In sales, the first impression can often be your last. One of the critical steps in creating that first impression is the "discovery call." It's an imperative part of the sales process, and if done right, it can significantly boost your chances of landing a great deal.
The discovery call is not just a simple conversation; it’s a strategic opportunity to understand your potential client's biggest challenges and offer personalized solutions. These calls provide a deeper understanding of the prospect's needs and are instrumental in building a strong relationship with them.
This blog will provide a detailed guide on effective discovery call questions to ask and best practices to follow. It will also address common mistakes to avoid during discovery calls and provide examples of unique sales discovery call questions. Stay tuned!
What is a Discovery Call?
A discovery call is the initial conversation a sales rep has with a potential customer or client. It forms the first step in the sales pipeline, where the primary goal is understanding the prospect's situation and needs.
The sales rep asks a set of predetermined questions known as discovery call questions and listens carefully to the responses, aiming to unearth valuable insights.
This call is pivotal in determining whether the prospect is a good fit for your product or service, thus assisting in qualifying or disqualifying the prospect for the next step in the buying process.
Top 15 Questions to Ask During a Discovery Call
The right questions can guide the conversation, build rapport, and uncover valuable insights into the prospect's pain points that lead to a successful sale. In this section, we have compiled the 15 important discovery questions to ask during a discovery call, along with explanations of why each one is crucial for moving the conversation forward.
Read on to learn how to ask the right questions to set the stage for success.
What prompted you to reach out to us today?
This is a crucial opening question in a discovery call. It allows the prospect to voice their needs or challenges and explain why they considered your company as a potential solution.
Understanding what motivated them to connect with you can provide tons of relevant information about their purchasing process, making it easier for your sales team to tailor the conversation accordingly.
Can you tell me more about your current process or situation?
Diving deeper into the prospect's current processes or operational scenarios can reveal both their implicit and explicit pains. Use this opportunity to learn more about their daily operations, what's working well, what's not, and why they believe they need a new solution.
This information will help you tailor your sales pitch and position your solution as the right solution.
What are your main goals or objectives for the next [time frame]?
Uncovering your prospect’s immediate and future business goals provides insight into what they’re working towards and where they want to be.
This question helps identify whether your product or service aligns well with their objectives. Being aware of their objectives within a specific timeframe grants you a clearer perspective on what is urgent and a greater understanding of their upcoming initiatives.
What challenges are you currently facing in achieving those goals?
Every goal comes with its own set of challenges. Inquiring about the difficulties your prospect is currently facing emphasizes you’re genuinely interested in understanding your prospect's biggest challenges.
By identifying these hurdles, you can tailor your solutions to directly address these issues, quotient your product's significance, and solidify your value proposition in the prospect's mind.
Who else is involved in the decision-making process?
Understanding the decision-makers in a prospect's organization is pivotal for successful deal closures. Not only does it allow you to tailor your communication to suit various stakeholders, but it also aids in uncovering the dynamics of their buying process.
By asking this question, you get a clear picture of who to involve in your sales conversation to expedite moving toward the next step.
What is your budget for this project or solution?
A prospect's budgetary limitations can become significant deal-breakers. Accordingly, having a clear conversation about their financial plan and scope for this particular project will help you understand whether they can afford your solution or not.
Additionally, it lets you manage their expectations effectively, preventing potential disappointments down the line.
What is your timeline for implementing a solution?
Understanding the prospect's timeline for implementing a solution helps you plan your sales process more efficiently. It answers crucial questions like: How urgently does the prospect need a solution? When would the prospect likely move from a discovery call to a concrete sales opportunity? Balancing their timelines with your capabilities ensures you’re both on the same page while working towards a deal.
How do you measure success for projects like this?
Knowing how a prospect measures success gives you valuable insight into what matters most to them. Detailed responses to this question can provide a useful benchmark for aligning your solution with their goals and achieving a successful outcome.
Further, this question reiterates your commitment to deliver results that align with their definition of success, thereby strengthening trust in your offering.
Have you worked with a similar product or service before?
Enquiring about the prospect's previous experiences can shed light on why they are now looking for a different solution.
This question helps you understand the gaps in satisfaction that the previous product or service couldn't fill, providing valuable leverage to adjust your pitch's narrative and highlight your solution's distinctive features and advantages.
What would make you feel confident in choosing our solution?
This question places the focus on your prospect, asking them to envision and clearly articulate what could strengthen their trust in your solution. It may reveal missing pieces of helpful information or certain advantages of your product that haven't been discussed yet.
