I ran a poll on LinkedIn asking whether salespeople prefer to use slide decks in their discovery meetings.
The whole purpose of a discovery meeting is to understand the prospective buyers’ pain, aspirations, obstacles and to book the next meeting where you can share how you can possibly help.
Aren’t we the exact opposite of being buyer-centric if the very first interaction with a potential customer is about us & our company?
Do you know a friend who likes to make every situation about them? Irritating, right?
Consider this – the prospect has agreed to talk to you because they have a problem to solve or a goal to achieve. It doesn’t matter whether they came as inbound or outbound. They have volunteered their time in both cases.
What if, at your next doctor’s appointment, your physician takes the first 20 minutes taking you through their college history, degrees, work experience, specializations, before even asking what brought you to him?
Isn’t it the same in these discovery calls?
No one wants to know about your company’s story, funding, culture, products, research budgets etc. They just want to know one thing.
How can you help me with A/B/C?
My position on using slide decks in discovery meetings is very clear – NEVER!
Apologies for using all-caps.
Let’s be buyer-centric.
It’s all about them.
Genuine curiosity – sincere intention to help.
All your questions should be to find out about what they want to solve or achieve – and why – and what’s in it for their company – and for them personally.
This does not mean that you don’t share anything about you and your company’s products/services.
You do – but in the form of client success stories – and always in the context of what they have shared with you.
e.g. Ah! that sounds remarkably similar to what company X was facing before we engaged. What they also saw was that a side effect of problem A were problems B & C – which impacted their business in D & E ways. Have you seen something similar? Confirm and then perhaps share – what helped them the most & quickest was solution A as it enabled capability B & C. The purpose here is to establish credibility and not to jump into a solution discussion.
Are there any nuances here? What if the product or service is super technical?
It doesn’t matter. The goal is to help the client articulate their problem correctly and completely.
If you have frameworks or visual aids to help the client in this, then by all means use a whiteboard and talk through it.
Deliver insights, challenge them based on what you know to be true.
But a slide deck to share more about you and your company in the very first meeting?
Please, don’t.