Does Your Discovery Move On Too Quickly?

Could your discovery go deeper?

Could you find out more?

One of the biggest problems I see in sales discovery is that sellers ask a good question, get an answer…

…and move on.

“What’s your biggest challenge right now?”

“Finding good people.”

“Got it. And what are your goals for the rest of the year?”

Wait.

Finding good people?

There’s an entire conversation sitting inside that answer.

How long has that been a problem?

What kind of people are hardest to find?

What happens when you can’t fill those positions?

How is it affecting the business?

What have you tried?

Why hasn’t that worked?

Pull the thread.

I recently heard a journalist describe his approach to interviewing.

When someone says something interesting, he doesn’t move on to the next prepared question.

He goes three or four levels deep.

That’s where the good stuff is.

That’s where people stop giving you the answer they’ve given a hundred times before.

Now they have to think.

And that’s exactly what great discovery should feel like.

You don’t need 25 brilliant questions.

You need to listen carefully to the answer to the first one.

Then get curious.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Tell me more.”

“Why is that happening?”

“What’s the impact?”

“What else?”

Stay there.

Explore it.

See where it goes.

Because in my experience, the first answer isn’t always the real answer.

Sometimes you have to go three or four levels deeper to find it.