Insights from this question help in proactively addressing any lingering doubts that might prevent them from moving forward.
What are the top priorities or features you need from this solution?
Understanding the top priorities or features you need from a solution is crucial. It helps tailor the offering to meet your specific requirements. Consider aspects like functionality, scalability, integration capabilities, and support services.
How do you currently handle [specific process], and what’s working or not working?
Upon identifying a specific process, enquiring about its current management can unveil operational inefficiencies your product may solve.
This question offers a platform for the prospect to map their process flow, offering you tangible insights into where they're struggling. It sets the stage for introducing your solution as a game-changer that streamlines their process.
What kind of support or ongoing services will you need post-implementation?
Understanding your prospect's expectations from post-sales support pre-empts potential dissatisfaction down the line. Their responses will provide clue-ins about their previous experiences, the support level they seek, and potential service-related gaps. This question also enables your sales team to ensure whether your company can meet the prospect's anticipated level of post-sales service or manage their expectations efficiently.
What are the risks or concerns you’re considering with this decision?
Asking about the prospect's perceived risks or concerns allows an honest discussion about potential challenges. This transparency helps in addressing these concerns directly while showcasing how your solution can mitigate such risks. Ensuring that the prospect feels heard and understood enhances trust and confidence in your product, fostering better chances of deal closure.
When can I schedule the demo?
Always establish the next steps. There should be no question about what the prospect (or you) should do to move the deal forward. Be sure to ask when the next call or demo should be set up and who they would like to be involved with from their end.
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Contact us for further queries!
The Sales Discovery Process: How to Run a Sales Discovery Call?
Running a successful discovery call requires a certain process and a set of best practices to follow. It's important to have a clear plan before you dial the number. The sales discovery process also involves sharing relevant insights and data-backed facts, as well as discovering ways to connect your solution to your prospect's goals.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to running a powerful sales discovery call:
Step 01: Preparing for the call
Preparation begins with knowing your prospect inside out. Research their company and industry closely, scrutinize their engagement history with your company, and prepare a clear idea of your ideal customer profile and buyer personas.
Content like relevant case studies or recent research is handy to add value during the conversation.
Step 02: Building rapport during the call
Building rapport during a discovery call can greatly influence the ideal outcome of the conversation. Initiating the call with an easy, relaxed conversation before delving into more intensive questions is important.
During the conversation, maintain a conversational tone, empathize with your prospect’s challenges, and reveal genuine interest in understanding their business. This tactic fosters trust and makes prospects more likely to share valuable information.
Step 03: Asking discovery questions
Asking the right discovery questions is crucial to unearthing potential avenues for a deal. Use open-ended questions to encourage detailed responses and ensure the questions revolve around understanding your prospect's current situation, objectives, challenges, decision-making process, budget allowance, and timelines.
The information derived from these questions will lay the groundwork for tailored solutions catering to their specific requirements.
Tip: Break your questions into four key segments– Staging, Qualifying, Disqualifying, and Next Steps. Organizing the conversation in this sequence is a simple yet effective approach to ensuring a productive and successful call.
Step 04: Actively listening and addressing concerns
By giving your prospects the space to express themselves, you open doors to valuable insights that could otherwise be missed. Address comments or concerns raised by the prospect proactively.
This demonstration of empathy and understanding lays the groundwork for developing strong relationships and paves the path toward closing the deal.
Step 05: Identifying and verifying the buyer's problem
During the conversation, be sure to identify the buyer’s problems. Once identified, take time to verify these problems with the buyer to ensure you have a correct understanding of their issues.
This verification process shows your prospect that you have grasped their concerns and are keen on helping them find the best solution.
Step 06: Sharing your value proposition
Once you have fully understood the prospect's problems and needs, it’s time to share your value proposition.
However, this should not be presented as a hard sell; instead, align your solution to their specific challenges, showcasing how your product can help alleviate their issues and help them achieve their goals.
Tailoring the value proposition shows your prospect that you are offering a solution and not simply selling a product.
Step 07: Qualifying or disqualifying the prospect
After sharing your value proposition, assessing whether the prospect is qualified for your product or service is important. Based on their response, identify whether they are a good fit or not.
If the prospect aligns well with your offering, mark them as qualified. Conversely, if they don’t match your ideal client profile or, for other reasons, seem an unsuitable fit, disqualify them.
This step prevents investing in leads that won't convert into successful deals.
