Why Discomfort Leads to Great Discovery

Time and time again, I see start-ups make the same mistake. In their excitement about their product and showing it to the world, they blow through the Discovery stage to race to Demo. I get it — the Demo is where a Founder’s passion and comfort levels sit. 

By being hyper-focused on the Demo, Founders miss out on the valuable, sellable insights that are only captured during Discovery. 

Hard Truth: You need to spend more time in Discovery fighting your urge to rush to Demo. You need to dig deep into the questions that will give you a competitive edge and get the customer to pause. That pause is where their thinking and aha! happens especially if they are not actively seeking to solve.

Asking the hard (i.e. uncomfortable) questions is an accelerant that helps you focus on real opportunities vs. opportunities that will simply distract you or lead to meeting exhaustion. Don’t think that ignoring the elephant in the room makes the elephant disappear. It only blinds you from the inevitable truth.

Consider some of these sample questions that Founders often find hard to ask:
If it’s an outbound lead:

• What inspired you to take a call with me today? I know time is a scarce resource.

• Does [insert problem you solve] come up in your 1:1s at all? If no, why not?

• How are you measured in your role? And, what is not where it needs to be today?

If it’s an inbound lead:

• Why now and not six months from now? (timing)

• Have you spoken with [large competitor OR known alternative]? What inspired you about our model? 

• Have any red flags been raised about your team prioritizing this? Is the team fully united to solve X?

Sales Happen in Discovery

Sales happen in Discovery, not Demo. Just because you believe the customer has a problem doesn’t mean they believe they have a problem. The Discovery stage allows you to find alignment (or not, and that’s OK! not everyone is qualified), deeply understand their world, and position the product to their specific situation. Discovery is where you: 

• Build trust 

• Collect insights to understand the intent and buyer maturity

• Pinpoint their current situation

• Dig into past failures (hint: historics are a leading indicator of an early adopter)

A Demo Is a Tool, Not a Milestone 

Founders often (mistakenly) think of a Demo as a milestone to gain further perspective. However, you begin to lose the ability to probe at the Demo stage. I know this seems counter-intuitive, but the further conversations advance, the more it starts to feel like a sales pitch, and the more the customer’s guard goes up.

Think of the Demo as a sales tool to show your customer how much you understand them and how you’re best positioned to solve their problem. If the market problem is not fully understood and agreed upon, the Demo will fail you. 

A Demo can only be used once you’ve correctly diagnosed their problems. I don’t need to go into the over-used analogy of “diagnosis BEFORE prescribing”, but you get it. Consider the following five buyer buckets:

1. Actively seeking a solution – believe you’re best.

2. Interested in solving the problem – unaware of the best way to solve it 

3. Aware of the problem – not motivated to solve it today. 

4. Feeling symptoms – not aware of the problem 

5. Don’t believe a problem exists. 

If you’re in stages 3, 4, or 5, and rushing to Demo you will get crushed unless you have a robust Discovery session. Founders often come to realize this far too late.

The Bottom Line: Going to Demo too early will kill. This is why a thorough Discovery is critical.

Past Tense is Far More Important Than Future Tense

While in Discovery you want to collect evidence, not opinions. Evidence is past-oriented. Opinions are future-oriented. If you’re asking questions in the past tense, you’ll receive facts as answers. If you’re asking questions in the future tense, you’ll only receive assumptions. How you word your questions could result in false positives and alter your ability to find the pulse.

Remember that while sales start in Discovery, this stage is not about selling a product; it’s about evidence collection and problem insights. You want to learn how your customers answer the following questions:

• Do you agree a problem exists? 

• What has prevented you from solving unsuccessfully in the past? 

• Can you articulate how this problem currently impacts your business if not solved today?

Hint: Historics are predictors of future intent. Why? If it causes that much pain, they must have tried various avenues to solve it prior, albeit unsuccessfully. Probe here!

Your Start-up Can’t Afford Discovery Missteps 

I said it before & I’ll repeat it: you can’t afford to rush through Discovery. A successful Discovery is going to require tight management and discomfort. Discovery is a priority, not a luxury.

Unfortunately, you may not realize you’ve made a mistake in Discovery until it’s too late. A bottom-of-the-funnel problem is a symptom of a top-of-the-funnel misstep. 

I often speak with Founders who think they have a closing problem. Upon further investigation, we realize that they don’t have a closing problem; they have a qualification problem.

And, thank you to my colleague, Daryn, for keeping me to the point when writing this.