Technology
My key takeaway from Hubspot’s Discovery Call Bootcamp
Tom Staelens
dec 18, 2024
If you’re in marketing, video has become an essential part of your marketing activities, whether you like it or not. And since put a lot of importance on learning and developing skills, we participated in HubSpot’s Discovery Call Bootcamp. (Last year we did the Pipeline Generation Bootcamp.) I learned many practical tips and tricks from awesome video marketing specialists that will help us take our sales strategy to a new level. Here are a few key takeaways from the bootcamp.
Find the gap
Whenever you’re doing sales, your focus should be on filling in a certain need. The problem is finding that need, or the gap if you will. During a discovery call with a potential client, you should spend your time trying to find the gap between where they are today and what they want to achieve. Many people feel the need to jump right into their sales pitch. The problem with that is you have no idea what problem you are trying to solve and your pitch is likely going to fall on deaf ears.
If you want to find the gap, you have to truly understand that it’s not about you. It’s about the other person. It’s about their goals, needs, and challenges. And to uncover all that, you will need to ask questions. So ask open-ended questions about what drives them and what they are trying to achieve. You can prepare this in advance take it from there, and ask extra questions based on their answers.
Understand their goals
Just finding the gap is not enough to propose your solution to them. You need to understand their goals well. Understanding their goals in my opinion starts with getting a good understanding of their organization, their team, and the value it brings to their prospects. When zooming in on their gap, it’s important to ask enough questions. If you don’t, you won’t get to the bottom of it and you may jump to solutions that are not a good fit for them. So ask questions, be curious, and make sure to ask follow-up questions when you feel like you don’t fully understand something.
Have a good sales story
A sales story is more than just an elevator pitch, which is probably something you already have. A good sales story has the following elements:
- The problems you address and who you do it for
- Something specific to add a bit of pain
- What solutions you have to offer to solve the problem(s) they have
- How you are different from the rest
Take some time to think about each of these elements and combine them all into a compelling sales story that resonates with your target audience. After a few tries, you will know what works and what you may need to change.
Prepare for your call
Some people may think they can wing it every time they do a discovery call. And maybe they can. But I feel a lot more confident and comfortable if I come prepared. Here are some things I like to prepare:
- some research about the company
- looking at the LinkedIn profiles of anyone that will join the call
- prepare some open-ended questions about their goals, challenges, company, team, etc
- prepare a summary of your previous interaction with them and what led to the discovery call you planned
With a good list of questions to get you started on the discovery call, you won’t have to put your time and energy into coming up with them on the spot. You’ll be able to focus your energy on really listening.
So there you have it, my key takeaways from Hubspot’s Discovery Call Bootcamp. Along the way, I also met some interesting people, a nice bonus. We already see the positive impact of what I learned in this bootcamp. With every discovery call, I get to practice and hone my sales skills, so I am glad I took the time to be part of this bootcamp.
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