First impressions are everything. You’ve put a ton of time into your lead generation campaigns, now it’s time to speak with your leads and prescribe your solution.
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What Exactly is a Sales Discovery Call?
After generating a positive reply (or lead), the next step is generally to figure out if their company is a fit to work with you.
This is called a Discovery Call.
The deeper point of this call is to establish your leads’ pain points, problems, goals, and how interested they really are in your product or service.
Now, this is difficult.
Not every lead will want to give up this deep information. You’ve got to be strategic, build trust, and ask the right questions along the way.
In short, a Discovery Call is a pre-arranged call to establish whether or not there is a mutual business win-win situation between you and your interested lead.
How to Make Sure Your Discovery Call is Successful
At the end of the day, practice makes perfect.
The only way to become a sales pro is to jump on thousands of sales calls and continue to improve.
Prepare for the Call
There is nothing worse than “winging it” on Discovery Calls.
You need to have all the information you possibly can about your lead on hand before you jump into your scheduled call.
Study their website, check their LinkedIn activity, and ensure you understand their business on a basic level and even their personal cadence if possible.
Look for pain points that you can see from your objective perspective. Is their website low quality? Is their LinkedIn displaying (or not displaying) thought leadership in their industry?
Take note of everything you can about the current state of your lead’s business.
Role Play with Your Sales Reps
Run through your discovery call questions and strategy with your colleagues and other sales pros.
This will help you get into the flow of your Discovery Call format, and make sure you’ve identified holes and issues before jumping into the real thing.
Set the Tone & Establish the Basics
Start your call by thanking them for their time – “I appreciate you jumping on this call”.
Identify the length of the call – “we have 20 minutes to speak today, is that still good for you?”.
Identify the end goal – “the goal of this call is to understand your exact requirements to see if we can help you out, if it feels like a good fit, we can discuss next steps”.
Key Questions to Ask in Your Discovery Call
Identify Pain Points & Problems
- What is the biggest challenge your team/company is currently facing?
- What takes up the most time in your day?
- What are the primary roadblocks to achieving your goals?
Build Rapport & Trust
- Where did you work before you started at [their current company]?
- I read your/company’s article on ___. What do you think about ____?
- How has [recent event] impacted you?
To Learn More About Their Business
- Tell me about your role. What are your day-to-day responsibilities?
- What are your goals (financial, customer-related, operational)?
- What metrics are you judged against?
- Who else will be involved in choosing a vendor?
To Understand Their Goals
- What’s preventing you meeting your goals right now?
- When do you need to achieve your goals by?
- How would meeting your goals impact the business?
To Understand Their Competition
- How are you addressing the challenges you mentioned today?
- What do you like and dislike about your current solution?
- What features are on your wishlist when it comes to finding a solution?
To Identify Their Decision Making Process
- Who else will need to review and sign off on a proposed solution?
- Have you used a similar product/service before?
- Which other decision-makers do we need to reach out to?
How to Align Budget with Your Price
- How do you determine ROI?
- How do you know if an investment is worth your cost?
- Who sets the budget? Do you already have one set in place?
How to Align Budget with Your Price
- How do you determine return on investment (ROI)?
- How do you know if an investment is worth your cost?
- Who sets the budget? Do you already have one set in place?
To Move the Deal to the Next Level
- What things will make it easier for you to make a decision?
- Many of our customers do [x action]. Would this be something you’d consider?
- When shall we talk again to discuss a demo/meet with other shareholders?
Questions to Avoid on a Sales Discovery Call
We’ve gone over some critical questions to ask during discovery calls, but what should you avoid?
“Yes or No” Type Questions
You want to dig deeper into their problems & pains, so Yes/No questions can be counterproductive to that end goal.
Ask questions that provoke emotion and give you a deeper look into their problem, pain, and decision making process.
Too Many Questions in a Row
You don’t want it to feel like an interrogation.
Ask a question and try to dig as deep as you can into the underlying pain that the prospect is experiencing.
Try to make the call “flow” so that you naturally segue from one topic into the next.
Questions That are Too Vague
Vague questions will result in very vague answers. Keep the conversation focused and to the point.
Bottom Line
Discovery calls are the gateway to sales & revenue, so like anything important they should have a solid strategy.
Remember that the goal of the call is to build trust, assess their problems/pains, and, if it’s a good fit, prescribe them with the right solution.
If this article was helpful, please share it with your network – I know they’ll thank you for it…
