A sales discovery call provides you with important sales intelligence. It allows you to qualify a prospect so you won’t have to waste any time, energy, or resources pursuing a low-quality lead.
Among other things, the kinds of questions you ask will determine the success (or not) of your call. You will do well in gathering the necessary sales intelligence if your questions direct your prospect to provide the information you need. You have to ask the right questions if you want a successful discovery call.
You need to be strategic in planning your questions. You want to have questions that reveal the prospects’ needs, their challenges, their goals and plans. But you also need to ask questions that orient towards the prospects realizing and believing that they need YOUR product.
So what kinds of questions do you need? Basically, you need to ask questions that fulfill the qualifying framework you use (BANT, CHAMP, MEDDIC, GPCT)—and more.
Here’s a list to guide you, and some sample questions. Your qualifying questions should:
1. Clear up the prospect’s needs, problems, challenges, pain points, issues, and concerns
In a nutshell: You’re there to offer a solution—this is the value you are offering. So you need to determine what you need to solve in the first place.
“What is giving your brand/business/company pain these days?”
“What’s keeping you up at night?”
“What compelled you to get in touch?” (Assuming prospect made first contact.)
“What’s the one thing you will change about your brand/business/company today?”
2. Clarify the prospect’s goals and aspirations
What is the prospect’s end goal? This has to be very clear, qualified if possible (e.g. 20% revenue growth).
“I don’t want to waste any of your time. Tell me: how can I make this whole conversation and this whole process worth your time?”
“What will make our collaboration truly successful?”
“What do you want the brand/business/company to achieve in the next months, and in the next years?”
“What’s going to make your job much, much easier?”
3. Describe prospect’s motivation(s) to purchase from you
You need to know what will make the prospect buy. What’s going to compel him to make the purchasing decision?
“Budget not a factor, what would make you purchase today?”
“What would be the worst case scenario for your brand/business/company?”
4. Help establish the need and urgency to purchase your product
You have to strategically establish why they need to purchase your product NOW. Mentioning the bottom line and/or ROI almost always works.
“What has been the impact on your bottom line since [challenge, pain point, problem]?”
“How much revenue growth do you foresee once we address [challenge, pain point, problem]?”
“What would be your target ROI?” Then follow up with: “When do you want to achieve this?”
5. Explain the prospect’s business, industry, competition, and target market
You need to know everything there is to know about the prospect’s business, industry, competition, and target market. You are expected to do initial research before the call, but gather all other relevant data during. There are so many questions you can ask for this subject, and these are just some samples.
“Your industry is [concise description]. Are you focusing on a niche market within this industry?”
“What has been your best-performing product/service? The least-performing?”
“What is your current market share?”
“Can you describe your competitive space today?”
6. Validate your research on the prospect
In the course of the conversation, you need to establish the research you’ve done. Ask questions that confirm (or disprove) the data you’ve gathered.
“I know that [latest development]. How has that changed your business operations and goals?
“I see that you used to be with/in [former company or industry]. How was that experience like?” Then follow up with: “What brought you to [new company or industry]?”
7. Clarify the prospect’s authority and the company’s decision-making process
You can’t be wasting time on a prospect that has no authority to make a decision on the purchase. You need the decision-maker.
“Who will be deciding on the purchase?”
“Have you made a similar purchase before?”
“Is there anyone else I should add in this discussion?” Then follow up with: “Who is he/she please, and may I know his/her designation?”
8. Determine the company’s decision-making process
You also need to know the process they follow for the purchase—from how to submit the proposal (and to whom) to who signs off on the formal agreement.
“Can you please walk me through your company’s purchasing process?”
“How does your company process the acquirement of new services and products, and supplier accreditation?”
9. Establish rapport
You need to establish a rapport with prospect at the very first contact. You can do this by showing a genuine interest in your prospect’s business, work, industry, and professional life.
“How did you get into the _____ industry?”
“I thought your recent post was so inspired/entertaining/empowering/informative. What’s the story behind that?”
“Any plans for the weekend?”
10. Bring up your competition
In most likelihood, you’re not the only one selling to the prospect. Ask questions that will give you information on who you’re up against, and what they offer.
“Which other solution providers are you considering at the moment?”
“How would you compare the solutions we’re offering to those of other suppliers?”
“I know that you used to / are working work with [other provider]. What was/is that experience like?” (Assuming prospect has/had another supplier.)
11. Spell out the prospect’s budget and timeline
Pricing is a usual point of negotiation and contention. The client’s working budget and deadline are some of the things you need to determine as soon as possible.
“Do you have an approved budget for this project/acquisition?”
“How much of an investment are you looking at?”
“What is your deadline for completion/submission/acquisition?”
“What’s the timeline you’re looking at? And how can we make this a smooth-sailing process right up to implementation?”
All the questions above will help you determine if the prospect is fit for your brand/product. But you also need to establish if your brand/product is fit for the prospect. Can you deliver on the end goal that the prospect is eyeing? Remember: You can’t just focus on your win; you have to look at the customer’s, too.
Photos from Unsplash. Main image by Berkeley Communications
