How To Ace a Discovery Call

Closing calls are a watershed in the history of your business. They’re the calls where a deal is sealed; signatures fill the dotted lines of contracts; commission cheques slide straight into your pocket; and an army of customer advocates is formed.

To reach that point, though, you’ll first need to walk your prospect through a sales journey — starting with a discovery call!

What is a discovery call?

A discovery call is the initial call you make after bonding with a prospective client over social media, email, or other channel(s). During those calls, you normally ask the prospect a set of questions to identify their struggles, needs, and goals as they associate with your products and services.

Discovery calls are indispensable to the sales process, as they don't simply help the salesperson uncover the prospect's circumstances. Most crucially, they set the tone for a close-knit, lasting relationship — pre- and post-sales.

If luck is by your side, a good number of prospects will happily jump on a discovery call, so long as it’s not an interrogation à la Joker Interrogation in “The Dark Knight”.

Find some benefits of discovery calls below!

Benefits of discovery calls

Prospects will get a grip of your company's value system and offerings

What's the aftertaste you'll leave to the prospect once you end the call? Will they know your business inside out? Much better if they have product-based enquiries or ask for clarification on a technical term, which gives you an opportunity to answer and further pique their interest.

You will show that you predicted and secured their success

If you engage in the discovery call with a solid understanding of their challenges, prospects will feel assured that you can help them. In doing so, you demonstrate that you’ll go to great lengths to secure their success rather than just snatching their money.

Do your homework before hopping on the discovery call so that you're well-informed about the prospect's organisation. Skim through your sales or CRM software to ensure you’re aware of who's the prospect and what they offer.

You can estimate your chances of converting them into clients

The sales discovery call is a great opportunity to qualify a prospect by pinpointing their struggle(s), their influence within the business, as well as their willingness to become your brand ambassadors and buy from you instead of a competitor.

How do you structure a discovery call?

Let me take you for a ride from point A to point D of the discovery process. Just carry on reading!

A. Carry out research on the prospect’s company

This is an absolute must-have, but I’ll reiterate it until you act on it: spend time “stalking” your prospect’s company. Find out their vertical, their suffering, and their vision. Take a glimpse at their engagement history with your business. Did they download/purchase a particular resource or renewed their subscription with your services? That will give you an overview of their needs and objectives.

B. Share an agenda with your prospect

Pay extra attention to this tip, as it's imperative to craft an agenda for the sales meeting. Discovery calls are seemingly of lower jeopardy than other sales calls further down the line, because you’re still in the initial stages of the sales process. Well, not really! Discovery calls carry the highest jeopardy, in so far as they determine how the deal will end up.

Last thing you want is the deal to fall sideways, or for the discussion to be derailed. Share an agenda with your prospect to ensure you’re covering everything both of you want to address.

C. Agree on a date and time that suits both of you

Once you forward the agenda to your prospect, schedule the call on a date and time that's best for both parties. You might have pre-designated time slots for discovery calls, but if your prospect prefers to chat for 30 minutes rather than for an hour or so, make sure you respect this.

Okay, now that you know their availability, you might want to do a product demo straight into the discovery call. However, this approach comes with a caveat: If you demo the product too early, you risk skipping the part when you get a handle on your prospect's needs and pain points.

D. Keep a conversational tone throughout the discovery call

Android-sound and one-deaf calls are prevalent in the marketing world. So, don't forget to talk casually but with professional undertones during the discovery call, and tie the trust knot with the prospect early on.

Start off by asking them how their day has been, or what they did over the holiday break. Keep it informal throughout and remember: this is neither an interrogation nor an interview — it’s a way to get to know each other better.

What to ask during a discovery call

Below, I've compiled a series of open-ended questions that encourage the prospect to elaborate beyond the “yes” and “no” answer. Qualify your prospect by following my collection of questions, but make sure to disqualify at any point if it turns out they're a bad match — test everything to push them along the sales pipeline and solve their issues, but force nothing!

1. Tell me more about your company

This appears to be a simple question to kickstart a discovery call — your point of emphasis is the prospect’s own business. This way, you let them give you an overview of what they do in their own terms. However, if this is your introductory question, make sure you add the word “more”, otherwise you'll give the impression that you didn’t do any research.

Start off by outlining your findings and follow up with the question, so they can complement your statements about their company.

2. Tell me about your duties. Can you walk me through a typical day-to-day at work?

Now that you've warmed them up and built some degree of intimacy, ask this question. Through it, you can begin to discover more about the personnel that constitutes the business in a pressure-free way.

There's no need to dig deep into the nuts and bolts right from the second question, and rest assured they’ll be eager to share details.

