The 8 Discovery Questions That Got Me to President’s Club
Hey folks, Brian LaManna here -- top producer from Gong and guest from Episode 165 of 30 Minutes to President's Club!
By age 27, I made President’s Club five times. And a huge part of that was the discovery question framework I’m going to share today.
We’ll break it down in three parts:
- The Opening Discovery Question Framework
- What Should I Include in My Opening Question?
- 8 Discovery Questions for the Rest of the Call
This comes straight from my brand new Closed Won playbook “Discovery: From 1st Call to Close” – a 50-page system that guides you from start to finish in a deal cycle.
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Let’s break it down.
The Opening Discovery Question Framework:
Although you can't predict/control how exactly the conversation will flow, I ALWAYS come to the table with 1-2 questions prepared to kick things off.
Just like a sports team generally knows the first play they'll call before they take the field, right?
First, I research two relevant observations: a Company Observation and a People Observation. The Company Observation allows me to make a hypothesis about their business priorities and the People Observation allows me to make it personal.
Once you have those two things, use this framework to build your opening question:
Opening Discovery Question Framework:
"I did my homework and it seems like an extremely exciting time to be at [Company].”
"[People observation] and you also [company observation].”
"Is [company observation], you and your [CEO name's] #1 priority over the coming months?”
Here’s an example that I recently used on a call of mine:
Recent Discovery Call Example:
“I did my homework and it seems like an extremely exciting time to be at ACME."
"You just joined the team 4 months ago as VP of Sales and you also just announced a new pricing model for Enterprise."
"Is generating net new Enterprise customers you and your CEO Karen’s #1 priority over the coming months?”
Compare that to average openers like:
- “So what are your top 2-3 priorities?”
- “What keeps you up at night?”
- “If you had a magic wand, what are 2-3…”
Scrap those from your sales rolodex of questions :)
Average questions = get average answers.
Great questions = get great answers.
What Should I Include in My Opening Question?
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As you build your own opening question – the key is to pull the pieces of information that allow you to build a point-of-view on the prospect’s priorities, not any random piece of research you could find about them.
At Gong, I try to find Company Observations that I know we can help support, like new revenue targets, hiring goals, or go-to-market changes like the pricing model above. These are often written all over the company’s website, blog, LinkedIn, and news articles. But the best is when you can get an inside scoop from a rep working at the company or from a previous opportunity on the account.
Then I use People Observations to understand their role in those company priorities: New Hires, recent promotions, job changes, LinkedIn posts, or blog posts will often include quotes, initiatives, or job descriptions that help me get a sense of how they’re supporting those priorities.
8 Discovery Questions for the Rest of the Call
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The right opening question will get you to the right business priority that they want to solve for.
From there, it’s a matter of testing that priority and making sure that it’s really that important for them to solve.
Here are 8 example questions that I’ll ask after getting a business priority. You don’t need to ask them all (or ask them exactly in this order), but it’ll give you a sense of how you can take a business priority and make it bigger and bigger:
1. “How did you determine ___ was #1?”
2. “How is ___ showing up in the business today?”
3. “Where is that today and where are you hoping to get it to?” [Current state / Ideal state]
4. “Have you done the math on what that would be worth if you got to ideal state?”
5. “What have you tried so far to solve that?”
6. “I don’t want to ask a loaded question but this seems like a really, really big priority. Fast forward 90 days... are we okay if we haven’t addressed this challenge yet? Or are we committed to solving this asap?”
7. “What happens if we don’t get there?”
8. Empathy question to insert: “What about this issue is something that others you’ve explained it to, just don’t seem to understand?”
That's a wrap folks!
This past Tuesday, I launched my brand new playbook “Discovery: From 1st Call to Close.”
It’s a 50 page, no fluff, system for AEs and Leaders to consistently win bigger deals, faster.
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