Prospecting

5 Questions You Should Never Ask on a Sales Discovery Call

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5 Questions You Should Never Ask on a Sales Discovery Call

You’ve probably heard me say this before: Prospect discovery and pipeline discovery are two VERY different meetings. And, the questions you ask on a sales discovery call are MUCH different from those you ask in pipeline discovery. If you’re not adamantly nodding your head in agreement, go and read about the difference right here.

If we can agree that prospect discovery should feel light and focus on building rapport, you’ll also agree that we want to stay away from your typical discovery questions. All we need to do is find an edge, right? A hint of P.A.I.N., not deep actual pain. 

So here are five questions you can ditch immediately and NEVER ask in a sales discovery call (warning, you were probably taught to ask all of these in training).

  1. What isn’t working about your current solution?
  2. What is keeping you up at night?
  3. If you had a magic wand, how would you fix it?
  4. What do you think not solving this is costing you?
  5. How does picking the right solution impact you?

Yes, if you Google, “10 best sales discovery call questions” you’ll see every one of these. So why am I hating? Because nobody wants to get into this with you right now. This isn’t a scheduled pipeline call, it’s a prospect call. They don’t necessarily HAVE a defined problem, and you asking more about it and what it’s costing them personally and professionally is just funny – and more than a little irritating. 

Here are a few to try instead.

  1. What are you using today for XYZ? (your category here)
  2. What do you like about it? (finding likes, needs)
  3. What drew you to it? (finding challenges they’re solving)
  4. Any issues at all with 123? (likelihood of falling into potential pitfalls)
  5. Have you seen the new ABC? (insert cool related tech here [not necessarily yours] to test for newness)

Each of these map to the P.A.I.N. questions for prospect discovery. Each is designed to find a tiny edge you might be able to flip up into a full-blown need on the next call. Remember, the goal of the prospect discovery is NOT to collect fruit that has already fallen from the tree – those are pipeline calls (they have a need, they’ve found you, let’s talk about fit). Prospecting calls are when we’re climbing the tree looking for fruit that will be ripe soon. The most important thing you can do is not be pushed out of the tree! Back your questions off and just look for fruit.

Important: These questions should be asked in a light and positive tone. I’m not searching for what’s wrong, I’m asking genuine questions about your likes and dislikes and I’m learning with a curious and open mind about your situation, the market, and the competitive landscape. What I’m NOT doing is looking for a chance to wedge in my pitch, outsell who you’re using, or impress you with my better features. Remember, this is a connection conversation. If I learn about you authentically, don’t badmouth the competition, and present no threat of a hard sell then I’m just a nice person having a great conversation and I’ve moved from probable distrust into conditional trust. 

That gets “yesses” to the next meeting.

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prospecting

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How the Hell Do I Prospect Right Now? Part 2

In part 1, we talked about call planning.  I hope you’ll check it out here as your outreach depends on getting to the right people with the right questions.

Outreach

So let’s talk about the outreach call, email, or social media message? 

Written

My advice: keep it short, zero sales, and very human.  Lead with humanity, the desire to help, and an eagerness to learn and talk.  Not pitch.  I dare you to craft a message that has nothing at all to do with you and everything to do with them.  I’ve replied to messages who even say that it’s a strange time to reach out, even those who vaguely apologize for doing so.  I haven’t replied to a single three-paragraph value prop. 

Voicemail

Ask yourself what calls you’ve returned in the past few weeks. Company I’ve been dodging for months to sell online credentials – hard pass. In fact, I’ve eye-rolled at the message as he and I both know damn well I should have been segmented to the bottom (read about segmenting and more planning in part 1 here)

FedEx account rep who was sorry to bother but thought she could save me some money – yes. Even called her during “I’m on kids” time and talked for fifteen minutes.

We have four simple strategies that work better than any other I’ve seen for getting a call back (watch more here) but the key is to customize these even further with empathy.  During these times I recommend you downplay the “mystery and urgency” approach and lean more on the “value or lever” approaches.  Let your message show that you know who they are and you get their situation.  A few lines I like to get you started:

“I’ve been thinking about you and wondering how you and your team are doing”

“What a crazy time to call…or maybe crazier NOT to call…but I do hope you’ll call me back…”

“You may not be taking sales calls, but if you’ll give me five minutes, I might be able to save you some money right now / make things easier right now.  Anyway, I’d really appreciate it…”

“I understand you won’t be going to XYZ conference anymore this summer with person A and person B, could we talk about that…”

Call

Same with our opening call.  How are you doing?  How is your business doing?  How are your people doing?  These are your go-to questions right now, and people want to answer them (a year ago I told folks to ditch the “how are you?”).

Keep the rapport building and empathy section of your call long and strong.  A quick pivot into exploring for sales opportunities starts to smell.  Want to build the fastest rapport?  Get real and share your side as well.  Skip the pat, “Hanging in there…it’s the new normal.”  If you want to connect, share something real.  What are you struggling with?  For me it’s managing homeschooling and not drinking every day.  It’s a little personal and a lot real and it builds fast connections with virtual strangers.

Now is the time to be 100% human.

Not an employee.  Not a rep.  Not a brand.  Be you.  And enjoy it.  Connecting with people is probably a big reason you got into sales in the first place.  If you achieve nothing else but a fifteen-minute rapport-building session at a personal level, you’ve achieved a lot.  Be willing to leave it there.  In the wise words of my friend Colleen Stanley, author of Emotional Intelligence for Sales Leadership: Ask yourself if your prospecting effort demonstrates that you get their world right now.  It’s the perfect litmus test.

