Discovery Call Mythbusting

There are countless articles out there about discovery calls. “How to Ace Your Discovery Call.” “18 Steps to a Successful Discovery Call.” And the very clickbaity “7 Jaw-Dropping Stats That’ll Change Your Approach to Sales Discovery Calls.” The first statistic in that article: “the average sales discovery call is 38 minutes long.” My jaw is still in its normal position and fully intact. What about you? Is that statistic unfortunate? Yes. Do we wish the number was lower? For sure. But I wouldn’t call it jaw-dropping. Anyway, this is not one of those articles.

Maestro team members sit in on loads of discovery calls—with founders, CEOs, and salespeople at all levels. We often see the same mistakes and hear the same defenses for “We do it this way because…” There are several prevalent myths about what needs to be covered and what prospects are and aren’t ready to talk about in a discovery call. Let’s do some mythbusting.

First, let’s back up.

MYTH #1: WE NEED TO ESTABLISH CREDIBILITY ON THE CALL
TRUTH #1: THEY ALREADY KNOW WHO YOU ARE

It’s completely understandable that, when speaking to a new prospect, you feel the need to establish your credibility and explain what your product or service does. People feel compelled to provide potential clients with a baseline level of information before asking about particular issues the prospect is looking to solve. There’s just one problem—you’re playing catch-up.

When you have your first discovery call with a new prospect, they are at the top of your sales funnel. But they are already 69% of the way through their own. This was true across industries, products, and price points. If your typical sales cycle is three months, that means your prospect has been on their journey for seven months by the time you connect. How’s that for a jaw-dropping fact? Here are a few more:

• 61% of US B2B buyers read 3–7 pieces of content before ever speaking to the seller.
• 78% of prospects have their requirements completely set or only change them slightly by the time they speak to you.
• 83% of salespeople report that when they speak to a prospect for the first time, they are already very-to-somewhat knowledgeable about the product or service.

Is your jaw okay? That was a lot, I know.

If a potential buyer has agreed to meet with you, they already know what you do. (If they don’t, they wouldn’t be a potential buyer.) They’ve looked at your website, read your material, and deemed you worthy of their time. Chances are you are one of four or so vendors they’re considering. It’s almost like you’re on your first date but they’re on their third … which can be awkward. You think they should be getting to know you, but they have been cyberstalking you for months. You’re not sure you’re ready to talk about price, but they’re thinking, “Hey! Third date! I’m hoping I’ll get lucky and see a demo!”

You need to catch up quickly, and you do that by asking questions. Your goal is to learn more about them and their specific problem. But I know what you’re thinking…

MYTH #2: PROSPECTS DON’T WANT TO TELL ME ABOUT THEIR PROBLEMS
TRUTH #2: PEOPLE LOVE TALKING ABOUT THEMSELVES AND THEIR PROBLEMS

This is one we hear a lot. “They won’t feel comfortable telling me about their problems on the first call.” It’s simply not true. For one thing, they feel like they already know you. (They’re practically ready to jump into your demo! You dog!) Plus, research has told us over and over that people love talking about themselves.

A Harvard University study found that, when people think and talk about themselves, there is increased neural activity in parts of the brain associated with motivation and reward. This happens even when nobody is around to listen. In the study, there was even stronger neural activity in these motivation and reward regions when the subjects knew they had an audience. We like talking about ourselves, but we love talking about ourselves to other people.

Self-disclosure activates parts of the brain that, as Scientific American casually explains, “have been linked to the pleasurable feelings and motivational state associated with stimuli such as sex, cocaine, and good food.” You know, those three mainstays. (Are you okay, people at Scientific American?)

One type of self-disclosure people especially love is sharing their opinions. The Harvard study mentioned above also found that participants were willing to sacrifice money just for the chance to share their opinions with others. Use this to your advantage during discovery calls. Instead of asking, “What were the problems with the last solution you tried?” try asking, “Why do you think the previous solution you tried didn’t work?”

Ask prospects thought-provoking questions about themselves. Ask prospects for their opinions. And there’s one more kind of question that’s especially useful during discovery, which brings us to myth number three.

MYTH #3: I NEED A LONG LIST OF QUESTIONS FOR MY DISCOVERY CALL, ALL OF WHICH NEED TO BE ANSWERED
TRUTH #3: YOU ONLY NEED A HANDFUL OF QUESTIONS—AND THEN BE READY TO FOLLOW UP

We have written much on the topic of questions, so you already know that not all questions are created equal. Open-ended questions and prompts get a lot more information out of your prospects than binary or multiple-choice questions. Your brain also has an affinity for a certain kind of question—the follow-up question.

A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that people who ask more questions, and specifically more follow-up questions, are more well-liked by their conversation partners. That’s great, because those are the kinds of questions you need to be asking more of.

I spoke with Maestro’s Chief Client Officer, Mike Valade, about the importance of follow-up questions. “Often I’ll see a salesperson uncover a pain, but then not ask how long the prospect has been trying to solve for it,” he explains. “By asking how long they’ve been trying to solve for it, you can find out whether they’ve put any money behind it. If not, why are things different now? Maybe they tried one of your competitors. If that’s the case, who made that decision? Is it the person I’m talking to who is going to have to admit they were wrong, or their boss? Each of those answers indicates different risks to the deal.”

He goes on to say that he doesn’t go into discovery calls with a checklist of questions. “I have three to five questions that I’m always going to ask that open up conversation,” he says. “Then I’m going to ask follow-up questions. I don’t have a checklist of questions, but rather a checklist of information that I have to gather. I do it conversationally by asking follow-up questions based on the answers I get.”

The research on follow-up questions published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology was actually conducted during speed-dating events—people who asked more follow-up questions were asked on more second dates. So, maybe our dating analogy is the perfect way to look at things. Your discovery-call date already knows a lot about you. Stop talking about yourself so much. You end up looking like a jerk and you’re missing the opportunity to get to know them better. Then you can both decide if you’re ready for the next step—the demo.

Looking to role play some discovery calls or demos? Let us know at mastery@maestrogroup.co.