How to run the perfect Discovery Call

Most deals don’t fall apart at the close—they fall apart in the discovery call.

In this episode, we break down a step-by-step playbook for running the perfect discovery call—one that builds trust, uncovers real problems, and naturally leads to a sale without pressure.

You’ll learn why most discovery calls fail (and feel rushed or поверхностный), and how top performers take control by setting the right frame from the very start. We walk through exactly how to move beyond surface-level questions and into deeper, more meaningful conversations that reveal what’s really driving your prospect’s decisions.

We cover:

• How to fully understand your prospect’s current situation
• Why the first problem you hear is rarely the real one
• How to uncover the true impact of a problem (and build urgency)
• The role emotion plays in every buying decision
• How to define a clear, compelling future state
• How to qualify opportunities without making it feel like an interrogation
• And how to transition smoothly into the next steps without pitching too early

If you’ve ever felt like your deals stall, prospects go quiet, or you’re “doing everything right” but not closing—this episode will show you exactly what’s missing.

Key takeaway: When discovery is done right, the sale becomes a natural next step—not something you have to push.

🎧 Next episode: Sales in the age of AI

Welcome to the podcast!

Transcript

Why Discovery Calls Matter

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Hello again and welcome to another podcast. My name is Graeme Elliott from Salescraft Training, and today I'm going to take you through how to run the perfect discovery call. So, this is a step-by-step playbook for you to go through what I think is possibly the most important step in any sales process. So, if you were listening last time, I spoke about the importance of the discovery call, the qualification call, whatever you want to call it. And this is really important for a couple of reasons. One is that when you get this right, you are really, really clear right from the outset of what the key aspects are to nailing this sale. It's just laid out in front of you, and you then work those aspects. If you do it wrong, first of all, you don't have that information. And secondly, and this is where a lot of salespeople who are failing go wrong, they for they've they are fearful of qualifying prospects out. So, in other words, they're trying to find a way to sell to everybody, and this is a fatal mistake because it will kill your business ultimately. You need to be really clear on who your clients are, like your ideal clients, who you can sell to, and equally who your clients are not. Because if you recognize, and this is at this stage, we recognize that you're talking to somebody, and the penny drops, this is not a good fit for what you do. And at that point, you need to drop them. Okay, because as I've said before, you've had a limited amount of time every week, and that time needs to be spent as much as you possibly can with the people who are likely to buy from you. So that's what the purpose of this discovery call, this qualification call is. If you want to know more about these, please check out on the website. Um, the so I've got a course online, consultative selling. Please take a look because it goes through all of this stuff and an awful lot more, and you do it at your own pace. Anyway, enough of that. So, where do these calls go wrong? Well, poor salespeople, I'm gonna use that phrase because I think it's fair, uh, they're not discovery calls, they're just rush surface-level conversations where the salesperson is just waiting to pitch. They're not the the uh what they lit what they take from the client is absolutely minimal, and they completely waste this opportunity for the reasons I've already outlined. So, what we're gonna do in this podcast, I'm gonna give you step-by-step um instructions on how to run this call, and I'm gonna give you questions to ask. So, let's just jump into it. So, first of all, the very first mistake that um poor sales people make is they jump straight into questions, and that leads them into a pitch, and that's not what you want to do. So, if you're a good salesperson, a professional salesperson, you don't do that, you set the frame. So, what I mean by that is you will open up with a sentence along the lines of this, which is just so that we use this time. Well, uh typically on calls like this, I'll ask I'll ask you a few questions so that I can understand your situation. It just allows me to understand what's working, what isn't, and then so that I can get clear on what you're trying to achieve. Then if that all makes sense, we can explore what the next next steps could look like. Uh, does that sound okay to you? Uh, are you happy to go ahead that in that way? So, you know, um if somebody says no at that point, then you probably don't want them as a client anyway. But the important aspects to this, the reasons why this is so important, is that it does three things. You take control of the conversation, but by taking control, it doesn't mean you're dominating the conversation, but you are setting the parameters up to suit the outcome that you're looking for, which actually pretty much matches what the client is looking for, but they may not necessarily understand that because they're not doing it every day. You also reduce the pressure, and this is so important. You take the pressure right off. This is no longer the the client, remember, is probably waiting for you to just start pitching at them. And there's almost a sense of dread in some people of talking to a salesperson because