crusherdestroyer

account executive

Forcing disco on a reluctant prospect

Without fail, prospects who want to jump right into the platform without doing any disco have a MILLION questions about what they want to see after you minimize the screen

it makes the meeting run over, and you end up showing them a bunch of unrelated features

What do you do to get answers out of prospies before jumping into the demo?

🔍 Discovery

20 comments

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CoorsKing

WR Officer

Retired King of the Coors Knights

I just tell them I’m not showing a demo until I understand what possible needs and challenges are that we can align to. I can demo multiple ways, I want it to be relevant. It’s a waste of my time to not qualify first. I have no issue telling unqualified prospects to just go read a white paper instead.

RealPatrickBateman

Politicker

🔪Amateur Butcher🔪

I have always tried to frame it like "look, I'm happy to walk you through every single feature and function of XYZ, but that would be a waste of both our times. If we can take a few minutes to run some discovery, I can provide the most relevant information and solutions to your specific use-case. That way you can evaluate if we are a good fit for you or not."

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

You say no. You are in control of the call. You have something they (potentially) want, and you get to call the shots.

"I want to make the best use of everyone's time, and I find that the best way to make this happen is for me to learn more about your current situation/needs and then tailor the demo to what's relevant for you."

If they continue to push back saying nah just demo me, that's your directive to walk. I've flat out told prospects "That's not going to be a good use of time. If you're just looking for someone to throw a bunch of random information on the table, we're not the partner for you." Most of the time they smarten up and fall in line, but the ones that say "ok fine bye then" were never buyers and you've now just saved yourself hours of effort working on a deal that will never close and can move on.

RealPatrickBateman

Politicker

🔪Amateur Butcher🔪

I thought you just poured out some Kahlua and then put the contract on the table?

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

That's once I know they have a budget...you don't get to hang out with me until I know you have $$$$

RealPatrickBateman

Politicker

🔪Amateur Butcher🔪

.... I just saved 15% by switching to Geico. Does that count?

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

Absolutely

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

SaaS Eater

Lot of good feedback already on here but the first thing I do/teach my team to do iw set the agenda. If they know thats how you are going to spend the time they are more open to it generally. And in doing so, let them know that you are going to spend the first part of the call getting to know them/their business/their use case and needs.

If they push back on that you have to take control and do what @CoorsKing said.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Tell them you are going to talk about their specific needs today and will schedule a follow up for various off topic features.

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

It’s always a good idea to tell them that they have 30 mins and give the break up. If they further want to see something I always tell them that it’s a separate part altogether and might have to go through one more session and I have commitments with other prospects.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

All I can personally demo are the very high level elements of our solution. Since our solution is highly customizable and extensible, my demos are extremely rudimentary. So I prefer not to give them. I want to know what's going to provide value to the customer, not what I think is cool and that everyone should see, and that usually is a commodity for my solution anyway. Getting information out of the customer so that what you show/discuss is relevant is key. You also need to know if your solution is a fit for them, and if they are a fit as a customer. Qualifying them out of the process before you spend time on a demo, even on a long call, is something that should be welcome. Nobody likes to waste time.

Also, we have a quick demo on our website. Someone wants to see what our solution does, I send a link. Give me something to work with, you get our attention, because you are a serious buyer.

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

I tell them my standard demo is either 8 hours long if don’t do a 60min disco call or 90-120min if we do do a disco call. The reason is I have to cover everything if we don’t talk about the business needs, etc which takes a whole day.
Typically they opt for the later over the former.

JustGonnaSendIt

Politicker

Burn Towns, Get Money

I came here expecting platform shoes, cocaine, and coercion. I am disappointed.

Filth

Politicker

Live Filthy or Die Clean

Once you start calling discovery calls "Discos" your whole life happens atop light-up dance tiles. Shake your groove thing baby!

JustGonnaSendIt

Politicker

Burn Towns, Get Money

Yeah buddy!

Filth

Politicker

Live Filthy or Die Clean

Literally what I think of everytime I see "disco call" also the dance off in Starsky & Hutch - DISCO TRUCKING!

TheNegotiator

Arsonist

VP of Sales

Dude, shove discovery down peoples throats.

Rule of thumb: As long as you have confidence that doing so won’t cost you the deal, force every part of the sales process on prospects. You have a job to do. Give your genitalia a tug and get it done.

Jewcan_Sam81

Politicker

Account Executive

If someone doesn’t wanna give you the proper information to get the right demo of your product, they might just be kicking tires and wasting your time. “I really can’t get my internal resources aligned to you unless you tell me what you’re looking for. Our tech resources have different expertises and we need to know what your needs are so we can get the right resource to work with us.”
If that doesn’t work, this deal isn’t gonna happen

pumpkin19

Opinionated

Perhaps you're too low in the account?

ColdCall

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

A recent disco call told me it was 'therapeutic'; they obviously need to see a real therapist!

This is also why discovery and demo are two phases, you probably need to demo to more than 1 person.

That being said- asking questions about their company, the problem they have and how they solve it, can all be useful for the customer to work out exactly what they do. Get them talking about themselves/ their company and they will answer anything you want.

If they want a tour- you can just send them a video as others have said not worth anyone's time.

Hope that helps.

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