Part 1: The Perfect POC; Discovery

If you’re selling a product that requires you to complete Proof of Concept (POC) Discovery for your customer to see value to help drive the purchase, then follow the following steps as this has been designated as the Perfect POC by sales leaders across 6 different organizations.

As a sales rep your first step in the process of your cycle is to conduct discovery and build rapport. Assuming you have already completed this step in your cycle and have identified pain that your prospect is currently dealing with, quantified it (applied metrics) and identified that there is appetite to conduct such a project, you’re set to start the Perfect POC Discovery.

Success Criteria & Timeline

You’ll need to define success criteria and a timeline. There’s a saying, buyers are liars. Don’t trust what they say. I’ve been in sales cycles where the prospect has leveraged the data found during our POC to advance a different agenda. Identifying the success criteria of the prospect and the timeline allows you to do the following:

• Influence the success criteria by laying trap questions
  • If you know your competition you can influence your prospect by laying trap questions throughout that you know your competition cannot do and gives you a leg up. Additionally if you know you sell the only product on the market that solves X problem
• Identifying the timeline allows you as the seller to work backwards towards implementation date and shape the buying timeline. Informing your prospect that they need to do XYZ by so and so date.

The above are great when dealing with the prospect in front of you, however according to Gartner data in 2023, buying decisions are typically made by 3 separate individuals. That means you’ll need to ask about potential other individuals involved in the buying process, what they care about, and the buying process at the prospects company.

Once the timeline, success criteria, “others” and decision making process is identified, now come the fun questions.

• “If the POC is successful, what happens next?” Ask this then shut up and let your prospect talk… if they don’t know say “typically, XYZ happens next..” this shows your experience…
  1. This is a great question to get them to shape the buying future at their org and gets them thinking about the process to work towards that timeline. 
  2. It allows you to work backwards with them. For example if their “Next” involves getting management involved, conducting 3rd party evaluation, finding budget, getting CFO approval, then legal and finally procurement… If those are the steps but they want to get this implemented by the end of September, create a backwards timeline with the final date of September 1 as implementation then all the steps in between so there is tracking and full ownership.

• “What is your process for making decisions?”
  1. This question allows you to get to the root of who gets involved with decisions like this, and what really matters.
  2. If a presentation is necessary to the CFO or the ultimate economic buyer, test your champion to get a meeting with said economic buyer. Often times, you’ll be told “it’s ok, I know what I’m doing…” Remember buyers are liars, so role play “what if the CFO says no?”

• “Do you have budget or do you need to get budget?”
  1. In sales, time management is as important as anything. My dad always told me “you want a yes or a no, the maybes will put you out of business.” If this is not a budgeted for project (is it ever?) this allows you to ask them where they will get budget from should all the success criteria be checked off during the POC. 
  2. If your prospect does not know, you’re speaking to the wrong person, go higher.

TLDR

Ever company has a different sales cycle, but reps that qualify their prospects and their deals successful throughout each stage of sale cycle find success everywhere. Make sure you are checking off all the boxes to ensure you can successfully lay the foundation of your perfect POC.