What is a Discovery Call, and Should They Be in Your Sales Process?

There's no one size fits all sales approach for any B2B sales organization. 

The customer's needs, timelines, decision-making process, budget, and many other factors play a role in identifying what works best.

With so many variables at play, it's crucial to have a sales process tailored to each unique situation. 

One way to kick off the sales process on the right foot is through a discovery call.

Discovery calls set the tone and direction of each customer's sales process, and in this piece, we'll cover just what they are and why they matter to any successful sales organization.

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What is a discovery call?

A discovery call is the initial meeting between a potential buyer and seller, typically lasting 15-60 minutes, depending on the complexity of the product and the customer's needs.

The discovery call is an opportunity for the salesperson to learn more about the customer's needs and pain points. In this meeting, a sales rep will ask a series of qualifying questions to determine whether there is a fit between what the customer needs and what the company can provide. In fact, the top performers listen more to their prospects during discovery calls.

While you will find a lot of new information throughout a discovery call, it should not be the first time you learn about your prospect's business. Before hopping on a call, review their website, social media accounts, and other resources. The more you know about the prospect going into the meeting, the more productive and valuable the conversation will be.

It's also important to keep in mind that any information provided by the customer during these meetings will help the sales rep craft a more customized and targeted sales pitch, reflecting their needs, timelines, budget, and so on. This information is typically sent back to the buyer in a summary or recap email.

Should discovery calls be in your sales process?

The answer to this question is yes, and many reasons exist.

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Using discovery calls to qualify the customer

Discovery calls are critical to any sales process because they allow you to qualify any leads inquiring about your products and services before spending valuable hours, if not days, trying to chase a deal that might not happen.

Using methods like BANT, SPIN, or MEDDPICC on discovery calls, it's easy to qualify your leads correctly and efficiently by finding the key stakeholders, budget, purchasing process, timelines, and more.

Investing the time upfront to have discovery calls will save your sales team time and energy in the long run, leading to a higher close rate and more efficient use of resources.

🎥 We recently hosted a webinar featuring Steve Reid, a sales growth expert who has scaled companies from $10m to $40m in just 18 months. He created his 7 Step Framework for Winning the Discovery to put the customer first and create a dialogue. Watch it here!

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Identifying pain points that your solution can solve

Uncovering pain points is one of the most noteworthy aspects of a discovery call.

Suppose you can identify and understand the customer's specific pain points. You can then position your product or service as the solution to address those needs by building the demo, presentation, or pitch in the next meeting around those discovery call insights.

Customers want to feel heard. They want to know that you understand their challenges and can provide value. By having discovery calls with your lead, you can collect this valuable information and use it to qualify the opportunity further and win the deal.

Finally, send customers a summary of all the key points for easy recap.

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Creating a collaborative roadmap for success

Whether speaking to a champion or an executive, discovery calls should result in next steps that are collaborative and agreed upon by both sides of the conversation.

If you're able to successfully establish what the prospect is looking for, their budget, as well as any other key buying signals, you can use this information to create a personalized roadmap for success that outlines a clear path toward becoming a customer.

Before the call ends, it's crucial to establish next steps and when they need to happen. This could be getting a meeting on the calendar for a demo of your product, sending over more information, scheduling a follow-up call with other stakeholders, or anything else that moves the sales process forward.

By having a defined next step, you can avoid confusion about what comes next in the sales process and keep the deal moving forward until it's ultimately closed.

In this case, you may want to introduce a mutual action plan or discovery document that can help structure the conversation and ensure both parties are on the same page at all times.

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To Recap

Implementing the discovery call into your sales process can help you close more deals by qualifying leads efficiently, building rapport and relationships, and creating a collaborative roadmap for success.

If you're unsure how to get started, consider using a discovery call script as a guide. You can ask many great discovery call questions to help uncover pain points, understand budgets, and qualify the opportunity further.

By taking the time to have discovery calls with your leads, you can set yourself up for success and close more business.

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The Recapped solution to document discovery calls and more

At Recapped, we provide customer collaborative software to manage the end-to-end sales cycle, including your discovery call. By documenting the entire sales process, including key data points revealed in the discovery call and other meetings, you and your customers can have a complete view of your sales pipeline and stay aligned.

To learn more and see a demo of our solution, visit https://www.recapped.io/demo today.