What Is a Discovery Methodology? Why Is It Important?

 

A handful of questions is not sufficient!

 

Effective discovery requires knowing when and how these questions and skills should be applied.

 

Should a discovery conversation begin with an exploration of pain? Are there best practices for timing and flow? How do you change topics; when do you dig deeper; when and how do you demonstrate empathy; how do you know when you’ve covered enough?

 

And how does an organization ensure that the output of their discovery conversations is consistent across the team? How do you avoid CRM discovery notes that consist of “Prospect confirmed pain”?

 

The answer is that discovery must be perceived as an integrated, cohesive methodology, where individual skills are applied in a structured, repeatable process.

 

An Analogy: Let’s Build a House!

 

Contemplate construction skills: The ability to hammer nails, drill holes, saw wood, pour cement, connect wiring, plumb sinks, install drywall, paint, etc. Each of these skills takes time to learn and master.

 

Building a house requires these skills and coordinated timing and flow.

 

In order to know what to build, an architect generates plans that include pages for the foundation, framing, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, roofing, painting, cabinetry, and more.

 

The contractor takes the plans and coordinates the timing for each step: That’s the methodology of construction! You can’t install wiring until the framing is in place, but you also need to do the electrical before internal drywall.

 

Imagine the disaster if a concrete foundation is poured and then the contractor realizes that plumbing and electrical conduits should have been installed first!

 

Methodology is what coordinates individual skills with the correct timing and flow.

 

Discovery as a Methodology

 

Experienced construction contractors have acquired the knowledge to lay out the timing, assemble the appropriate skilled workers, and direct them.

 

Similarly, customer-facing practitioners with years of experience build their own, personal discovery skills sets, but each will have strengths, weaknesses, and gaps based on their experiences. What is needed is an organizational discovery methodology!  

 

At the simplest, this means that vendor teams need discovery outlines or templates predefined with recommended flow and timing. A completed discovery document for a prospect is the output of the process and completed discovery documents should look similar from rep to rep.

 

A successful discovery methodology works well for both prospect and vendor. At the end of the conversation, your prospect feels fully heard and you are fully enabled to propose a precise solution.

 

Want to master discovery skills as a methodology?

 

Books:

https://www.amazon.com/Doing-Discovery-Important-Enablement-Processes/dp/B0B8RJK4C2/

 

Workshops:

https://greatdemo.com/training/workshops/doing-discovery/ 

English: Lesson Learned?

 

“Even monkeys fall from trees." (Saru mo ki kara ochiru)

– Japanese Proverb

 

 

I was visiting prospects in Japan with representatives from one of our Japanese distributor organizations. We had worked together numerous times over the years and had developed a strong relationship.

 

One day, after completing a presentation about a new technology and our latest offerings at a prospect’s site, I asked my Japanese colleague, “How did I do?”

 

He responded, “Ah! Cohan-san, everything was perfectly clear until after you said, ‘Good morning…!’”

 

 

Moral: Beware of jesting Japanese!

English, Simply!

This was a personal Dunning Kruger experience for me…

 

 

“In literature the ambition of the novice is to acquire the literary language; the struggle of the adept is to get rid of it.”

– George Bernard Shaw

 

 

Some years ago, I participated in several face-to-face users’ group meetings in Europe. I thought my presentations at these conferences were well above average, and much better than our CEO’s talks, whose delivery in my opinion was overly simple and deliberate.

 

At the close of the first day of one meeting, a few customer participants and speakers gathered in the hotel bar to socialize. Fishing for compliments (I was much younger and perhaps less wise than today), I asked some of my European customers who they appreciated most as speakers.

 

I was surprised (and slightly appalled, initially!) to learn that “the best speaker, without question, is your CEO…” When I asked, “Why?” they pointed out that for all the Continental participants, English was a second language. They said, “Your CEO’s delivery is easy to understand, and he uses words that we don’t have to look up afterwards!”

 

Lesson learned!

 

 

Moral: Use international English and slow down your delivery.

 

 

For practical guidance on the use of language, humor, and other factors in demos see Chapter 15 in Great Demo! here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9SNKC2Y/

 

Want more, similar stories? “Suspending Disbelief” offers 35 fun, bitesize, engaging stories and lessons learned like the one above.

https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

 

When Discovery Is Going Well…

There’s a feeling you get, doing discovery, when everything is clicking.

Your prospect is engaged, empathy is aligned, it’s a real conversation.

 

Your questions drive authentic insights for both you and your prospect.

Both of you are learning valuable information and exchanging ideas.

