Discovery
Asking the right questions
13 entries · 9 traced to a named source · 9 free
- Do you have budget set aside for this, and who else needs to sign off?
- Answers place them somewhere between hot lead and just browsing
- What's driving the timeline, is there a date this needs to be solved by?
BANT
Common practice
- What about this is most important to you?
- Explains their priorities without feeling pushed
- How would we know if this were working, six months in?
Calibrated How/What Questions
Chris Voss, Never Split the Difference (2016)
- Open with an insight the buyer hasn't connected before, backed by data
- Reacts with surprise, not agreement: they hadn't framed the problem that way
- Reframe the insight around the place your product uniquely helps
Challenger Commercial Teaching
Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson, The Challenger Sale (2011)
- If nothing changes over the next year, what does that cost you?
- They add it up out loud, and the number surprises them.
- The cost feels real now, more than any figure you could quote.
Cost of Inaction
Common practice (draws on Rackham and Kahneman/Tversky)
- Map the current state in detail before mentioning the product at all
- Describes what's actually happening today, including the cost of it
- What would it look like if this were fixed six months from now?
Gap Selling
Keenan, Gap Selling (2018)
- Ask a chain of implication questions, one consequence leading to the next
- Realizes the problem costs more than they'd added up
- Prepare beforehand so the questions don't feel like an interrogation
Implication Questions (SPIN)
Neil Rackham, SPIN Selling (1988)
- Work through Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, Champion
- Answers reveal gaps: no economic buyer identified, no real metric, no internal champion
- What's the process for signing off on something like this internally?
MEDDIC
Dick Dunkel at PTC (1996)
- If you could cut that reporting time in half, what would your team do with the day back?
- States the benefit themselves, in their own words.
- Their own words become what you echo back when you close
Need-Payoff Questions (SPIN)
Neil Rackham, SPIN Selling (1988)
- This looks interesting.
- It's probably not a fit for you, though, is it?
- The push-back pulls out their real position instead of polite noise.
Negative Reverse Question
David Sandler, Sandler Selling System (1967)
- How does your team handle renewals today?
- We just handle it manually as it comes up, nobody really owns it.
- So that's about forty renewals a month?
Open vs Closed Questions
Common practice
- Our onboarding takes too long.
- How long, and how long should it take?
- Gives specifics, then the business impact, then how it affects them personally
Sandler Pain Funnel
David Sandler, Sandler Selling System (1967)
- Ask light Situation questions about how things work today
- Admits a Problem.
- What does that delay cost you a month?
SPIN Selling
Neil Rackham, SPIN Selling (1988)
- You've probably lived with this a while. Why is it worth sorting now?
- Names a real trigger, a new boss, a lost client, a contract ending.
- Listens for a concrete driver, not a vague we've been meaning to line
The "Why Now" Question
Common practice