sites about your prospect’s organization. For example:
● Allintext: By entering “allintext: company name,” you get a list of sites where your company is mentioned.
● Phrase search: Enclosing the exact keywords you want to search in quotation marks results in only sites that have that specific information, for example, “ABC Organization U.S.”
● Time and date search: If you’re looking for information from a specific time period, enter “daterange: company 2014-2015” to see results confined to that time period.
✔ Social media: A wealth of information on your prospects is available through sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. This information is helpful in getting to know the people you’ll be presenting to. Furthermore, you can also use it to listen to what other customers, employees, competitors, or vendors who have experience working with your prospect are saying about the company through several free social monitoring sites, including:
● SocialMention: Simply plug in the name of your prospect and Socialmention.com searches 100+ social media properties for mentions of the company.
● Hootsuite: Monitor in real time what people are saying about your prospect on social networks, like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, and Wordpress with Hootsuite.com.
In a more complex B2B (business-to-business) sale, the stakes and the competition are high, and a consensus usually is required to make a decision. In this case a more thorough discovery process involving speaking to key individuals within the propect’s organization is necessary to help you develop a focused, tight case and differentiate yourself from your competitors.
A discovery conversation is a one-on-one meeting or phone call with someone in your prospect’s organization who can provide insight or shed light on the challenge you’re addressing in your presentation. Don’t be shy about asking for input. It’s a fair and reasonable request that benefits not only you, but also the prospect. Gaining a better understanding of your prospect’s needs shortens your presentation and allows you to provide a more accurate and precise recommendation. The following steps help you secure a meeting with key individuals within your prospect’s organization:
1. Ask your primary contact for three or four names of key people to speak with.
These names may be people who will be attending the presentation, key influencers, or those who work behind the scenes and who are able to provide insight on the problem or challenge.
2. Send a short, to-the-point email requesting a call or meeting with each individual.
Use one or two sentences to describe why you want to speak and how much time you’re requesting, (for example 20 to 30 minutes.) See Figure 2-2 for an example. You can use the same template for each person, but be sure to personalize the names and contact information for greater response.
3. Offer two or three different options of times to speak.
4. Use a subject line that identifies your contact to increase your acceptance rate.
5. Follow up with a meeting invite to secure the time on the person’s calendar.
Illustration by 24Slides
Figure 2-2: An example email request for a discovery conversation.
The key to a great discovery meeting is knowing what you want to find out and leaving room for your prospect to surprise you. For example, you may uncover additional challenges, competitive insights, or strategic goals that help you more closely align with your prospect’s needs. Following are some key findings you want to look for when speaking with someone in your prospect’s company:
✔ Get everyone’s point of view. Don’t assume that everyone within your prospect’s organization has the same understanding of the problem or agree on the solution. Ask each person her perspective on the problem and expectations of a solution. You want as full a picture as possible. If the answers are conflicting, circle back with your primary contact and ask for help to ensure that you understand the issues so that you can properly address the best interests of the company.
✔ Understand the decision-making process. Figure out how the prospect makes decisions. Does the organization have a formal process? Do all decision makers have equal say or does one person’s opinion have more weight? The more you know about the decision-making process, the more you can tailor your message. For example, if the CEO is the sole decision maker, you know to structure your presentation more around how your solution impacts the organization as a whole and less around the details of the process. See Chapter 3 for tailoring your message to decision makers.
✔ Define the personal impact. In addition to discovering how the current problem affects the organization, determine how it affects each prospect individually. The closer to home you can bring the problem and solution, the more powerful and memorable your presentation.
In a competitive market more than likely you won’t be the only one asking your prospect questions prior to the presentation. In fact, your competitor may be asking many of the same or very similar questions and use the answers to help build a case for its product or service. If you’re the third or fourth vendor doing the questioning, your prospect’s answers can sound quite perfunctory. Set yourself apart by recognizing the following underutilized benefits of the discovery conversation:
✔ Revealing insights. Each question is an opportunity to gain insight around a prospect’s experience, expectations, and preferences. Don’t just settle for a pat answer. Take a four-year-old’s approach and ask why. Why do you do things that way? Why are you considering that option? Ask your prospect if there’s anything you may have missed. You’re looking for anything that can give you an insider’s view, which may include information on how bad the problem is, what’s at stake, and why the prospect needs to make a change. The answers you receive can help you to tailor your presentation to fit your prospect’s needs and expectations. Read more about applying insights in Chapter 3.
✔ Speaking your prospect’s language. Every company has its own buzzwords and acronyms. Instead of expecting the prospect to learn your language, make the effort to learn the prospect’s and incorporate some of the terminology into your presentation to build your credibility.