Daniel Pink highlights the need for discovery or problem finding skills in this interview with Leigh Buchanan in Inc.
Q: What sales traits are crucial for entrepreneurs?
This principle of clarity. Entrepreneurs are moving from a world of problem-solving to a world of problem-finding. The very best ones are able to uncover problems people didn’t realize that they had. Today if the customer knows precisely what their problem is they will probably be able to find a solution on their own. The entrepreneur is more valuable in cases where [customers] don’t know what their problem is or they are wrong about their problem. So surfacing latent problems, anticipating new problems, is really powerful for entrepreneurs.
We partner with Peter Cohan to offer open enrollment workshops in Silicon Valley for his “Great Demo” workshop. In the last two years he has added a much more content on discovery and diagnosis as key elements of the sales process. A software demo is just one component of the customer discovery and validation challenges that founders must navigate; a demo can be used early in the process to offer a vision of a solution or later to provide technical proof of a a software product’s capabilities. But without a clear understanding of the prospect’s needs a demo will often miss the mark, hence the need for discovery and diagnosis.
Peter normally works with larger software organizations on-site at a sales all hands meeting but three times a year we partner with him so that startups and smaller software firms can attend a multi-firm workshop in San Jose. Our next Great Demo! Public Workshop is scheduled for March 5-6 in San Jose, California; register at http://skmcohan140305-cohan.
It’s a day and a half well spent: first day focuses the core Great Demo! concepts and the morning of the second day addresses advanced topics and techniques. We also have one coming up May 21-22: http://skmcohan140521.
I have blogged about Daniel Pink twice before:
- Entrepreneurs, Luck, and Silicon Valley
- Daniel Pink’s Free Agent Nation Worth Revisiting which highlighted his 7 Laws (my three favorites are bolded)
Law 1: Independence is the best hedge against a downturn.
Law 2: When times get tougher, quality counts.
Law 3: Free to be you and me? We’ve got to be you and me.
Law 4: You’re on the line. Where else would you want to be?
Law 5: Up isn’t the only direction.
Law 6: Bigger isn’t better. Better is better.
Law 7: Forget survival of the fittest. Think Golden Rule.