ABD
While the famous Glengarry Glen Ross line was “Always Be Closing”, I suggest instead that enterprise SaaS reps should “Always Be Discovering”. Every customer interaction from first call to close presents a discovery opportunity for salespeople to leverage.
Early in the sales cycle, our discovery focus is primarily on qualifying product fit, depth of pain and urgency to solve the issue. Metaphorically, how sick is the patient and do we have the medicine to cure the illness?
As the sales cycle progresses, discovery shifts slightly to determine the nuances of the best way to address whatever challenges the customer faces, such as understanding the internal and external competitive landscape and determining whether our unique differentiation is relevant and compelling. During this phase, we are also discovering the business case data, which likely impacts urgency to solve the problem. Additionally, discovery at this stage involves understanding the organizational structure (both formal and informal).
Once competition has been eliminated, our discovery shifts again — this time to understanding the signing process and the legal process. We need to know, for example, if legal is internal or external, and understand the role of our executive sponsor in shepherding our deal through the corporate labyrinth.
The moral of the story is that every interaction (sales call, email, presentation, demo, etc.) is a forum for discovery. ABD (Always Be Discovering) should be our hallmark and not merely a slogan. We need to be constantly evaluating whether the prospective customer is in position based on their needs, and whether our solution and business case is worthy of the time investment we are making in the opportunity.
After all, we are determining both our fit for the customer and their fit for us throughout the sales cycle. If your sales team needs help leveraging discovery techniques, please either ask Virtual Dave or email dave@moicpartners.com.
Virtual Dave is an AI-based virtual sales support tool trained on 40 years of enterprise software sales experience, available 24/7 to enhance sales process consistency.
