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Clip: Debe Rapson on Sales Discovery

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Clip from Episode 11 featuring: Debe Rapson of Demandbase:

Folks don’t take enough time to really, properly do discovery. And people who know me, know that I talk about discovery a lot because it is the thing that I believe sets me apart and all the top players apart from the B-players and the C-players; is taking the time to really understand what this client is trying to achieve and what are those clients’ roadblocks and the company culture that is, you know, helping them, you know to excel to success or holding them back. You know, are they evangelists, people who are on the cutting edge or not so much?
So, you know, really taking the time to fully do discovery and listen and not pitch during discovery is probably, you know, the number one thing that jumps out at me and I do think it’s crazy to pitch during discovery and I haven’t done it for probably 25 years. I mean it is a solid process that I’m loyal to because it’s really moved me forward and I see it as something that really sets the stage for everything else that happens in the sales cycle.
Once you understand what’s going on in that company and you understand what their motivations are and you understand how they make their decisions and what’s gonna make this person look good or bad and how they measure success and what their real pain points are, not just ‘hey I’ve got this challenge or that’, but where does it really hurt? Where’s the friction behind that’s really standing in the way of them getting success? Once you understand those things, it sets the table for really being prescriptive in each solution and really being relevant to that prospect and that’s how you get deals done. So, listening and not pitching during discovery is I think, very important and I can’t understand why people pitch during discovery. I just don’t get it because it shuts out all their opportunity to really learn about their prospect.

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