3. What metrics and KPIs do you measure?

Here’s where suspense builds up! If they hadn't previously made any allusions to what they're doing at work, this is your chance to elicit an answer.

The use of words “metric” and “KPIs” are essential, as you’re asking about their measurable yardstick of success. That way, you can quantify how much your offering can boost these metrics.

4. Could you elaborate on your business objectives (operational, financial, customer-based)?

To make it more concrete and tangible, you might want to allot a timeframe to your question: Could you elaborate on your business objectives for the next month/quarter/year?

Ideally, you'll select a timeframe that aligns with the implementation and circulation plans of your products or services. Suppose that you offer a software that takes 6-12 months to set up. In that case, annual objectives are a better fit than monthly ones.

5. What problem(s) are you trying to solve?

Embrace vagueness and keep this question as broad as possible. The reason being that you shouldn't make hasty presuppositions and jump into conclusions about your prospect. How many problems and challenges they'll list will depend on how generic your question is — but know that the more problems they'll reveal, the more solutions your product could provide.

6. Are you facing any problems in [areas as they link to your product]?

Unlike the above question, this one is clearly defined and focuses on a distinct aspect. You're still swimming in open-ended waters, but you’re guiding them toward a specific direction in their business. Despite being another “yes or no” question, it’ll motivate the prospect to reflect on their struggles.

7. Have you identified the core of that problem? What is it?

Regardless of the answer, it's better to insist on the source of the problem to expose more points of friction and conflict. A prospect is likely to have spotted the problem, but if you don’t grasp their why behind the problem, you won’t be able to gather the resources necessary to eliminate it.

Remember that being aware of the problem and why it affects your prospect's company is key to making an irresistible sales pitch.

8. What would a desired result look like to you?

With this question, you’ll figure out their own idea of success. Is it realistic and actionable? Does your product contain features that can help them achieve it? Listen actively, but under no circumstances be judgemental. Get a feel of their expectations and see whether you're a trusted source on which they can lean.

9. If you didn’t have an available product, do you have a Plan B or alternative means to resolve this issue?

There's no better question to ask if you want to “fish out” information about their urgent need in a product, a.k.a problem-solver.

If they respond with something along the lines of “I don't have a Plan B” or “I can't imagine resolving the issue another way”, then they're most undeniably a well-fit prospective client.

10. Could you pinpoint a few roadblocks to executing this plan?

You might have already answered this question during your research, but the vibe is different when you let the prospect articulate the roadblocks they face themselves.

11. What’s your timeframe for plan execution?

This will give a pretty good insight into your and their product's launching, but make sure the timeframe doesn't collide. If it does, consider opting out — they’re not the right match.

12. What’s your approximate budget for resolving this issue?

Have they set enough money aside to invest in a new project or product? When it comes to marketing and sales, it’s never too early or intrusive to touch on budget or funding sources (e.g. investors, sponsors, etc).

13. Have you invested in a similar product before?

Having an idea what your prospect has tested in the past is instrumental in winning ground over your competition. Indirectly, you'll also realise whether your prospect is a guardian, an influencer or decision-maker, while you should be poised to defend your product against your rivals — even if the prospect doesn’t refer to them.

14. What’s the process for purchasing the product once you decide on it? Are there legal prerequisites?

Congrats on hitting this milestone and going that far into the call! If you've reached that point, you’ve likely built a high level of rapport and loyalty with your prospect by now. So, feel free to pose the question about the purchase process without putting them off.

15. How can I make your life easier?

This is presumably your first contact with the prospect, or they might ask for further resources and documentation. Either way, you want to give them the space to express ways you can simplify and make the process hassle-free.

16. If you took action with this solution, how do you hope things to turn out in a year's time?

Will they gain more qualified leads and returning customers? Or will they have saved time performing tedious operational tasks through the use of your software? Once again, prompt them to envision how things will improve with your product in place.

17. Can I follow up with you on (date)?

Have a firm yet heart-warming sign-off by suggesting a date to “catch up”. Summarise and validate their struggles, while also highlight how your business can work to weed them out.

What makes a great discovery call is the willingness that you and your prospect demonstrate to formulate a written sales plan and delineate the next steps. If there’s still uncertainty when you hang up the phone, arrange another call to smooth out the remainder of details.

Closing words

Never lose sight of the ulterior aim while setting up a discovery call, i.e., to understand whether your prospect is a good fit or not for your product or service. A two-way conversation where both parties participate to gauge compatibility will ensure you focus on the lead who's more likely to seal the deal with you, allowing you to exceed quota and become a top-performer!

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