Step 08: Establish the next steps
Every discovery call should conclude with defining the next steps. If the prospect appears to be a good fit, discuss what comes next.
Ideally, establish a follow-up meeting, plan for a demo, or propose a sales quote based on what suits the situation best. Ensure you and your prospect agree on what happens next, leaving no room for confusion or delay.
Step 09: Close the call
Before ending the call, take a moment to summarize the key points discussed during the conversation and the specific details of the action plan discussed for the future. Express your gratitude to the prospect for their time and for sharing their valuable insights.
Finally, confirm the next planned discussion or interaction, close the call on a positive note, and promptly follow up to demonstrate your commitment to the process.
Unique Sales Discovery Call Question Examples
While there are several common questions asked during a discovery call, there are also ways to incorporate unique queries that might be better suited for specific prospects. These unique question categories can revolve around situational inquiries, problem-solving queries, or queries related to the next steps. Here are some unique sales discovery call question examples based on these categories.
Situational questions
Situational questions provide an excellent opportunity to understand your prospect’s context and how they handle specific circumstances. Examples include:
If you could eliminate one challenge from your current situation, what would it be?
How would an ideal solution look in your current scenario?
Can you share a situation where a similar offer added value to your operations?
Problem-solving questions
Problem-solving questions allow you to dive deep into your prospect's challenges and their approaches to resolving them. For instance:
What kind of solutions have you tried so far to solve this problem?
Can you share an instance of a particular intervention working well?
How do you typically approach resolving issues like these?
Next-step questions
Next-step questions focus on the prospect's readiness to move forward in the sales process. Examples include:
Should we schedule another call to discuss this in detail?
Would you like a product demonstration to help you understand its functionalities better?
Given our discussion today, do you see our solution fitting into your plans?
Common Mistakes to Avoid in Discovery Calls
A perfect discovery call minuses the common errors and amplifies the strategies that work. If you're looking to up your game during discovery calls, it's essential to be wary of some common mistakes. These include focusing too much on selling, asking irrelevant questions, overloading with questions, and ignoring subtle cues from your prospects. Each of these oversights could have damaging results, turning a potentially good conversation into an unpleasant experience with your prospect. Let's take a closer look at these mistakes and understand why it's crucial to avoid them.
Focusing Too Much on Selling: A discovery call is about understanding the prospect's needs, not pushing a sale. Over-selling can overwhelm and pressure the prospect.
Overloading with Questions: Asking too many questions can make the conversation feel like an interrogation. Balance questioning with active listening to maintain comfort and engagement.
Ignoring Subtle Cues: Pay attention to not just what the prospect says but how they say it. Ignoring emotional or non-verbal cues can cause you to miss valuable insights.
Final Words
Mastering the art of asking the right questions during a discovery call is key to building meaningful relationships with prospects and identifying their true needs. A well-conducted discovery call can not only better qualify prospects but also pave the way for smoother sales conversations down the line.
With the right approach, your discovery calls will not only help you close more deals but also build long-lasting customer relationships. Follow the advice outlined in this blog and avoid common pitfalls to significantly improve the outcomes of your discovery calls, ensuring a more successful overall sales process.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many questions should you ask during a discovery call?
While there's no fixed number, a general guideline would be to ask enough questions to deeply understand your prospect's business, needs, and concerns. Remember, it's not about the quantity but the quality of questions that uncover relevant insights to shape your sales strategy.
What makes a great discovery call question?
A great discovery call question is open-ended, encouraging the prospect to share detailed answers. It should focus on understanding the prospect's current situation, goals, challenges, and other aspects important to the buying process. The best questions trigger meaningful dialogue and build rapport with prospects.
How do I prepare for a discovery call?
To prepare for a discovery call, research the prospect's company and industry. Understand their history of engagement with your organization and formulate your ideal customer profile. Prepare an agenda and a list of relevant open-ended questions to address various aspects of the prospect's business and needs.
What are the three types of questions in discovery calls?
The three main categories of questions in a discovery call are situational, problem-solving, and next-step questions. Situational questions provide context, problem-solving questions uncover challenges and potential solutions, while next-step questions gauge readiness for the next stage in the sales process and define what happens next.
How do you come up with discovery questions?
Effective discovery questions stem from your research about the prospect and their industry. Tailor your questions to uncover their business situation, goals, and challenges. Use the insights gathered to create questions that resonate with your prospect's problems and how your solution potentially solves them.
