I used to feel like asking a list of discovery questions to qualify a prospect during a call was awkward and not useful. Now I realize it’s actually a key part to a consultative sales experience and should feel conversational.
Discovery questions should be asked because you genuinely want to know how to help them. It would be a disservice not to ask in the same way you would be wary of a doctor that jumped directly into treatment merely because you showed up in their office!
When you genuinely want to know how to help, it’s easy to make the whole exchange feel more conversational. When it’s conversational, everyone can put their guard down and be more forthcoming about their needs and whether your solution is a fit.
See also:
- Sending follow-up emails is worth billions per year so don’t forget to follow-up afterwards
- Getting comfortable with this process makes for more effective founder-led sales too
- A third of sales comes from doing nothing at all so stay out of the way when someone is ready to buy
Links to this note
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Don’t Try to Sell Doctors to Healthy People
Sales is difficult enough, but selling a good solution to the wrong people makes it worse.
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How to Set up an Inbound Sales Motion
It should be repeatable, measurable, and profitable. Every product and business is different. This will focus on a B2B SaaS product.