5 Fool-Proof Ways To Make Your Discovery Calls Count
So you’ve done some outreach and made the pitch. Now a potential client has booked a discovery call with you. It was a grind, but it was also the easy part.
You know your product like the back of your hand. So many prospects have gone into your sales pipeline that you move through your client meetings on autopilot. Why ask your client what they need when you already know you have the perfect solution for them?
Because you can’t know for certain. Because autopilot doesn’t work. Moving through the discovery call with intention is the most important part of the sales process. Not only does every client have particular pain points, but they also may have needs you haven’t heard before. The urge to rush to “closed-won” could leave you with a disinterested client and a team who missed out on some valuable feedback. So let’s cover how you can make each discovery call a successful discovery call.
Use open-ended questions in your discovery call
Say you’re on the sales team at a company that sells a new project management tool. Customers come to you because they need a way for their digital teams to stay on top of tasks, streamline their reporting, and plan their roadmap. Your PM tool has different pricing tiers, and you need to sell your clients the right one so they can get the most out of your tool.
So how do you make sure your tool is a perfect fit for them? With open-ended questions.
Your prospect sits in their fair share of meetings. So when you start the discovery call by asking what made your product stick out to them they’re going to keep it short and sweet to keep things moving. But we need to dig a little deeper here. Here are three questions that’ll help you do that.
What is your prospect’s role at their organization?
Your prospect, tasked with researching a new project management tool, could have a few different positions. Are they in RevOps? A Product Manager? Or maybe someone in Business Operations? It’s important to understand who your prospect is, so you can get a better sense of how your tool can help their team. This answer will also give you a clue as to whether or not they have purchasing power.
This question could be asked as a way to kick off the discovery call when you’re building rapport. A simple “I’d love to start by learning about your role. What do you do at X?” is perfect. Your prospect’s answer will shape the rest of the discovery call.
What does the day-to-day look like for the team?
This is the first window we get into identifying the prospect’s pain points and figuring out how your product or service can soothe them. We want to understand what the prospect’s current processes are, so we know if our tool is a fit. When selling a project management tool, you can ask how their team is currently managing their tasks. If they reveal that their current process isn’t as efficient as they’d like — or that it’s a total disaster — it’s your chance to empathize and swoop in with a solution.
There are so many ways you can uncover this information. You can also ask questions like:
- How does the team currently keep their tasks organized?
- How does reporting work at your organization?
- What does your ideal solution look like?
- Are there other products your team is currently testing?
Don’t be shy to get deep with this question during your discovery call. The prospect should be doing the majority of the talking; the more you understand their day-to-day, the more you can set your product up as the perfect solution, and the best choice among the competition.
Who is impacted and how big are these teams?
Now that we understand a bit of the inner workings of the team, we can zoom out a bit and ask about the bigger picture. Say a prospect comes to you because their design team needs a PM tool. Which departments does the design team collaborate with? Who does everyone report to? These other team members will likely want to be looped in. Prospects often come to you with a use case for a smaller team, but their pain points can have a ripple effect throughout the rest of their organization. That’s why this question is so important.
Solve the pain to win the deal
The open-ended questions you’ve asked so far in your discovery call have all led to one important finding: the pain points your prospect is trying to solve. This is what brought them to you, so let’s identify what it looks like for their whole organization. This is the key to keeping the opportunity alive in the sales pipeline.
There are 3 things you should be sure to do when you’re uncovering pain points:
- Empathize with them: Let them know you understand how frustrating it is, and you’re happy to jump in and help the team.
- Quantify the impact: If you’re selling a PM tool, this could be asking a question like “How much time does your team waste trying to keep tasks updated?” Quantifying their pain with “how much” or “how long” questions will help them see the issue is larger than they were thinking.
- Reference a specific detail mentioned by your prospect: Reminding the client in follow-up emails and calls about this key pain will keep the client’s focus on the finish line — soothing that pain.
The key pain is also going to be crucial for handling objections. The prospect is wary about cost? You can point out the cost of their key pain without your solution. They don’t need a certain feature? Remind them that without it, their key pain won’t be resolved. You get the idea.
Get the purchaser into the picture
More often than not, the prospect sitting on the other end of the discovery call is not the person with the purchasing power. Usually, they’re researching their options and taking their findings back to a manager, executive, or tool owner for the next steps. To avoid potential delays, inquire about these decision-makers early. You could do this by asking:
- Who else needs to get involved in the purchase?
- Who are we building this case for?
- Who are the approvers for new tools in your organization?
If you can get them to confirm these details, you can CC the approver in your recap email, or invite them to a follow-up call. Speaking directly to the approvers will keep your product top-of-mind for the prospect’s whole team. Also, nobody communicates the value of your product better than you do, so the approvers should get educated on the product from the best source.
Make the demo count
The demo is the stage of the sales process where demonstrate the real-life impact of your product. Maybe the prospect on your discovery call has already tested the product or service you’re offering, or maybe they know nothing about it at all. Either way, you’re going to walk them through it, show them the features relevant to their use case, and confirm with them that this is the solution that they are looking for.
At this point, you’ve asked enough questions to know whether your product is the right fit for your prospect or not but when faced with a demo, the prospect can start expressing doubts about the product because they feel like things are moving too quickly, and they don’t want to feel like they’ve bought in too fast. This is where you should take pieces of the demo, and relate it to that key pain they had mentioned earlier.
“You were telling me earlier that your team struggles with X. Our product is perfectly suited to fix X, as you can see right here. Based on what you’ve been telling me, is this what you were looking for?”
If it’s a yes, great; time to confirm some next steps. If it’s a no, you’re in the perfect position to ask them what’s missing, and you can handle objections like a pro from there. It’s hard for them to debate with you if you can paraphrase what they had said earlier about their needs.
Show them your product is a must-have
Now it’s time for the prospect to test for themselves. If you have a trial of your product or a way for them to launch a proof of concept, that’s ideal. Offer to help them set up, or get someone from your team who can. The more the prospect’s team is embedded in the product, the harder it is for them to imagine working without it.
This testing phase is also crucial for understanding the finer details of their use case. Maybe there are a few small features they were looking for that you don’t offer yet, or maybe they have ideas about how your tool can function better. This feedback is important for your organization; For you, in sales, it’s about closing the deal. But for everyone else, it’s a chance to find out how they can offer a better product. Remember to send the prospect some resources, remind them of that key pain, and check in often as the testing gets underway.
Help them discover the thing they can’t live without
Guiding your prospect from the start of “What brings you here?” to “Thanks for your payment!” is much easier if the discovery call is handled with care. By taking your time, asking the right questions, and making their vision a reality, your team is left with ways to elevate the product, and the prospect gets their perfect solution. It’s a lengthy process when done right, but everyone can come out a winner.