Assessing Discovery Skill Levels: Levels 2 and 3

 

Let’s go a bit deeper to…

Level 2

 

When doing discovery, if you or your colleagues simply uncover “Pain” and go no further, then you and they are operating at Level 1. You are at risk of losing to superior competition and No Decision outcomes.

 

Vendor reps with slightly better discovery skills ask follow-up questions to explore the prospect’s pain more deeply. For example:

 

The prospect says, “Our current process is manual…”

 

Vendor replies, “Sorry to hear this – why is this an issue?”

 

Prospect responds, “Well, it takes too long to get the reports we need and there are often errors in the reports…”

 

This represents a step up in skills attainment to Level 2. The pain is a bit deeper and broader, but we can go much further!

 

Level 3

 

Practitioners at Level 3 seek to understand more about the impact of the pain on the prospect’s immediate and extended organization. Let’s continue the conversation:

 

The prospect says, “Our current process is manual…”

 

Vendor replies, “Sorry to hear this – why is this an issue?”

 

Prospect responds, “Well, it takes too long to get the reports we need and there are often errors in the reports, because of the manual process…”

 

Vendor asks, “What’s in these reports and how are they used?”

 

Prospect answers, “Well, the reports give us visibility into where we have problems to address. When the reports are late – which is nearly always – the delay results in unhappy internal customers…”

This conversation continues, exploring the content of the reports, how they are consumed, the nature of the problems, how the user population is impacted, and how addressing the process impacts the prospect’s goals and objectives.

 

This discussion broadens and deepens the exploration of the pain and seeks to look beyond the workflow. Who else is impacted and in which departments? Is this a local pain or something that affects the organization more extensively?

 

Level 3 is all about understanding impact.  

 

 

Wondering about Levels 4 – 7? See the full article here!

https://greatdemo.com/assessing-discovery-skill-levels-how-does-your-team-rate/ 

 

Want to take action and improve your discovery skills?

 

Books:

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

 

Or take advantage of the upcoming Public Workshops!

https://greatdemo.com/events/ 

Assessing Discovery Skill Levels: How Do You Rate?

 Many sales and presales practitioners say they are skilled at doing discovery – but are they? Are you? Here’s a simple method to assess yourself or your team, based on seven levels of increasing proficiency:

 

Level 1:   Uncovers statements of pain.

Level 2:   Uncovers pain and explores more deeply.

Level 3:   Uncovers pain, explores deeply, broadens the pain and investigates the impact.

Level 4:   Uncovers pain, explores and broadens, investigates impact and quantifies.

Level 5:   Uncovers pain, explores and broadens, investigates impact, quantifies and reengineers vision.

Level 6:   Applies these skills to the broad range of prospects represented across the Technology Adoption Curve, “burn victims”, disruptive and new product categories, transactional sales cycles, and other scenarios.

Level 7:   Integrates and aligns the skills above into a cohesive discovery methodology.

 

Level 1

 

When doing discovery, if you or your colleagues simply uncover “Pain” and go no further, then you and they are novices!

 

For example, your prospect offers, “Our current process is manual…” Many vendors leap to propose a solution at this point. Sadly, that’s what happens in far too many “discovery calls.”

 

Operating at Level 1 can barely be called “doing discovery”! It is clearly insufficient and results in losses to more competent vendors and No Decision outcomes.

 

Wondering about Levels 2 – 7? See the full article here!

https://greatdemo.com/assessing-discovery-skill-levels-how-does-your-team-rate/ 

 

Want to take action and improve your discovery skills?

 

Books:

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

 

Or take advantage of the upcoming Public Workshops!

https://greatdemo.com/events/ 

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/