Discovery calls are a crucial part of your prospect’s journey to choosing to do business with your company. They offer a chance for your Sales Engineers to fully understand what your prospect is looking for, what their current pains are, and how to effectively solve their problems. However, it can be easy for Sales Engineers to make simple mistakes that lead to a less productive conversation and a missed opportunity. To ensure your team avoids making these mistakes and makes the most of every discovery call, watch out for these top 3 mistakes SEs make in Discovery Calls.
The most common and detrimental mistake Sales Engineers make in Discovery calls is selling too much. It is important to remember that the purpose of a Discovery call is for you to ask a prospect questions so that you can understand their situation, not to start telling them about all the features your product/service can provide. If you get distracted from asking these questions, you aren’t providing value to your prospect or cultivating a relationship where they feel heard. When a prospect comes to you looking for a solution, they are in a vulnerable state and want to feel heard. So if you focus on selling, or have even the slightest bit of “sales breathe” the customer can smell it. It’s one of the easiest ways to lose rapport with your customer.
More often than not, the prospect has already researched your company and knows what you do. So when you ask them about their problems, they sometimes start proposing solutions without even thinking about it. You’ve probably seen this before, but just to make it more clear, let’s take an example.
Suppose you sell a project management solution. You may ask...
“So, what problems are you currently experiencing with managing your projects?”
Frequently, the customer will respond with something like...
“We’re backed up and we need to be more prescriptive and do a better job of planning.”
Most sales engineers would think, “Great! I have a solution for being more prescriptive and doing better planning!” But wait...
If you look closely, your prospect gave you one part problem (being backed up) and one part solution (being more prescriptive and better at planning).
So if the customer gives you a solution rather than a problem, you need to remember that your intent is to map their problem to a business issue such as lost revenue, increased expenses, etc. To do this, try asking…
“Has being backed up caused you any business issues in the past?”
If your prospect responds with a yes, you can then take it a step further and ask...
“Okay, did that affect anyone in the business?”
The prospect may respond with something like:
“Yes, the business was not able to launch their product on time, so we missed all of our sales targets and the stock price tumbled.”
As you can see, the goal should be to start with a problem, and then continue to dig deeper until you can link the problem to an important business issue. So if your customers are giving you solutions rather than problems, make sure you understand why they are solutions. In other words, find out what problem is being solved by the solution, and what important business issue is being impacted by that problem.
While it is important to ask questions rather than sell, you should also ensure you ask the right questions. This means that all of your questions should have the intent to uncover the problems and pains that your prospect is experiencing. Many “consultative sellers” make the mistake of asking questions in order to “build rapport” and to “have a conversation.” This may work in consulting, but not in sales because if your questions don’t help both you and the prospect better understand the problem, then you’re not adding value, you’re wasting your prospect’s time.
The biggest mistake that people make in discovery calls is not doing discovery. Remember that unless the customer has a problem, your "solution" isn't a solution and you should keep doing discovery.
Unlike traditional presales training that teaches engineers how to give demos, Alpha Presales teaches engineers how to take ownership of the sale. We’ll help you take your sales engineers to the next level with skill-building workshops that improve their Leadership, Discovery, and Storytelling skills. Book a call with Alpha Presales and help your team get to the next level.
Discovery calls are a crucial part of your prospect’s journey to choosing to do business with your company. They offer a chance for your Sales Engineers to fully understand what your prospect is looking for, what their current pains are, and how to effectively solve their problems. However, it can be easy for Sales Engineers to make simple mistakes that lead to a less productive conversation and a missed opportunity. To ensure your team avoids making these mistakes and makes the most of every discovery call, watch out for these top 3 mistakes SEs make in Discovery Calls.
The most common and detrimental mistake Sales Engineers make in Discovery calls is selling too much. It is important to remember that the purpose of a Discovery call is for you to ask a prospect questions so that you can understand their situation, not to start telling them about all the features your product/service can provide. If you get distracted from asking these questions, you aren’t providing value to your prospect or cultivating a relationship where they feel heard. When a prospect comes to you looking for a solution, they are in a vulnerable state and want to feel heard. So if you focus on selling, or have even the slightest bit of “sales breathe” the customer can smell it. It’s one of the easiest ways to lose rapport with your customer.
More often than not, the prospect has already researched your company and knows what you do. So when you ask them about their problems, they sometimes start proposing solutions without even thinking about it. You’ve probably seen this before, but just to make it more clear, let’s take an example.
Suppose you sell a project management solution. You may ask...
“So, what problems are you currently experiencing with managing your projects?”
Frequently, the customer will respond with something like...
“We’re backed up and we need to be more prescriptive and do a better job of planning.”
Most sales engineers would think, “Great! I have a solution for being more prescriptive and doing better planning!” But wait...
If you look closely, your prospect gave you one part problem (being backed up) and one part solution (being more prescriptive and better at planning).
So if the customer gives you a solution rather than a problem, you need to remember that your intent is to map their problem to a business issue such as lost revenue, increased expenses, etc. To do this, try asking…
“Has being backed up caused you any business issues in the past?”
If your prospect responds with a yes, you can then take it a step further and ask...
“Okay, did that affect anyone in the business?”
The prospect may respond with something like:
“Yes, the business was not able to launch their product on time, so we missed all of our sales targets and the stock price tumbled.”
As you can see, the goal should be to start with a problem, and then continue to dig deeper until you can link the problem to an important business issue. So if your customers are giving you solutions rather than problems, make sure you understand why they are solutions. In other words, find out what problem is being solved by the solution, and what important business issue is being impacted by that problem.
While it is important to ask questions rather than sell, you should also ensure you ask the right questions. This means that all of your questions should have the intent to uncover the problems and pains that your prospect is experiencing. Many “consultative sellers” make the mistake of asking questions in order to “build rapport” and to “have a conversation.” This may work in consulting, but not in sales because if your questions don’t help both you and the prospect better understand the problem, then you’re not adding value, you’re wasting your prospect’s time.
The biggest mistake that people make in discovery calls is not doing discovery. Remember that unless the customer has a problem, your "solution" isn't a solution and you should keep doing discovery.
Unlike traditional presales training that teaches engineers how to give demos, Alpha Presales teaches engineers how to take ownership of the sale. We’ll help you take your sales engineers to the next level with skill-building workshops that improve their Leadership, Discovery, and Storytelling skills. Book a call with Alpha Presales and help your team get to the next level.
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