How do you coordinate with sales reps during customer discovery?

1 Establish roles and expectations

Before you join a sales rep on a discovery call, make sure you have a clear understanding of your roles and expectations. Who will lead the conversation? What questions will you ask? How will you handle objections or technical inquiries? How will you follow up and document the insights? Having a brief alignment session with the sales rep can help you avoid confusion, duplication, or contradiction during the call.

3 Provide value and credibility

As a sales engineer, you have the opportunity to provide value and credibility to the prospect by demonstrating your expertise, knowledge, and empathy. You can do this by sharing relevant stories, examples, or best practices that show how you or your company have solved similar problems for other customers. You can also use visuals, diagrams, or data to illustrate the impact or benefits of your solution. Avoid using jargon or acronyms that may confuse or alienate the prospect.

4 Qualify and prioritize

One of the goals of customer discovery is to qualify and prioritize the opportunities based on their fit, urgency, and potential. You need to coordinate with the sales rep to assess the prospect's readiness, willingness, and ability to buy your solution. You can use a qualification framework, such as BANT (budget, authority, need, timeline), to evaluate the key criteria and identify any gaps or risks. You can also use a scoring system, such as MEDDIC (metrics, economic buyer, decision criteria, decision process, identify pain, champion), to rank the opportunities and focus on the most promising ones.

5 Align and plan next steps

After the discovery call, you need to align with the sales rep on the next steps and actions. You should review the insights and feedback you gathered, and agree on how to communicate them to the prospect. You should also discuss how to address any objections, questions, or concerns that may arise. Finally, you should plan how to move the opportunity forward, such as scheduling a demo, sending a proposal, or setting a trial. You should also assign roles and responsibilities for each task and follow up accordingly.

6 Nurture and support

Customer discovery is not a one-time event, but an ongoing process that requires constant nurturing and support. You need to coordinate with the sales rep to maintain contact and engagement with the prospect throughout the sales cycle. You can do this by providing additional information, resources, or value propositions that match the prospect's needs and interests. You can also offer technical assistance, guidance, or advice that help the prospect overcome any challenges or barriers. By doing so, you can build trust, rapport, and loyalty with the prospect, and increase your chances of closing the deal.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?