Produces a one-page call plan: what you already know, what you suspect, what you must learn, the questions that get you there in a natural order, and the next step you will ask for. Good discovery makes the buyer feel understood and gives you the facts to qualify or disqualify honestly.
When to use
- Before a first call booked from inbound, outbound, or a referral.
- When a new stakeholder joins an existing deal and you need to re-run discovery for their perspective.
- When calls feel pleasant but end without a quantified problem or a committed next step.
- When coaching a new rep on how to run discovery.
What you need
Ask the user for:
- Who: company name, attendees with titles, and how the meeting was booked (what they asked for or replied to).
- What you sell and the two or three problems it most often solves.
- Ideal customer profile and typical buying committee.
- Known context: CRM notes, previous conversations, website activity, any public news (funding, hiring, leadership change, expansion).
- Call length and whether anyone else from your side will join.
- Qualification framework your team uses, if any.
If research inputs are thin, say which hypotheses are guesses and need confirming early in the call.
Process
- Summarise the account in five lines. What they do, size, likely growth stage, recent triggers, and how they probably handle the problem today. Keep it factual; mark inferences as inferences.
- Profile each attendee. Role, what they are measured on, what a bad quarter looks like for them, and their likely stake in this decision (user, influencer, budget holder, blocker).
- Write two or three hypotheses. "Because they are hiring eight SDRs, they may be struggling to ramp new reps quickly." Hypotheses let you ask sharper questions and show you did your homework without lecturing.
- Plan the question sequence. Move from easy to deep:
- Current state: how the process works today, who is involved, what tools and workarounds exist.
- Problem: where it breaks, how often, and who feels it.
- Impact: what it costs in time, money, risk, or missed targets. Ask for numbers and push gently for the buyer's own estimate.
- Desired state: what good looks like in the buyer's words, and how they would measure it.
- Urgency: why now, what happens if nothing changes for six months, any deadlines.
- Decision process: who else is involved, how they have bought similar things, what approval and procurement steps exist, budget situation. Prepare eight to twelve core questions plus follow-ups. Sequence matters more than wording: impact questions land only after the problem is acknowledged.
- Prepare the opening. A short agenda the buyer agrees to: purpose, what you will ask, what they will get (a view on whether you can help), and the outcome you suggest (agree whether a next step makes sense). Ask whether anything should be added.
- Plan what to share and when. Prepare one relevant customer story and two or three capability points tied to your hypotheses. Hold them until the problem is clear; pitching early ends discovery.
- Define disqualification triggers. What would tell you this is not a fit (no problem, no budget path, wrong segment)? Decide in advance so you can say so politely.
- Choose the next step to propose, with a fallback. For example: a working session with the wider team, or a scoped demo built around the problems discussed.
- Prepare the recap. A template to send within a day, written in the buyer's language, that they can forward internally.
Output format
# Discovery Plan: [Company] [Date] [Duration]
## Account snapshot
[5 lines, inferences marked]
## Attendees
| Name | Title | Measured on | Likely role in decision | What they care about |
## Hypotheses to test
1.
2.
## Agenda to propose
[3 to 4 lines]
## Question plan
### Current state
### Problem
### Impact (push for numbers)
### Desired state
### Urgency
### Decision process
## Proof to share if relevant
[one story, two or three capability points]
## Disqualify if
[triggers]
## Next step to ask for
Primary: [ ] Fallback: [ ]
## Recap email template
Subject: [ ]
- What we heard: [problem, impact in their words]
- What success looks like: [ ]
- Agreed next step: [who, what, when]
- Open questions: [ ]Quality checklist
- Research separates facts from inferences.
- Hypotheses are specific to this account, not generic pains.
- Questions follow current state, problem, impact, desired state, urgency, decision process.
- At least two questions ask the buyer to quantify impact.
- Decision process and budget are covered without interrogation.
- Pitch content is held until after the problem is clear.
- A primary and fallback next step are defined.
- A recap template in the buyer's language is included.
Common mistakes
- Pitching in minute five. Once you start presenting, the buyer stops telling you things.
- Interrogation by checklist. Firing qualification questions in a row feels like a form. Follow the thread of what they say.
- Accepting vague pain. "It is inefficient" is not a problem statement. Ask what that costs and who notices.
- Leaving decision process to the end and running out of time. Budget and approval questions need space; reserve the last third of the call.
- Only talking to the person who booked. Ask who else is affected and who would need to agree.
- Ending with "I will send some info." No committed next step means no deal momentum.
- Recaps in your language. The recap should quote the buyer's words so it travels inside their company.
Example prompts
- "Prep me for a discovery call tomorrow with the VP Sales and RevOps lead at a 300-person logistics software company."
- "Write a sequenced discovery question plan for a buyer who downloaded our pricing guide."
- "I have 30 minutes with a CFO. What should I ask and in what order?"
- "Give me hypotheses to test based on this company's recent hiring and funding news."
- "Draft a recap email template after a discovery call that my champion can forward."
