Doing Discovery: The Single Most Important Element of Software Sales and Buyer Enablement Processes

A head of sales commented, “80% of my team believes they do a good job with discovery, but sadly they do not – they don’t know what they don’t know…!”Where do you stand with your discovery skills?Level 1: Uncovers statements of pain;Level 2: Uncovers pain and explores more deeply;Level 3: Uncovers pain, explores deeply, broadens the pain and investigates the impact;Level 4: Uncovers pain, explores and broadens, investigates impact and quantifies;Level 5: Uncovers pain, explores and broadens, investigates impact, quantifies and reengineers vision;Level 6: Applies these skills to the broad range of prospects represented across the Technology Adoption Curve, “burn victims”, disruptive and new product categories, transactional sales cycles, and other scenarios;Level 7: Integrates and aligns the skills above into a cohesive discovery methodology.Most sales, presales, and customer-facing teams are operating at Level 2 or 3, with a few at Level 4 – this leaves a lot of room for improvement!And, as Cohan notes, “the vendor who is perceived by the prospect as doing a superior job in discovery is in a competitively advantageous position.”Reading and following the exercises in Doing Discovery can transform individuals, teams, and organizations from undifferentiated sellers into high-performing practitioners who achieve their sales objectives while truly enabling buyers, resulting in mutually successful outcomes that endure. Read more