The Discovery Channel

I've spent a lot of time this month at Sales Kickoff events talking about the art and science of the Discovery Process. One of my key statements is that Discovery is a continuing process with a customer and should NOT be regarded as a single event. (Just as the Discovery Channel is on TV 24x7).

The point of this is that if you focus on a "Discovery Meeting" as the only opportunity to conduct discovery then you are missing the opportunity to learn way more about your customer. It doesn't matter what you call it - Discovery, Needs Analysis, Business Issue Discussion, Business Drivers etc..

The other interesting discussion point revolves around where the transition occurs from the salesperson to the presales person when conducting discovery. Since I rarely hear presales complain that they do too much discovery I'm fairly certain where the line should be drawn. Yet every sales/presales relationship is different, and strictly defining the cutoff can limit the talents of the pairing. The best solution seems to be general guidelines, which each sales/presales group can mutually adjust based on their respective skills. Usually most presales engineers will want to be engaged earlier rather than later - as long as the deal is qualified (budget, timeframe, approval process, do they have a pulse etc..).

In return - presales need to make themselves more accessible to sales for discovery calls, and not bury them (the reps) in paperwork or process to get "a resource". Otherwise presales becomes a resource instead of a partner - and we know where that leads us!!

Good selling.