The Art of Sales Discovery

Succeeding as a sales professional requires skill development in any number of areas, but none more important than learning how to connect with customers in a meaningful way. That is, in a way your customer feels valued. Sales is both art and science. The science part is easy. That's simply about discipline. Its learning the art of sales that proves to be more of a challenge. Once you embrace your own self-empowerment, your own natural intellectual curiosity, and develop confidence in your authentic self, your artistic sales style will be unleashed. Matched with process and discipline, you will become a top performer.

As you'll learn in this book, product pitching is over. When you can match customer outcomes to your specific solution, you both win. Sales leaders need to be better coaches. Reading call reports, then creating bar charts and graphs showing sales activity is meaningless. Yes, meaningless. The only thing that matters are results. Sales professionals are accountable for results. And consistent sales results are the foundation of any growing business. Yet, our sales leaders are not adept at being good mentors nor are they well schooled at the art of converting opportunities into big results. Therefore, their coaching skills are never developed in way that creates high performing sales teams. Why is that? Metrics. Metrics are very important. I don't discount the value of data. Not ever. But how you comprehend that data into useful coaching is a big miss in the effort to create high performing sales teams. The part of sales we sometimes call, "touchy, feely", is where the magic happens. It's the art of sales we need to improve. And that must include the customer. Without question, must. How do you know what to sell if you have no idea what the customer intends to buy? The only way to know that is to contact and connect with their needs and their desired business outcomes. It's why I say, "ditch the pitch" and move to "discovery". Discovery in this context really means to uncover. Uncover what outcomes are important to the customer. That is why The Art of Sales Discovery has to be your most valued skilled. It also means you have to take an earnest interest in the customer. When market messaging draws customers who sense you can fulfill their outcomes, you are on the right path. Match your marketing message with a skilled team of sales professionals who know how to target customer needs, to surface their business outcomes, then closing becomes easy and closing equals results - the only thing that matters. Winning is a direct result of knowing what your customer needs. The Art of Sales Discovery is the key to unlocking sales excellence.

Mike is an experienced sales leader of 20 years working across a number of technologies and services. A recognized expert at developing SaaS business models by creating customer value with clear customer messaging, he has coached high performing sales teams and mentored top performers to a mark of excellence. Refining sales process, fostering individual empowerment and sales team mentoring have been the hallmark of his career. His experience includes work with early stage companies like Scene7, Vendaria, Pro.com, Moxi Works, Golden Peak Media, Move Easy, and F1000 companies like Amazon, Motorola, AT&T and more. A leader by example, Mike is known for unlocking opportunities that will transform a business.