Doing Discovery with Your Prospects’ Executives

“Get to the point…!”
– Nearly Every Executive Exasperated by Traditional Salespeople

What’s in This Article for You?

A Real-life Story
Another Real-life Story
Who Is an Executive?
Discovery with Executives
Two More Tips

A Real-life Story

A few years ago, I was contacted by an executive who was a previous customer and who had recently taken a leadership position at a new company. Our conversation lasted only twenty minutes, but covered the following:

He had a large group of sales and presales people who were generating “somewhat acceptable” results using traditional practices, but he needed a twenty percent improvement in both new and recurring revenues to meet his objectives. He said, “You know the problem: Their discovery skills are thin, their demos are Harbor Tours, and we won’t make our numbers without changing their practices.”
He wanted to have them all trained in Great Demo! and Doing Discovery methodologies in a timeframe that would enable improved results for the second half of his fiscal year.
He listed several members of his team he wanted me to contact to get the details, including his direct reports (regional sales and presales managers, and members of his enablement team), plus a few folks in other departments.
He asked me for rough pricing so he could allocate the budget.
Finally, we invested a few minutes at the end of the call to “catch up.”

This brief conversation yielded one of the most extensive and successful implementations of Great Demo! and Doing Discovery to date!

Intriguingly, this experience wasn’t unique! I’ve had this same conversation with several different executives, yielding very similar results.

Another Real-life Story

A few (more) years ago, an executive leading a $30 million-per-year business unit needed software to support their manufacturing operation of semi-custom-built systems. He reached out to several vendors, based on recommendations from his team, as his personal experience with these offerings was limited.

Each call went nearly the same way

He described his problem set and his goals, along with his required timeline.
He articulated his high-level vision of a solution.
He directed each vendor to contact his team leaders to gather specific needs and related information.
He asked for rough pricing plus information to help him complete a business case.
At the end of each call, he invested a few minutes to learn about the vendor’s team members.

That executive was me! And in that role and in prior senior management roles, I’ve purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars of software, including CRM systems, inventory management, and ERP systems, as well as dozens of copies of tools such as CAD software.

This article is designed to share years of working with and being the executive on the other end of the line!

Who Is an Executive?

A very simple and effective definition can be found in the terms “Above the Line” and “Below the Line.” Executives are Above the Line and have the power and authority to buy (or manage a buying committee). Many middle managers will claim that they “make the buying decision,” but when you peel back the layers it turns out that they don’t control the budget and are only making a recommendation to a superior.

In companies with a U.S. organizational structure, executives typically include the C-Suite, Senior Vice Presidents, and Vice Presidents, although VPs may have restrictions on spending depending on the company. Directors, Senior Managers, and almost everyone else do not have the power and authority to buy. They are not executives: They are Below the Line.

Most executives have very straightforward objectives, representing the overall objectives for their part of the operation. For example:

CEO: Achieve their profit and/or growth objectives
CRO: Achieve the target revenues
COO: Produce and deliver products on time, on spec, and within budget
CFO: Control and manage costs to meet the bottom-line objectives
Head of Development: Complete product launches and releases on time, on spec, and within budget

“The higher you go, the clearer the measurements of success!” Everyone below executives typically has a piece of the overall objective. For example, regional sales managers are responsible for revenues coming from their region, but not the number summed across all the regions.

Executives generally both define and allocate budgets within their portions of the organization. Many executives also have discretionary budgets that are reserved to take advantage of opportunities or to deal with emergencies. Managers who are Below the Line can request and sometimes spend budget, but don’t typically define budgets.

Finally, many executives set the vision for their teams. For example, listen to your CEO or CRO at your upcoming sales kickoff meeting: I’ll bet they articulate their vision for the future!

Generalization Disclaimer!

“For every generalization, there are meaningful exceptions…!” – Me

Executives are people (in theory) and, accordingly, may exhibit different attributes than are described in this article. Caveat emptor!

Discovery with Executives

Small Talk

Executives don’t want small talk at the beginning of a call. They don’t want a long, “limbic-oriented” story or the vendor rep’s personal history, they want to get to the point right away. Note that they may be willing to engage in small talk at the end of the call if it goes well!

Get to the Point

If you are pitching to them, they want you to get to the point rapidly. State your intentions! Similarly, they will also communicate their goals and pain readily, often right up front.

Don’t BANT!

Many executives will not have an allocated budget for a project but can often tap into the unallocated budget or move the budget between projects. Inflicting BANT (Budget, Authority, Needs, Timeline) or similar qualification methods on them may result in a lead that churns (and I’ve been a lead that churned)

Experienced Buyer?

Some executives are very experienced buyers of complex offerings. In these cases, your job is truly one of buyer enablement: Understand their process, map to it, and eliminate friction as much as possible. Help them buy what they need, on their timeline, implement successfully, and track progress and ROI consistently over the life of the product in their hands.

Other executives, particularly those who are newly minted into the position, may not be experienced buyers. Your role is to assist and guide them through their buying process. Again, think buyer enablement: “What can I do to help them bring our product on board and into production use as smoothly and successfully as possible?”

One key element of buyer enablement is to assist with the executive’s cost justification or business case analysis. Experienced buyers will tell you what they need; inexperienced buyers will benefit from your guidance. For the second group, describing how other executives in similar situations successfully completed this process can be particularly helpful.