Afficher le SKILL.md brut
---
name: discovery-call-prep
description: "Prepares a seller for a B2B discovery call: account and attendee research summary, working hypotheses about the problem, a sequenced question plan that moves from current state to impact to decision process, a call agenda, and a post-call recap template. Use before a first meeting, a re-discovery with a new stakeholder, or when calls keep ending without a clear next step."
license: MIT
metadata:
title: "Discovery Call Prep"
category: "sales"
author: "carolina"
summary: "Walk into discovery with researched hypotheses, a sequenced question plan, a crisp agenda and a recap template that secures the next step."
tags: "discovery call, sales questions, call prep, qualification, B2B sales"
version: "1.0"
updated: "2026-10-19"
---
# Discovery Call Prep
Produces a one-page call plan: what you already know, what you suspect, what you must learn, the questions that get you there in a natural order, and the next step you will ask for. Good discovery makes the buyer feel understood and gives you the facts to qualify or disqualify honestly.
## When to use
- Before a first call booked from inbound, outbound, or a referral.
- When a new stakeholder joins an existing deal and you need to re-run discovery for their perspective.
- When calls feel pleasant but end without a quantified problem or a committed next step.
- When coaching a new rep on how to run discovery.
## What you need
Ask the user for:
1. **Who:** company name, attendees with titles, and how the meeting was booked (what they asked for or replied to).
2. **What you sell** and the two or three problems it most often solves.
3. **Ideal customer** profile and typical buying committee.
4. **Known context:** CRM notes, previous conversations, website activity, any public news (funding, hiring, leadership change, expansion).
5. **Call length** and whether anyone else from your side will join.
6. **Qualification framework** your team uses, if any.
If research inputs are thin, say which hypotheses are guesses and need confirming early in the call.
## Process
1. **Summarise the account in five lines.** What they do, size, likely growth stage, recent triggers, and how they probably handle the problem today. Keep it factual; mark inferences as inferences.
2. **Profile each attendee.** Role, what they are measured on, what a bad quarter looks like for them, and their likely stake in this decision (user, influencer, budget holder, blocker).
3. **Write two or three hypotheses.** "Because they are hiring eight SDRs, they may be struggling to ramp new reps quickly." Hypotheses let you ask sharper questions and show you did your homework without lecturing.
4. **Plan the question sequence.** Move from easy to deep:
- Current state: how the process works today, who is involved, what tools and workarounds exist.
- Problem: where it breaks, how often, and who feels it.
- Impact: what it costs in time, money, risk, or missed targets. Ask for numbers and push gently for the buyer's own estimate.
- Desired state: what good looks like in the buyer's words, and how they would measure it.
- Urgency: why now, what happens if nothing changes for six months, any deadlines.
- Decision process: who else is involved, how they have bought similar things, what approval and procurement steps exist, budget situation.
Prepare eight to twelve core questions plus follow-ups. Sequence matters more than wording: impact questions land only after the problem is acknowledged.
5. **Prepare the opening.** A short agenda the buyer agrees to: purpose, what you will ask, what they will get (a view on whether you can help), and the outcome you suggest (agree whether a next step makes sense). Ask whether anything should be added.
6. **Plan what to share and when.** Prepare one relevant customer story and two or three capability points tied to your hypotheses. Hold them until the problem is clear; pitching early ends discovery.
7. **Define disqualification triggers.** What would tell you this is not a fit (no problem, no budget path, wrong segment)? Decide in advance so you can say so politely.
8. **Choose the next step to propose,** with a fallback. For example: a working session with the wider team, or a scoped demo built around the problems discussed.
9. **Prepare the recap.** A template to send within a day, written in the buyer's language, that they can forward internally.
## Output format
```
# Discovery Plan: [Company] [Date] [Duration]
## Account snapshot
[5 lines, inferences marked]
## Attendees
| Name | Title | Measured on | Likely role in decision | What they care about |
## Hypotheses to test
1.
2.
## Agenda to propose
[3 to 4 lines]
## Question plan
### Current state
### Problem
### Impact (push for numbers)
### Desired state
### Urgency
### Decision process
## Proof to share if relevant
[one story, two or three capability points]
## Disqualify if
[triggers]
## Next step to ask for
Primary: [ ] Fallback: [ ]
## Recap email template
Subject: [ ]
- What we heard: [problem, impact in their words]
- What success looks like: [ ]
- Agreed next step: [who, what, when]
- Open questions: [ ]
```
## Quality checklist
- Research separates facts from inferences.
- Hypotheses are specific to this account, not generic pains.
- Questions follow current state, problem, impact, desired state, urgency, decision process.
- At least two questions ask the buyer to quantify impact.
- Decision process and budget are covered without interrogation.
- Pitch content is held until after the problem is clear.
- A primary and fallback next step are defined.
- A recap template in the buyer's language is included.
## Common mistakes
- **Pitching in minute five.** Once you start presenting, the buyer stops telling you things.
- **Interrogation by checklist.** Firing qualification questions in a row feels like a form. Follow the thread of what they say.
- **Accepting vague pain.** "It is inefficient" is not a problem statement. Ask what that costs and who notices.
- **Leaving decision process to the end and running out of time.** Budget and approval questions need space; reserve the last third of the call.
- **Only talking to the person who booked.** Ask who else is affected and who would need to agree.
- **Ending with "I will send some info."** No committed next step means no deal momentum.
- **Recaps in your language.** The recap should quote the buyer's words so it travels inside their company.
## Example prompts
- "Prep me for a discovery call tomorrow with the VP Sales and RevOps lead at a 300-person logistics software company."
- "Write a sequenced discovery question plan for a buyer who downloaded our pricing guide."
- "I have 30 minutes with a CFO. What should I ask and in what order?"
- "Give me hypotheses to test based on this company's recent hiring and funding news."
- "Draft a recap email template after a discovery call that my champion can forward."
