discovery-call-prep

Discovery Call Prep Skill

Produces a complete discovery call brief — research summary, call hypothesis, structured questions, and success criteria — so every call starts with context and ends with a clear next step.

Required Inputs

• Prospect company name
• Contact name and role
• Any known context (how they found you, prior interaction)
• Your product/solution (one line)
• Call duration (15 / 30 / 45 / 60 min)

Output Structure

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Discovery Call Brief

Prospect: [Company] | Contact: [Name, Title] | Duration: [X min]

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Research Summary

• What they do: [Product/service, customer, business model]
• Size: [Headcount, revenue if public]
• Stage: [Startup / Scaleup / Enterprise]
• Recent news: [Funding, launches, leadership changes — last 90 days]
• Contact background: [Role tenure, previous companies, LinkedIn activity]
• Likely priorities for someone in this role: [Based on title and stage]

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Call Hypothesis

Before the call write your best guess:

• Their most likely pain: [What someone in this role at this company probably has]
• Why they would care about us: [Specific connection to your value]
• Biggest risk to the deal: [What might make this not a fit]

Write it down — then test it on the call.

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Call Agenda

"Here is what I was thinking for our [X] minutes:

• 2 min: Quick intros
• [X] min: Learn more about your situation
• [X] min: Share how we have helped similar companies
• 5 min: Next steps

Does that work? Anything specific you would like to cover?"

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Discovery Questions

Open with context (not a pitch):

• "What prompted you to take this call today?"
• "What does [relevant area] look like for you at the moment?"

Go deeper on pain:

• "How long has [problem] been an issue?"
• "What have you tried to solve it?"
• "What is the impact of not solving this?"

Understand buying context:

• "Who else would be involved in a decision like this?"
• "Have you looked at other solutions?"
• "Is there a reason you are exploring this now?"

Qualify on budget:

• "Have you set aside budget for this kind of initiative?"

Close discovery:

• "Based on what you have told me, it sounds like [summary]. Is that right?"

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Success Criteria

This call is successful if we leave with:

• Understanding of specific pain and business impact
• Knowledge of buying process and key stakeholders
• A clear agreed next step (demo / proposal / intro)
• Sense of timeline

This call is NOT successful if we only pitched and got "sounds interesting, send me some info."

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Suggested Next Step

"Based on what we discussed, the logical next step would be [specific]. Does [day/time] work?"

Quality Checks

• [ ] Research summary includes recent news (last 90 days) — not just LinkedIn bio
• [ ] Call hypothesis is written before the call (not post-rationalised after)
• [ ] Discovery questions progress from context → pain → business impact → buying process
• [ ] Success criteria define what "not successful" looks like (not just the ideal outcome)
• [ ] A specific next step is proposed (not "let's stay in touch")

Anti-Patterns

• [ ] Do not write the call hypothesis after the call — hypotheses written post-hoc are rationalisations, not testable predictions
• [ ] Do not open with a product pitch before establishing the prospect's problem — leading with pitch signals you are not there to learn, which closes discovery conversations
• [ ] Do not use closed questions in the discovery phase ("Do you have this problem?") — they produce yes/no answers that confirm bias rather than reveal pain
• [ ] Do not skip the "not successful" definition in success criteria — a call that ends with "send me more info" feels like progress but is not a qualified next step
• [ ] Do not treat all prospect research equally — recent news (last 90 days) is more relevant to call context than static company facts from LinkedIn

Example Trigger Phrases

• "Prepare me for a discovery call with [company/contact]"
• "Build a call brief for my meeting with [name] at [company]"
• "What questions should I ask in a discovery call for [use case]?"