A prospect you’ve been courting for a long time finally reaches out expressing interest in your products and services. Before sending them product ideas, your first step should be to schedule a discovery call – this is your chance to get to know their pain points and objectives, make sure you’re both aligned and determine that they’re serious about becoming a client.

It’s crucial that a discovery call take place before any serious ideation and pitches. In fact, according to Sales Benchmark Index, product demos and presentations done without a discovery process are 73% less successful than those done after one.

Here are seven critical questions to ask during the discovery call.

1

What does your company specialize in and what’s your role?

While your preliminary research should have given you a good grasp of what your prospect’s company does, let them speak in the beginning to tell you in their own words. Asking them about their responsibilities also gives you a deeper look into where they stand at the company and possibly their decision-making ability.

2

What challenge are you currently facing?

Give your contact the opportunity to speak openly about a pain point they’re contending with – why is solving the problem important to them? What would a successful campaign look like for them? By listening intently to their answer and asking follow-up questions as necessary, you can start figuring out if the two of you are a good match.

3

What’s stopped you from solving this problem previously?

There could be many reasons – perhaps it wasn’t a priority, or they thought other distributors’ costs were too high, or the decision-maker wouldn’t approve. This is an opportunity for you to find out why their priorities have changed and how you may fit into their revamped strategy.

4

What’s the timing like?

Asking for more detail about their plans is crucial – if they say they’re interested in a presentation for an event coming up in three months, that’s more promising than an open-ended response with no committed timeframe. You risk spinning your wheels for no return if they can’t give you a specific need that they’re currently addressing.

73%
tthe percentage of sales pitches that are less successful compared to those done after a thorough discovery call. (Sales Benchmark Index)

5

Who else is invested in solving this problem?

Find out who else needs to sign off on the project to move forward, which could impact timing. If the person you’re speaking with is the ultimate decision-maker, that’s a positive. But if the campaign needs approval from multiple parties, you need to take that into consideration before doing hours of work on their behalf.

6

Would you be willing to meet us at our price?

Price-shoppers are a persistent thorn in distributors’ sides. Avoid wasting time brainstorming for a prospect who only wants the lowest price by laying out ballpark numbers for them and demonstrating what they’ll receive in terms of products, services and value. If they still need to create buy-in with other parties, be sure that they have the details they can in turn present to others so no one is surprised by cost down the line.

7

If I were to propose a solution, what would you need to do to make that happen?

This question gives you a good picture of next steps on their end. They’ll most likely need to take details of the discovery call back to their team for discussion before you can move forward. By the end of the call, you should be confident that you’re both on the same page and that they’ll soon have approval and interest from invested parties, all before you start serious work on a presentation.