they know this person's going to try and you know exploit them in some way, and clearly that isn't what we're trying to do here. So this is really, really important. And thirdly, you're positioning yourself as a professional and you're not someone who's just desperate or only focused on making the next sale. And again, we want them to feel that way because that's exactly where we're coming from. So, what we do next is to understand the current situation, and it's important, but don't stay shallow. This is another mistake that um a lot of salespeople make if they get to this stage. So, what we're looking for here is clarity. So the questioning might look something like this. Can you walk me through what you're currently doing? Uh what does your process look like right now? Who's involved in this? These are the kind of questions. But the important thing to remember is this is not an interrogation, this is an exploration, this is about curiosity. You want to be coming at this from a place of genuine curiosity. Because it's not only because that's really beneficial to you as well, to both you and the client, but it's also really important because the energy, and what I mean by that is the feeling that the client gets from you is in the right place. You're genuinely curious, and they will get that when you talk to them. You're not just looking for ways to pin them down. So it's this is about exploration, and some people call this an exploration call so they can get clear. And follow up everything. So your questions are going to be more like when they when they come to a certain thing, tell me more about that, or how long has that been the case? Or what made you choose that particular approach? Um, now one thing I will say on the words that you use on the questions, there is one word that I 100% recommend that you do not use, and that's the word why. And there's a very simple reason for that. When you use the word why at the beginning of a question, there's an element of criticism in there. And if that if if you haven't heard that, um think about how you react when somebody asks you why you did things a certain way. There's an ask there's a an aspect of that question that is critical of you making that choice. Now, you might have experienced that or you might not have done, but I will guarantee that at least some of your clients will react probably subconsciously, maybe even consciously, to the word why. So don't even go there, don't use it. Use what to what what took you to to configure the process this way, as an example, or how or that that kind of question. But basically, pick your words so that you are not using the word why. And the thing is, when you start thinking about that, you begin to realize how often you do use it. I certainly found that the first time I came across this. But it makes a huge difference when you switch and you stop using the word why. So that's the thing to remember. So at this stage, this is all about understanding the current situation and just getting a little bit clearer on what made them choose certain approaches, what were the the benefits to them. What we do in the next step is to identify the real problem. And again, this is where a lot of salespeople fail because they hear a problem and they just move on. What we need to do is dig dig deeper. And the the reason for doing this is that the first problem that we hear is rarely the real problem. Quite often the real problem is deeper. Now, in business to business, that may not be true. It just depends on what's going on. I would say business to consumer, it's much more likely to be true. And um so an example of this, and it's one I gave in the in the training, is if you are looking to buy a wig, not that I I don't know if many people do, I I've never thought about it, but um, if you're buying a wig, why does somebody buy a wig? Well, on the you know, the surface, the question on the surface uh problem is that they don't have any hair or their hair's limited and they want to have hair. But the real problem is what is what is the impact of not having hair, or what would be the benefit of having a wig? Well, this is likely to come down more to things like self-image, self-confidence, all that kind of thing. So particularly if somebody's lost their hair quite young, um that could lead to all sorts of um fears or doubts about themselves. The self-image suffers. But when you go into a wig maker, they're unlikely to go and say, Oh, yeah, I need this wig because I feel really terrible about myself and I don't feel like a you know complete or whatever it might be. You know, that it's an emotional, it's quite a sensitive emotional issue. So depending on what you're selling, this these may be the drivers. So again, probably more likely in business to consumer, but even in business to business, there are emotional issues there. So how do you go deeper on that? So to dig deeper, ask questions like uh what's not working as well as you'd like? Um, which uh what are the what are the things that are breaking down, or what's breaking down, what's frustrating you about, or you could even say that sounds like it might be frustrating. Uh, can you tell me more about that? And then go down one level from that. So, how is that a problem? How often does that happen? How long has this been an issue? So they've identified a problem, and then once they've identified it, you can dig down a little bit deeper. And all of these questions are important. You need to know how long it's been going on because this starts to tell you what's the urgency on this, or what's changed that has made them put time aside to have this conversation. So you need to really understand these things, and