Software Sales Tips by Matt Wolach

Sales Tips

Video: Don’t Sell During Discovery

Why you should wait just a bit before pushing your solution

Here’s one thing that is very tough for software founders and sales reps to master. You see, this goes against their natural instincts and everything they stand for when they thing of selling.

And it’s going to sound weird, but I’m going to tell you not to sell.

I told you it would sound weird. But that’s right, don’t sell.

Well, I should add a caveat to that: don’t sell during Discovery. You see: Discovery, the part at the beginning of your demo or sales call, or on a call prior to that demo, is where you need to learn all about the prospect.

You need to get into their head and truly understand what they are going through. You need to get them to flesh out their pain and you need to feel that pain.

And it’s human nature: when you hear someone mention a pain that you can easily solve, it’s only natural to want to solve that pain right away so they don’t feel it anymore.

Good for you- you’re a nice person. Gold star for the day!

But don’t do that.

You need to make it through the entire discovery process without diving in and telling them everything about your system that will solve all their challenges.

If you do jump in, two bad things will happen:

  1. You won’t get all the needed information out of them that you can later Associate to your system
  2. They won’t quite understand the solution until they see it, so it won’t have as much impact (that’s the whole purpose of a demo).

Trust me, you need them to feel this pain for just a little longer so that when you solve it and they see it solved, you’ll be a winner.

So try this tip out: don’t sell during the discovery process. Let me know how it works for you.

Good luck.