On 30 Minutes to President’s Club, I shared this simple 3-step framework for Discovery calls:
- Instant Credibility
- The Menu of Pain
- Match Their Urgency
Here’s how it goes:
Instant Credibility
I start the meeting with our “Nascar slide” on my screen. The first thing they see when they join the meeting is 20+ well-known logos. Our Reference clients.
Their brain instantly processes the familiar images. It registers “my peers are already doing this.”
Way more impactful than an “About Us” slide
Instant credibility + also a lil FOMO
Without us saying a word
The Menu of Pain
Friction reduction applies to Discovery
Don’t ask them “essay” questions
Give them multiple choice
Here’s the formula:
In this role, I talk to [your industry] leaders all day long. They tell me about their heartburn around problems A, B, and C. How much of that sounds like your world & what did I miss?
IRL at UserGems this sounds like:
“Usually, when Sales leaders join these calls they usually want to either Capitalize or Catch up.
- They have hiring freezes, but quotas are not going down.
- They’re facing double-digit growth metrics & not sure how they’re going to hit them.
- They are seeing Pipeline dry up, so they’re looking for a new channel.
- . . . OR – they’re facing none of these challenges, are hitting record high revenue, and want to capitalize to grab market share.
- Curious how much of that sounds like your world? And what did I miss?”
- Match Their Urgency
There are 3 reasons people show up for Discovery calls.
Figuring this out saves everyone time.**
This sounds like:
“Sometimes people join these calls because they are in education mode and just want to understand new tools.
Sometimes people join these calls because they have a big churn, pipeline or revenue problem they needed to solve 6 months ago.
Sometimes people join these calls because they need to do something about big churn, pipeline or revenue in the next 12 months, but it’s not urgent.
Curious where would you put yourself on that scale?
Asking because I never want to chase anyone.
If today was purely education, that’s ok.”
I ask this at the end of the call
After they’ve gotten the product overview
And BEFORE we talk next steps. Because their answer determines what next steps make sense.
The hardest thing about Discovery calls is that there are 100 questions we could ask.
AND we have to balance what we want to know with what the prospect wants from the call.
The simple 3 step framework helps us establish credibility, diagnose & qualify.