I’ve done
some informal interviews with heads of sales and presales recently and
uncovered the following, rather consistent statements:
- Heads of sales and presales tell me that about
10% of their teams actually do Discovery very well. [Group 1]
- They also say that about 70% of their team THINK they do Discovery well, but
actually do not (in the eyes of their senior managers). [Group 2]
- The remaining 20% of their teams do realize that
they don’t do Discovery well. [Group 3]
This reveals
an interesting and rather frightening gap that deserves additional thought –
and action to address…! Looking at these
three groups again:
- Group 1:
These people are either consciously or unconsciously competent. Their knowledge and process steps need to be
captured and taught to the balance of the team.
- Group 2:
These people are unconsciously incompetent. This is extremely dangerous – they don’t know
that they aren’t doing a good job. As a
result, they don’t realize what they lack and aren’t willing to take time to
learn.
- Group 3:
These people are consciously incompetent. They recognize that they lack certain skills
and knowledge and may be interested or willing to learn.
[Quiet
question: which group are you in? (Be honest with yourself…!)]
A few ideas
to close the gap:
1. Gather your best sales and presales people
together (the Group 1 folks) for a half a day or so, have them generate Discovery
Documents and outline the key process steps that they follow when doing
Discovery. Distribute to the balance of
the field. Train managers and mentors to
coach Discovery role-play sessions for their team members (first making sure
that the managers and mentors can use the Discovery Documents and execute the
process steps well before they work with their teams!). Consider hiring a 3rd party to
facilitate and teach the above (hint hint).
2. Track closed business when Discovery was
sufficient (as measured, for example, by a completed Situation Slide) vs. where
Discovery was insufficient. This will
help identify who is in Groups 1, 2 and 3…
It will also underscore the importance of doing sufficient Discovery,
when the numbers are compared at the end of a quarter or two!
3. Consider using a tool like DemoCoach (http://factorlab.com/demo-coach) to
develop and reinforce good habits, and to share ideas with colleagues.
4. Read the article, “Stunningly Awful Demos –
Insufficient Discovery” for more ideas on doing Discovery and on the impact of not doing it well! www.SecondDerivative.com/Articles.html
5. Require reasonably complete Situation Slides prior
to assigning resources for any demo scheduled to run more than 6 minutes.
Some
additional observations I’ve heard from senior sales and presales management:
- Doing Discovery minimizes surprises – especially
negative surprises.
- Many sales and presales teams believe they have and use a consultative
model – but they really don’t!
- Many people THINK they have been learned how to
do Discovery, since they’ve been through one or more sales methodology training
courses – but most sales methodologies only scratch the surface. Even worse, most sales methodologies focus on
qualification questions as opposed to really doing Discovery.
- One senior manager positioned a lack of
sufficient Discovery beautifully. He
said, “What you don’t know will hurt
you…!”
- Another head of sales commented, “In corporate
America, successful sales people are promoted – and are expected to manage
their teams. In the military, those same
successful soldiers are first brought
back to teach the other soldiers how to win…”
How do you
successfully teach and reinforce Discovery skills in your organization today?
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