Best Sales Discovery Questions in 2023

Sales teams usually put great efforts towards closing deals of all sizes. Effective sales discovery process plays a crucial role in closing. Different leads have different expectations, and sales discovery questions have to be aligned with the lead’s requirements. We’ve come up with a few best sales discovery questions to help sales teams understand how discovery questions can be in line with the requirements of any lead  

First things first, what is a sales discovery call and why does it matter? 

The sales discovery call is a sales rep’s very first call with a prospect. This call has critical significance in the sales process since it helps in building a long-lasting relationship and also in qualifying or disqualifying a prospect. So, it is essential to not make any mistakes during these sales calls. 

A sales discovery call can help enterprises recognize the pain points of their prospects to qualify/disqualify them. They think that sales discovery calls are pretty simple. All that the sales reps do is do a bit of background research, evaluate the prospects' website and LinkedIn profiles, and move ahead.

But in reality, sales discovery call is a multi-stage process. So, if you approach such a call with a discovery call script and prepare a set of relevant customer discovery questions, your chances of qualifying a lead are much better. 

Sales Discovery Process in B2B and B2C - A Step by Step Discussion 

The same sales discovery process doesn’t work for both B2B and B2C customers. When the target customers are different, discovery call questions are also different. We have tried to set up some context to understand the difference in detail.

Sales Discovery Process in B2B 

Step 1: Do a thorough research 

When you’re targeting a B2B prospect, conducting in-depth research is a must. Apart from your prospect’s official website, do look into their social media profiles, to understand their messaging, their target customers, positioning, their social footprint, and so on. 

The best kind of research is when you’re completely aware of your prospect’s background. During the discovery call, you won’t have any new questions to ask regarding their offerings. If the prospect realizes that you’ve researched them before getting into a discovery call, it would be an instant trust booster for them. 

Step 2: Identify their pain points 

The next challenge in a sales discovery call is to understand your prospects’ pain points. Know that businesses are not always aware of their pain points. So, you need to prepare a set of good customer discovery questions to guide them during this process. 

If you can help them identify their pain points and offer solutions for the same, nothing like it. This step is very important during any sales discovery call. 

Step 3: Offer an optimistic approach 

Now that you know the prospects’ pain points and have their attention, you need to remain as optimistic as possible. You need to make them feel that you have a solution for their pain points. Helping them with an optimistic approach can go a long way. 

Start describing your solutions and how they could benefit the prospects. Explain to them that these products and solutions can effectively help businesses to fulfil their goals. Also, don’t forget to mention the cost-benefit perspective. If your prospects believe that your solutions can help them gain maximum at minimum investment, the deal is most likely yours. 

Step 4: Offer the next recommendations 

Before hanging up, you need to offer some next-step recommendations to the prospects. This could be anything like signing up for a free demo and following up with emails. Also, don’t forget to thank the prospect for their valuable time, before concluding the discovery call. 

Sales Discovery Process in B2C

Step 1: Do your homework 

When you’re approaching a customer for the first time, you need to have enough information about them. Doing your homework is always mandatory to conduct a successful sales discovery call. To understand a customer and their perspective, you have to go through several platforms. 

You can check a target customer’s social media profiles like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. to understand who they follow, what interests them, and so on. In some cases, tracking a customer through different review portals can also help you understand their experiences with different competitors’ products and the gap you need to fill.  

Step 2: Be enthusiastic and build a rapport 

If you stay enthusiastic during your sales discovery call, you can easily close many sales deals. Try to maintain a positive attitude so that you sound believable and they can trust you with their problems. 

It is very important to build your rapport with the customer during the first call. Start with project discovery phase questions like where they went to school, where they grew up, and so on. Once the prospect starts opening up to you, go on to ask more specific questions. 

This strategy works a lot for B2C sales discovery calls as it builds a trust factor. 

Step 3: Ask and listen 

Step 4: Stick to the discovery call-template 

Create a discovery call script or template and stick to it throughout the call. This script should include all the questions that you’re expected to ask during a discovery call. These questions are mostly based on your research on a prospect and sticking to these questions can help you drive better results. In some companies, the senior sales reps create a discovery call-template so that the new joiners can follow the same template and modify the questions based on the prospects. 

Listed below are 30 sales discovery questions that can help your sales reps close the deals faster. 

30 Sales Discovery Questions

Planning to prepare your discovery call script? Don’t forget to add these questions: 

Break the ice with introductory questions 

You should start your discovery call with some easy introductory questions. These are helpful to break the ice with your prospect for the first time and build a great relationship with them. Here are a few: 

• 👋  How are you doing today? 
• 👨‍💻  What does a typical workday look like? 
• ⚖️Which metrics do you usually measure at your organisation? 
• 🏨Were there any significant changes in your business during the last year? 
  

Understand the prospects’ pain points 

Now that you have the basic information about your prospect, move on to the next set of questions to understand their pain points. Here’re a few questions through which you can understand the pain points of your customers: 

• 🥅 What are the goals that you’re looking to fulfill? 
• ⏱️ Is there a timeline to complete these goals? Is it approaching soon? 
• ✨ What challenges are you facing to fulfill these goals? 
• 🏴󠁭󠁣󠁳󠁯󠁿 Do you know the source of these challenges? 
• 👍 Are you happy with the existing solution? 
• 🧠 Do you have a potential solution in mind? 
• 🤑 Do you know what a successful outcome will be like? 
  

The Red Flag Questions 

It is always better to understand the red flags in advance. These can later stop a deal from qualifying. So ask these questions and make sure that you and your prospect are on the same page. 

• ⌛ Is there a deadline to solve the challenges you’re facing? 
• 🤫 Do you have a budget to resolve this issue? 
• 🚧 Any other significant roadblocks which are stopping you to solve this problem? 
• 🏃🏻‍♂️ Are you ready to make an investment in the solution yet? 

Amplify the pain points 

Can you amplify the pain points for your prospects? Use these project discovery phase questions to make the prospects realize what they’re missing out on: 

• 😶 Are you facing any financial loss due to this problem? If so, how much? 
• 😐 Have you lost any opportunities due to this problem? 
• 🤕Has your workflow productivity been affected due to this problem? 
• 🤧 What have been the consequences of this problem? 
• 😵 Do you have any plans yet to approach this problem? 
• 😨Does your team have enough resources and expertise to approach this problem? 
  

Offer a Solution and Plan the Next Steps 

Now that it is clear from the prospect that the problem is pretty big, you need to help them with proper solutions as the next step. Below are some questions to start with: 

• 🤝 When can we discuss this again? 
• ☝️ Are you the one responsible for selecting a vendor? 
• 🤞 Are there any criteria to collaborate with you as a vendor? 
• ✋ Can I help in easing this situation for you? 
• 🤏 Can this solution simplify your responsibilities? 
• 🤟Do you think this solution can fulfill your organizational goals? 
• 👉What is the most important factor for you among functionality, scalability, and price? 
• 👍Have you ever tried any similar solution before? What was your experience like? 
• 🙌 If I can tell you that I have a feasible solution to resolve this issue, what would I need to do to make this deal happen? 
  

Get Better Sales Insights with Salesken 

Are you looking for a tool that could offer you detailed insights within a sales call? Try Salesken. Our platform can break down each sales conversation between the reps and the prospects. It helps you gain a real-time approach to your sales pitch and evaluate the conversations for future strategy building. 

Salesken helps you ace the discovery calls at the first attempt. Build long-lasting relationships and with the help of our real-time sales assistant

Start your free demo today!