The best way to sell is to help someone to solve a specific, measurable business problem and to show them, how to get there by leveraging your solution.

First, you need to understand what their key objectives are, what their status quo looks like and the value they would get from bridging the gap between the two.

In theory, that’s exactly what discovery is for.

There are three common mistakes that will derail your discovery and block your ability to sell effectively.

1. Jumping to solutions: Imagine you’d go to a doctor and within a minute, while you are still trying to express your situation, they would jump to a diagnosis. Would you feel that they took the time to really understand what’s going on? Probably not. Yet so many times Sales Engineers jump to conclusions without spending the time to really understand our customers. Don’t tell, listen!

2. Accepting the first answer: Never accept the first answer and always dive deeper. You will uncover so much more by asking why. And after you’ve asked why, do it again. Ideally, you repeat that 5 times. This will help you uncover what’s really going on.

3. Making Assumptions: I get it, you’ve spoken to hundreds of customers and a lot of their problems sound fairly similar. So you try make an educated guess. You don’t ask because you assume you know the answer. I can promise you that you are missing out. Always ask and never assume.

Avoid those three mistakes and you will see how much more valuable your discovery conversations will become.