A Guide to Discovery Calls: How to Successfully Close a Deal

What Are Discovery Calls? 

After you connect with a prospect, your first call will be considered the discovery call. During this time, you can ask your potential customer a few questions to get to know them and their needs concerning your product or service. 

For example, a potential client may contact you about your service. To ensure that your brand matches their needs and goals, you’ll need to know more about what they expect from you and whether they can get the desired results.

A Guide to Discovery Calls: How to Successfully Close a Deal 

1. Uncover your prospect’s problems

To ensure that you give your customer the best service, talk more in-depth about the issues they’re facing. This can include the cause of the problem, how often it reoccurs, and their main concerns. 

2. Ask the right questions

Focus on the current issue and avoid stretching the conversation to other topics. The right questions will always revolve around the center of the problem or make their way toward it. 

3. Stay conversational 

Keeping the tone conversational can help your customers feel more relaxed and answer better. Rather than pressuring them to leak information, make them feel they can trust you with the information they give you. 

4. Maintain the ideal talk-to-listen ratio

Getting interrupted constantly can ruin the flow of the conversation and make your clients feel like they can’t fully express themselves. It can cause them to hold out on valuable details of their problem, which can be harder to solve. 

5. Subtly add a small value 

Suggesting small recommendations to your clients can give them simple ways of remedying the issue. It can be helpful to them while being careful not to overwhelm them with multiple options. 

6. Repeat a few important factors

Reiterating key phrases from the conversation helps make your client feel they’re being paid attention to. These phrases should be major contributors to the idea discussed. 

7. Always clarify your understanding 

Assumptions won’t lead you anywhere. Rather than ending the conversation after your client explains their end, keep asking questions to get a full idea of the situation. 

8. Use assumptive selling tactics

After a great conversation with your client, create further exchanges as if they’re already buying your offer. The key is to be assertive enough to convince them, yet not too pushy that it can lead them away.

9. Provide a synopsis

Summaries help both parties fully realize whether you’re on the same page or not. Give a quick rundown of each major factor in your discussion, from the cause and known issues to the proposed solutions.

How to Set the Stage during Discovery Calls?     

Before the Call:

• Research about the company.

Get to know your prospect’s business in every aspect imaginable. Take a deeper look into their values and goals and see how their problems affect those checkpoints. It’ll help you better understand their needs and provide a solution to meet them.

• Have solid product knowledge.

Before you can help anyone else, you need to establish yourself as an expert in what you do. It starts with understanding the ins and outs of your products to see if they can be a compatible solution for your clients.

• Prepare discovery call questions.

Always have your questions ready before you initiate a call with your prospects. This will give you enough time to determine whether your queries are suitable for the client or not.

• Qualify the prospect.

Since your resources are limited, they won’t always be compatible with your clients. To ensure that you can effectively help them with their issues, you must determine if they qualify for your services.

• Set a time and date convenient for both parties.

Find out when it’s convenient for both parties to have a lengthy conversation about your client’s issues. It’ll give you enough time to prepare as you establish a goal and agenda.

During the Call:

• Ask more about the company.

You’ll clearly understand your client’s goals and values by getting them to elaborate more about what they do. It’ll help you get to know both the business and the client, which is essential for establishing a good relationship

• Know who you’re talking to.

Understanding someone is easier when you have a one-on-one conversation. Ask about the client’s position in the company and what they do. While you can always do your research, you can unlock more details when you lead the discussion.

• Ask about the problems encountered by the company.

Discuss the concerns in detail and why they are an issue for your client. This can help you empathize and better understand the problem.

• Know what solutions they’ve tried.

Being given the same advice repeatedly can be tedious and frustrating. Avoid making your clients go through this and ask for solutions they’ve already tried before you suggest new ones.

• Move the deal forward.

Once all the final details have been established, encourage your client to move the deal forward and check if everything is acceptable. It’ll help prevent major revisions to the plan and save both parties more time. 

Qualifying vs. Disqualifying Questions during Discovery Calls     

Qualifying and disqualifying questions both have a purpose during the discovery call.

Qualifying questions help uncover your client's needs and challenges, telling you which of your products can best address the situation. Asking these questions is also necessary since it’s the first part of the sales qualification process.

Here are some examples of qualifying questions:

• What are your goals?
• What are the problems you’re trying to solve?
• What’s the source of these problems?
• What’s your priority today?
• How do you envision a successful outcome?
• What’s keeping you from addressing these problems?

While qualifying questions help you understand your client and their needs, disqualifying questions eliminates other factors that may not be as important. These usually include deadlines, budgets, limitations, and many more details.

Here are some examples of disqualifying questions:

• What are the roadblocks to implementing the plan?
• Whose budget does the funding come from?
• What’s your timeline for implementation?
• What’s the approximate budget?
• Is the budget provider an “exclusive sponsor”?
• Are you flexible with other solutions?

Nail the Landing: Tips and Reminders on Closing a Deal

As a business owner, the goal is to help your clients get what they need according to the set expectations. But sometimes, doing this can be easier said than done, especially when you don’t know how to properly close a deal with a difficult caller. 

Approaching every prospect should be done with caution and careful consideration. Learn how to polish your discovery call approach with the right call center outsourcing service. Reach out to Select VoiceCom to learn more today.