Dimensions of Discovery – Webinar Recording Available Now

 

Does one size of discovery fit all prospects? 

Nope!

A surprising number of dimensions impact your discovery effectiveness, beginning with your very first contact and proceeding well beyond purchase. What are these parameters and how do we address them?

How do you get the discovery information you need without overwhelming your prospect? How much is enough? What do you need to capture? We’ll examine:

• Qualification vs Discovery
• “Just Browsing” vs “Active Buying Process” Prospects
• Simple Tools vs Complex Offerings
• Champion Experience
• Buyer Experience
• Executives vs Everybody Else
• Discovery Across the Technology Adoption Curve
• A Medical Analogy
• Applying a Discovery Methodology
• So How Much Discovery Is Enough?

Here is the recording from this exploration of these intriguing and unexpectedly important discovery dimensions!

https://goconsensus.com/webinar/dimensions-of-discovery/

“This book is the book I never knew I needed to read!”

“This book is the book I never knew I needed to read!”

- Adam Freeman

Great reading over the holidays (any holidays!).

Doing Discovery!

Dimensions of Discovery – Webinar November 30

Does one size of discovery fit all prospects? 

Nope!

A surprising number of dimensions impact your discovery effectiveness, beginning with your very first contact and proceeding well beyond purchase. What are these parameters and how do we address them?

How do you get the discovery information you need without overwhelming your prospect? How much is enough? What do you need to capture? We’ll examine:

• Qualification vs Discovery
• “Just Browsing” vs “Active Buying Process” Prospects
• Simple Tools vs Complex Offerings
• Champion Experience
• Buyer Experience
• Executives vs Everybody Else
• Discovery Across the Technology Adoption Curve
• A Medical Analogy
• Applying a Discovery Methodology
• So How Much Discovery Is Enough?

Join us Thursday November 30 at 9:00 AM Pacific Time as we explore these intriguing and unexpectedly important discovery dimensions!

Doing Discovery Edizione Italiana – Doing Discovery Italian Edition

I am absolutely delighted to announce the availability of Doing Discovery in Italian! Many thanks to Giorgio Gnoli who performed the translation. You can find this Edizione Italiana on Amazon.it here in Kindle format. Godere!

Discovery and Demos Across the Technology Adoption Curve

Discovery and Demos Across the Technology Adoption Curve

or

How to Avoid Crashing into the Chasm

(A Never Stop Learning! Article)

What’s in This Article for You?

• An example of crashing into and then escaping from the Chasm
• A Technology Adoption Curve refresh
• Symptoms and solutions to Chasm crashing
• Intriguing statistics and implications
• What about Laggards?

Plus, Three Take-aways:

1. Why your current demos may no longer work.
2. The level of proof required by prospects increases as you progress across the Curve.
3. No Decision outcomes increase similarly.

Axioms

A “standard” demo will not fit all Curve categories.

Similarly, “standard” discovery does not apply to all Curve categories.

Very simply, for discovery and demos, one size does not fit all!

A Story

We had recently released our new flagship software which embodied the latest cutting-edge technologies. We had great success selling it to some of our existing customers and a few prospects, and then there was the terrible sound of nothing: no subsequent sales.

The balance of our prospects and existing customers didn’t resonate with our technology presentation. They didn’t understand our demo. Discovery, which had been previously seemed very effective, didn’t yield the expected results. We heard nothing but the sound of crickets in an empty room. Over 80% of our market was unresponsive.

What was happening?

My boss at that time was good friends with Geoffrey Moore, who was in the process of launching his “Crossing the Chasm” workshops, and Mr. Moore was invited to use us as a test case for his training.

It was highly successful. In the midst of the session, I exclaimed, “Holy cow – we’re in the Chasm…!”

What we learned and applied pulled us out of the chasm, resulting in a sales renaissance of our flagship, dominating the verticals that we addressed, and catapulting us towards the coveted $100 million annual revenue milestone.

You can find the balance of this article here – Enjoy!

What Is Uncontrolled Vocabulary?

“And we offer the highest degree of allowlisting,” said the sales rep.

There were blank looks from the majority of the prospect players in the meeting, but no one said anything.

“But wait: There’s more! Our system delivers near-real-time dynamic allowlisting!” announced the rep, triumphantly, clearly expecting a chorus of “oohs” and “aahs”.

Again, there was no response from the prospect team. In fact, most of them looked confused and slightly annoyed. What was going on?

The vignette above was a segment of a recorded product demo that I was reviewing on behalf of the vendor who had asked me for comments and feedback. In my notes, I said there was clearly a problem with Controlled vs Uncontrolled Vocabulary, and included this explanation:

My colleague Steve Young taught me about Controlled Vocabulary years ago. He noted that vendors frequently use verbiage and jargon that is meaningless to prospects. At that time, we were exceedingly guilty of it ourselves, having just released our new disruptive, technologically advanced flagship product.

We had cooked ourselves a veritable stew of expressions, terms, phrases, words, idioms, and slogans that, while palatable to us, our prospects perceived it as entirely undigestible.

He pointed out that when all participants in a meeting share a common understanding of terms, it is “Controlled Vocabulary” and precise communication can be enjoyed. However, when one or more participants are unfamiliar with a word or a phrase, clear-cut communication is curtailed. 

These terms are “Uncontrolled Vocabulary” and they are effectively rejected by your audience. Even worse, Uncontrolled Vocabulary tends to annoy prospects, as it positions them as uninformed or worse!

The lessons are clear: 

1. Ensure that you and your prospect share the same understanding of terminology.
2. Identify and close any gaps.
3. Use the prospect’s words whenever possible!

What’s the difference between a mystery and a puzzle, with respect to demos?

With a puzzle, the more information you have, the closer you get to solving the puzzle. With a mystery, however, more information doesn’t help – it just makes the mystery more, well, mysterious!

Your objective with a demo is to help your prospect solve their puzzle. That means doing discovery to understand what is needed, and then presenting exactly what your prospect needs to see to complete the solution to their puzzle.

You turn your demo into a mystery by showing features your prospect doesn’t need, want, or care about.

Frankly, it’s a mystery why so many demos do this!

Critical Business Issue?

Many people struggle to understand the (critical!) difference between a Critical Business Issue and “pain” (or Problems/Reasons). Here’s an easy example to help clarify…

Salespeople: How many of you want more, better leads?

Everyone?

OK, how important is it to you? Rank it on a scale from 1-10…

Those of you who chose 7 or higher: Are you at risk of missing your numbers or not achieving quota?

If Yes? That’s a Critical Business Issue!

Your Critical Business Issue is your need to achieve your objective of reaching (or exceeding) your quota. A contributing “pain” (Problems/Reasons) is your lack of a sufficient number of well-qualified leads.

If No? Nope, that’s just a “pain” you can likely live with. You might like to have more and better leads, but you probably won’t take action or invest tangible resources to pursue them!

You can find more on the importance of Critical Business Issues and how to uncover them in this article and our Great Demo! and Doing Discovery books.