What are the best practices for conducting a successful discovery call with an enterprise software customer?

It’s extremely important to not come across as you are there to ?sell“. It’s pretty obvious! Everybody knows that a buying decision needs to be made but it doesn’t help to push it. It’s beneficial to come across as a ?partner“ who wants to help the customer solve their problems. Do your research, create a 360 briefing, understand the challenges which are driving the time investment which the customer is doing however don’t tell the customer what ?you think their problem is“. Allow them to share, encourage them with open ended questions, do active listening, enhance your research with 1st hand insights and then confirm that you have fully understood the problem by outlining that back to them. Potential solution should be generic at first too

Working with SMEs is a different ballgame on this matter. While one does not encounter any political agenda driven by different departments, not uncommon in large enterprise board rooms, one has to coach the audience (owner and key support personnel) on what to expect, how to be open for change, showcase examples of peers, demonstrate the inherent advantages of global best practices and so on. In most cases though the owners are quire open to ideas since they would have experienced the challenges of running the company without processes till very recently.

The best practices for conducting a successful discovery call for any kind of Software includes : 1. Knowing your potential customer using different sources like social media, articles, websites. 2. Setting up the goal / objectives, the topics you want to cover, the expected duration, and the next steps. This will help you establish control, set expectations, and keep the conversation focused and productive. 3. Putting up Open ended questions to collect the required information. 4. Listening the audience with the responses. 5. Position your solution with some story telling from the responses. 6. Taking up the feedback and clarifying the next actions.

A requirement for asking a prospective customer to hold a Discovery session is that first, you have started to build some level of relationship with them. You cannot just begin asking questions like “What major pains do you currently have?” or “What keeps you awake at night?” If you don’t have at least a basic level of a business relationship, the prospective customer will not open up… why should they air their grievances to a relative stranger? You can’t just start asking “painful” questions. You have to earn the right to ask questions that delve into your customer’s business… They need to know that you care about helping them, that you are capable of helping, and that they can trust you, before they air their deep, dark secrets.

Avoid going into “sales” mode in a discovery call! Your purpose is to be inquisitive and listen & learn. Does this prospect actually have a problem that your company can solve with its' product/services offering, and if yes, do they have the desire to solve it? Both are critical to ascertain before committing a lot of time & company resources in what could end in a “no sale”.

Make sure you agenda provides guidance on what they will learn if they attend the meeting and avoid wasting space and time on perfunctory items like intros and Q/A.

Always ask for an agreement for the proposed agenda before you start officially. This is a great way to get buy in from the customer. They will also know that you respect them and that you are a customer advocate.

For an initial discovery call with a potential customer, asking the customer ahead of time the questions they would like to initiate is key, along with keeping it simple. Intros, dive into business problem your company can solve for, brief overview if how your product or service aligns to that & next steps!

I always ho around the room and ask gir each name abd the burning question. This gives you an idea on where the zinger questions will come from and may uncover invaluable alliances and frustrations. I watch or have someone with me to mote points and also eye rolls.

One of the most important open ended questions is to find out what are the two to five major initiatives going on company wide inside of the prospect. Find out what the company thinks is important, then ask them how that company wide initiative affects them. As much as open ended questions are good to get the prospect talking, it is ok to insert some "precision questions" in the second half of a discovery call which seek to get highly specific information as well.

Watch for those with crossed arms and closed body language. Note if they have veto power. They may not be decision makers but may work behind the scenes for their own agenda. Experience or restating concerns may get them to voice concerns or NIH (NOT INVENTED HERE) SYNDROME. The person who takes the role in the company as peacemaker or "helper," may also jump in.

There are specific questions to ask based on the level of the person you are meeting with, depending whether they are staff level (such as technical staff), mid-level management, or executive level management. To gain access for a Discovery meeting, do some research to learn three key areas where you could help them improve their results. Then state that your objective for the Discovery is to learn how you can deliver value, and explore three key areas, not just showcase your solution.

