This is a except from my white paper titled: Building Value vs. Discounting Price. Below is the portion on the Discovery.
The first strategy for building value is doing a comprehensive, poignant Discovery. The Discovery is the blueprint that dictates the entire sales process. In the Discovery the sales professional acts as a consultant and utilizes a non-manipulative approach that serves the client and meets its needs. The Discovery is the part of the sale where the sales professional asks the prospect relevant questions that are directed at uncovering the four objectives of a Discovery. The four objectives of the Discovery are the following:
1. Find the PBM (Primary Buying Motive)
2. Uncover any objections that may surface during the close
3. Find the problem (why the prospect would need your product or service)
4. Self Discovery (Allow the prospect to accurately understand the need they have for the product the sales professional is selling)
Every good Discovery must seek to uncover those four objectives. The way to tell if you have done an effective Discovery is if after the Discovery you can answer the first three objectives; if you can answer the first three then the fourth objective will take care of itself as it will naturally happen when the first three are executed effectively. If you cannot answer the first three objectives then the Discovery is not over. The Discovery should not end without understanding those three objectives because without understanding them there is no sale.
A key component to the Discovery is listening. This may sound basic, but it is often one of the top things sales professionals need to work on. Most people listen simply as a way to know when it is their turn to talk, not so with the sales professional. He or she must listen to truly understand the prospect and achieve the objectives of the Discovery. Top sales professionals will not only listen so that they will know what to say, but so they will know what not to say. When sales professionals do not listen properly two determinal things happen:
- They sell benefits that are irrelevant to the prospect and as a result the prospect will believe that the product or service is not for them
- They can seek to answer objections that were never there and thus create objections that the prospect had never even thought of
So now that you understand what the Discovery is how exactly does one build value through it? The primary way that the sales professional builds value through the Discovery is through the Primary Buying Motive (PBM). The PBM is extremely important in the sales process and is the single most important piece of information that the sales professional can gather about the prospect. There is nothing that can stop a sale faster than not identifying the prospect’s PBM and there is nothing that can earn sales more consistently than knowing the PBM and selling to it. Once the PBM has been identified the sales professional can use it as the foundation and build upon it. The PBM is powerful because it is the prospect’s emotional reason for purchasing a product or service. Value can be built by aligning your product or service with the prospect’s PBM. This is value the prospect will immediately recognize because you are building on that which they already have identified as of high value. Also, aligning your product with the PBM is a way to keep their interest and earn the right to advance the sale.
Finding the PBM requires focused questions that deal with why the prospect would need your products or services. This is achieved by asking first, second and third level questions, with the goal being that you want to get to the third level or emotional reason that the prospect would buy. Third level questions deal with either one of the two motivating factors (desire for gain or fear of loss). The sales professional begins by asking first level question to earn the right to get to second and third level questions. Remember people buy for emotional reasons and justify those reasons with logic so getting to the third level questions is crucial. A few simply strategies to help you get to into third level questions are:
· Ask Deeper Questions about an initial question, continue to delve deeper and deeper
· Ask more “why” and “how come” questions: These questions naturally bring out an emotional response
If this one strategy can be mastered it will powerfully increase the sales professionals sales success as it is the number one way to build value in the sales presentation.
Needs and Wants Questions
