When your champion sees the vision but the rest of your buying committee is dragging their feet like, “Okay yeah you sell software whatever, bruh”
I like to find the most vocal detractor from a deal that recently closed and get them on the phone.
For our example here today, assume this cast of characters:
Champion: Elaine
Detractor: George
Product we’re selling: A Big Salad
Deal stage: Closed – Won
Here’s what I ask when I get on the horn with George:
1. Where were you when Elaine first told you about the Big Salad?
2. What was your first thought when Elaine told you about the Big Salad?
3. How soon after you heard about it did you try it for yourself?
4. What did you do, think, and feel the first time you held the Big Salad in your hands?
5. What did you say the next time you discussed The Big Salad with Elaine?
6. When was the moment you realized that the Big Salad could help you?
7. Where were you when you had that realization?
8. What were you doing?
9. What did we do that made it hard for you to see a Big Salad could help you?
10. What did Elaine do that made it hard to get on board with the Big Salad?
Our line of inquiry is about understanding the chain of events from when George first learned about our Big Salad to when he eventually got on board with it.
Our goal in this line of inquiry is to find all the moments big and small where, if we had done something differently, we might have won him over sooner.
A non-Seinfeld example: One time I ran this exercise and learned that our Detractors had come to believe our Champions were prone to shiny-object syndrome.
The Detractor was used to the Champion sending invites for new tools at least once a week. At first, the Detractor blocked out time to learn the tools they were invited to use. But after one too many times learning a tool only for the Champion to forget that they even mentioned it, the Detractor started ignoring the Champion’s requests.
This single insight was a force behind product & messaging strategies across the org for nearly a quarter. It led to the addition or improvement of at least 6 of the 88 touchpoints Dreamdata says you need to close a deal.
-Marketing knew what to say to join the conversation happening in the detractors’ head
-Product knew how to build one onboarding experience for the people who created accounts and another for people who were invited later on
-Sales knew how to frame conversations to break through the mask detractors put on to hide their disengagement