Mastering Discovery Calls: Best Practices for New Salespeople | Part 2
Welcome back to the second instalment of this 2 parter.
If you’re joining us in the second half please refer to part 1 here, there’s some pretty good stuff here:
The goal of these posts has been to help set new sales folks up for success by laying out the preparation needed to conduct a successful discovery call (and yes, just a reminder I use the word ‘call’ for any number of discovery interactions with a client whether that’s face-to-face, over the phone, or virtual)
Whilst I’ve tried to make it as comprehensive as possible I will have no doubt missed things so, now and then I’ll head back over here for a revamp.
In the meantime, kick back, grab a beer and read on for Mastering Discovery Calls Part 2.
We’ll split this blog into a few key sections to make it easier to digest (you can also skip the stuff that you don’t need).
The Discovery Story: Beginning, Middle, End.
You probably recognise this flow from one of the first blog posts I put out there and its something that really helps me. You can also find how you can use this flow for cold calls:
The Template: https://www.gregorymeehan.com/resources
In my experience every interaction, whether business or social, will follow the same pattern. The Discovery call will be no different. You can follow this as your step-by-step guide to opening, engaging and exiting the call.
🤝 The Beginning: The opening and pleasantries
Build rapport:
Follow your clients lead in terms of time spent here. Some clients want to spend more time getting to know you / shooting the breeze; other clients just want you to get on with it! Read the room and guage their interest. You’ll perfect this over time so don’t stress so much!
Set Context:
Tell them why you reached out: I.e working with similar companies/ industries/ roles who are going through X problem and you thought it might be worth while seeing if they are experiencing something similar
Show you’ve done your research: from the preparation you have done, tell them you noticed some similarities with other companies who have used you successfully.
Tell them why it’s relevant now in relation to them, their business, and their role. Whats changing in their world that means they need to consider changing the way they are doing things.
Ask, in your own style “What they were hoping to get from the meeting” / “What would make this a successful meeting for you?” This will help you understand the direction to take the conversation and the questions to ask.
This is a great segue into the next part…
📖 The Middle: The meat of the conversation and things you’d like to discuss with the client, as well as introducing your company + providing a demo.
This is where you both start to qualify one another.
Firstly you need to understand what problems they currently have, what problems are they currently solving, how are they prioritising the problems they solve, and what would need to demonstrate to get the problem you solve moved up the priority ladder? You can read more about this in the section below (The Urgency query: 3 Whys, and Priorities)
Qualification time - this goes both ways, and the floor should be open to the client to qualify you and your company too.
MEDDICC, MEDDPICC, BANT, SPIN, VITO
There are many qualification methodologies. Use one that suits you.
You can also jump to the section below for an example of using MEDDICC
Demo/ presentation
Use sparingly depending on the client interaction. The demo or presentation is there as a support aid, not as the main feature. This is at least my preference. I want the conversation to be more organic than I do full-on scripted.
Share stories of other clients who are the same as the one in front of you who have been successful. Business Cases built into your deck are great examples.
Share stories of people who haven’t made the change and the potential impact it had on their business.
If the client asks for a price, give it to them in the form of a “range” with parameters that will affect the cost. Don’t hold back on the pricing… this is just really annoying!
Once you’ve had your in-depth conversation, answered all their questions, and you’ve answered theirs, you’ll want to see how to progress from here.
So, the question for you…after you’ve carried out your discovery, what generally happens next with other customers that have a need for your product or service. You should 100% know this before going into the call. Then you can suggest the next steps of the sales process….
🏁 The End: You will (or they will) then naturally start bringing things to a close.
I imagine it to be like a story in which the tone energy and speed follows a bell curve, with the bulk of the excitement coming during the main ‘act’ in the middle - conversation is flowing back and forth, questions and answers pinging everywhere, the client getting excited about the potential of making something much, much better.
And that’s when you ask to move on to next steps.
“It seems like this would be a good fit for you and your team. With other clients I’ve worked with the next steps would be to………..is this the same in your situation or am I missing a step?”
How quickly you move between these 3 stages will depend on your client and what they would like to talk about. I’ve had some clients who would love to “chat” for a long time, only to spend about 3 minutes talking about business… this was a great interaction that led to a sale.
I’ve had other clients who want to cut to the chase and get right down to it. This too was a great interaction that led to a sale.
There’s no cookie cutter for these interactions, there’s frameworks and preparation.
Which I’ve prepared for you here on the resources page: DISCOVERY CALL FLOW.
Use this to prepare for your next sales interaction. As our friend Steven Covey says, “Begin with the end in mind.” If you know where you want your meeting to go, you’ll consciously and subconsciously take it there. Follow the flow.
BAMFAM and Momentum.