In both cases, make sure that they aren’t missing important value elements, based on your experience.

Experienced Champion?

Similarly, they may or may not be experienced senior champions in their buying and implementation processes. For those who are experienced, map to their guidance! For those who lack experience, provide high-level examples of how other executives in similar situations championed their processes.

Problem vs Critical Business Issue?

Some years ago, I was upgraded on a flight home from the East Coast and found myself sitting next to the CRO of a large business intelligence company that had just come from a sales kickoff meeting. After a few pleasantries, I asked, “Tell me, what’s the biggest challenge you face in your job today?” He immediately responded, “Making my numbers this year…!”

While middle managers and staff members often articulate their “biggest challenge” at the Problems/Reasons level, executives are much more likely to express true Critical Business Issues. When preparing for a call with an executive, I highly recommend knowing ahead of time what their likely Critical Business Issues are. This will enable a crisper, more effective discussion

Detailed Discovery?

The amount of detailed discovery you can execute with executives is very limited, in most cases. They won’t know the details, and you can make them angry by asking exhaustive questions.

On the other hand, they can provide you with excellent demographic information (see page 67 in Doing Discovery), which you’ll need for the next item…

Pricing

Don’t hedge. Don’t say, “Well, we can only give you a price after we’ve done our due diligence about your needs…” Provide a reasonable ballpark price or price range during the initial call or immediately after. They need these numbers for their planning. You’ll be able to nail down the specifics you need for a proposal as you do discovery with their reports, which brings us to…

Delegating Down

Most executives will identify key players for you to interview for much more extensive discovery conversations. In some cases, these team members are within the executive’s reporting structure, but they can also be members of a more extensive buying committee and set of contributors/influencers. Experienced executives will provide introductions for you; you may need to ask less experienced executives to do this step.

Executives will often provide insights into their team members’ personalities to assist you in these discussions as well. Listen closely!

In nearly all cases, executives will want progress reports and summaries as you proceed through your discovery conversations with these delegates.

Buying Decision

Some executives can make the decision to purchase on their own. Others may have a buying committee or manage a buying committee. Understanding this is part of your buyer enablement process!

Strong Opinions

Most (all?) successful executives have strong opinions about topics that are important to them. Listen carefully as these opinions can give you important insights that directly impact the success or failure of a purchase and subsequent implementation. These opinions often influence perceptions of product and/or timing fit as well.

Value Realization Events

When I made my first major software purchase, an enormous weight descended onto my shoulders: The responsibility of securing the expected gains from the investment. That weight bore down heavily on me as I signed the license agreement!

Did it get released when we went live with the application? Nope! Did that pressure lessen when we trained the users? Nope, again!

It only began to diminish as we had our first few small successes using the system: Value Realization Events.

Discussing and agreeing on a handful of Value Realization Events is a key element of discovery with executives. One of the best times to have this brief discussion is when you explore their high-level ROI and business case parameters.

New in Position

Executives who just joined a new organization often have an increased personal desire to make an impact and want to “make it happen” rapidly. Seek to understand if this is the case

The Technology Adoption Curve

Executives will often act according to where the prospect sits, overall, on the Technology Adoption Curve:

Early Adopter/Innovator: Tends to buy readily and is willing to take risks
Early Majority: Willing to address their problems and challenges, but does so carefully
Late Majority: Hates change, pushes back, will move slowly and very carefully; often results in No Decision outcomes
Laggards: Don’t even try!

Asking a question about their previous buying and implementation experience can tell you where they sit on the curve. Note that newly hired executives may buck the existing trend, however. Do discovery

Two More Tips

Negotiating

I was at a prospect’s site in Michigan negotiating an agreement for a $6 million dollar order. I was the business lead, accompanied by my head of engineering and our contracts lawyer. We’d already spent several hours working through specific terms. I was getting tired and a bit dispirited as we slogged through legal and operational details. We agreed on a brief break, and I headed for the restroom.

As I was washing my hands, my counterpart, the business lead from my prospect joined me at the sinks and said, “You look pretty tense…!”

I replied, “I am tense…!”

He smiled and remarked, “Yeah, I know, me too. But the good news is that I want to get this done just as much as you do! It’s still going to be a process, but things will work out well.

In my personal experience, once an executive has decided to move forward with your offering, they may require some deal negotiation. And while negotiations may be tough, they typically want to get the deal done!

A “Thank You for Your Time” Alternative

Many vendors offer the phrase, “Thank you for your time…” when starting or completing a meeting with a prospect, often adding “I know your time is valuable…” This is courteous but positions you beneath the prospect in terms of relative importance.

A very successful salesperson (thanks, Carol!) once shared the following advice that I continue to apply today:

She asked me, “Isn’t your time just as valuable as the prospect’s?” I responded, “Of course it is…”

She then offered a better way of starting and closing meetings. She suggested saying, “I’m glad we are [or were] able to invest this time together today…”

This positions both parties as equals, regardless of whether you are speaking with an executive, middle manager, staff member, or system administrator. What a delightful idea!

To learn the methods introduced above, consider enrolling in a Great Demo! Doing Discovery or Demonstration Skills Workshop. For more demo and discovery tips, best practices, tools and techniques, explore our books, blog and articles on the Resources pages of our website at https://GreatDemo.com and join the Great Demo! & Doing Discovery LinkedIn Group to learn from others and share your experiences.