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Something that has worked for me across the years in initial meet/greet aka Mutual Discovery calls (where you can prove your company already anticipated how it can fit in the prospect's world, based on reasonable research, plus demonstatw yoir company's willingness to learn more abt the prospect's unique situation) is to go by RA-POSTMAN in pacing meetings, w/ some steps not always being in strict sequence (depending on how much time is allotted & the personality type/communication style/culture of the prospect one mist adapt to) - but at the very least, most if not all letter aspects have to be completed/accounted for in your mtg.:
1. Rapport-building or ice breaking
2. Alignment or Agenda setting of what is to be presented, discussed, & hopefully achieved
3. Problem/Paint Point/Potential opportunity that prospect must address - prospect can say this or you could say this if you are pitching a solution that they did not think possible yet
4. Outline together what will happen, cost-wise & time-wise, if Problem/Paint Point/Potential opportunity is not acted on by prospect
5. Solution/s - talk on point abt solution/s offered by your company, breaking down qualitative & quantitative aspects
- a talkative prospect might ask/say more as you explore solution paths together
6. Time needed to implement worthwhile solution - either the prospect's deadline &/or how soon or long your company does things
7. Money aspect of how solution can be afforded by prospect/how much money is saved and made by prospect once your company's solution is deployed, as well as how much money prospect may Lose by doing nothing or trying other solutions that may not be suitable to them
8. Authority- aside from the person/s you are presenting to, who else are the decision-makers we should approach/prepare to present to in getting this solution rolling?
9. Next Step - can be meeting w/ other higher ups to ehp another customized presentation can be made, or meeting to develop a custom quote, or of your product is pretty off-the-shelf, maybe start taking the order.
Got to agree on what's next on the calendar for both parties to be accountable for (ex. Deadlines for NDAs if there aren't any yet, relevant data submissions, etc.) And follow up by email to leave digital trail of what should be next.
Shorter version of this if mtg
time is really short &/or prospect culture is pretty straightforward anyway is PUMA:
1. Pain/Problem/Potential Oppty.
2. Urgency in Matching your company's offered Solution now or w/in near future to the prospect's pain/problem/Potential oppty.
3. Money
4. Authority w/ next step folded in.
Remember, you need to rehearse how to present your case elevator pitch-style in an initial Discovery or meet/greet call center (if your bosses are pretty inarticulate or subjectively meander too much in explaining what your company does, it will be your job to distill their offerings in an elevator pitch) - since so many decision-makers are pressed for time & may not have the grace or patience to be beaten around the bush or get bored by your spiel;)
Strategic silences from you to give time to the prospect to chime in/be listebed to/be observed stealthily by you for thr facial expressions & body language or voice inflections, asking each relevant questions as you figure each other out, etc. are needed too.
In the most ideal setting, your own senior sales reps or mentors in the sales field should be teaching/modeling/doing mock exercises of these or some version of these to you, or your company should have invested in some sales process training from affordable boot camps, webinars/seminars by groups meant for sales professionals, etc.
However, understandably a lot of folks kind of either grew organically in sales (some are naturals at it, franky speaking, but are not necessarily good at teaching others on how they do it) or may not have started out in sales at all/can ne sonewhat clueless in these steps (ex. STEM engineers, CPAs, attys, medical doctors, military veterans, etc. needing to sell on their own, since their start-ups or pivoting firms might not always have the budgets & perks to attract trained/experienced sales pros to sell for them).
Thus, hopefully this complimentary advice may prove helpful to you, OP!
You’re welcome!🤝
You should look into Meddic, it’s a good framework to structure your discovery call
Definitely focus on the use case. If you don’t understand the current state, pain, and impact on the business, you’ll likely end up getting caught later in objections without being able to reference back to why they have a need in the first place. If you have a deck, I would suggest only using it in support of digging into the pain, etc. as far as asking deeper and questions, I would focus on trying to get 3-5 layers deep with each topic, and really actively listen to them ask follow up questions to lead the conversation to a place where they are uncovering their own pain. Hope this helps!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_whys
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As Google 1 said, MEDDPICC is a good measurement framework. Find John McMahon's book; it's instructive.
Use command of the message