After a discovery call, distill the conversation into three core problems. Structure your recap email around these points, explicitly stating, "I'm designing our demo around these three things for you." This confirms your understanding and builds anticipation for a tailored solution, ensuring the next meeting is highly relevant.
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To prevent ghosting, don't wait until the end of a meeting to suggest a next step. At the very beginning of the call, explicitly state that the final five minutes will be used to plan the next phase. This normalizes the action, demonstrates professionalism, and secures commitment from the prospect.
Salespeople often rush to present a solution after hearing a surface-level problem, which leads to ghosting. Asking simple, open-ended follow-ups like "Interesting, tell me more" or "Is there anything else?" forces the prospect to reveal the true impact and urgency of their issue, building a stronger case for your solution.
Instead of a feature walkthrough, structure your demo as a story. Remind the prospect of their current painful 'day in the life' (uncovered in discovery) and then show them the future, transformed 'day in the life' using your product. This sells the outcome, not the tool.
Go beyond simple customization and build proposals using the customer's own words and lingo from discovery calls. Reflecting their exact language back to them proves you listened and understood their unique pain. This makes them feel heard and emotionally connects them to the solution, creating urgency.
Upload call recordings or transcripts from tools like Gong or Fathom into an AI model. Ask specific questions like, 'Where was the most friction?' to identify disconnects you missed in the moment. Use this insight to craft hyper-relevant follow-ups that address the core misunderstanding.
During a sales cycle with Seismic, the rep held back specific pain points gathered from end-users to use in a follow-up email with personalized micro-demos. Instead of sharing everything in the first call, this unexpected, high-value touchpoint changed the course of the deal by demonstrating deep understanding.
Instead of asking broad, open-ended questions about pain, provide prospects with a multiple-choice list of the common problems you solve. This steers the conversation toward your solution's strengths and prevents wasting time on issues you can't address.
At the end of a call, ask to briefly review the 3-5 core problems discussed. This crystallizes the conversation and reminds the prospect of the seriousness of their issues right before you ask for a commitment. This makes them more likely to agree to a concrete next step because the value of solving their problem is top-of-mind.
Contrary to traditional sales processes, the demo is the ideal moment for discovery. Prospects' defenses are down when viewing the product, making them more open. Prepare specific 'bridge questions' to ask before showing each feature to fill informational gaps.
Start every demo with two slides: one confirming the prospect's priorities ('What I Learned') and a second outlining the demo's agenda ('Demo Flow'). This ensures alignment and gives you control over the conversation, preventing unexpected detours.