ART OF DISCOVERY

by Riche Atos / May 03, 2022

The art of discovery is one of the most important parts of any sales process. And yet, so many entrepreneurs and business owners spend a minuscule amount of time on it. This often leads to miscommunication, missed expectations and failed business relationships. 

A better discovery process will help you avoid these all-too-common issues. Plus, help you close more businesses quickly and more effortlessly. In this episode, I talk about the four types of questions you need to ask in a discovery or diagnostic process that will lead to better sales.

Connect with Dhiren:

Links:

Art of Discovery Episode Highlights:

  • 01:34 Discovery is the ability of service business owners, consultants and coaches to be able to understand the customer’s potential problems
  • 02:03 What most business owners as consultants forget to do and its consequences
  • 03:24 Listening typically starts with discovery and the 4 types of questions to ask in a discovery or diagnostic process
  • 04:17 The first type of question in a discovery or diagnostic process
  • 05:25 The second type of question in a discovery or diagnostic process
  • 07:50 The third type of question in a discovery or diagnostic process
  • 08:43 Examples of questions we typically ask our clients to lend information
  • 09:43 The fourth type of question in a discovery or diagnostic process


Questions to Ask During a Discovery Process With Your Customers/Clients: 

Questions to ask:

  1. Listen – Better questions can lead to answers that challenge deeply held assumptions. They make it easier to push past biases & venture into uncharted territory. Asking questions to draw out information will allow you t best place the project objectives within the larger organizational context. This will also help you build relationships with & gather support from the client stakeholders. In short, ask questions that yield opportunities for intentional listening.
  1. Learn – Learn about the client’s problem. Learn about what is is the real issue, needs and also what’s the future vision.

Questions You Can Ask:

  • Why are you looking to implement a system now?
  • What has changed now that is wanting you to take this project on?
  • Why can’t you do this yourself?
  • What’s preventing you and your team from doing this?
  1. Lend – Use questioning as a technique to lend expertise, talents, networks, technology, ideas, tools, or support.
  1. Lead – lead the customer to a solution that he/she may not be able to solve or provide a roadmap

Questions You Can Ask:

  • Have you considered or have you thought about so on and so forth?
  • Have you discussed this within your teams?
  • Would you consider taking this as an idea to take back to your teams?

Quotes:

“If I were to tell you that there is one thing that we don’t do as service business owners and as consultants is we don’t discover, we don’t go deep into the problem that the client is facing. We’re too quick to respond with a service or a product that you have for sale.” – Dhiren Bhatia

“Asking questions to draw information will allow you to best place the objectives within the context of the organization within the context of the much larger problem. And that is going to really help cement your relationship and get the support that you need from the customer when it’s time to close.” – Dhiren Bhatia

“Sometimes it’s not about prescribing the solution right out of the gate. It’s about understanding what the true problem is going levels deeper, and any other connecting problems that we have not discovered yet.” – Dhiren Bhatia

“If you ask the right questions, you can actually give your client the ability to lend your experience your strategic thought process. And it can work wonders in a conversation because now the client can see you as a trusted adviser, rather than here to make a sale.” – Dhiren Bhatia

“Sometimes, it’s not always the technology system that is missing. It’s also a process that doesn’t line up that there is a gap and and typically, we get to spend some time talking about how the customer can then go ahead and use our experience to better their process. And this gives a great value to the client right away.” – Dhiren Bhatia

 

Thank you for listening! I hope you enjoyed this episode and I’d love to hear your feedback. You can email me at hello@elevatedentrepreneur.fm and help me improve or if you have someone in mind that would be a great guest on the show, feel free to recommend them via email.

If you liked the episode, I appreciate you leaving a review on iTunes as it helps other entrepreneurs to find the show. You can also share the episode via Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram and tag someone who you feel would benefit from the podcast!

If there’s a question that you’ve been dying to ask me or feedback that you’d like to give me, head on over to elevated entrepreneur.fm/speak where you will be able to record a voice message that I can listen to and also maybe feature here on the podcast together with my answer.

 

Thanks, and lots of love,

Dhiren Bhatia

  • Episode Transcript
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