MEDMEN: 3 Discovery Questions That Feel Like CHEATING

00:00 Pim Roelofsen: Welcome to The MedMen Show. My name is Pim and that's Andy. 00:03 Andy Whyte: What are we talking about today, Pim? 00:05 Pim Roelofsen: Today, Andy — we are talking about three discovery questions that feel like cheating. 00:10 Andy Whyte: Oh, I love this one. I absolutely love this one. This is almost one that I found just by trying — it just came out and I thought: oh, that worked better than I expected. It's around the decision process. The idea is this: if you ask somebody "what's your decision process?" they typically start to think forward. They'll say: "OK, well that person needs to be involved, we need their approval, then it goes to this person for budget, then procurement, then legal." And they're looking forward like that. But that's often not very useful — those are fairly generic things you could almost predict for most opportunities. What you're missing is the richness, the context, the things that happened that you need to know about because they're the ones that catch you out. 01:00 Andy Whyte: So instead of asking "what's your decision process?" or "what needs to happen?" — you ask: "The last time you bought a solution like this, what happened?" However your style comes across, get that question in. And what tends to happen is the person doesn't look forward — they look backwards. They visit history. And what you get is the blueprint of the last time they bought something like your solution. You uncover all the things they wouldn't think about if they were looking forward. You start getting little gems — like: "Oh, actually, one thing worth knowing is that we now have a new security addendum that takes three weeks to sign." And all of a sudden you've found something that could take three weeks, and you can potentially get that started early to save three weeks further down the line. It's a beautiful way of uncovering things that are going to happen that the person wouldn't normally think about. 01:54 Andy Whyte: And it will provide so much clarity — because if they haven't bought something like this before, you'll see that too. And it means you have work to do together. 02:05 Pim Roelofsen: Yeah. And that's a great point — because if someone's answer to "what happened the last time you bought a solution like this?" is "I've not done it before" — you've got a flag there. If they've been at the organization a long time and have never been trusted to buy something, you might question their authority. Or they could be new to the organization — which is at least an amber flag, because they're not going to know how to get things done. That's going to be a lot of uncharted territory. But then again, people who have just come into a business can also be very effective champions — they have that enthusiasm, that freshness. So it's swings and roundabouts on that one. Either way it's useful. 02:51 Pim Roelofsen: Have you got one, Pim? The one I was thinking about has to do with metrics. Because we know — and we hear this all the time with our customers — it is difficult to get metrics from customers. Sure, we position M1s to paint a picture of what's possible. But a question I really like is: "When we typically work with organizations like yours, churn is around 20% — what does it look like for you?" It creates space for the prospect to respond: "Well, actually it's a little less, or a little more." But it's a very simple picture for them to respond to and gets some early-stage metrics going. 03:31 Andy Whyte: I think a couple of things are happening with that. One is that customers often don't want to share their metrics — they feel like they shouldn't share them with a salesperson, or perhaps you haven't yet won the credibility for them to do so. But if they hear you talking about other organizations that have shared metrics with you — first, it signals: OK, maybe it's fine for me to share too. And secondly — if other organizations are sharing with Pim, then he's a trustworthy person. It adds credibility, it opens people up. And there's also something like selective amnesia — you forget things until someone gives you a reference point. And then suddenly you're already talking about it. 04:10 Pim Roelofsen: Yeah — you're opening the door. And I like what you said about building credibility. If you look from a potential champion's perspective back at the salesperson — you want them to be the trusted advisor. Things like this will get you there fast. 04:27 Andy Whyte: Yes, indeed. The third one is one we've borrowed — it's from Chris Voss, the former FBI negotiator. And it's a little bit like a Jedi mind trick. It goes like this: "It sounds like you have some next steps in mind." I know it sounds incredibly simple. But if you ask that towards the end of a meeting — to a champion, a potential champion, an economic buyer, whoever it is — something happens. They give you a much better answer than if you'd asked "what do you think the next steps should be?" 05:04 Andy Whyte: I think it's partly the confidence it gives them — like: "I see you've got your ducks in a row, tell me what happens next." But I also think it's this: in many salesperson-to-customer relationships, the customer is a little defensive. They feel like they have to retain their power. If you ask "what do you think the next steps should be?" they almost see it as a trick question. They don't want to overcommit. So they give you the classic: "Thank you very much — can you send us through the deck, we'll debrief and email you." They're putting a barrier up. But this question seems to jump right over that barrier. "It sounds like you have some next steps in mind" — it's almost like a jolt. They twitch, and suddenly they go: "Yes — well, you need to involve Kathy in finance, she needs to be in the next meeting, and then we need to get Stephen in — we could do that next week." All of a sudden things are happening. 06:07 Andy Whyte: And by the way — I've tried this. I've used it all over the world. I've used it in the Middle East, all over Europe, and I've seen it work in the US too. It is the closest thing to a Jedi mind trick I've seen in sales. And the beauty of it is: it's just simple. It's just an open question. 06:23 Pim Roelofsen: Yeah. Combined with MEDDIC, I'd say — a MEDDIC mind trick! 06:28 Andy Whyte: I'll drink to that. Cheers!