this is the purpose of this next set of problems. It's to begin to identify the real problem, and then we go a stage further by uncovering the impact. So I've already given you an example of that, but this is where we can really drive the sale forward because it's important to remember that the chances are people don't act on the problem, but they act on the impact of the problem. So um it let's say you've got a dripping tap at home. Well, that's a problem because it shouldn't be dripping. But if it's not dripping very often, or you you know it's not very much water, you might not be worried about it. But if it starts to drip more and more, as that increases, then you've got more of a you've the impact can be that you're paying more for your water, let's say, or you might have um localized flooding. So I actually had an issue with um a seal on a washing machine where I lived in one place and I could I found this water pooling overnight and I couldn't understand what it was. And it was simply because where I was living, um, with the mains water pressure, because at night people aren't using their taps, the actual pressure built up in the main. So if you think about it, in a water system, mainswater system, during the day, everybody hooked up to that system, or a lot of people are using water. Yeah, you know, they're flashing toilets or they're using taps or whatever. So there's water flowing through all the time. And that will lead to a drop in pressure overall in the system. And obviously, if everyone's using their tap at the same time, you'll get a bigger drop in pressure. However, at night, with very few people using their taps, you actually have an effective increase in pressure, and it was just enough to force water through the seal between the washing machine pipe and this tap. So sorry if we I veered off into plumbing, but this was the thing, you know, and I eventually solved it, but that was when it became a problem because I'm starting to get water appearing on the floor, and that's obviously not what I want. So, this is the kind of thing though, it's to just dive down a bit. So, to understand the impact, again, what you're asking is what is this costing you right now? How's this affecting the business? What happens if nothing changes? So, you these are the kind of questions, and just rephrase them to obviously suit your situation, but then you can personalize it. So, how does that impact you personally? What kind of pressure does this create? So, you're again genuinely curious, but you're built you're going down into the deeper levels of what this problem is uh creating or the impact that this problem is having, and that's what we want to come away with at this point. The next stage is to tap into emotion. So, this is another area where a lot of salespeople at this point won't even get this far anyway, but if they do get to this point, they then disappear because they just don't understand the importance of the emotional aspect of a sale, and particularly when you get into business to business, because we don't tend to think often as these having an emotional driver to them, but as I've um clarified in other podcasts, um that there is definitely an emotional aspect there, so we need to remember that. So, facts are not what are going to likely closure deal, but the emotion is definitely it if there's an emotional driver, which as I've said, there probably is that will is where you need to close the deal. So, what you're looking for are things like frustration for stress, maybe missed opportunities where they could have resolved it and they didn't. Uh, ambition. If someone's ambitious, let's say in their career, and by solving this big issue, that's gonna look really great on their resume. Uh, that's an emotional driver. So it's important to understand these things. So we can lean into that emotion by being genuinely curious. Uh, we're not faking empathy at this point. You you can't fake it, people will find that. So be genuinely curious. So, again, you're using phrases like that sounds frustrating. How are you dealing with that? Or what's the most challenging part of that for you? So you're making it, you're tying it back to them, or you could tie it back to their team. Um, that sounds frustrating. How's your team handling that at the moment? Uh, you know, use these kinds of things, but be generally curious, but tie it back to them personally because that's where you'll start to um uncover these emotional drivers. So, what we've been doing as we've been digging deeper is again, two things. We're getting much, much clearer on what the problem is, what the impact of that problem is, and what it is we have to solve, what it is we have to come up with as a solution. But we're really getting clear on where the pain is for this person, and we're stacking the pain a little bit. So the more we get them to talk about what the issues are and where the pain points are, the more they're tuning into that. So the pain becomes worse and worse. And we can also explore that further by asking so what what happens if you can't solve this, or in the next three months, if you still haven't solved it, what's the outcome? That's another way of stacking that pain even further. Because presumably, if it's if it's a problem and they've hit a point where they've been driven to action, if they don't do anything, that problem's going to get a lot worse. So we really want to get them to feel that pain and be clear about that pain because the next stage is where we define the outcome. So this is where we shift forward. And here we're doing two things. One is we need to get clear on what their expectations are, and then once we've done that, we