For most reps, some sort of qualification framework is required to move a prospect forward. Asking the open-ended, big-picture questions in the front of the call, ("Why change? Why Now?") can offer up a buffet of information without feeling as though you are checking off a list. From there, dig deeper into the questions that are most relevant and mutually beneficial to finding a solution.

After a SWOT analysis, ask questions strategically. Know your competitive advantage and ask SMART questions. Use this opportunity to set landmines for your competitors. Also, try to find out if the customer has bias, preferences or hidden agendas.

Well, this seems quite obvious but the amount of mistakes I still see nowadays are enormous. Start by listening what the potential client has to say. Open your ears and shut your mouth. As always start from the macro reality 1. Who are them? What’s the core business? Or what are the core businesses? 2. Understand the pain points that brought them to look for a solution. Did they try already looking for something? If yes how are they facing it? 3. Make a list of priorities. What are the most urgent blocking points to solve? Start from there, all the rest is noise (for now). 4. Follow a specific sales methodology. SPIN is my favourite Situation Problem Implication Need-payoff

Listening careful and it's often about what is not being said and then probing for were you can make a difference in the customers life by solving their pain point. Without have your own agenda and solution you are trying to push on the customer

When seeking differentiated value, it is easy to focus on feature comparisons between competitive products. I have found taking the time to re-engineer the customers vision helps further define differentiation and enables the customer to unlock additional value by driving alignment to business processes. This concept was well covered in Peter Cohan's recent book, "Doing Discovery".

Having a cheat sheet of customer stories and/or high level case studies specific to each challenge is a great way to show your understanding without going into a feature dump. I like to steer away from quantitative metrics at this point, and instead build value through story telling and company credibility as a trusted partner.

After a detailed SWOT analysis, you should know your differentiators which can address the customer's requirements. Make sure you position these strategically which are linked to the customer's needs. You should also lay landmines for your competitors.

I know this article is about preparation for the discovery call but the other advice is to summarize the meeting with assigned action items AND send a follow up email that does the same with the ask for the follow up information. The goal is to win the stage and advance to the next sales stage which in this case would be designing a solution. I see way too many AE's not effectively do this and wonder why the deal stalls.

Sending across a formal Minutes of the Meeting with the top 3-5 requirements/ challenges always helps. Requirements and gaps can have immense volume and variety. It is also worthwhile to have an estimated time period and responsibilty defined for the next steps

A follow up "What we heard" is essential to show professionalism, seek alignment, and justify next steps (e.g. qualified demonstration). AT least show them 3 things: 1-What you heard technical or otherwise 2-The potential business impacts of those things 3-The minimum solution capabilities which must be provided to solve the challenges and enable positive business impacts

Take notes strategically all through the process. Pay special attention to the goals, objectives, and directions from key executives, decision makers and influencers. Include those in your summary. You should take into consideration all the timelines for the customer and your company.

End the call by summarizing key takeaways and confirming the next steps in the sales process. Set clear expectations for follow-up actions, such as scheduling a demo, providing additional information, or arranging a meeting with key stakeholders.

Enterprise sellers need to have the knowledge of how to make buyers uncomfortable at certain points in the sale. Classic sales training says the customer is always right, but that is not accurate and successful sellers know that challenging buyers, re-educating them and helping them avoid mistakes takes a certain type of verbal courage and a willingness to make buyers uncomfortable.

Value Sellers need to have, or develop, knowledge of how companies fund their business. This knowledge, together with the deep insight of their offerings, provides the Value Seller with the ability to look at a customers business to ascertain how any aspect of the sellers offerings might enhance that customers financial position by either: increasing sales reducing operational costs combination of both

I remember a very meticulous client who did a market mapping comparing all existing solutions. He let me know that he had this planned in one of the meetings. I asked him to keep me updated on his findings and, if he finally discovered a more technically complete solution, we would escalate together to my company's PM. I accompanied the customer through the whole process, it was months, but I learned a lot about the competition and finally made the sale. It is about knowing how to read the person in front of you and giving him what he wants to receive.