Discovery: The Surprising Importance of Environment

 

Experience is knowing what questions to ask.

 

 

“If at first you don’t succeed, that’s about average for a construction project.”

— Sam “The Sledgehammer” Stevens

 

 

A colleague was remodeling her kitchen and had engaged a contractor to do the work. She had explored appliances, cabinets, fixtures, flooring, and paint colors, and felt she was ready to start construction.

 

The contractor, who had many years of experience, suggested a few additional meetings: the first in the morning on a bright sunny day, another at lunchtime, a third meeting at sunset, and one additional conference after dark.

 

During these meetings, the contractor explored factors outside the house, ranging from the arc of the sun and its impact on window size and placement, to exploring whether there were outside noise or light sources to be considered.

 

Good plan! There were, in fact, several important concerns. There was a fire station around the corner and an annoyingly bright streetlight across the street. The contractor also asked about the prevailing wind and weather (both fair and foul).

 

These discussions drove significant positive changes to the remodel plan which, if ignored, may have resulted in substantial levels of buyers’ regret, “Oh, if I had thought about that streetlight, I wouldn’t have put that window there…!”

 

Fortunately, this contractor’s experience enabled a very happy outcome.

 

Similarly, understanding your prospects’ environment when doing discovery in software sales can have major impact, including the determining the desired features and requirements, choosing a deployment strategy, achieving adoption and use, and securing renewals and expansion. 

 

The size, location, and organization of physical premises, whether staff are on site, remote, or hybrid, single site vs multiple international, pure office or manufacturing, and even whether the facilities are high-rise vs single story can all deeply influence selection of a solution. 

 

I’ve seen sites where the hallways were so long and distances between buildings so great that nobody wanted face-to-face meetings; everyone preferred using Zoom even though the prospect described their facility as a “single, compact campus.” Another organization covered their walls and even their cafeteria tables with white boards, markers, and erasers to encourage ad hoc diagramming and discussions.

 

Make a list of environment topics to discuss with your prospects in discovery. You’ll be glad you did, and your resulting customers will be even happier!

 

 

Moral: Discovery has many dimensions, both seen and heard!

 

 

You’ll find more on discovery of your prospects’ physical environment starting on page 71 in Doing Discovery: https://www.amazon.com/Doing-Discovery-Important-Enablement-Processes/dp/B0B8RJK4C2/

 

If you missed some of these posts, you’ll find another dozen or more waiting for you at https://greatdemo.com/blog/

 

And you’ll find 35 additional story gems in “Suspending Disbelief: A Collection of Sales, Presales, and Marketing Stories (and Lessons Learned)” here: https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy