I help founders who sell, but aren't "sales"people. Are you open to one hyper actionable sales tip per week, useful for your very next sales meeting and consumable in 4 minutes or less?
#022: Discovery Call
Hey, 👋 Scott from The Sales Mastermind here.
Today’s edition only takes 3 minutes.
By popular demand we have another Back to Basics
Story Time
I used to look at busy cafes and say:
And my father, a successful coach to small business owners, would correct me:
While studying accounting, we compared the P/Ls of local businesses.
My father was right.
Some highly trafficked businesses were struggling.
Sometimes, it was a lousy lease agreement. Others were throwing out too much fresh produce. Some had out-of-control wages.
To understand what's happening inside any business, you must ask.
Discovery
Asking a buyer about their business is called "Discovery."
It is the most crucial part of any buying journey as it sets the tone.
And what you uncover during Discovery will inform your pitch.
Discovery is the stage when a buyer is open and direct. Once you pitch, it's a different story.
What it takes to buy
From a buyer's perspective, they need to answer three main questions to make a purchase:
- Why should I buy anything?
- Why should I buy from you?
- Why should I buy now?
Why should I buy anything?
On the surface, many buyers have the pain and can't be bothered addressing it (or they already would have).
If the solution is $10,000 and the pain only costs 1 hour per month. A rational buyer may decide it's not worth the effort for an insignificant gain.
An elite seller is an expert in the problems they solve. They can expand the problem from 1 hour per month to multiple FTEs worth of salary plus additional lost revenue. Over $100,000 in cost.
Now, $10,000 sounds cheap.
Before you go any further, ensure the buyer isn't scratching their head thinking, "Why should I buy anything?"
Why should I buy from you?
There are endless ways to solve pain.
Some are direct competitors (e.g., Hubspot CRM vs Salesforce). Others are complimentary (e.g., Hubspot CRM vs Google Sheets). Many are strategic choices (e.g., a physical Rolodex with handwritten notes).
Each of these solves a pain in very different ways.
Elite sellers learn their buyers' ways of working and critical business objectives to position their product as the natural choice.
Any buyer needs to know their reason for buying from you, not the alternatives.
Why should I buy now?
Humans are risk-averse. The safest option is always no change.
Therefore, buyers need a compelling reason to do it now instead of delaying it. It usually includes the financial justification from "Why should I buy anything?"
Typically, timelines are linked to company deadlines. Good deadlines are:
- Financial reporting quarters or year-end
- OKRs or other company-wide deadlines
- Project deadlines set by the C-suite or the Board
In an ideal world, an elite seller will also link the purchase to an event in the buyer's personal life.
With externally motivated deadlines, a seller can push hard. For example, the buyer is about to get married and wants to get something complete before leaving for their honeymoon.
Make it real: How to run a Discovery Call
A good discovery call involves asking questions, teasing outcomes, and seeding the next steps.
30 minutes is a good length. Long enough to be useful. Short enough for a first meeting.
The structure I suggest is:
- 5 minutes of intro, agenda, small talk, etc
- 15 minutes of uncovering their pain - Start to answer "Why buy anything?" and "Why buy now?"
- 5 minutes demoing one specific workflow - Start to answer, "Why buy from you?" and seed the next steps
- 5 mins to BAMFAM
LinkedIn Posts of the Week:
Launching a business doesn’t matter by Me
Teach me how to sell in 30 minutes (Inspiration for today’s newsletter) by Anton Dobrzhanskiy
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Until next week,
Scott Cowley
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I help founders who sell, but aren't "sales"people. Are you open to one hyper actionable sales tip per week, useful for your very next sales meeting and consumable in 4 minutes or less?
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