Bob LondonHave more strategic, authentic and revealing convos

18 Steal This Disruptive Customer Discovery Question To Find Key Customer Insights

Name: 18 Steal This Disruptive Customer Discovery Question To Find Key Customer Insights
Uploaded: 2023-08-18T21:00:48+00:00
Duration: 2 min 1 s
Channel: Bob London
Description: In this segment, sales expert Bob London introduces the concept of a "disruptive question"—a query that forces a prospect to think outside the usual…

18 Aug 2023 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

2:01

In this segment, sales expert Bob London introduces the concept of a "disruptive question"—a query that forces a prospect to think outside the usual vendor‑centric framework. He demonstrates the technique with a specific question: “If a competitor called you tomorrow, how would you react on a scale of 1 to 5?” He explains why mentioning a competitor acts as a hook that awakens a part of the prospect’s brain that isn’t normally engaged in a sales conversation. The numeric response (1‑5) provides a neutral starting point, and the real value comes from asking “Why did you say X?” Bob outlines the typical insights that surface: curiosity about other vendors’ features, interest in use‑case examples, awareness of unresolved problems, and signals of churn or renewal risk. He also notes how low scores can indicate satisfaction, while shifts in scores over time can reveal emerging concerns. Throughout, he stresses the importance of probing candidly and interpreting the prospect’s reasoning to uncover actionable information.

Chapters

A disruptive question is a question that activates a part of the customer's brain that they're not used to thinking about in this context of a vendor meeting. So I'm going to give you an example, then I'll deconstruct it. So the question is, "So let me ask you this. Suppose you got a call from our competitor tomorrow. How would you react on a scale of 1 to 5? Let's say a 1 is you'd probably ignore or delete the message. A 5 is you'd pretty quickly get back to them to find out what they're all about, what they offer." So that is a question that vendors generally would never ask. Why would we mention competition? Why would we go there? It's a Pandora's box. Competitors reach out to our customers every day, all day. Instead of asking a question that's on our terms, let's ask it on their terms. It wakes up a part of the customer's brain. So that's what I call a hook. Competitor is a hook, a commonly understood term that is relevant in the customer's world. It's not vendor speak or jargon. And the beauty of this competitor question is the answers are never about the competitor. The answer is a number between 1 and 5. So if they say 5, meaning, yeah, I'd probably get back to that competitor to find out more, all you have to say is, thanks for being candid. Why did you say 5? Let them elaborate. What they'll talk about is a range of things, usually in my experience. One thing they might say is, you know what, we're always curious about other features that other companies offer and we're not leaving, but we might come back to you and say, oh, what about this? What about that? Second is we're always curious about how their customers are using products like this. What are the use cases? Customers crave context. They really want to understand, are they doing it the best way possible or are they just doing it the way that they were told to do it? Once in a while you'll get someone say 5 because we're looking around because this issue that we've talked about last week or last month is unresolved. The fact of the matter is, if there's a problem, then you need to know. Don't be scared to ask, and if they say 5, then they say 5. Sometimes they say 5 because they're courteous. We always like to get back to people. By the same token, a 1, meaning I'd ignore, delete the message, that can be a good sign that they're happy with you. But you have to say, why did you say 1? Let them talk, let them explain it. Sometimes they say, you know, today it's a 1, but because of issues we've discussed before, in a few months when the renewal's up, it might go to a 3 or a 4. Take them inside that thought process. In my experience, they share with you as much as they possibly can and very candid.