Daniel Gilmour

Qualifying Questions For Sales Discovery Calls

Qualifying questions in a sales discovery call are crucial. Over 50% of your prospects aren’t a suitable fit for your products or services, therefore if you don’t accurately qualify them during the discovery call, you’re wasting time and money.

The most crucial conversation you have during the sales process is without a doubt the discovery call.

Your relationship with the prospect will either be made or broken during the discovery call. This stage is essential to moving forward in the sales process and shows how all subsequent steps will go.

We’ll look at the proper questions for salespeople below that can help them distinguish between time-saving prospects and those who are good fits.

Qualifying Questions 1

What Is a Discovery Call?

A first interaction a sales representative has with a potential customer after they express an interest in a good or service is known as a discovery call.

The purpose of discovery calls is to gain a deeper comprehension of the prospect, their company, their problems, and their requirements. This call helps shape all future conversations and sets the tone for your relationship.

Finding out whether the prospect and your offering are a good fit is the goal of a sales discovery call. You aren’t wasting either of your time because your objective is to either qualify or break up with the prospect.

Qualifying Questions 2

30 Questions for the Discovery Call

The questions you pose will determine how productive and successful your discovery call is overall. Applying this, you can determine whether a prospect is a suitable fit for your product or service. 

These should be open-ended inquiries that concentrate on the prospect’s challenges, procedures, and objectives in relation to the good or service you are providing.

A successful sales discovery process is all covered by the questions that follow. Maybe every call won’t allow you to answer every question, and it may not even be necessary. But the important this is to get the key answers to qualify your customer. 

You can use the following queries to sort through relevant subjects and differentiate hot leads from time wasters.

Questions Discovery Calls 3

Recognizing the Team and the Prospect

  1. What are the typical daily tasks you perform in your position?
  2. For what measures are you accountable?
  3. How many people are in each of the many roles on your team?
  4. What does the procedure look like right now for your team?
  5. Why is your team unable to meet its objectives?

Knowledge of Business Issues

  1. What is the business issue that this solution is intended to address?
  2. How are you now dealing with this issue?
  3. How have you previously approached this issue’s solution?
  4. What difficulties did you run across in the past when attempting to overcome these issues?
  5. What’s motivating you right now to take action in this regard?

 

Maybe you should read How to Get Customers To Buy Your Product.

Questions Discovery Calls 4

Knowing the position of the competition

  1. What alternative solutions are you considering?
  2. What stage of the evaluation process are you at?
  3. In your opinion, how do we stack up against the alternatives you are considering?
  4. Has your business thought of or employed a comparable solution in the past? What transpired, if so?
  5. How well does your current approach match your objectives?
  6. What’s working and what’s not with your existing solution?

Knowing How to Make Decisions and When to Make Them

  1. What actions must you take in order to decide on and buy your preferred solution?
  2. Who else on your team needs to be a part of this procedure?
  3. What time frame do you have for making this choice?
  4. What kinds of deadlines are you juggling right now?
  5. When would you like to see a team solution put into practice?

Budget Understanding

  1. What is your procedure for obtaining funding for this project?
  2. Do you have a set spending plan?
  3. Who is in charge of the budget?
  4. Who makes choices regarding finances?

Recognizing Obstacles and Moving Forward

  1. Do you have any concerns preventing you from moving forward?
  2. Do you anticipate opposition to the solution from your coworkers?
  3. What aspects of our solution are you still unsure of?
  4. Do you have any further queries about this meeting that we didn’t cover?
  5. What are your plans for the following actions?

 

Even if there are many questions listed above, be specific and just choose the most crucial ones to ask. Don’t question your potential customers.

Make a list of the main topics you want to address during the discovery call before you start. Don’t ask too many questions; instead, keep your attention on these.

Budget, timing, and decision-making are the top 3 reasons deals fail, according to several research. That suggests that you take care of these problems as soon as possible.

What specific details about the possibility are you most interested in finding out? Continue with those and create a series.

Qualifying Questions 6

Tips To Consider During a Discovery Call

  • Identify yourself.
  • Establish a connection.
  • Specify your goals.
  • Locate the main problems.
  • Determine how your contact is affected by any pain points.
  • Find your best answer and explain it.
  • Be prepared for and deal with objections.
  • Recap the conversation.
  • Verify the next actions.

 

It’s important that you also know Sales Closing Techniques To Complete Deals.

Qualifying Questions 7

Review & Reflect: Take Away Something From Every Discovery Call

As was already mentioned, it’s critical to constantly reflect and get better. You should constantly be looking for methods to improve, much like with many parts of sales, like cold calling.

Record your discovery calls with authorization. This will enable you to identify factors that lead to confusion or ambiguity and employ strategies that produce the greatest results.

You can access the recordings to learn what worked well and what needs to be improved. You can take more detailed notes about the conversation as it is being recorded, which will help you during the remaining stages of the sale and in subsequent interactions.

The best thing you can do is bring up the conversation topics and pain issues raised during your discovery call the next time you speak with the prospect.

Make sure you have a solid process in place because your discovery call sets the tone for the remainder of your sales process.