The Fastest Way To Spot Weak Deals Early

Today’s Skill: Getting Intel

Have you muttered any version of these questions to yourself in recent weeks or months?

Why are my deals dragging on forever?

Why aren’t people buying when they said they would?

Why do people ghost me?

They were so excited, why haven’t they signed yet?

What am I doing wrong?

→ If a deal doesn’t move forward, it’s usually not because the product wasn’t a fit.

It’s because these things were unclear.

1. The details of their problem

2. Why they will change

3. How they will make the decision.

If you don’t have these, you’ll have a pipeline filled with unqualified deals that will just cause you stress and anxiety the longer they sit in there.

Let’s change that today…

Find Out Their Problem(s)

You need a clear understanding of what’s broken today.

As an example, Founders will come to me saying, “I’m not confident in selling” or “I’m not getting enough leads”. But, what does that really mean? You only get that nuance from probing into what’s working and what isn’t.

→ In short, get specific!

At the end of your discovery call, you should know:

• How they do this today

• Where they’ve struggled

• How often it happens

• Who feels the impact

• What this is costing them (money, time, etc)

Questions to help you get these answers:

• Can you share how you handle this today?

• Where are the bottlenecks or break points in the process?

• What impact does this have on your business when this problem surfaces?

• Does this effect any other areas of your business?

• How long has this problem existed?

→ If you can’t clearly identify the problem (or you find a “nice to have” vs a “must have”), either it’s not a real big problem or you didn’t dig deep enough.

Find Out If They Are Willing to Change

This is where most deals fall flat. It’s why you have that deal sitting in your pipeline from 4 months ago that said they were “ready to go” but never did.

A problem alone doesn’t create movement.

They have to make a commitment to change.

At the end of your discovery call, you should know:

• Why this matters now

• What triggered the conversation

• What happens if nothing changes

• When they want to make a change

• Has this problem been around for a while?

Questions to help you get these answers:

• Why are we talking today, what’s happened recently?

• Why is this a priority right now?

• What happens if this doesn’t get solved?

• Have you tried to solve this problem before?

• Is there anything affecting when this change needs to happen? (new program launch, software subscription ending, investor pitches, etc)

→ If it’s not urgent enough to make a change, then there’s no downside to waiting. It doesn’t mean this won’t happen at some point, but it isn’t a priority to happen right now.

Find Out How A Decision Gets Made

This determines whether they are decisive or not. You want people that can draw a line in the sand on what they want and what they don’t. It doesn’t mean you can’t coach them up or help them think about new items to put on that list but they have to have some criteria.

At the end of your discovery call, you should know:

• How they evaluate options

• What matters most in a decision

• Who is involved

• What could stop it

Questions to help you get these answers:

• How will you decide what the right solution is?

• What are the most critical needs to make this a success?

• What criteria will you use to compare options?

• Who else needs to weigh in?

• Where does this rank on your priority list at the moment?

• What would prevent this from moving forward?

→ If the decision process is vague, the next step will be too. The other negative is that if they don’t know how to compare options, vendors start to blend together. No decision criteria typically equals choosing the lower cost provider that looks similar.

Final Thoughts

A successful call gives you clarity on three things:

• The problem

• The reason to change

• The decision process to make that change

If any of these are missing, don’t move the deal forward.

• If you need more clarity, schedule another discovery call

• If their timeline is off, pause the discussions until a time that is better for them

→ You have to stay in control of the process!

Summarize what you learned, propose a clear next step and offer an explanation on why this is the best path forward. You stand out as the trusted advisor in this scenario.

In the other scenario, you’re wasting your time because you are trying to sell something without really knowing the buyer.

Set yourself up for success by getting the right information so you can qualify or disqualify this deal properly.

→ It’s the only way to build consistency in your deal flow from the beginning.

⭐ As a compliment to today’s issue read more about “red flags” to look out for when qualifying deals: Stop Chasing Maybe Deals

Action Item:

Look at the last few active deals you’ve worked.

Can you pinpoint these 3 areas accurately?

If not, I want you to prioritize this as a goal for your next discovery call.

→ Don’t end that call without clarity into these 3.

If you can accomplish this, I’ll bet you also feel confident as to whether this is a strong or weak deal.

We don’t get there by guessing, we get there by asking.

⭐ Want To Get Better At Discovery? Read issue #38 where I frame 12 discovery questions to help you dig deeper.