I don’t always pitch discovery

As I’ve been chronicling my sales process over the past few issues, we’re to the point now where I’ve qualified the lead and had an initial call with them. Now, I gotta decide how we’re going to move forward. 

In the “do you charge for discovery?” question, my answer is an emphatic yes. It’s a lot of work, and for me to take the time to do it properly, I feel like I gotta be compensated for that.

However, I don’t require discovery on every project.

Some are so straightforward it seems unnecessary (I’ve done a lot of website “conversions” lately where I’m just swapping out their techstack), and some jobs that are just so dead-simple and obvious that I believe I can do a good job without it.

So, after that “get to know you” meeting, I have to make that decision; discovery or no discovery?

If there’s no discovery required, I go straight into the proposal and send it off. 

If discovery is necessary, then I send them an email explaining what discovery is, why we need to do it, and how much it costs.

There are a lot of different ways to charge for discovery, but for the sake of simplicity, I’ve landed on charging a flat $650.

For that, we hop on a discovery call where I walk them through a bevy of questions (Cliff at My Web Audit has a great set of these questions). 

Here’s a bit of how I explain what they’ll get to my clients:

• Determine the exact functionalities, software, and integrations
• Map out the site structure and what content you’ll need
• Understand any legal requirements
• Identify your goals and key performance indicators

This allows the client and I to plot the fastest, most effective, and least-risky path forward to complete the project.

I do make discovery “optional” at this point — the client can decide — but I explain to them that without discovery we’re likely to have multiple rounds of scope changes (which increases the cost), we’ll have to redo work due to misunderstandings (which extends the timeline) and we’ll have a less cohesive results (which is less likely to help them achieve their goals).

With that in mind, I’ve not had anyone decide not to do discovery. 

Next week I’ll tell you a little bit more about how I go about making the proposal and my all-time favorite resource for learning how to do sales in a way that is super comfortable (because I am NOT a salesperson!), and we’ll wrap this little mini-series up.

I hope it’s been helpful thus far!