Discovery call

A discovery call is the first interaction with a prospect interested in a specific product or service. During a discovery call, sales representatives determine whether potential clients fit their ideal customer profile. It helps prevent salespeople from spending time, effort, and resources on unqualified leads.

In this article, we’ll unveil the purpose of a discovery call and how to run it. We’ll also review the 7 best sales discovery call questions.

What is the purpose of a discovery call?

After prospective customers show interest in a particular product or service, salespeople start interacting with them. The first-ever communication with a lead is a discovery call. This call is designed to identify whether a lead is a great fit for a brand and intends to purchase a specific product with a company. During this call, sales representatives can sort out prospects and only spend time with those willing to buy a product or service soon. As a result, a business prevents spending additional resources on potential clients who don’t fit the ideal customer profile of a brand.

Discovery calls help figure out the problems and desires of leads willing to purchase. The first interaction also enables you to establish good relationships and encourage trust. After listening to potential clients, your sales reps can receive valuable customer insights and outline their strategy to make a deal. Discovery calls allow your sales teams to frame a personalized approach to each customer by meeting their needs, requirements, and interests.

Now that you know the purpose of a discovery call, it’s time to uncover how to run it.

How to run a discovery call?

In this section, we’ll provide a short step-by-step guide showing you how to start your calls. Remember, before interacting with potential clients, you need to focus on research. We’ll dive into this essential step with details in the first step.

1. Research and prepare before the first interaction. Before any contact with a prospect, you need to conduct research. It will help you find more information about your client and make the right sales pitch. You should be as personalized as possible so that customers consider buying from you. The next step involves the preparation process. Get ready with your speech and rehearse it. This way, you’ll be able to avoid talking about unnecessary things.
2. Ask discovery questions. You need to ask the right questions to identify customers' pain points. Questions will help you qualify your prospects and figure out their problems and willingness to purchase. You should be friendly and sympathetic when uncovering the main purpose of your call and presenting your product. This is the time for you to identify future opportunities with these leads. Make sure to confirm your discovery call with a prospect. It will prevent you from being unanswered. During the call, ask questions that will help you qualify leads and receive answers to points you didn’t find when conducting research. The pace of your questions should be approximate to keep a natural conversation without any rush.
3. Outline your further steps. At the end of the discovery call, you need to prepare a proper solution for customers’ challenges and wants. The goal of the call is to evaluate the level of customers’ urgency to get a solution for their problems. Make sure to inform customers of the next step. You and your prospect should know what to expect from your further interaction.
4. Record your call to check for mistakes. To assess the quality and meaningfulness of your call, consider recording it. This way, you’ll be able to identify mistakes you need to avoid. Sometimes salespeople can talk too fast or too much. You'll find a golden middle for your sales pitch by evaluating your call. Listen to the recording to determine whether you communicated all the key points, which will help prospects understand your product and its usefulness. Evaluation of your calls will enable you to identify your mistakes and give some space for improvement. As a result, your next calls will be better, and communication with customers will be smoother.

Now that you know the steps, let’s proceed to the questions you need to ask your customers.

7 Best Sales Discovery Call Questions

By asking discovery questions, you can qualify all your prospects and list those who are a perfect fit for your product. In this section, we’ll unveil the best sales discovery call questions for you to consider.

1. Tell me about your business. This question implies asking prospects about their own companies. Although this question seems simple, you need to choose the right time. This way, you can receive a clear introduction to your leads. No need to rush because you need to make sure that your interlocutor is ready for the question. It helps prevent customers from forming negative opinions about you and your company. Good timing shows that you’ve done a good research before starting your first interactions with potential clients.
2. Tell me about your day-to-day tasks and responsibilities. At this stage, you should know more about the prospects themselves. Focus on identifying roles in their companies and daily tasks. Be friendly, empathetic, and understanding when listening to your leads’ responsibilities. This knowledge will help develop a clear strategy and a personalized approach.
3. Tell me about the metrics you take care of. If prospects need to mention the metrics they take care of, start this topic. During the conversation, use the word “metric” so that potential clients provide you with accurate answers. Your target here is to receive a quantifiable measure of the success of a company you’re trying to reach. Once you identify the metric, your team can evaluate how your product can improve it.
4. Tell me about your goals. Consider asking about prospective customers’ objectives for a month, quarter, or year. It’s necessary to find out during which time frame your product can help reach stated goals. Goals can be financial, customer-related, and operational.
5. What is your time target? The next step is asking customers about the time target. You need to determine when your prospects want to attain their goals. It can be a week, month, quarter, or year.
6. Tell me about your main problem. You should figure out the problem your lead wants to solve. Try to bring up the company's challenges to understand what solution your business can provide. Uncovering some pain points allows you to understand company problems at a more overarching level.
7. Provide me with a source of this problem. Besides identifying prospects' problems, you need to dig deeper and find out their sources. You need to know the source to understand the necessary solution clearly. Identifying the source is the key to creating an effective and personalized sales pitch.

Congrats, now you know what a discovery call is and why it’s crucial. Hope that our short guide and best sales discovery call questions will help you establish good relationships with your qualified prospects.