls! When a sales pro gets on a roll, I let them go. But we have an agreement: Need help? Tug on the ear. I’ll pitch in!

CHALLENGE: If you run out of questions to ask from time to time, or you are new to your firm, build yourself this great tool. First, in column A, list your product’s features. Second, in column B next to each feature, list the potential benefits of each feature. Third, in column C, write down the question you might ask to develop interest in that benefit. You’ll have hundreds of questions to ask your prospect on the discovery call to draw out their pain!