The power of partnership.The power of partnership.

AccuData’s Sales Training Series

Discovery and Validation

Training Module Run Time: 16 minutes

Welcome

What you will learn from this tutorial:

• The information needed for a successful discovery call

• How to obtain that information

• How to validate the sales call and ensure that you are on the

same page as the customer

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Complex Deal Sale Cycle

3

Get In the Door

•Right person?•Right time?

Discovery

•Understand the problem/ needs of the customer?

Validation

•Desire state?•Compelling reason to change?•Favorable to our solution?•Validated Approval Process?

Propose

•Compelling reason to buy from you?

Close•Decision makers on-board?•Handled objections?•When are they ready to buy?

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Discovery and Validation

• Make discovery and validation a continuous process

• A sales rep needs to ask questions to learn:

1. Responsibilities and priorities of the decision maker (or

the person you are talking to)

2. Current direct marketing strategy/activities

3. The specifics of the opportunity

4. How decisions get made

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Responsibilities & Priorities of the Decision Maker

Questions Description

Can you tell me about the scope of your responsibilities and your role in the direct marketing process?

Identifies how important their role is in the decision making process

How is your marketing team organized? What role does each person play?

Allows you to see who the players are in the organization

Where does (this project) fall on your priority scale?

How important is this project to their organization

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Company’s Direct Marketing Strategy

Questions Description

Can you take a minute to describe the top company priorities and how that is impacting direct marketing?

Allows you to see where the company is focusing their marketing budget

What is your direct marketing strategy?

What strategy is in place and how can you make an impact in the future

How do you do direct marketing today?

What programs are they running

What is working well? What could work better?

Gives an idea of their strengths and weakness in their marketing

What would compel you to try an alternative?

What would motivate them to do something other than the status quo

7

Project Opportunity Specifics

Questions Description

Can you describe the scope of the project for me? (objectives, targets, counts, results desired …)

Details of the scope

Have you done similar projects in the past?

Has the company ever gone down this road before?

If yes, what were the results? What worked well, not so well?

What the outcome of was of past projects

What time frame are you considering? Where are you at in the process?

Where is the client in the process – are you playing catch up or are you starting at the beginning

What would make this project a win?

What expectations do they have

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Marketing Specifics

Questions Description

Do you do the mailing in-house or do you outsource it?

Who is working on their marketing items

Do you do data hygiene services in house?

How versed are they on database cleansing

How do you use modeling/profiling? Are they working in analytics

What response rate are you hoping for?

What is their benchmark

How many vendors do you use today? Why these vendors? What would compel you to try an alternative solution?

Who are the competitors with this project. How do they feel about these vendors?

If we can show you results and savings, is there anything you can think of that would prevent us from moving forward?

Lists their hurdles or if they tied to another company

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How Decisions Get Made

Questions Description

How does your company typically make decisions on these types of projects?

Is it a committee or individual

Steps? Who is involved? Decision criteria?

How they perform the decision making process

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Role Play

Situation:• 20 store family restaurant chain with locations in four states• Business is down 15% from last year• Meeting with the VP of Marketing• Previous print/mail vendor has gone out of business• Inviting six vendors to submit proposals

Goal: To better understand:• Company priorities• Role of person I am talking to• Direct marketing strategy• Details of current opportunity • Decision process

Complex Deal Sale Cycle

11

Get In the Door

•Right person?•Right time?

Discovery

•Understand the problem/ needs of the customer?

Validation

•Desire state?•Compelling reason to change?•Favorable to our solution?•Validated Approval Process?

Propose

•Compelling reason to buy from you?

Close•Decision makers on-board?•Handled objections?•When are they ready to buy?

Validation

• Send a Discovery Letter or summary of what was discussed to the

customer within 24 hours

• Should contain the essence of the conversation that occurred

during the sales call along with a proposed set of next steps

• Response should be sent in an email and should copy all

attendees

12

Validation – Sample Discovery Letter

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Ed,

Thank you for your time today. I now have a much better understanding of your needs and have outlined them below. Please let me know if you have any comments or questions.

• The Giordano Group needs to attract new customers in order to achieve 2009 revenue targets. To combat a recent decline in revenue, the company is executing a direct mail campaign.

• This project is the top priority for Marketing. The department includes Ed and two other people who focus on print advertising. The team supports marketing activities for four regional vice presidents. Each region contains five locations.

• Because the marketing team is so small, Ed utilizes vendors to execute most programs • In the past, the company has relied on direct mail promotions to targeted zip codes. These promotions were

marginally successful, primarily due to a poor list and weak offer.• Giordano currently has 25,000 names in it’s database. It would like to supplement these names with a

customized list and execute a direct mail campaign.• The list would focus on 50 zip codes and target homeowners with presence of children and annual income of

at least $50K.• The campaign would begin July 1st and end Aug. 15th. Est. total volume is 500,000 pieces (25,000 per loc.)

and would be shipped on the following schedule: July 1 – 125,000, July 15 – 125,000, August 1 – 125,000, August 15 – 125,000.

• Giordano Group is looking for a one stop shop and soliciting proposals from 6 vendors. Proposals should include suggested creative copy, pricing, project plan and how your solution will help Giordano Italian Eatery acquire more customers.

• The project for the program is in the $200,000 range. Ed owns the budget and is final decision maker.• The approval process is as follows:

— May 26 – proposals due— June 1 – two vendors chosen to present to Ed and the four regional VPs— June 4 – final pricing due from two finalists— June 8 – decision

• Decision criteria are price (40%), execution and creative capabilities (40%), vendor stability/viability (20%)

Thank you again for your time and consideration. I will contact you next week to continue our discussions.

Best Regards,Nate Petel

Validating the Approval Process (VAP)

It is imperative that a sales person:

• Defines with the customer, what the specific steps are from the

current point in time to a signed purchased order

• Puts dates around each step

• Defines who is involved both from your company and customer

standpoint

• That the “Validated Approval Process (VAP)” is documented in a

discovery letter back to your champion

• NEVER does a proposal without a VAP

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Validating the Approval Process (VAP)

VAP from Previous Discovery Letter

• The budget for the program is in the $200,000 range • Ed owns the budget and is final decision maker• The approval process is as follows:

−May 26 - proposals due−June 1 – two vendors chosen to present to Ed and the

four regional VPs−June 4 – final pricing due from two finalists−June 8 – decision

• Decision criteria are price (40%), execution and creative capabilities (40%), vendor stability/viability (20%)

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A Continuous Process….

• Discovery and Validation must happen throughout the sale cycle,

especially for complex opportunities

• Don’t forget to keep abreast of changes in your customers

– Always ask for updates on things such as:

▪ Company priorities

▪ Organizational changes

▪ Direct marketing strategy and programs & impact to

budgets

▪ Your market share

▪ How you are perceived

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Discovery and Validation Summary

• Thorough discovery is a key component of sales execution

– What do I need to know?

– How do I get that information?

• Take ownership of the process

– Use discovery letters to validate requirements / approval

process

– Distribute discovery letters internally to keep people in the

loop, get deal on people’s radar screen

• Think of discovery and validation as a continuous process

– Practice at the opportunity level and customer level

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The power of partnership.The power of partnership.

For Further Information:

Call your sales rep

800.732.3440 | info@accudata.com