 

Your curiosity is infectious. Your quid pro quos resonate.

 

You’ve explored relevant demographics.

 

You’ve discussed your prospect’s pain, not just at the surface, but deeply.

 

You’ve inquired about the impact of that pain, upstream, downstream, and adjacent to your prospect’s immediate team.

 

You’ve uncovered numerous individual value elements, and annualizing them yields large, meaningful numbers.

 

You’ve reengineered your prospect’s vision of a solution, generating a strong bias towards your offering’s capabilities.

 

You’ve examined related pains, along with their impact and value.

 

You’ve explored key elements of your prospect’s business culture, including their implementation and adoption histories of other products.

 

And you’ve generated, with your prospect, a Mutual Action Plan that maps delightfully to their buying process.

 

Now you’ve become a real partner to your prospect, a trusted advisor.

 

This is what happens when discovery is going well – congratulations!

 

And if you are unfamiliar with any of the items above, here are two resources for you:

 

The Doing Discovery Book:

https://www.amazon.com/Doing-Discovery-Important-Enablement-Processes/dp/B0B8RJK4C2/

 

Doing Discovery Workshops:

https://greatdemo.com/training/workshops/doing-discovery/ 

Users’ Groups: An Underutilized Competitive Weapon!

 

Customers sing your praises to prospects (then beat you up about desired functionality)!

 

One of my first recommendations as a board member was to push the CEO to organize a users’ group meeting.

 

He said, “But we only have twelve customers…”

 

I responded, “Ah! Then we should have started earlier!”

 

Users’ groups are competitive weapons for SaaS vendors, enabling differentiation beyond your products.

 

Why do customers participate in users’ group meetings?

 

0.     The free bar at face-to-face meetings…!

1.     To learn how other customers are using the software

2.     To push the vendor to implement or improve capabilities

3.     To get insight into the product roadmap (and influence it).

 

Number 1 above is often the most interesting and most important for current customers: 

 

-       What applications are being used successfully by other customers?

-       How are other customers’ implementations different or better?

-       What additional applications and use cases have other customers put into play? 

-       What value are they enjoying? 

-       What implementation and adoption challenges were encountered and overcome?

 

And the value to your customers increases with increasing complexity and application breadth of your product(s). Users’ group meetings for “toolkit” offerings, for example, offer very high value for customers.

 

Next, why do vendors hold users’ group meetings?

 

1.     To learn how their customers are using the software

2.     To gain insights into customer desires and future needs

3.     To move prospects forward in their evaluation and buying processes.

 

Number 1 yields extremely valuable formal and informal success stories (see “Fabulous Fuel for Sales, Presales and Customer Success: The Incredible Utility of Informal Success Stories” – https://greatdemo.com/fabulous-fuel-for-sales-presales-and-customer-success-the-incredible-utility-of-informal-success-stories/)

 

Number 2, of course, provides excellent input into your product planning and roadmaps.

 

And number 3 can be a very powerful social referencing and proof-point mechanism! When you invite prospects to your users’ group meetings, they interact with existing customers, asking questions like “Are you happy with the software?” and “Would you buy it again?” The answers may be all the proof needed to move forward with a purchase.

 

And there’s a fourth nugget that can occasionally be uncovered: Why did your current customers choose you over other options? The answers to this question are sales and marketing gold!

 

Finally, an active users’ group can help you outflank competition. When you and your competitors’ offerings are very similar with respect to features and capabilities, you can use whole product analysis to bias the comparison in your favor: your users’ group may provide the critical advantage! (See “Competitive Differentiation via Whole Product Analysis” here: https://greatdemo.com/competitive-differentiation-via-whole-product-analysis/).

 

 

When’s your next users’ group meeting?

Another Member of the Sales Prevention Team

 

Want a horror story? 

(I love sales and demo horror stories!)

 

 

"It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen."

–  John Wooden

 

 

 

A lack of situational awareness can be costly.

 

I was watching an online demo a while ago, when one of the prospect team members asked a question. The salesperson chatted to the presenter, “Ignore that question – that guy is an idiot!” 

 

Sadly, the salesperson didn’t realize that he had included “Everyone” in the chat, not just the presenter. 

 

End of demo, end of sales cycle…

 

 

Moral: Be careful of what you chat and to whom!

 

 

Want more fun, bitesize, engaging stories and lessons learned? 

See my new book “Suspending Disbelief!”

https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

 

For more tips and best practices for online and virtual demos see Chapter 13 in Great Demo! here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9SNKC2Y/