A buyer can have pain and still not have a deal. In discovery, listen for the forcing function: board deadline, missed target, renewal, hiring plan, audit, exec mandate—the calendar event that makes inaction expensive. If you can’t name it, your next step is hope dressed as process.
🎯 Try this today: Open one active opportunity and write the answer to: “Why must they solve this now?” If you don’t know, ask it on your next call.
When a colleague touts a shiny idea, nod once and ask, “Then what?”—then ask it again. The first answer surfaces the obvious upside; the second exposes the domino costs and dependencies no one modeled. Two words flip you from order-taker to strategist.
🎯 Try this today: In the next meeting or Slack thread where a proposal pops up, fire the double “Then what?” and capture the ripple effects that appear—share the top risk or opportunity you hear.