Weak Discovery Costs More Than Lost Leads

The cornerstone of a strong sales team is the ability to lead impactful discovery.

Unfortunately, we don’t pay enough attention to what impactful discovery actually looks like. This means many teams are struggling with low win rates.

In a small poll I ran recently, the majority of sales professionals struggle with closing the deal - even more than a weak pipeline.

To offset low win rates, many companies are:

• Spending more on marketing

• Doubling down on prospecting and cold outreach

• Discounting products to get more customers closed/won

But none of these efforts and expenses address the problem of weak discovery.

In fact, these efforts only drive up another cost: the company’s Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). [Gartner defines CAC as marketing spend plus sales spend (including salaries, technology, etc) divided by total new customers.]

This creates a vicious cycle where even more leads (costly ones) are being lost to the status quo, or to the competition.

The problem with most discoveries and why Weak Discovery Costs More Than Lost Leads

Too often, discovery is entirely focused on the seller’s product. Yes, the seller knows the importance of asking questions. But their questions are limited to the tools and processes the buyer is currently using – followed by a demo.

So the buyer struggles to connect the dots between the product (other than their immediate technical headaches) and their bigger-picture business problems. The buyer then goes dark and the deal is lost to the status quo.

Time to go find new leads. And it starts all over again. (While Customer Acquisition Costs keep climbing.)

What to do instead: use the Gap Selling framework for discovery

To interrupt this vicious cycle, focus on strengthening discovery. Yes, a healthy pipeline will always be important, but what good are new leads if they can’t be closed?

In the Gap Selling framework, discovery is approached as a diagnosis. Just as a doctor diagnoses a patient before prescribing medication, the seller must diagnose the business problem in the buyer’s current state, along with the impacts of that business problem, and the root cause.

Why have I italicized business problem? Because that’s what matters to the buyer!

The diagnosis is necessary to assess the size of the problem, along with the root cause of the problem (which your process or tool will fix).

Then, as the seller, you can articulate how and why your product can address the root cause and make the business problem go away.

You lead impactful discovery when you focus on what matters to the buyer. The strength of your diagnosis is the catalyst for change in your buyer.

Impactful discovery leads to increased win rates – which will indirectly decrease Customer Acquisition Costs.

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"Weak Discovery Costs More Than Lost Leads"