Lucas Orosco

Most Sales Leaders I speak with each week, tell me that poor discovery is the biggest reason their team aren’t closing enough deals. Here’s four things you can coach your reps to do, to make them more effective at discovery: 1. Start calls by asking your prospect “What was it about [insert problem you fix] that made you intrigued to talk with me today?” If the prospect struggles to give a reason, then create the demand… “In recent weeks, I’ve heard a lot from other Sales Leaders that they are struggling to hit their numbers, and they point to weak discovery as a key reason as to why they aren’t being more successful. Others share that they simply are lacking the bandwidth to improve selling skills in their team. Which of those resonates in your world?” Get into problems quickly. 2. Get your sellers to practice summarising back to the prospect. It’s a great way of getting them to process what they’ve heard, and to invite a prospect to share more: “So just to clarify what I’ve heard there. You mentioned your big goal this year is to achieve 20% growth in revenue, and that ultimately this is key to unlocking Series B. You did mention though that your team’s win rate has dropped since the start of the year and this is starting to become a bit of a concern in achieving that big goal. You also mentioned you had invested in some external sales training for MEDDICC last year but it hasn’t had the desired effect. What did I miss there and is there anything else that would be useful for me to know?” Summarising makes prospects feel heard. This tactic also almost ALWAYS ends up with them sharing more. 3. Get your sellers to go beyond the surface level pain, by using seven magic words ‘typically when I hear that it means…’ “You mentioned that you’ve observed on sales calls, that your team aren’t asking relevant questions to prospects. Typically when I hear that it means they end up with stuck deals that don’t progress or losing deals they should be winning. Whats happening in your world?” This is a great way to get prospects to take you to big business problems, and away from surface level issues. 4. Get your sales team to share the alternative way of solving the prospect’s problem and why it MIGHT be a better solution in some situations, rather than spending money with you. “One way you could solve this problem is by doing the coaching through your Sales Enablement function. This might be a good solution if they can dedicate at least 2/3 of their time to coaching 1:1, that they are highly skilled at coaching, and that they can separate skills development from things like product training. Is this a feasible option for you?” Get your prospect to validate whether another solution is an option, whilst altenratively getting them to see that it’s likely not going to cut the mustard. Bottom line is - finding the time to do all of the above regularly is tough as a Sales Leader. That’s why MySalesCoach exists.

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