BAMFAM: Book A Meeting From A Meeting
This is the act of booking a follow on meeting whilst you are still in your current meeting, ensuring you have specific next steps to follow through on. It will hold you accountable to the client, and the client accountable to you and what you need to completed next.
For example:
Sales Legend: “It looks like we've got everything we need covered. Normally, when working with other clients the next step is to do a demo with the rest of the marketing team and get some initial feedback. Should we look to pencil something in for next Wednesday at 3 pm?
Client: "I'm not sure about the marking team schedule, let me get back to you"
Sales Legend: "No problem, how about we tentatively put something in the diary for Wednesday and then if you need to move it or, the marketing team have got other arrangements we can look for another time"
The principle here is to have something to follow up on, rather than chasing for a time in an empty schedule.
Time Kills All Deals… don't make the mistake of not having your next step.
Sales Qualification: MEDDIC et al
This will be another blog all of its own!!
Sales folks love an acronym…and sales qualification is not left alone. Each Sales Qualification methodology has its own name, with each letter meaning something different, yet equally important!
For now let's just say a sales qualification methodology allows you to correctly identify whether or not a client is a good fit for what you and if they can get the maximum value from what you offer.
MEDDIC is a very popular one, you may also know BANT, SPIN or you may even have your own. Essentially what you're looking for is a pipeline full of high potential opportunities. The sales qualification methodologies allow you to get closer to that, assigning scores to those deals where you have the most relevant and important information that suggests a client will be looking to move ahead within a defined period of time.
Your sales Discovery can be structured around your methodology, and you should create questions for each of the “pillars” that you need to ask in order to determine whether or not you can help the client.
M - Metrics:
Quantifiable measures used to track progress and success in a business context. Metrics help determine the value of a solution or its impact on key performance indicators (KPIs) such as revenue, cost savings, efficiency, or growth.
E - economic buyer:
The individual in an organisation who has the authority and budget to make the final purchasing decision. This person assesses the financial impact and overall value of the solution.
D - decision process:
The series of steps an organisation follows to evaluate, approve, and finalise the purchase of a product or service. This includes internal reviews, approvals, and vendor selection timelines.
D - decision criteria:
The set of standards, priorities, and requirements an organisation uses to evaluate and compare solutions. These criteria guide decision-making and ensure the chosen option aligns with business objectives.
I - identify pain:
The process of uncovering challenges, inefficiencies, or unmet needs within a prospective customer’s organisation that your solution can address. Identifying pain is crucial for demonstrating value and urgency.
C - champion:
A person within the prospective customer’s organisation who actively supports your solution and advocates for it internally. The champion helps navigate internal politics, influences stakeholders, and drives the deal forward.
The Urgency Query: 3 Whys, and Priorities
This article is an absolute diamond and you should read it over and over again. I’m not going to try and summarise it. Just go and read it.
Why Anything? - Why should the client change anything?
Why Now? - Why should they do it now?
Why You? - Why should they use you?
If you can’t answer these questions succinctly, you need to back to your qualification.
The Curious Gene: 5 whys
At its foundational level, the five whys methodology is a root cause analysis tool.
By asking ‘why’ five times of a client you'll get to the root cause of any issue. Go and read more at the blog together above.
Imagine an Onion - peeling back the layers to get to the real truth. That’s where the motivation to change lies.
Fun fact: TIL, the 5 whys methodology was invented in the 1930s by Sakichi Toyoda
Actually Caring: Active Listening
I’ll keep this as basic as you like, but these gems of wisdom will go a long way to showing someone you’re actually engaged and listening to them
1. Eye Contact: Focus on the speaker without distractions.
2. Nods & Expressions: Use non-verbal cues like nodding or smiling.
3. Paraphrasing: Restate key points to confirm understanding.
4. Clarifying Questions: Ask questions to deepen understanding.
5. Verbal Acknowledgements: Use prompts like “I see” or “Go on.”
6. No Interruptions: Let the speaker finish before responding.
7. Emotion Reflection: Acknowledge the speaker’s emotions.
8. Follow Up: Reference earlier points to show continued engagement.
Some final notes
The sales discovery is about mutual exploration with your client. It’s about you both getting on the same wavelength and seeing if there really is a way to collaborate.
It’s not a bunch of boxes to tick off to report to your manager.
Do it well and you’ll build strong trust, credibility, and importantly a strong ally within the clients company.
Done poorly and you’ll ruin the chance to work with that company for potentially a very long time.
Hopefully these past 2 blogs have given you a small window, or even a roadmap into how you can inject a little more structure into your conversations and a lot more fun.
Good luck out there. Your clients are depending on you.
Feel free to HMU on LinkedIn Here https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregoryjmeehan/ or email me Here: greg@mindemn.com
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