Running a Great Discovery Call

How you run a discovery call can make-or-break an opportunity.

It’s one of the most powerful 30 minutes your sales team has to connect with a prospect, get them excited, and compel them to move forward in the purchasing process – no matter what phase of the customer journey the prospect is in. If it’s the first time they’re talking to you, it’s a discovery session. 

The key to running a great discovery call, however, is to stop running the call like you’re “qualifying” them. Whether it’s a fit or not, you should be asking the right questions and consulting them on how they should move forward. And still within 30 minutes.

Let’s get into how to run a discovery call and the four best practices every discovery call should follow:

1. Never skip the agenda
2. Frame the conversation
3. Start with strategy questions and then go tactical
4. Close with the end result, not the product

How to run a discovery call

Never skip the agenda

Your agenda is one of the most critical steps when prepping for a discovery call. The agenda helps you ask the right questions and steer your prospect towards a successful conversion.

Your agenda should have a strategy and standard structure behind it but leave areas open for the flow of the conversation (we’ll get into that.)

Pro tip: Send the agenda out before the meeting so prospects can have a little time to think about the questions you’ll be asking.  

A short 60-second video from you is also a great way to engage before the call even starts.

Frame the conversation

We get that discovery calls are short, and you need to dive right in. A great way to make sure the conversation stays on track is to prepare your prospect for what they can expect on the sales call. This will also help them be more engaged in the process and conversation and worry less about the unknown or if they’re wasting their time.

Here’s a simple script to give you an idea:

“To make this call as impactful as possible, I’d like to spend the first 5-10 minutes understanding your business, your top 2 responsibilities, and your top 2 priorities. Then spend the rest of the time telling you about our solution.”

Pro tips: Give questions around responsibilities and priorities a finite number. Sometimes asking a prospect about their responsibilities will get them thinking of the 100 different things they’re in charge of. And some prospects will try to tell you all of those 100 different things, and you’ll get way off-topic.

Make note-taking and keeping to the agenda easy with Zoom apps like Bonjour, utilizing templates and automatically syncing your notes with Salesforce.

Related Content: Top 10 Zoom Apps for Sales That Just Might Change Your Life

Start with strategy questions and then go tactical

The way you frame your questions directly impacts the quality of answers. You probably knew that.

But when and in what order you ask your questions can also impact the quality of answers.

We suggest starting with a prospect’s role and fit. Your second set of questions should be around business priorities. The third set should be more tactical. Never go tactical first.

Depending on what you’re selling, these exact questions will look different from business to business, but the goal is to ask questions that will get them to explain core elements you can use to determine the best solution. Touch on topics such as: 

• Their business overall
• Their role’s responsibilities and priorities 
• Large-scale business goals and more specific quarterly goals 
• The most important thing they’re trying to solve for
• The ideal end result that they want to see in a solution 

You don’t have to hit on every one of these. Aim to get as much information as you comfortably can that will work to your advantage in the later stages of the discovery call.

Pro tip: Refrain from the urge to pitch at this stage. 

Close with the end result, not the product

When making your agenda, be sure to give ample time to close with the solution. There is a caveat, though – rather than pushing the details and features of your product or perks that your solution offers (such as deals or special promos), focus on the client’s end result that they already told you earlier in the call. 

You’re selling the end result, not an XYZ software or product.

Coming full circle to how you’re going to fix the problem versus letting the prospect connect the dots themselves will make a stronger closing impression.

Pro-tip: Before ending the call, always talk about the next step in the process. Another call with your manager, product guy, etc. You just made a great closing argument, don’t lose momentum.