Discovery
Start Every Discovery Call With This Question
29/09/25, 00:00
Who is it for?
Founders, CEOs, CROs, and sales leaders at B2B SaaS companies running discovery and qualification calls.
When to use?
When discovery calls feel productive but deals don’t progress, and qualification signals are unclear.
Any time that a new prospect chooses to speak with you, there is a reason. It doesn’t matter if you cold called them and set up the more in-depth conversation.
Any time that a new prospect chooses to speak with you, there is a reason. It doesn’t matter if you cold called them and set up the more in-depth conversation. It might be they responded to a LinkedIn or email message. Perhaps it was an intro from a mutual contact. Or follow-up to a conference engagement.
Whatever it was there is a reason, and the very first thing you should do is find out what that is.
Therefore, start every conversation with “Why did you decide to take this meeting?”
If they say “because you called me” or “I responded to your message” or “Jo made an introduction”, carry on. Don’t let it go.
You should next say “that’s great. I’m sure you have a really busy diary, so there must have been something in [what I said on the phone ¦ the content of my email ¦ what Jo said] that made you think it was worth half an hour of your time.”
At this point you will get something useful. What it was they found interesting. Or the problem that they hope you can help with.
Please don't launch into your product description now. Nor tell them how well you can solve the problem.
Instead, say something like this: “Really interesting, thank you. Is that a signficant issue that is affecting you every day?” or perhaps “I’ve heard of similar challenges elsewhere and often it is driven by XYZ, is that the case for you?”
You are now in the middle of a real conversation. Genuine curiosity which will lead you to understand whether or not they have a problem you can solve.
Your job on this discovery call is to
1️⃣ Determine if the prospect has a problem you can solve
2️⃣ Give them enough confidence that you have expertise in this area that it’s worth continuing the conversation
3️⃣ Book the next step.
Your job is not to pitch your product at great and boring length!
Feel free to check out some of your recent Discovery calls using this Custom GPThttps://chatgpt.com/g/g-687920660bb081919d9ff407269de7c0-ben-miller-discovery-coaching?model=gpt-4o. Just upload a transcript and get feedback and coaching.