The Principles of Great Discovery Questions

The quality of the information you gather during your call depends on the types of discovery questions you ask (and how you ask them). You can delve deep into the needs of your prospect with the help of effective discovery call questions. With the wrong one, you risk losing the buyer's confidence and the deal as a whole.

So what are the principles of great discovery questions?

They Are Open-Ended

“Yes” or “no” answers don’t tell you much about the prospect. You want to get them talking! Plus, the last thing you want is to have the prospect feel trapped with a one-word answer. They will feel better if they can elaborate more when asked a question. For example, rather than asking “Are you experiencing any problems in [topic]?”, you can ask “What problems do you face in [topic] and how have you tried solving them?”

They Are Informed

Do some preliminary research. Simple questions instantly destroy your credibility. But knowledgeable ones show that you are a trustworthy professional.

They Move The Sales Process Forward

You should always move closer to qualifying or disqualifying with each new question you ask. This?enables?sales representatives to look further and advance the entire sales process. Building a rapport is worthwhile, but time is a limited resource. Avoid wasting it on filler.

They Set Up Follow-Up Questions

A discovery call should be a conversation with your prospect rather than an interrogation. They ought to benefit the prospective buyer. You can discover problems and cues for tailoring a sales proposal by organically asking relevant follow-up questions. Additionally, it promotes rapport-building, which speeds up the closing of your agreements.

Discovery Questions Must Mirror Your Prospect

The best way to build rapport is to be in agreement with the prospect. When listening to the prospect’s answer to one of your questions, pay close attention to 1-3 words that you can repeat back in a form of a question. For example:

You: What problems are you currently facing in your business?

Buyer: We are losing business to competitors. Although our product is good, when clients ask how we're different, our representatives start back peddling?

You: Back peddling?

Buyer: Yes…?(buyer continues to expand even more).

What this does is it makes their point a concrete issue, and a painful one because they are elaborating on it.

Do this a few times and you will understand their deepest issues that you could solve for.