Discussion

Overview


Gartner: The Foundation of Selling is Discovery
Overview of the Discussion
Today, Randy Scharf (Area Manager New York and Canada Regions) and Ursula Hodgins
(Area Manager Ottawa) from Gartner spoke to us as part of our Sales Management, COMM
434 course. The class discussion with Randy and Ursula was both informative and
interactive; Covering topics such as improving the front-end of the sales process to the first
contact with the client. Key takeaways were developing a structured framework to classify
and evaluate information, tactics that aid in developing a constructive conversation, and
exposure to a live role-play by Gartner.

About Gartner
Gartner is a leading research advisory firm based out of Stamford, Connecticut. An industry
leader, the firm employs over 13,000 employees who deliver services to 11,000 firms in
over 100 countries. Combining industry expertise with account management acumen,
Gartner specializes in helping managers choose the best course of action across vendor
selection to firm strategy to ensure successful implementation.

Operating on a renewal based sales cycle, retention is Gartner’s greatest asset. Randy and
Ursula both stressed how important it is to their job and the firm not just to sell, but to deliver
on the promises set out in every contract.

Discovery
Discovery is the process of gathering information to better tailor your sale. Randy and
Ursula spent the majority of their time with us going through the tool they use at Gartner
called the “Value Promoter” framework to categorize and assess the information gained
from clients. Using this framework, the sales representative is best equipped to understand
the root of the client’s ailments and decision-making process. Making sure you partake in
sufficient discovery can be the most important part of your sale as it will elude most of the
time why a sale was successful or not. Within the value promoter framework were six key
areas to systematically investigate into:

Corporate Objective: Assessment of overall company or function performance, can

often be found with research into company reports and websites.

Business issue: The buyer’s high-level objective/barrier to contributing to the

corporate objective/top or bottom line, most often expressed in financial terms.

Anxiety issue: The particular barrier/challenge/hesitation factor that are causing the
client to explore options.

Problem: Assessment of the root issue/problem of the client. Gartner described that
most sales representatives, novice and experienced, have difficulty discerning
between recognizing the client’s problem versus just initiatives. For example, an
initiative is “We are rolling out three new products this upcoming quarter”, and a
problem would be framed as “Our team lacks the distribution network to execute in a
new market we are entering”. Randy mentioned that asking an open-ended question

Noah Flatt
Abhit Sahota


Discussion Overview


can be the best way to assess the current landscape of the client’s needs. An
example of this may be, “What stands in the way of you being able to complete
business objective X?”

Business Solution: Understand the client’s view of what a solution or array of

solutions may look like for their company. One of the key mistakes a sales
representative makes once they get to this part of the framework is to start
mentioning the array of products solutions their company offers. This is incorrect, as
you are still in the discovery stage and should be finding out what the client is
looking for first. Ursula gave us the feedback to pose a probing question in this
situation in order to explore problem areas with clients and to develop insights into
their perspective. The example she game was, “What other alternatives or
approaches have you thought of to complete business objective X?”

Value: Iterate and craft a value proposition for the client’s business need aligned to
their corporate objective. The sequential nature of the framework empowers the
sales representative to pinpoint and develop value where it matters. The solution
designed will have both business and personal impact for your client-side
champion(s) and their company.

Power: It is important to recognize all the stakeholders at the table and their
respective level of influence and decision-making power. Sales representatives
should be aware of and engage relevant parties throughout the discovery process to
ensure they are receiving the correct information and allocating their time effectively
in qualifying the sale. While it may be awkward to ask, Both Randy and Ursula
helped us all develop a strategy to ask a client about their power within the firm. Ask
the client a question such as, “Is there anyone else we need approval from to close
the deal?”

Plan: Develop mutually agreed upon next steps and actions to take with the client to
progress through the process. A key question to ask may be to confirm the
information and insight you are receiving from your client to both develop rapport
and affirm the conclusions drawn from your discovery.

Objections
Throughout the discovery and sales process, you will definitely encounter objections from
the client. Below are common tactics used to rebuke objections and continue generating
fruitful discussion.

• Rejoice & Embrace: Console the client’s objections - by remaining calm, confirming
their objection and framing it as a talking point for additional probing.
• Clarify: Listen, clarify, and ask questions till you’re confident you understand their
objections.
• Diagnose: Understand what needs to be strengthened in the framework.
• Sharp Angle/Assumptive Close: Focus in on the objection and isolate it
o I.e. (“If price was not an issue, would you agree the solution is right for you?”)

Noah Flatt
Abhit Sahota


Discussion Overview


• Address: Satisfy the isolated objection, address it, and confirm with the client that
there is mutual understanding to reconciling the objection.

Randy and Ursula with their wealth of real-world experience mentioned two
questions/insights that would be helpful for any novice entering the sales industry and is
beginning to deal with objections. The first is, when faced with an objection it may be
difficult to remain calm and retort so each sales rep should arm themselves with a few
questions that create time to develop your thoughts. Two examples are, “Can you help me
understand that better”, “What I am hearing is...”. The second piece of advice is that price,
the most common objection, is almost never a valid objection. The objection is a symptom
of inadequately constructing a value proposition due to poorly understanding the client’s
needs or misalignment of the solution.

Initiating a Sales Call

The sales call can be the most intimidating aspect of the entire sales process for veterans
and beginners alike. The initial interaction between you and the client sets the tone for
developing rapport, trust, and foundations for a relationship. Randy and Ursula
demonstrated best practices for the first two minutes of a call via role-playing, illustrating
success by using relevant and accessible tactics denoted below:

• Introduce yourself: Attempt to build rapport while considering the communication

style of client. The key here is to remain true to your personality and strengths. A
great tip we learnt here was the 3 Yes Model. This model is designed to help you
build trust and rapport. Ask the client three easy questions early into the meeting you
know you will get an answer to. Examples can be confirming the length of the
meeting, asking if a value you researched about the company is important to them,
etcetera.
• Transition: Communicate the purpose of your visit; Gain agreement on the agenda.
• Anchor: Anchor the story of your company and reason for your visit.
• Build credibility: Prove to the client you have done your research prior to the
meeting.
• Initiate: Gain the right to ask questions to begin the discovery process.

Conclusion
Having Gartner in our class allowed us to gain valuable insights into a practical discovery
model, learn how sales forces in industry partake in discovery and act during the first two
minutes of a sales call. We would like to end off by thanking Gartner and specifically Ursula
and Randy for their valuable time and insights.

Noah Flatt
Abhit Sahota