Discovery Call Slip Ups: No Matter How Seasoned, We All Flub Up
Have you ever spent time with an Ironman?
Training for an Ironman can take upwards of 12-18 months. If you don't know what an Ironman is, it is a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, followed by a full 26.2 marathon. The training path is rigorous, often requiring month long stretches where athletes train up to fifteen hours per week. They hone their craft!
It is rare to find someone who has put in grueling hours, who then hasn't second guessed themselves upon race day, as well as the days after the race. They dissect each moment, step, and what they would have done differently.
Things happen during a race and you have to adjust mid race - no matter the shape you are in or the training you have done (weather, gut issues, caloric intake, water and electrolytes, mindset, training shortfalls, etc.).
How do I know all of this? My husband is a four time full Ironman finisher and a two time half Ironman finisher - so I live all of this!
Photo Credit ME - of my husband around mile 129 of his October 2023 Maryland IM race dealing with some cramping (no he wasn't happy with his 10 hour time!!!)
Get to the point Celeste!
Sales discovery is hard, and do not let anyone tell you it's not! Even a seasoned VP of Sales, CRO, Director, Manager, Account Executive and/or Sales Trainer flubs at times.
(If you are reading this asking what a sales discovery is - it's a conversation - or series of - to uncover information and happens early on in the sales process)
Why are discoveries difficult from SDR up through C-Suite? (here are just a few reasons)
- There are no set discovery questions (lemme say that again because a quick google search will return you a ton of people trying to sell you their playbook, or sets of questions to ask. Just like in an Ironman, you do not know what the day will bring - you have to adjust in the moment).
- You only can find out so much about the person on the other end of the phone (their company, role, persona, problems, KPI's, team, etc.).
- You and/or the customer are human (insert mood, kids, off day, traffic, work stress, hunger, interruptions, etc.)
- One party brings something up and you end up going down a rabbit hole of questions or getting lost in the technical weeds.
- Your team doesn't know the three or four problems you solve for so you do not know what questions to ask.
- Teams fall back into bad habits even though they have role played and had multiple discovery calls.
- You are out of practice!!! (That one is for all the leadership who is so far removed and yet still needs to understand what their team goes through).
When you or your team flub, then what?
There are numerous reasons things can get wonky during discovery. *VPs - take note.
Just yesterday, I had a few calls and afterwards, was debriefing with my team and coach about what was missed! It was a team collab and was awesome.
Yesterday, Eddy Bahnam, 2x Sales Leader and 7X Advisor, made a post on LinkedIn calling himself out for missing some critical information on one of his recent discover calls. I giggled a bit when I saw Marcus Chan comment about how he still flubs Discos!
How Do We Course Correct?
If you ask ten people how to fix your discovery flub, you will get ten answers. If you ask me, I'd tell you the following:
- Own it! Life happens and just like the Ironman, there is always room for improvement. Progress over perfection.
- Ditch the critic. We are often our own worst enemy and cringe when we listen to the call recording, read the script or have a Manager review the call.
- Practice and Research. Role play with others; research your buyer and immerse yourself in their world. Ask questions when you don't know!
- Coach - Sales Leaders - coach your teams. Just like an Ironman athlete, take it in small bites. Focus on one area at a time - one piece to improve at a time vs. overwhelming the individual with all the things. At ASG, our team loves to use Observe, Describe and Prescribe method (more on that next week).
- Follow up and provide value/ask questions. Own it. If you flubbed, just be real. Ask to connect again and explain the way. Be Human.
- And the broken record - Review to your PIC (Problem Identification Chart). I did this just today myself - and asked, did we uncover a business problem, did we get an impact and root cause? I'll say it time and time again, when your team shifts to knowing the business problems you solve, the discovery calls team-wide go to a whole new level!
The list of ways to improve flubbed discoveries is long and as you saw above, even the most seasoned sales professional flubs up now and then.
How we work with our teams to make 1% improvements and learn from left turns during discovery, that's what separates the great leaders from mediocre.
Channel your inner Ironman, one step in front of the other, one flub after another - keep going!
Rabbit hole on Discovery? You got it.
