A discovery call in sales is an essential part of any B2B prospecting. It’s a first step to connect with any future customer as it determines whether they will want to go further in the buyer journey or not. Benefits of discovery call include:
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Develops a relationship between the salespeople and the prospect.
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Discovery call is the first step of lead qualification — an important part that lets you know whether the customer goes down the buyer journey or not.
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It creates an opportunity of providing value to the prospects. About 65% of B2B clients prefer getting deals in discovery calls.
5 step process of doing a discovery call
As much as a discovery call is necessary, it becomes more challenging to nail the perfect discovery call. Asking the right questions, getting the correct answers, building the urgency at the right time and to talk correctly during the conversation about price are some things to end up a successful discovery call. But how should you do that?
Practice and pre-strategize before getting on a call
It’s evident that without a plan, practicing, and rehearsing, nothing can be done. The best way to nail down a discovery call is to work with a coach and practice the sales call with them. You can practice with some of the assumed responses you can get while doing an actual sales call. Also, discuss the possible outcomes you can get on a call and what you should do in that particular situation. This will help you to prepare for the actual discovery call. Try to record yourself doing discovery calls and listen back to the recording to pick up any unwanted fluff or phrases that you don’t want the client to hear.
Listen back to your recordings
This is an elaboration from the first point, but it’s an important part and hence needed some extra emphasis. The other important aspect of recording calls is that sometimes a sales call can extend more than thirty minutes; it’s impossible to remember every detail during the call. And writing down notes doesn’t do any good as it creates more confusion than making your life easier. Then, why shouldn’t you take advantage of technology? Use it to record your calls that give a chance to capture every single detail during the discovery call. You can use the recording to analyze them and figure out ways to improve your conversation with the help of sales intelligence tools like Salesken’s call recording feature from which you can record calls and analyze the performance based on the real data.
Set a goal and work on it to achieve it
Many times, sales reps start doing the sales call without setting themselves an end goal or doing any proper planning. At the start, they don’t explain the objective of the call and what prospects should expect at the end. During the call, they start asking several questions that the prospect wasn’t expecting, creating the wrong impression.
Hence, it’s always recommended to start the sales call with a plan and putting out some objectives in front of the prospects. This way, you can easily manage the clients’ expectations, get them into the sales process, and take control of the conversation. The discovery call allows you to learn, discover and provide value to your clients.
Ask your prospects the right question.
A discovery call is creating the right balance between asking the right questions and listening to those answers.
Asking relevant and meaningful questions is a path to take prospects further into the sales process. They also help you find out more about your client’s situation and give you a solid reason to use your product.
Learn how to tell good stories
We all know that telling good stories is the art of selling. People don’t want to decide based on the fact that what you’re thinking is right or wrong. They want to hear similar instances where customers have used your products and how they helped them, what challenges you solved for them, and the different experiences that they can resonate with.
That’s why companies focus on creating customer stories and case studies to resonate with clients and let them know how to solve a problem in a similar situation — which is more interesting than just talking about your product features.
Conclusion
A discovery call is the first and essential part of the sales process. It also determines the route of further steps and whether the prospects want to move further or not. To make it successful, it’s necessary to set an agenda, create a strategy and do the required research about your prospect beforehand. It will allow you to connect with your prospects at a deeper level, and you can explain to them easily how your products can solve their problems.