position our solution as the bridge between now where all the pain is and the future where the pleasure is, if you like, for one of a better um expression. And the reason for stacking the pain is that as human beings tend to be much more motivated by pain than pleasure. So, in other words, we're much more likely to do something when the current situation becomes so unbearable that we can't stand it anymore, than we are if someone said, Well, if I give you this, this would be brilliant and lovely and all of that. But we tend to sit with the status quo unless it gets really uncomfortable. So that's just understanding the basic psychology of it, and that's why this is really important, this whole process of understanding the pain and then making sure the client is experiencing it as much as possible. So, what's the future state? So, we're just asking questions like what would success look like? That might be in three months, in six months, whatever it might be. If this was solved, uh, what would be different? And what's the ideal outcome for you here? So we want the client to state that so that we are very, very clear on what the outcome is that they are looking for. And if possible, we want to get some metrics around it. So, again, depending on what you're selling, let's say if you're looking at weight loss, that kind of thing. Um, you know, what's the outcome? Well, they want to lose 50 pounds. Yeah, um, is that feasible? They want to do it in three weeks, probably not. Um, but you know, we need to understand their outcomes and what their expectations are because they may need to adjust their expectations because they might not be realistic. Um, or if they are realistic, that I mean, if they are realistic, that's great because we can then seriously start looking at a program in the case of weight loss. Um, if it's if it's industrial, it might be a process. How long does it take to switch over from their current process to the new one, if it's an accounting system, for example, or it might involve machinery. So there's all these different factors, and obviously in your business, you'll be aware of what they are, and you'll be aware of what the timescales are and what the likely problems are. So these are things to explore as well. Because the fundamental thing you're doing here is you're having a conversation with these people, and this is what you mustn't lose sight of. So the next step is really important. We need to qualify it without pressure. So you need to understand how real this is. And again, it's not an interrogation, it's just conversation. And the questions you're asking here would include things like is this something you're actively looking to solve right now, or what's your timeline for making a decision or having the solution in place? Who else would be involved in that process? So what we're doing here is assessing the timeline. Do we need to take action now? Is the timeline realistic? Is there something we can introduce that might shorten the timeline? So, example, for example, it might be a price increase we know is coming up. It's you know, one that we can we can use. And also we need to know who the other stakeholders are. So, who else do we need to get on side before this is going to get signed off? So it's really important that we keep this conversational and it isn't a transaction. This is all conversation. So, what we do at this point, once we've completed that stage, is simply to summarize. And this is the only time we do this, we get to the end before we summarize. And you're using a statement something like from what you've said, it sounds like whatever the problem is, which is leading to whatever the impact is. Um that's your impact. So ideally, you're looking for the future state, the solution, and you want it, whatever the timeline is. Did I get that right? And obviously, you can put that together. Now, most of if you've done that properly, that that they'll say yes to that. Um, if you have if they get a no, then that means you've missed something. So you just go back and re-qualify it, or just get clarification. And then you'll just say something like, That's the case, it might make sense to explore how we can help. So, would you like to see what that could look like? So normally you will get a yes, and then you start setting up how you begin to move things forward. So that'll be specific steps moving forward, timelines who needs to be involved. So, remember, there's no pressure, there's no pitch, it's just alignment. So that's the process. So, running discovery properly, it's not pushing the sale. This is a conversation. So, a great discovery session is a conversation where you are asking good quality questions and you're listening. And when you get this right, you are very, very clear on what the outcome is, what the potential problems are, and how you need to start moving forward, who you need to be talking to. So, hopefully, you found that useful. That's it for this podcast. And next time, I'm gonna go back to something I have spoken about before, but I'm gonna revisit it, and it's why prospects lie. And part of it will be because you got this bit wrong, frankly. But um, we're just gonna get into that and how you um can get to the truth in sales conversations. So I hope you found that useful. Please give me a like and subscribe. You're welcome to add comments, ask questions, uh, please share. Um, I don't want to be a the best kept secret on the internet or in uh podcasts. And you can always buy me a coffee or subscribe to the podcast because that's really good as well. It allows me to keep these things going. So thanks again. Have a great day, and I'll speak to you next week. Bye for now.