The Discovery Is the Most Important Part of the Sales Process and How to Do It Effectively

Discovery calls are thought to be a challenging element for almost any salesperson. But what if we were to tell you there’s a way to see more success with them? In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by the founder of 7th Level Jeremy Miner to discuss discovery call techniques that don’t scare away your prospect (because we don’t want that, trust me.)

What makes a bad discovery?

• Sellers are taught the selling “ABC’s - Always Be Closing. But with today’s cautious buyers, this strategy doesn’t always come across well.
• To be great at sales, skip the C and learn the ABD’s of selling - Always Be Disarming.

What triggers a prospect to buy or not to buy?

• Salespeople trigger behaviors by what they’re asking (and, more importantly, what they aren’t asking.)
• Salespeople frequently come across as too enthusiastic, talking about their solution too early in the conversation. 
• While you should be excited about what you sell, it shouldn’t be the point that it comes across as fake. Keep the joy internal. 
• According to behavioral science, prospects subconsciously pick up on nonverbal cues in the first 7-12 seconds of conversation.
• If you come across as aggressive, needy, or attached and don’t know the right questions, it triggers the brain to get rid of you.

It’s not them; it’s you.

• Come across as neutral, unbiased, and calm. Ask the right questions at the right time to encourage a prospect to open up to you.
• Don’t focus on making the sale. Instead, focus on determining if your solution can help.
• Jeremy’s advice? Never start a conversation by asking someone how they’re doing - it’s a disingenuous greeting. 
• Instead, start the meeting and get to business. Spend the first meeting determining if their organization is even a company that fits what you’re able to do.
• If you enter the conversation assuring them that you’re going to solve their problem, you’ll never find out if that’s true. Stay unbiased.

Learn the right questions that trigger people to be pulled in.

• When Jeremy first started sales, he struggled. It took practice and time learning to understand how to perform well.
• Most objections you get are triggered by you, the salesperson.
• When the conversation starts, you need to determine their current state and where they want to go. As a salesperson, you need to show prospects the gap between where they are and where they want to go and reveal that gap.

Selling is all about change. But human beings don’t like change (even though we say we do.) To learn more about what Jeremy does, join Jeremy’s Facebook sales group (with over 15,000 members) to receive free training, resources and more.

This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

The Great Resignation has become the Great Reshuffle, meaning it can be difficult for sales professionals like you to find leads and close deals. Luckily, Sales Navigator from LinkedIn is here for you!

Sales Navigator from LinkedIn is the only tool that uses real-time alerts and up-to-date insights to help you know when prospects are ready to buy. And, with over 30 advanced filters, sales professionals can quickly find genuine leads with the intent to purchase.

Gain the advantage of accurate, quality lead generation data from LinkedIn Sales Navigator. You can get a 60-day free trial of Sales Navigator at www.LinkedIn.com/TSE. 

This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio.

Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real.

But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com.

This episode is brought to you in part by mParticle.

Are you tired of wading through thousands of open sales positions to find the one perfect for you? Well, look no further. mParticle is one of the leading independent customer data platforms out there, and they’re looking for motivated remote sellers (just like yourself.) 

With top-name clients from Spotify and Burger King to Airbnb, we don’t want you to let this opportunity go to waste! For more information and to view open positions, go to https://www.mparticle.com/careers/.

This course is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Certified Training Program, designed to help new and struggling sellers master sales fundamentals and close more deals. Help elevate your sales game and sign up now to get the first two modules free! You can visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals or call (561) 570-5077 for more information. We value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey.

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Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

Mentioned in this episode:

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com