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tags: Week 7, H3, M11
---
# How to structure need discovery
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**You're in step 3 of a discovery call:** Need Discovery
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You're now aware of the importance and power of active listening and asking great questions.

But how do you use these to explore your prospects needs and effectively sell to them?

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:bulb: Prospects don't see value from what you say, they see value in what **they** say.
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This small insight is crucial. Need discovery is not about telling the prospect what their need or problem is, it's about helping them discover it on their own.

::: info
:bulb: **The goal is therefore to guide the prospect to become aware of their need or pain, and the potential impact it has, on their own.**
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How? By asking the right questions at the right time!

We're going to explore two specific methodologies you can use to structure your pain discovery, but in essence, here's the basic structure you should follow:

1. **Opening - Exploration and Context**
In the beginning, don't push your product. Focus on exploring the customer's world to understand their situation and identify pain points. Try to get the context you couldn't get through your research and show interest in your leads.

- What are your current priorities?
- Why did you explore our solution?
- What does your process for X look like?
- What tools are you currently using?

2. **Investigate - Pain Deep Dive**
Once you've identified pain points, dive deeper into them to fully understand them. By digging into the prospect's challenges, you’ll establish yourself as knowledgeable, credible, and trustworthy.

- What issues do you have with process X?
- Do you feel your X is as good as it can be?
- Has X ever failed?
- What are some of the challenges you are facing with that?

3. **Unearth Implications**
Often times prospects are aware of their pain, but can't fully grasp the implications it has for them and their company. Steer the conversation towards the implications these challenges have for them.
 
Here, as you will see coming up in the lesson on "pain funnel", make sure you ask for their implications both on a technical level but, even more importantly, on a personal level! Your buyers are human beings that want their personal agendas to be taken care of ;)

- What does it mean for you personally?
- How much time are you wasting on X?
- How much more could you achieve with/without X?
- What does this challenge currently cost you?

4. **Potential solutions**
Determine the prospects interest in solving this issue. You're still not selling at this point, but probing to see what solutions they'd be open for and the characteristics they value in these solutions.

- Have you already considered potential solutions?
- Would X Solution increase Y?
- Would X be valuable for your team? Why (yes/not)?

Keep in mind:

- This is not an exact science, it's an art.
- Keep this framework in mind when doing calls but be flexible - listen and adapt.
- Focus on the pain and it's implication. No identified pain = no sale!
- The problem your prospect mentions may not be the core issue; you need to dig deeper

Let's now have a look at two common methodologies you can use: **The Pain Funnel and SPIN Selling!**

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