No kidding, if you f... up your discovery you'll never know:

• if there is your prospect has a real pain... or not
• what are the things your prospect is looking for and more important WHY?
• if the perso

Hence, you could loose lots of time hoping to sign a deal that does not exist in your prospect mind, or loose it vs a competitor who will have better understanding of customer needs or is better connected to the decision maker

Please, be prepared for the meeting. Please. Really.

Do you homework about the company and the person you'll meet before the meeting.

It is important because:

• the person is assessing you during this meeting and will decide if you're either a Pro or a clown, if you can bring him/her something or not, and if he/she can trust you... or not
• you can skip the basics more quickly and spend more time on value added information which could give you an advantage toward the competition
• you can demonstrate your expertise

How to run a Discovery?

A sales rep has 2 ears and 1 mouth, and has to use it in this order and in this proportion. What your prospect has to say is much more important than what you have to say.

Lots of frameworks exist: BANT, Meddic,...

You have to consider these frameworks as reminder of questions to be asked in order to assess the lead and to define the best strategy to close it.

Here are some of the elements you want to evaluate

• Always say thank you for customer time (please be polite :-) ), validate available timing you have for the meeting (it changes more often than you think) and agree on the items to be discussed during the meeting