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A Comprehensive Guide To An Excellent Sales Discovery Call

Wouldn't it feel great to hear thankful words from a prospect after a pleasant discovery call? Wouldn’t it be great to have a formula that guarantees a perfect sales discovery call? 

 

While we don't have a simple 2+2 formula to secure a successful disco call for you, there’s a way to achieve success by asking the right questions. That’s why we’ve come up with a comprehensive guide for you to follow with helpful sales discovery questions and practices for you to try.

 

What Is A Discovery Call? 

 

A discovery call is a process of establishing and developing a relationship between the potential buyer and you in order to proceed with the sale. It can happen after the cold call or when the buyer reaches out to you through various channels. 

 

For the seller, the call is made to gather the buyer's parameters, goals, wishes, and requirements, whereas, for the buyer, it helps identify whether the product or service will solve their problems.

 

But how long should the discovery call be? 

 

To be honest, there is no ideal length of a discovery call. However, generally, it takes around 3o-45 minutes for small businesses and up to an hour for large firms.

 

Why Are Discovery Calls Important? 

 

A good discovery call sets up the pace for the buying process as it’s basically the first time a prospect gets a comprehensive idea about your business and solution. So let’s see what the advantages of a discovery call are. 

 

  • Building healthy customer relations

A discovery call is your best shot to make a great first impression of your company and spark your buyer's interest. Additionally, it's a great opportunity for you to get a glimpse at the buyer's goals and challenges. The better you understand your buyer, the easier it will be for you to close the deal.

 

  • Improving your sales cycle

A well-conducted discovery shows you how you can turn the scale in your favor – it helps you understand the prospect and forecast the future of the deal. In addition, such a call helps you disqualify your leads sooner so that you can allocate more time to work with the qualified leads.

 

Steps in Discovery Call Agenda 

 

Let’s break down the steps you should take to perform a high-quality discovery call. 

 

Here’s a discovery call checklist:

 

1. Schedule your call


The first step for your disco call is to plan out the process. Here are the basic steps to follow:

 

  • Explain the call. Give your lead an agenda and the objective for the call so they know what to expect and can prepare some questions or research information upfront. It’s also necessary to mention how long the conversation will take so that your lead can plan time accordingly.

  • Add the call to the calendar. You can use a Google invitation so that it automatically adds it to both of your calendars. As an alternative, you can use the Calendly scheduling tool.

  • Send a reminder about the call. Send an email letting your lead know you’re looking forward to talking with them to confirm your call and remind them of the time.

 

2. Conduct research


Your discovery call script should be personalized to every lead. For that purpose, you need an understanding of your lead, which you can easily acquire by researching the company’s team page, LinkedIn, and other social platforms.

 

Here’s the information you should obtain before creating your script:

 

  • The buyer's job responsibility 

  • Details about the buyer's company

  • The buyer's hobbies and interests

  • Any additional information about the buyer

 

This research is a chance not only to understand your lead and will save you time and effort while performing the discovery call.

 

3. Make a discovery call script


Your call doesn’t have to be strictly scripted; think of it like a flowchart mapping your conversation. The main purpose of the discovery call scripting is to make it structured to ensure you don’t miss anything.

 

Consider using the following script as a template, but feel free to customize it, keeping in mind the main components to cover. Here are the key discovery script touchpoints:

 

  • An opening – a small talk involving something you’ve learned about your lead. 

  • An introduction – tell about your title, your company’s mission, as well as the businesses you help. In addition, make sure to include the agenda for the call.

  • Your questions – pick the questions that can help you discover the right information about your lead.

  • A closing – write a closing for the situation when your lead is qualified and one for when they’re not.

 

We’ll cover each of these components below in the article.

 

4. Make introductions


Make sure you use the first five minutes of your discovery call to make the lead feel comfortable and set the right tone for the rest of the call. How can you do it?

 

  • Be yourself – if you have an interesting remark or a funny reply you’d like to make, but you’re holding yourself back, don’t. It will show your prospect that they are dealing with an actual human being and not a selling machine. 

  • Talk about their interests – if you checked their LinkedIn or Twitter, bring up their interests and ask questions. Get your prospects talking about themselves.

