Key Takeaway: What is a discovery call? It is the first real sales conversation with a prospect. Its job is to learn four things. Is there a problem worth solving? What does it cost? Who decides? Is there a next step? RevHeat recommends ending every one in 1 of 2 ways. Either the buyer agrees to a dated next meeting, or you both agree it isn’t a fit.
According to Salesforce, a discovery call comes early in the sales process. Its purpose is to learn whether the customer is right for the product. The demo and the pitch come later. Below: the five parts of a discovery call, 25 questions to use, and a template you can copy.
What is the purpose of a discovery call?
Discovery answers five questions for the seller:
- Is there a real problem? In the buyer’s words, not yours.
- What does it cost them? In money, time or risk.
- Why now? What changed, and what happens if they wait.
- Who decides, and how? The people, the steps and the timing.
- What happens next? A specific, dated step.
If you can’t answer all five after the call, the deal isn’t qualified yet.
Why does discovery matter so much?
Discovery is where qualifying happens. RevHeat analyzed data from Objective Management Group on 12,745 salespeople. It compared the top 10% with the bottom 10% across 30 sales skills. Several skills used in discovery showed clear gaps:
| Skill | Gap, top 10% vs bottom 10% |
|---|---|
| Reaching Decision Makers | 476.92% |
| Comfortable Discussing Money | 468.75% |
| Qualifying | 380.00% |
| Consultative Selling | 231.58% |
How do you structure a discovery call?
Five parts. For a 30-minute call, a rough split:
| Part | What happens | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Agenda | Agree on the purpose, the time and what a good outcome looks like | 2–3 min |
| 2. Situation | Understand how they work today | 5 min |
| 3. Problem and cost | Find the problem and what it costs | 10–12 min |
| 4. Decision | Who decides, how, and by when | 5 min |
| 5. Next step | Agree on a dated next step, or agree it isn’t a fit | 3–5 min |
Most of the time goes to part 3. Let the buyer talk.
25 discovery call questions
Part 1: Agenda
- “We have 30 minutes. Does that still work?”
- “I’d like to learn how you handle [area] today. Then I’ll share a little about how we help. Then we decide together if a next step makes sense. Anything you’d add?”
- “If at the end this isn’t a fit, are you comfortable telling me?”
Part 2: Situation
- “Walk me through how you handle [area] today.”
- “Who is involved in that day to day?”
- “What have you already tried?”
- “What made you take this call now?”
Part 3: Problem and cost
- “What isn’t working the way you want it to?”
- “Can you give me a recent example?”
- “How long has this been going on?”
- “What does it cost you? In revenue, time or people?”
- “How did you arrive at that number?”
- “What happens if nothing changes in the next six months?”
- “Who else feels this problem?”
- “On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is fixing this compared to your other priorities?”
- “Why that number and not lower?”
Part 4: Decision and money
- “If you decided to fix this, who else would be involved?”
- “How have you made a decision like this before?”
- “What would the steps be, from here to a signed agreement?”
- “Is there a budget set aside for this, or would one need to be created?”
- “When you’ve invested in something like this before, what range did you spend?”
- “Is there a date by which this needs to be solved?”
Part 5: Next step
- “Based on what you’ve shared, it sounds like [problem] is costing you [cost]. Did I get that right?”
- “What would you like to do next?”
- “Can we put [next meeting] on the calendar now, with [decision maker] included?”
Swap in your own words. Keep the order: agenda, situation, problem, cost, decision, next step.
Discovery call template
Copy this into your CRM notes or a doc for every discovery call.
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Company / contact / title | |
| Agenda agreed? (yes / no) | |
| How they do it today | |
| The problem, in their words | |
| Recent example | |
| Cost of the problem (and how they calculated it) | |
| Why now | |
| Importance, 1–10 | |
| Who else is involved | |
| Decision process and timing | |
| Budget (set aside / to be created / unknown) | |
| Next step, with date | |
| Fit? (yes / no / not yet, and why) |
Any blank field is a question to ask on the next call.
What mistakes should you avoid on a discovery call?
- Pitching too early. If you’re showing slides in the first ten minutes, you’re guessing at the problem.
- Accepting the first answer. “It’s a pain” isn’t a cost. Ask for the example and the number.
- Avoiding money. Budget is a discovery question, not a closing question.
- Skipping the decision process. A buyer who can’t describe how they’d decide isn’t ready to sign.
- Ending with “I’ll send you something.” End with a date on the calendar or a clear “not a fit.”
How do you make sure reps actually run discovery this way?
Writing the questions down is the easy part. The hard part is knowing whether reps ask them on real calls, call after call.
RevHeat calls the weekly version of that check The Enforcement Loop:
- Read every call. Not just the ones you had time for.
- Tell each rep what to ask on the next call. Word for word.
- Remember exactly what you told each of them.
- Watch the next call to see if they did it.
- Catch the slip and fix it before it becomes a habit.
- Roll what works into a sharper playbook. Then start over.
Why don’t sales managers know which questions reps skipped?
Because nobody can hear every discovery call. At about 3 calls a rep a week, 10 reps make 364 calls a quarter. Listening to all of them takes about 121 hours. At 20 reps it takes 243 hours, and at 100 reps it takes 1,213.
So when a deal dies in month three because nobody asked who signs, your manager didn’t miss it on purpose. The call was one of hundreds. When discovery calls do get checked every week, here is what changes by size:
- 5 to 10 reps: By Monday you can say why the last one died.
- 20 to 50 reps: Managers report what happened instead of what they think.
- 60 to 100+ reps: The same word means the same thing in every country, and marketing gets what the buyer said rather than a rep’s memory of it.
FAQ
What is a discovery call in sales?
The first real sales conversation with a prospect. You learn whether they have a problem worth solving and what it costs. You also learn who decides and whether there is a next step.
How long should a discovery call be?
Long enough to cover all five parts. The discovery call template above is built for 30 minutes. Agree on the time at the start of the call.
What is the difference between a discovery call and a demo?
A discovery call finds the problem. A demo shows how you solve it. Running the demo before discovery means showing a solution to a problem you haven’t confirmed.
What should you do before a discovery call?
Look up the company and the person. Write down what you think their problem might be, and two or three questions to test it. Confirm the time and who will attend.
What is a good discovery call outcome?
A dated next step the buyer agreed to, with the right people involved. A clear “not a fit” is also a good outcome. It saves both sides time.
How many questions should you ask on a discovery call?
Enough to fill in the template. You won’t need all 25 on every call. Follow up on the answers that matter instead of rushing to the next question.
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Ken Lundin is CEO of RevHeat, the Sales Enforcement company. Over 25 years he has sold, run sales teams and helped 200+ teams, including 5 unicorns, generate $1.5B in client sales, with two exits ($250M and $30M) and four appearances on the Inc. 500. He is a Forbes Business Council member and the author of Strategic Selling Unleashed, Broken Playbook and The SmartScaling Formula.