Confessions of a Solutions Engineer 👷
The Solution Engineering Team at Rocketium plays a critical role in the pre-sales stage by customizing platform setups to meet unique prospect requirements and providing technical consultations. They collaborate closely with prospects to deliver a tailored experience. In this blog, our Associate Director of Solution Engineering, Avinash Dwivedi, shares insights on implementing and refining the team’s Sales Discovery Framework.
Why implement a framework?
As a Solutions Engineer, I've consistently observed that the most effective prospect engagements begin with a deep, structured understanding of the prospect's goals, pain points, and current processes. With this goal in mind, our solution engineering team developed the Discovery Summary Framework—a structured approach designed to consistently capture the essentials of each discovery call, ensuring every insight is substantiated and no critical information is overlooked.
This framework provides both sales and solution engineering teams with a clear path for each prospect, connecting Rocketium’s features directly to what matters most to the prospect. For our prospects, it also means that their unique challenges are understood from the outset, allowing us to shape our demos and solutions to address their actual needs. In essence, this framework enhances alignment across all sides, focusing on high-priority areas to drive more strategic, solution-focused conversations.
The Discovery Summary Framework: Overview
Our goal is straightforward: to generate a discovery call summary grounded in verified, accurate data. Each point in the summary is validated against direct quotes or documented information from the initial and discovery calls. Supplementary research is included only when appropriate and explicitly marked for transparency.
Building Blocks of the Framework
Company Overview: We begin by creating a comprehensive snapshot of the company's organizational structure and operational processes. The focus is on the specific use cases and goals discussed during the call, ensuring every insight is validated against the transcript.
When necessary, we supplement this section with external research and contextual information from previous sales interactions, always maintaining a clear distinction between primary and secondary sources.Team and Business Goals
Primary Objectives: We document the principal business initiatives and strategic goals the prospect aims to achieve.
Specific Goals: We quantify the precise outcomes the prospect seeks, illustrating how Rocketium can support their key results.
Potential Impact: We capture the anticipated operational or strategic transformations resulting from achieving these goals.
Current Workflow Overview: This section provides a detailed breakdown of the prospect’s workflow, covering:
Specific stakeholders
Existing tools
Performance metrics
Every component is supported by conversational evidence, eliminating assumptions and providing a structured foundation for subsequent discussions.
Identified Pain Points
Bullet-Pointed Pain Points: Each pain point is summarized with direct quotes for validation.
Metric Validation: For any mentioned pain point, we follow up to capture relevant metrics (e.g., turnaround time). This ensures all data is based on shared insights, with no assumptions about timeframes or volumes.
Key Decision Makers
We list the key decision-makers identified during the call, detailing their roles and responsibilities. This helps the team understand who influences the buying process and the role of each stakeholder.
Competition or Capabilities
Any capabilities or competitors referenced by the prospect are noted in this section.
Action Items and Demo Requirements
We outline the next steps and specific demo requirements exactly as described by the prospect. This ensures follow-ups are straightforward and aligned with their expectations.
Derived Business Goals for Rocketium
Finally, we summarize any business goals Rocketium can address based on the prospect’s stated needs and challenges. This section connects their pain points with our solution’s impact areas.
Genesis of the Framework
The framework has evolved with every call and each piece of feedback we’ve gathered over several months. The process draws from three key areas of primary research:
Discovery Insights: Calls with prospects across sectors such as media, retail, banking, and automotive helped shape an industry-agnostic approach to summarizing calls and extracting actionable insights.
Sales Team Collaboration: Feedback from our sales team revealed confirmation biases in earlier processes, where inference-based summaries led to misalignments. This insight reinforced the need for rigorous validation of insights.
Market Research on Discovery Best Practices: We studied industry best practices to refine our approach, emphasizing consultative, outcome-focused discovery processes validated by stakeholder feedback.
MEDDPICC Framework Integration
The MEDDPICC methodology significantly influenced our framework's design, emphasizing:
Precise metric definition
Clear pain point identification
Comprehensive decision process mapping
Stakeholder influence analysis
This methodology shaped our emphasis on rigorous validation and data-backed insights, ensuring every summary is actionable, reliable, and directly relevant to Rocketium and the prospect.
By implementing this framework, we’ve not only improved alignment and focus during pre-sales discussions but also enhanced our ability to deliver tailored solutions that resonate with our prospects’ unique needs.