Discovery plan: sell better by optimizing customer knowledge.

In a world where consumption methods continue to evolve, it is essential to know your customer's needs inside out in order to best focus your marketing strategy. The discovery plan is an interesting tool for studying your client in depth. Why create a discovery plan? How to create it? We explain everything to you!

What is a discovery plan?

The discovery plan is a tool used by marketers tobetter understand customer needs.It is based on the idea that customers are the best experts on their own needs. In other words, the discovery plan aims to better understand customer needs by letting them express themselves freely.

The discovery plan typically consists of a customer questionnaire or interview guide. This questionnaire is designed to allow customers to express themselves freely and provide valuable information about what they want from a product or service.

Marketers then use this information to better target their advertising campaigns,improve their customer engagementand to develop products and services that meet customer needs.

The importance of making a discovery plan

Sometimes it's difficult to know where to start and how to determine if your company's efforts are effective. This is where the discovery plan comes into play.

The discovery plan will allow you to better understand your market, determine what your strengths and weaknesses are compared to your competitors, and define an effective marketing strategy, which fully addresses the issues related tocustomer experience

If you want to develop your business and improve your sales techniques, carry outa customer discovery planis a great idea!

How to structure your discovery plan?

To properly structure your discovery plan, it is important to follow several steps:

1. Identify the context of your target (individual or company)

When a consumer searches for a product or service, it is because they are looking fora solution that will meet one of its specific needs.To find the solution to their needs and get in touch with your company, each consumer will have a very specific approach, ofteninfluenced by her digital journeyYour goal in this step is to identify theprospect's need. To do this, it is interesting to ask yourself several questions:

• Why is he looking for this solution now?

• Why might he be interested in your solution?

• Does he already know this type of solution?

• Has he already tried this solution?

• Could he be interested in your solution in the near or distant future?

• What decision did he make to choose this solution?

Here, you must succeed in understanding how the customer's approach began.

To help you during this step, you can also use the FARP method which consists of asking yourself 4 types of questions:

• Facts: What are the facts that have an impact on the prospect’s approach

• Actions: What actions were taken?

• Results: What are the results obtained?

• Perception: How do you perceive your interlocutor?

2. Identify and understand customer needs

Researching and understanding the different needs of your client will allow you to precisely identify what they are lacking in the current situation. You mustunderstand their needsto facilitate decision-making. To do this, look for its issues, its challenges, its obstacles or even its constraints.

You will have completed this step when you can understand and prioritize the different needs of your client.

3. Gather purchasing motivations

Every consumer has a motivationmore or less personal when choosing a solution. Your goal in this step is to understand the customer's purchasing motivations.

To do this, you can use methods such as the SONCAS method which allows you to find effective arguments to capture the deep motivations of customers.

4. Identify decision making

This step consists of collecting information on decision-making. Here, your goal is to understand how the customer completes their purchase. Is he the only one to make the decision? Do any elements impact his final decision? etc.

5. Plan what’s next

To follow up on your interview andboost your business relationship, project your interlocutor onto the next step. You can use storytelling to arouse emotions in them and end with an exchange projecting them into your sales funnel. You can ask questions like:

• When can we schedule a second appointment?

• How soon could you get back to us?

By following these five steps you should be able to create a detailed discovery plan useful for building an effective marketing strategy.

Learn about methods to use in your discovery plan

The QQOQCP method

It is relatively simple and applies throughout the sales process. The acronym QQOQCP means: Who? What ? Or ? When ? How much ? For what ?

It is a method that allows the salesperson to ask open-ended questions to the person they are talking to in order to analyze as much relevant information as possible.

Closed questions

The more closed questions you ask, the more specific answers you will get. They are useful for confirming certain elements and for obtaining a clear opinion on a question. But be careful not to use them too much, they provide you with little additional information and can sometimes turn into an interrogation.

The MEDDIC method

MEDDIC is an English acronym which means in French: Indicators, Buyer, Decision Criterion, Decision Process, Identified Problem and Prescriber. This method is more complex than the others but very effective in identifying certain determinants of the prospect's decision-making.

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Do not hesitate tocontact usif you want to know more!