What I Like About Discovery in the Sales Process

Just an FYI, going through my worst drought in the last 13 months.  Nothing on the books, a crap load of opportunities and 3 days left in the month.  What does one do?  Go out and find more opportunities.  Fill the bucket t0 the brim and then some more.  Sooner or later the bucket will explode.

Tonight's blog is not about my crappy month, but about the steps that are required to get your self to final step of winning or losing.

Some Tough Years

In a two months I'll start my 43rd year of down the street sales with office equipment aka copiers.  The first couple years were tough and at times I thought I could relax when I thought there was nothing to do.  In our industry there is never nothing to do. When I've made all my calls, set the appointments for the week and prepared the quotes you may think what's next?

I made mention today to a friend in the industry that many reps do not read the brochures of the products that they sell. In fact I would bet dollars to doughnuts that 80% of the reps in the industry can't explain how the print process works with our laser print devices.  Is the print process something they need to know? Probably not, but most can't speak to the client about FAB (features, advantage and benefit) of the device they are selling. I'm sorry to say FAB is almost a lost art in our industry.

Discovery

Discovery is one of the keys that you need to prefect to win the order.  If you perform a great list of questions for the client, the answers and comments from the client will get you to the closing table.  Using discovery and getting to the closing table means you're a sales person whether you win or lose. If you're the type of sales person that has a poor discovery process or you assume the client needs the same type of device that they have, then you're nothing more than an order taker even if you get to the closing table.

Discovery is more about building your case to put your product in the best light for the client.  Of course discovery is all about asking the right questions.

Wide Format Discovery Questions

Since wide format is my forte I'll put some down some questions that I'll ask when I'm in for the appointment.

• How long has you had your present device?
  • Do you own or lease your device?
  • If lease, how many months are left on your lease
    • Who is the leasing company
    • Can I see a copy of the lease
  • Do you pay insurance on your current lease
  • Is there anything you don't like or like about your current device
  • Prior to your current device that what was the device you had before this one
• Do you have a maintenance/supply agreement in place?
  • What is the name if your vendor that provides support
    • Can I get a copy of your current maintenance agreement
  • Are you happy with their support/service
  • Is there anything you like or dislike with your current vendor
  • With your previous device, did you do business with the same support vendor
• Are you the decision maker?
  • If not can you tell me how the process works for choosing the right vendor
  • When are you looking to make a decision
  • Where you looking to lease or buy
• Besides paper is there anything else you have to purchase for your device?
  • Do you use any special media/substrates
  • Do you outsource any prints/drawings
    • if so, tell me more about what you outsource
  • If so, do you know what your average cost per month is
  • If so, do you know how many square feet is outsourced each month

Build a Strong Case

These are just a few of the questions I'll ask for wide format discovery and the most important in my book.  Once I have this information I can build a strong case for my devices and services.

There's another secret to my madness

You have to be the guru of your device!

You have to know what your device can and can't do.  If you don't know the closing table is not yours to go to.  In addition you'll also need to know as much about their current device like you do for yours.  In fact you'll also need to know your competitions devices as well.  Sales is not an easy job and sales is not 9AM-5PM.  For those that have the desire to learn and do the research are those that will also be at the closing table.

-=Good Selling=-