In transactional sales processes, where orders are relatively small and cycle time is rapid, doing Discovery can be challenging – but is still critical!
You have limited time to gather sufficient information to enable you to propose a good solution for your prospect – and similarly time is short to ask enough questions so that your prospect feels that you have done enough diagnosis.
One simple way to accomplish this last item is to ask your prospect, “Tell me, what makes your organization unique? Are there any cultural or other attributes that differentiate you from others in your space?”
The answer to this question can feed into your diagnosis, as well. Let’s say your prospect responds, “Yes, we have a culture of constructive questioning – people are encouraged to challenge assumptions.” You can reflect this information in your description of your offering later in the conversation, with “Our dashboard enables your team to explore issues more deeply, which is in alignment with your constructive questioning culture…”
Additionally, your interrogation of the prospect’s perceived uniqueness is a way to outflank your competition. If your competitor has limited their Discovery conversation to a traditional brief extent, such as simple BANT, you have gone far beyond this with your exploration of uniqueness.
The prospect will visualize you as a better fit (everything else being equal) because of the fact that you tapped into something very specific to the prospect’s organization.
Very simple, very effective!
[Note that these uniqueness questions aren’t limited to Discovery conversations for highly transactional sales processes – they are great Discovery questions in general…]
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