Disco Anyone?

If you’re lucky enough to go further and you’re in a discovery call, lead with learning.  Understanding how your customers and prospects are approaching their business and lives gives you great stories to share with the rest of your prospects.  I want to know:

1.       How are sales?

2.       How are they serving their customers?

3.       What are the biggest challenges?

4.       Any hiring or layoffs?

5.       Any new markets or approaches?

6.       Any changes to the tools they are using?

7.       How has their leadership approached this?

8.       Have they had to change or cancel plans?

9.       Are budgets frozen?

10.   What are the top priorities right now?

And that’s just getting started.  These answers will not only help you connect but even change your approach as needed. 

Tell Stories

Even better, if you’re leading with learning in discovery, you’re collecting stories to tell others that can help other prospects and even yourself (XYZ company is actually hiring right now because….spending right now because….buying software because…)  Storytelling is key right now – right up there with empathy.

You are providing a service by doing some cross-pollination.  What is the flowerbed over there doing?  How about our competition?  What are you hearing that’s real and not either fake news or LinkedIn fluff?

And the Pitch!

Finally, if you’re in a position to pitch something, very carefully lead with value – and customized value to the situation (you planned this above!).  You’re not just convincing people why to do business with you, it’s why to do business with you RIGHT NOW.

May I also be so bold as to recommend a backup.  If you pitch the sale, be prepared with an offer.  I’m offering discounts, payment plans, and delayed payments.  I’m trial closing for next month or quarter when this doesn’t work.  Help people who want to say yes to do it or to sell it internally right now.

I hope you grabbed some nuggets in the above.  Take “lead with empathy” to a new level with your planning, your outreach, your discovery, and your pitch.  Note what’s working, cross-pollinate stories, and set yourself up to love your sales day rather than feeling (and smelling) like failure.  Harsh…but fair.

It’s time you guys.  Let’s get after this together.

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How the hell do I prospect right now-01

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How the Hell Do I Prospect Right Now? Part 1

I can smell fear.  You can too. And if we’re being pressured to produce pre-pandemic numbers I can smell the source. But if it’s leading to mass cold outreach and a  tireless blast of pitch pitch pitch, these days it smells not just like sales C-list, it smells like sales Death.  

So let’s get intentional about how we sell during the pandemic and let’s pray these best practices stick to all of us afterward (and that I never have to type that phrase again).

A few best practices from our team at Factor 8:

Planning

Take five to ensure that when you do get someone you’re prepared. They may actually be the most important part.

Ruthlessly Segment

Start by segmenting your list into companies or people who might need your services even more right now.  Then the folks who still could need your services.  Hard-hit industries and companies go to the bottom.  Be selective and force yourself to put your list into these three categories as evenly as possible.  Resist the urge to say, “Everyone needs XYZ right now…” that’s as fool hearty as, “I have no competition.”  Be a critic and be ruthless with yourself.

Value Prop

Now reframe your value proposition.  Why do these companies need you more or still need you now?  Carve your typical features and benefits to only benefits and those influenced by our current times.  It’s always best practice to tie your product to an industry trend, and boy do we have a biggy right now.  Start by asking how this global trend would affect your prospect and develop 1-3 key benefits for them right now (not features, benefits).

For example, prior to COVID, I could say any company with an inside sales team needs phone skills training for reps and management skills for new leaders to improve call quality, sales results and employee engagement.  Now the very top of our prospect list are companies who traditionally sell face to face and who have no idea how to engage digitally. Companies with years of inside sales experience and enablement departments with robust virtual offerings are bottom of my list.  I don’t lead with the amazing results we get in live workshops, I talk about our virtual offering, executive forums, referral programs, and dedicated manager coaching. (In other words, leave some of your tricks in the bag.) The benefits we emphasize are improved call quality vs. quantity, protecting them from lost opportunities, making it easier on their leaders, keeping morale high, and the long-term payoff of a team ready to crush it when things are back to normal. 

Image

I’d be remiss in not also advising y’all to get intentional about your background.  Video calls are king, and I’ve seen open closets, unmade beds, and piles of laundry in backgrounds.  On the same note, use your prospect’s visual clues to build rapport. Family pictures? Golf trophies? The weather out a window?  If you show it, you want to talk about it – both directions.

Reframe Goals

Finally, I urge you to create some baby call goals. If your usual goal is to get a meeting, send a quote, or close a sale; your new goals could be to get their interest, develop a relationship, or qualify the account.  We need small wins here and although budgets may be frozen, now is an amazing time to set up your future self for some fast sales. Right now people are:

  • Taking more calls
  • Attending more scheduled meetings
  • Attending more webinars
  • Getting real

(Thanks to my friend Chris Beall at ConnectAndSell for feeding me that data based on thousands of calls, connects, and shows).

So what if we went into calls with the goal of having a good conversation, learning about their situation, identifying future needs, and connecting with people at a human level?  That’s a sales call I’m more willing to make and one I’m more willing to take. It also helps me start my day with an achievable (dare-say benevolent?) goal rather than a waft of desperation.  If we open up a few opportunities during this, awesome. If we pave the way for future success, let’s take it.

Tune in to part 2 to learn more tips on the email, social, and phone call outreach.

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