How do you create a sales discovery script?

Knowing your ICP is incredibly important but there are a few additions that take this to the next level ! Typically we look at data commonalities to help form our ICP I love to interview existing clients to see if there are commonalities that we cant see with our data. The more we can gather from the actual clients, the better off we will be in finding more people like them! Examples: what was happening internally at their org right before they bought? What factors played the biggest part in their decision making? hidden stakeholders? etc.... The things we cant always google

With AI, this "Research" step can be performed faster than ever before -- even instantly. A huge challenge of modern sales teams is getting good clean data & enriching it accurately. Those who understand how to use the proper tools to do this faster, cheaper & more accurately than others will have a distinct competitive advantage in their GTM strategy.

Yes, research your prospects, but also ask them questions. Some of the best sales calls I've been on happen when the prospect does all the talking, including about their struggles, problems, etc. From there you can determine whether your product is a good fit for any of their problems.

Beyond having a logical conversation, Discovery also needs to uncover emotions -- the emotional pain of not solving the problem, the blockers that are keeping your prospect up at night, and the big hairy audacious goal they *really* want to achieve that's on the other side of their current problems. Get these out in Discovery -- you'll set the stage for a much shorter sales cycle.

For those who are wondering 'what are open-ended questions?' here is a bit of culture to explain it!!! "I kept six honest serving men They taught me all I knew Their names Where and What and Why And When and How and Who." (Rudyard Kipling) Those 6 words at the beginning of your questions mean that you are asking great open questions.

A solid Discovery script or flow will proceed from more Open questions to more Closed questions. You need to narrow the conversation from the General to the Specific to ensure there's good alignment between their pain and your solution.

It's not enough to just use open-ended questions. Asking questions like "what keeps you up at night" are a complete waste of time for the modern buyer. If you want to have a standout discovery conversation, here are the three things I would recommend: 1) clearly define what you solve best for your best prospects and build a hypothesis for why people engage with you (typically organizations struggling with a/b/c reach out to us) 2) ask the buyer which one of these issues is the most critical one to solve? 3) why is this important to solve and what happens if you stand pat? Yes, I know that's 4 things but you get the idea. Go in with a hypothesis and look to disqualify based on the answer you get.

Active listening, summarizing, and "double-click" expansive questions to go deeper are all critical. In all the hoopla about AI transcription and summarization, what's often being lost are the gaps between words ... what goes unsaid is often more important than what IS said.

The idea there is a discovery script, is untrue. Sales is a dialogue between two or more people. Scripting one party stops the dialogue. Instead, I recommend structured questions to B2B sales people on my bespoke courses. Start with a question that will take you to the pain points fastest: ’why did you get in touch?’ Or ‘why did you agree meeting me?’ Let the buyer speak and listen actively to their answers. Use probing and clarifying questions to deeply understand before trying to be understood. My courses are bespoke yet carry sound and proven sales strategies and practical tips like the one above.