1. The power of partnership.
AccuData’s Sales Training Series
Discovery and Validation
Training Module Run Time: 16 minutes

2. 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
2

3. Complex Deal Sale Cycle
Get In the
Discovery Validation Propose Close
Door
• Right • Understand • Desire • Compelling • Decision
person? the state? reason to makers on-
• Right time? problem/ • Compelling buy from board?
needs of reason to you? • Handled
the change? objections?
customer? • Favorable • When are
to our they ready
solution? to buy?
• Validated
Approval
Process?
3

4. 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
4

5. Responsibilities & Priorities of the Decision Maker
Questions Description
Can you tell me about the scope of your
Identifies how important their role is in
responsibilities and your role in the
the decision making process
direct marketing process?
How is your marketing team organized? Allows you to see who the players are
What role does each person play? in the organization
Where does (this project) fall on your How important is this project to their
priority scale? organization
5

6. Company’s Direct Marketing Strategy
Questions Description
Can you take a minute to describe the
Allows you to see where the company
top company priorities and how that is
is focusing their marketing budget
impacting direct marketing?
What strategy is in place and how can
What is your direct marketing strategy?
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 Gives an idea of their strengths and
better? weakness in their marketing
What would compel you to try an What would motivate them to do
alternative? something other than the status quo
6

7. Project Opportunity Specifics
Questions Description
Can you describe the scope of the
project for me? (objectives, targets, Details of the scope
counts, results desired …)
Have you done similar projects in the Has the company ever gone down this
past? road before?
If yes, what were the results? What What the outcome of was of past
worked well, not so well? projects
Where is the client in the process – are
What time frame are you considering?
you playing catch up or are you starting
Where are you at in the process?
at the beginning
What would make this project a win? What expectations do they have
7

8. Marketing Specifics
Questions Description
Do you do the mailing in-house or do you Who is working on their marketing
outsource it? items
How versed are they on database
Do you do data hygiene services in house?
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 Who are the competitors with this
these vendors? What would compel you to project. How do they feel about these
try an alternative solution? vendors?
If we can show you results and savings, is
Lists their hurdles or if they tied to
there anything you can think of that
another company
would prevent us from moving forward?
8

9. How Decisions Get Made
Questions Description
How does your company typically make
Is it a committee or individual
decisions on these types of projects?
Steps? Who is involved? Decision How they perform the decision making
criteria? process
9

10. 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
10

11. Complex Deal Sale Cycle
Get In the
Discovery Validation Propose Close
Door
• Right • Understand • Desire • Compelling • Decision
person? the state? reason to makers on-
• Right time? problem/ • Compelling buy from board?
needs of reason to you? • Handled
the change? objections?
customer? • Favorable • When are
to our they ready
solution? to buy?
• Validated
Approval
Process?
11

12. 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

13. Validation – Sample Discovery Letter
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 13

14. 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
14

15. 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%)
15

16. 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
16

17. 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
17

18. The power of partnership.
For Further Information:
Call your sales rep
800.732.3440 | info@accudata.com