Who originated that inbound lead you just received? You might say, “Duh, the contact who visited our website and requested information” (or to be contacted).
Well, maybe not. In B2B situations, that person is often someone I call a “seeker”. In many cases they have been tasked with exploring options, gathering information, maybe even requesting quotes (probably from multiple potential suppliers). But they did not necessarily originate the request. It may have started from someone at a higher level in the organization; someone who owns the problem they are trying to solve and is either the ultimate “decision maker” or at least a significant influencer.
I’m not suggesting you ignore or dismiss this person who “inbounded”. They may indeed have influence or at least some insight into the situation. You don’t want to torch the seeker. They may well be your only contact at this point and burning that bridge could backfire. But it’s risky to just comply with the requests/demands this person makes (like “send me your info” or provide a quote). You’re better served by doing thorough discovery that (among other things) includes uncovering their process to come to a decision to buy (or not), the people (stakeholders) involved, their roles in the process and their priorities. That means you need to meet with these others if at all possible.
But you’re stuck with this one contact for now. So how can you engage in deeper discovery and gain true insight into their decision process and key stakeholders? If you ask your contact who the decision maker is or what their decision process is, these are the wrong questions. They will probably say “me” or something like “this is my project” or “I’ve been given authority to make this purchase”.
For a better approach, check out https://pvgsolutions.com/are-you-asking-prospects-the-wrong-questions/
This post originally appeared on LinkedIn
