A head of sales commented, “80 percent of my team believes they do a good job with discovery, but sadly they do not—they don’t know what they don’t know!”

Where do you stand with your discovery skills?

• Level one: Uncovers statements of pain
• Level two: Uncovers pain and explores more deeply
• Level three: Uncovers pain, explores deeply, broadens the pain and investigates the impact
• Level four: Uncovers pain, explores and broadens, investigates impact and quantifies
• Level five: Uncovers pain, explores and broadens, investigates impact, quantifies and reengineers vision
• Level six: Applies these skills to the broad range of prospects represented across the Technology Adoption Curve, “burn victims”, disruptive and new product categories, transactional sales cycles, and other scenarios
• Level seven: Integrates and aligns the skills above into a cohesive discovery methodology

Most sales, presales, and customer-facing teams are operating at level two or three, with a few at level four—this leaves a lot of room for improvement!

And, as Cohan notes, “the vendor who is perceived by the prospect as doing a superior job in discovery is in a competitively advantageous position.”

Listening and following the exercises in Doing Discovery can transform individuals, teams, and organizations from undifferentiated sellers into high-performing practitioners who achieve their sales objectives while truly enabling buyers, resulting in mutually successful outcomes that endure.