When you take your time in discovery, you speed up the sales process.

The goal of every sales meeting is to get another meeting. In order for the customer to agree to another meeting, you have to make a compelling case for them to continue the conversation.

Customers don’t care about you, or your product, or how often you release new product updates, or how much money your company raised. They only care about what you can do for them and for their business.

Even if you get the next meeting, and the next, you have to build a strong business case for why the prospective customer should take the risk by recommending their company purchase your product.

The surest way to build this trust is by running a strong discovery process in the first part of your sale. Strong discovery will make or break your chances to close the sale. Yet so many salespeople rush through discovery so they can get to the demo, skipping through so much context that could help them get further in the deal.

Image you are an NFL running back and you are trying to rush toward the end zone. It’s said that patience is the key to gaining more yards. The running backs who hit the hole too hard and fast are likely to run into the backs of their own teammates. Whereas patient running backs that wait for the whole to open get further down the field faster.

Forgive my use of a sports analogy if that’s not your thing, but this one seems apt to describe the challenges that most salespeople face when running discovery with a prospective customer.

The same is true in sales. The most successful salespeople take the time to clarify the prospect's current challenges and desired outcomes.

Let’s lay out two discovery scenarios:‍

Scenario 1: An over-eager rep finally gets a meeting on the calendar with a key target account. The prospective buyer is a perfect fit for their Ideal Customer Profile.

The rep knows that if they can just get the prospect to a product demo, they will want to buy the product. So they get on the call with the customer, ask a few qualifying questions, and start to pitch the product within the first 10 minutes of first meeting the prospect.

Scenario 2: A patient rep gets a meeting on the calendar with a key target account. In advance of the meeting, the rep spends 45 minutes researching the prospect and the company to come up with questions that build rapport and establish the pain with the customer. On the call, the rep is curious and asks pointed questions about the individual and their impact on the business.

The rep confirms the key challenges facing the business and what the desired outcome is for implementing a product or solution.

It’s obvious that Scenario 2 is much more likely to lead that prospect to purchase the product because the sales rep is moving the customer from Problem aware to Solution Aware. They are going slower in the sale to make sure they understand exactly how the product should be positioned in the sales conversation.

Slowing down is tough, especially when the fit is so obvious to the salesperson. But remember that your customer isn’t in the habit of buying products. They don’t think about these problems all day, every day. And they certainly don’t think about you or your product very often.

Ease into the conversation, slow down, do your research, ask better questions, understand the pain. Once you are certain of the prospect’s current challenges and desired outcomes, it’s time to set another meeting to review the product with the right audience.

‍The risks of rushing through discovery: losing trust

When you rush through discovery in the sales process, you ignore the things about the prospect that make them unique. Every salesperson can bulldoze the early conversation and pitch the product, but this leads to a homogenous sales presentation that is perfect for no one. 

Rushing through discovery is a bad buying experience for the prospect. It leads to a reduced level of trust in the relationship because the prospect feels like they are “just another customer”.

Instead, the best salespeople carefully curate their sales presentations to only focus on the issues and challenges that are most relevant to the prospect. The best sales process is perfectly aligned with the customer’s buying process. Customers only want to talk about their own specific challenges, which is why we must take our time in discovery to identify those challenges.

‍Do your research

The best preparation for any sales process has nothing to do with running product demos or pitching the product. It’s all about doing the research and being prepared to engage the prospect in a human conversation. 

People like to do business with people they like, and people like other people who are interested in the same thing that they are interested in. These could be personal interests or professional interests. There’s no way to know in advance of a discovery call, which is why we always do our research on the individual and the business prior to the meeting.

Before your next discovery call, spend 30-45 minutes doing some research on the business and all participants on the call. Get the roster of all attendees. You don’t want any surprises on the call, it makes you look unprepared. 

Look up each person on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Facebook:

• Where does each person live? 
• What do they post about on social? 
• Where did they go to college? 
• Are they involved in any activities that you think are interesting? 
• Do you have any connections in common?

You have to find some common thread that can make the conversation easy. If you have to, just talk about the weather where they are to get them talking. Seriously, it works.

Then look at the business. If it’s publicly traded, what’s the latest news? Are there any public indications about the business growing or shrinking? Did they recently go through a merger?

If you can’t find any public information, just learn about the business. Look at how they position themselves in the market. What are the characteristics of the business that are similar to other customers you have worked with? This is usually the firmographic information like revenue, employee count, industry, location, etc.

Use the company information to find pocket stories within your own experience that you can share with the customer. This will make you seem like a trusted advisor and someone that they can open up to.

‍Slowing down your discovery shortens the sales process

It sounds counterintuitive, but it’s true. When you are patient in the discovery stage, you unearth tons of context that will help you understand the customer’s current challenges and desired outcomes.

Once you can articulate the customer’s challenges and desired outcomes, you can deliver a world-class product demo and building a business case for the partnership.

If you rush through discovery, you will have a weak business case and a tough job of getting the customer to buy your product.

Be like an NFL running back. Be patient. Wait for your hole to open (current challenges and desired outcome), then run as hard and fast as you can to deliver the outcomes for the customer.