5 Components of an Effective Discovery Meeting for a Salesperson

Conducting an effective discovery meeting is one of the key parts of a salesperson's job. Understanding the why behind the purchase of the product, figuring out the client’s expectations, and confirming the needs enable sellers to have a clear picture of the account's growth potential. This, in turn, helps to prioritize the work on a daily basis and get the most out of the book of business. However, many junior salespeople tend to ignore - fully or completely - the discovery phase which costs them many opportunities they would otherwise close. Let’s discuss the key components of an effective discovery meeting, review why each of them is important, and how such a meeting can set the tone for the long-term relationship with the client.?

Confirming the customer’s title and role in the company

Every deal qualification framework - from BANT to MEDDPICC emphasizes the importance of confirming that the person you’re dealing with has the decision-making authority. It is equally important to find out whether the person can either allocate the budget for the purchase herself or work with the budget holder to make it happen. This is why it is essential to confirm the title of the person the sales rep is talking to early in the conversation. After getting an understanding of the role, it’s fine to switch to other topics. However, when the opportunity has been discovered, it is critical to ask about the decision-making process and who the economic buyer on the company’s side would be. Unfortunately, I’ve witnessed dozens of deals either breaking apart or pushed to the next month/quarter simply because the sales rep hasn’t confirmed the person's role. Also, asking additional questions can bring more benefits - for example, in smaller companies and especially start-ups, it’s quite common when “everyone is doing everything” which basically means that one person may be covering multiple roles. This creates additional opportunities if your product is versatile and can help clients with different use cases.?

Agreeing on an agenda

Any meeting with a clear agenda will likely be structured and bring value to all parties involved. Setting an agenda doesn’t necessarily mean that there would be no flexibility during the meeting - but it helps to confirm that all the bullet points important for all attendees are going to be covered. Since the salesperson is more likely to initiate the meeting, she should arrive with a proposed agenda and proactively ask whether the client wants to add anything. When confirming the agenda, it’s also essential to check with the customer whether you’re aligned on the meeting time. If the client has something unexpected appear on the calendar and will have to hop off after 20 minutes, and the sellers’ agenda implies that a full 60-minute meeting would be required to cover everything, the meeting may turn into something far from perfect.?

When preparing the agenda,? sales reps need to clearly understand how much time would be spent on each item. They can always ask more experienced reps for help if they're unsure about that. For example, the rep may plan approximately 3 minutes for introductions. 15 minutes for discovery questions, 20 minutes for Q&A, and 7 minutes for scheduling next steps and closeout. This agenda would work well on an hour-long call and would leave some time for unexpected topics. However, a 20 or 30-minute meeting with such an agenda may feel rushed.

Preparing and asking effective questions

Many tend to believe that asking effective questions is more of an art than a science. I tend to disagree with that opinion. In my experience, this is a skill that can be decomposed into elements, documented, and transferred from one employee to another. There are multiple aspects connected to asking effective discovery questions. While I did a deep dive into this topic in a separate article, I’ll make at least a high-level overview here.

• Start with the goals: When a customer decides to purchase your product, they usually have a clear reason for choosing to do that. Ask the client what they would like to achieve with the product, how they would measure success, and what the timeline of these goals looks like. The answers to these questions would be essential to hold any future conversations about potential growth and expansion since those upgrades would be positioned as something that would enable the client to achieve the goals faster/more effectively.?
• Ask open-ended questions: you don’t want the client to reply with “yes” or “no”. These answers do not give you any information. As a seller your job is to get the client to talk - explain their situation, challenges, use cases, and expectations. Prioritize questions starting with “Why?”, “what?” and “how”.?
• Ask second and third-level questions: do not be satisfied with a high-level explanation. Ask follow-up questions to uncover more details that would serve as a base for future opportunities. Often it may initially seem that there’s no upgrade potential, but with some decent digging, a lot of golden nuggets are uncovered.
• Have a list of essential questions prepared: I recommend having a “minimum viable list” of questions at hand, the answers to which should be acquired at all costs. Common examples include questions on the company size, team size, decision-making process, etc. If the client provides a vague answer, do not be afraid to ask again or rephrase the question. If the customer doesn’t have the answer, kindly request to introduce you to a team member who would be able to.?
• Do not make the question part of the call too long: you don’t want the customer to feel like they’re participating in a never-ending questionnaire. Sometimes it might be a better idea to divide the questions into two blocks and ask them throughout two meetings.

Delivering value

A discovery meeting is usually a great chance to start building a relationship with the customer. If the only thing that happens is the sales rep asking discovery questions, the client may not be incentivized to have another meeting anytime soon. That’s why I always recommend that my team members reserve some time during the meeting to provide value to the customer. It could happen in various formats - here are some common examples:

• If, during the agenda stage, the client highlights that they have certain questions, make sure that you reserve the time to answer them.
• Suggest doing a mini or full training/onboarding session to get the client started with the product. The sooner this session will happen - the better.?
• Share industry best practices and be specific - elaborate on what worked for other companies in the same industry/market and how exactly they benefited from it.
• Send a list of resources on the topics you discovered were important for the customer.
• And more

Providing value helps to build trust with the client. You will not be perceived as a “soulless salesperson whose only job is to close more business regardless of the cost”. On the contrary, the client will think of you as a strategic advisor who genuinely cares about the clients being successful with the product and getting the most out of it. This thing alone could be one of the most valuable parts of the meeting.

Scheduling the next steps

One of my previous managers used to say, “Every opportunity should have a clear next step.” I tend to fully agree with this statement. In order to progress the opportunity and successfully close it, the client needs to commit to the next action - be it participating in a demo, starting a trial, having a follow-up meeting to clarify certain details, reviewing pricing, etc. I’m always skeptical when the rep tells me that the next step is to “wait for the customer to come back to me on whether they’re interested.” In the majority of cases, this is not actionable - more of a passive waiting for something to arrive. Sales reps need to be prepared to handle objections if the client is hesitant to commit to the next step. For example, if they’re pushing back on the meeting the rep can always demonstrate flexibility and ask something like: “And what about the following week?”. Every micro commitment from the customer’s side increases the probability of a deal closing.?

As you can see, neither of the components presented above is a magic pill. I’m confident that most of the sales reps actually know about them. However, knowing and doing are what differentiate top performers from average ones.?