  • Bring up something you have in common – job positions, past experiences, locations, etc.

 

Once the introductions are made, you can get to the more formal part of your call and present your company and the product. It’s important to give your lead some context about yourself so they can better understand your business and prepare for the following questions.

 

5. Set an agenda


Right after the introduction, you should tell the lead the goal of the call. Typically, the reason should be “to see if we can help you and your company with…” 

 

Next, tell the lead you have some questions to see if your company is a good fit for them. And to make your lead feel more involved, ask whether they have something specific they want to get out of the call. 

 

6. Ask the right questions


Questions are the most crucial part of your call. Asking the right questions can help you control the conversation and ensure both you and your lead get value out of it. 

 

Speaking about the speaking time, you should be talking less than 45% of the call, while your lead should take over 55% of the time.

 

By asking the right questions, you should address one of the following points:

 

  • Goals
  • Budget
  • Challenges
  • Authority
  • Need
  • Timeline
  • Implication

 

Here are some of the examples of your sales discovery questions that will help you understand the lead’s problem:



  • Have you used any automation software before? If yes, what was your impression and what challenges you hoped it would solve?

  • If not, what are you hoping to improve with the help of sales automation software?

 

  • What are the challenges your company currently faces?

  • When you think of that challenge, what are the impacts of not solving it?

  • Do you know how much money could you save by resolving this problem?

 

  • Do you have a budget secured for solving this problem?

  • What are other concerns I can address?

  • What is the timeline for implementation?

Important:

 

When you come up with the questions you want to ask your buyer, think of the ways to be customer-centric and not ego-centric. 

 

Customer-centric questions go in-depth about the buyer's pain point and try to solve them in the most efficient way. These questions cannot be answered with a simple "yes" or "no". For example:

 

  • "What is the impact of your current sales-related issues?"
  • "What are the concerns that you want to be addressed with a new automation tool?"

 

Ego-centric questions, on the other hand, help salespeople extract useful metrics from the buyer to help them close the deal faster. When used too often, these questions may frustrate your buyer and distort their perception of you and your product.

 

Ego-centric questions examples:

 

  • "What is your budget?"
  • "How big is your team?"

 

Pro Tip: When explaining the benefits of your solution, focus only on those functionalities that are critical for your buyer's business. Don't talk at length about every possible feature as this can overshadow the most important aspects that help solve your buyer's challenges and confuse them. 

 

7. Qualify or disqualify the lead


As you ask the questions, try to interpret the answers and see whether the lead qualifies for any of your use cases. Then, pick a few criteria that will help you to either qualify or disqualify your lead as a potential buyer. 

 

8. Close the call


By this step, you will already have had enough information about the lead to make your decision. So let’s take a look at how to close the call in both situations, whether your lead is a good or a bad fit.

 

How to close the call when the lead is unqualified?

 

Instead of simply wishing each other best of luck, get something valuable out of your call. Ask if they know anyone who would need or might be interested in your product or service. You can additionally give recommendations for other services that might be a better fit for them.

 

How to close the call when the lead is qualified?

 

Finish the call by saying your product or service will help them and meet their needs. Use the mirroring technique where you repeat the arguments that you extracted from your conversation to finish on a strong note. 

 

Then, proceed with the next steps – set up another meeting or give them a demo presentation. Remember to always be clear to avoid confusion.

 

9. Follow up


After the call, it’s important to have a full record of the conversation to make sure you got all the details right and you didn't miss anything. Additionally, recording your call will help you prepare for possible next steps with your prospect. 

 

Unique is here to help you record, transcribe and summarise your conversations. What's more, Unique's side panel will show the call agenda in real time so that you won't miss a thing while on the call. With Unique, disco calls are easier than ever!

 

Next, send a follow-up email and an invite for the next meeting if you’ve agreed to set one up.

 

Bring Your Discovery Call to the Next Level

 

A sales discovery call is an art. However, using the best practices and a comprehensive guide will facilitate your work, help you better understand your leads, and guide you straight to a successfully closed deal!

Written by

Hanna Karbowski