Why You Should 2x Your Disco Time in 2024
As I reflected on my lost deals in 2023, a pattern emerged: I didn’t have a compelling problem that had to be solved. I had lots of good use cases for a portal or an ecommerce website, but almost all the deals that I lost lacked clarity and conviction.
And the reason for this was simple: me. I was so focused on moving the deal along—to get pricing on what it would take to implement the proposed solution—that I quickly moved on from the initial discovery call. And while I did a great job at asking questions on the discovery call, I failed to do several key things:
I rarely stopped to ask ‘why’ this was so important for the person on the phone or the company. Sure I used the SPIN method and got them to connect that if they reduced cost to serve it would help them scale, but I didn’t sit and consider why it was so critical for them to solve this key problem in 2023.
I did a poor job at listening to what they were NOT saying. After May and my number of deals started to increase, I almost never went back and listened to the recordings. I didn’t try to figure out what was missing from their perspective—whether it was because they didn’t know or that they were holding back. I ran with what the prospect told me during that 45–60-minute call as the truth and never questioned it.
I only called for a reverse demo when I was confused by their process. I used my 5+ years of selling commerce to envision what their existing process and applications were like, rarely asking for a reverse demo as a logical next step from the discovery call.
Now, would I have doubled my win rate if I had done these things, I doubt it. But there are a few things that would have become crystal clear if I had decided to spend twice the amount of time in the discovery phase:
Commitment – with more time I could have found out why this ‘champion’ was so committed to this project. I could have found out more about all the parties involved in making the decision (it isn’t just the business?) and would have understood more why solving this project was so important to the people and the company.
Resources – if I spent more time, I would have understood whether the prospect has the internal resources to help support a digital transformation or if they could find the budget to solve a problem of this magnitude. I also would have found out what happens after they go live and if they would have a plan in place.
Clarity – I would have gotten crystal clear on why this problem needed to be solved. For example, for one of the deals that I spent 5 hours on in discovery, I learned that not only was their buying process completely manual, but their renewals every year follow the same, frustrating, and time-consuming process. This provided a deeper insight to why they needed to streamline operations because it was not only an initial problem, but an annual problem.
Bottom line, if I would have spent more time in discovery, I would have qualified out deals much sooner in the sales cycle. I would have seen that there was no compelling event that would warrant a $500k investment to update their systems. I would hard evidence that they lacked the expertise and resources to support a major IT initiative over the next 12-18 months. All of these would have become crystal clear before I ever invited an Architect to help scope out pricing for an implementation.
So here’s why I’m doubling down on discovery in 2024, and think that you should too:
After each recording, I’m going to go back and listen to the discovery. Now, it may be at 1.75 speed, but I’m going to listen to it again and make sure. After the recording and looking at my notes I’m asking myself: why shouldn’t I just qualify this out? Instead of assuming each deal should move forward, I want to assume that I should not pursue many deals that come across my desk.
I’m asking for a reverse demo of what they currently use. Even if it is a spreadsheet and sending emails, I’m happy to set up the time to watch the current process to get a feel for exactly how they do things today and how we could transform that process.
I’m writing up a 3-paragraph business case with a clear problem statement, root causes and vision for how to solve this issue. If I don’t have enough to create a specific—and not generic—business case that is at least 400 words, I’ll need to ask for more discovery.
In 2024, I’d rather waste time in disco to disqualify deal (2-3 hours) than waste 5-10 hours on a deal that was doomed from the start, but I was too focused in figuring out what it would cost to implement the software. Between discovery and solutioning, I need to stop and think about the different insights, I need to come up with better insights about this specific prospect.
In the book Naked Sales, the authors make a compelling case that the most valuable insights about customers are NOT the ones that are most obvious. They come from asking “why” questions, they show up when you really dive into root causes, they appear when you see what you still haven’t seen. And the truth is that none of these happen after just a 60-minute call with the customer.
And the good news is that it is working. Last week I did a 2-hour discovery with an existing customer about two huge customer service issues. Now, I’ve talked to this customer dozens of times on the phone, I understand how they are using CRM and ERP today and have even toured their warehouse.
And even with that, I went back and re-watched the recording. I noticed specific language like “messy” and “very manual” mentioned several times, I looked at my AI-note takes for key insights. After that, I wrote a business case that the customer ended up sharing with her entire team to get them prepared for our scoping call this week.
I did all of this for the customer I have the deepest relationship with. So it begs the question: how much more discovery will I need with a prospect I’m just meeting for the first time? How much more will I need to uncover to make sure that they are a great fit for a digital transformation? How many phone calls will it take for us have a clear picture of their problem, root causes and hour our solution addresses that at scale. It will definitely take more than a 1-hour phone call.
I’m not saying you need to do all these things in discovery, but what if you do just one of them. Maybe you commit to always have a reverse demo. Or you ask for another meeting with a different department. The point is to see if doubling the time you spend in discovery will help you better qualify prospects in a sales cycle. I’m confident that if you do this, your demos will have more power and you will have a more compelling reason to get the technical win.