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Five Steps to Make Your Discovery Meeting Effective

The purpose of the initial sales meeting is to create a relationship with your potential customer. However, gaining their trust is easier said than done, so how do you approach this meeting?

1. Preparation

Distinguishing Leads:

Firstly, different prospects require different preparation strategies. The two types of leads—inbound and outbound—will determine the strategy that you use!

Inbound: They came to you

Because they are already familiar with you and/or your company, there is already an understanding, they want to know more about what you have to offer. 

Outbound: They don’t know you

You can’t sell to them if you don’t understand them. Therefore, you need to spend more time gathering information on their situation.

Research:

Regardless if your lead came to you or not, you need to do some research on them prior to your meeting.

Explore their LinkedIn, company website, or any other platforms available to better understand their background. It’s important to know their name, roll/position in their company, and what their company does.

Not being familiar with your prospect or what they do is an automatic red flag 🚩   that could cause them to lose interest

2. Building Rapport and Setting the Tone

Developing mutual trust and friendship with your prospect will help get them focused on the meeting and pull them away from other distractions. 

Before you get too deep into the meeting, it’s a good idea to set the tone of the meeting:

  • What are you going to cover?
  • Establish a goal for the meeting.

3. Putting the Discovery in Discovery Meeting 🔍

The most important part of this call is understanding your lead’s current situation.

  • Dive deep to understand their role in their business.
  • What challenges are they facing? Ask them to elaborate.
  • Why are they looking to fix this problem now?
  • What are their goals? What’s their plan to achieve their goals?

After discovering the pains that your prospect is suffering from, you can then discuss the implications of their goals.

  • What happens if they fix their problem or achieve their goal?
  • What will be the benefits to their company?
  • What happens if they don’t fix it?
  • This will further highlight their pain points. Make a list!

Recap what you discovered in this meeting. Going over their situation shows that you’re listening. If you clearly establish their goals and challenges, your prospect should be able to see that they are not yet where they need to be. But you can help them get there!

4. Pitch

When meeting with an inbound lead, you can spend more time highlighting your product or service. Because they already know you/your company, they are probably interested in the details of what you have to offer.

When meeting with an outbound lead, your pitch should be brief. You don’t want to give this lead the impression that you are already trying to sell to them. Only provide a taste of your product/service, this gives them an opportunity to ask questions.

Customize your brief pitch to their specific goals and challenges. Emphasize that your goal is to help them achieve their goals and present your solution.

5. Next Steps

Before you end the call, there are a few things you need to confirm.

TMA: Timing, Money, and Approval

  • Timing
  • Confirm the time frame to fix their problem. Never end the call without establishing a timeframe for what’s going to happen after the call? Do they need to “think about it” or “talk to their co-founder”. Whatever you two agree on that will happen next, nail down the exact details! 🔨
  • Money
  • What is their budget? Does this align with your product/service?
  • Confirming the budget defines the possibility of your prospect becoming a prospect.
  • Approval
  • Are they the decision maker?
  • Does anyone else need to be involved?

Incorporating these steps will ensure a smooth and effective discovery meeting.

Ready to save time?

Do you have questions, feedback, or suggestions? Let us know! Whatever it is, RevFuel is always ready to solve your queries in a blink.

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