In today’s episode, Donald Kelly talks about the reasons why your discovery meeting is the most critical of all when it comes to sales.  The challenging part of the sales process Many people make the mistake of taking discovery meetings for granted during the sales process.  There are typically two sides of the sales process: the prospecting side and the closing side.  The prospecting side is the hustle part that many salespeople don’t care for as much.  The closing side is when the transaction is completed.  Another critical part of the sales journey is the discovery meeting.  Sometimes, salespeople assume things about their clients and prospects without checking in with them. They go to the presentation right away and do it beautifully, too. They are taken aback when the prospect doesn't close the deal with them.  For Donald, the discovery part of your sales process is more important than the close.  Without discovery, you won’t be able to close.  You have prospects that do not fit your product and services. There could be any number of reasons why these prospects are not a fit. Probing, digging, and getting information will help you disqualify prospects.  Salespeople should focus more on disqualifying the prospects instead of trying hard to quality them. You want to get rid of the ones that don’t fit the bill to focus on the ones that do fit the bill.  Discovery meeting allows you to do the following:  Understand the needs of the client and understand our capabilities.  We understand how they’re going to make decisions for our solution. We understand what they know and help them implement the solution.  Lastly, it allows us to understand who will make the decision and the money they’re going to spend  As salespeople, you need to understand and establish that there is a need rather than hear them saying that they’re doing research and they’re trying to figure out what works for them.  The first phase is to disqualify the prospect. Ask them questions and figure out if they have a need for your services or solutions.  Your second phase is the demonstration and the proposal.  You shouldn’t be overcoming major objections at this point because you’ve already done that in the discovery.  Some salespeople make the mistake of becoming too focused on the discovery process and then don’t keep that attention throughout the process.  Your goal is to have natural conversations with the buyers and give them a valuable purchasing experience.  Doing effective discovery is difficult work. It requires you to ask adult questions and have adult discussion but these conversations will help you take out the objections.  “Discovery Meeting: Why Your Discovery Meeting is the Most Critical of All” episode resources Speak with Donald directly for more sales talks. Reach him via these channels: LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook about any sales concerns.  Try Pipedrive today for FREE! As a TSE listener, PipeDrive is offering you an EXTENDED trial beyond the typical 30 days + 25% off your first three months after trial. Try it today at  → https://pipedrive.live/tse use your code: pipedrivetse.  This episode is brought to you in part by NetHunt CRM. NetHunt CRM is a sales automation tool that lives inside Gmail. It covers a full set of features to manage leads, nurture customer relations, monitor sales progress, and automate sales and marketing workflows. With native-like Gmail and G Suite integration, you can access all the CRM data, launch bulk email campaigns, and set up automated sequences right from your inbox. NetHunt helps to move your leads down your sales funnel and never let the valuable prospects go untouched. NetHunt CRM offers TSE listeners a 40% discount for the first 3 months along with free user training and a dedicated Customer Success Manager with any pricing plan.  Try NetHunt CRM today →  https://nethunt.com/tse Are you sick of crickets? The pain of sales reps continually reaching out with phone calls and emails and not