Discovery Call: How It Works, What to Ask, and Sample Script
- Marc (TeamsWork)
- Jan 21
- 7 min read
Updated: Jan 22
A discovery call is often the first real conversation between you and a potential customer. It shapes how needs are understood, how relevant your follow-ups feel, and whether the conversation should move forward at all. This guide explains how a discovery call works, when you should make one, what to ask, and how to turn insights into meaningful next steps.
What Is a Discovery Call
A discovery call is an initial conversation where you focus on understanding a prospect’s situation before presenting any offer. Instead of pitching, you ask questions to uncover context, challenges, priorities, and expectations.
In many cases, a discovery call represents an early touchpoint in the customer journey map, where intent begins to take shape and assumptions can be validated early.
Is a Discovery Call Important
Yes, a discovery call is important because it prevents misalignment early in the process. Without discovery, you risk offering demos, pricing, or proposals that do not match what the prospect actually needs. Discovery calls also help you qualify whether a conversation should continue. This saves time, reduces friction, and leads to more relevant follow-ups.
When Should You Make a Discovery Call
You should make a discovery call when a prospect shows interest but their needs, urgency, or fit are still unclear. This usually happens before demos, pricing discussions, or proposals.
Discovery calls are especially useful:
After early lead generation efforts
When the request is vague or exploratory
When the deal involves multiple stakeholders
Within the sales funnel, discovery calls usually sit between initial interest and deeper solution discussions, often referred to as the mid-funnel stage. In longer sales cycle environments, discovery helps you align early and avoid rework later.
Discovery Call vs Sales Call
The main difference between a discovery call and a sales call is focus.
A discovery call is about understanding
A sales call is about presenting and persuading
During a discovery call, the prospect speaks more than you do, and success is measured by clarity. A sales call, on the other hand, is designed to move toward commitment and decision-making. Treating both as the same conversation often leads to rushed pitches and disengaged prospects.
What to Ask During a Discovery Call
During a discovery call, you should ask questions that help you understand:
The prospect’s context
Their problems and challenges
Their priorities and decision criteria
These question categories keep the conversation focused and prevent you from jumping to conclusions too early.
Questions to Understand the Prospect’s Context
Context questions establish how the prospect operates today. They help you understand current processes, constraints, and why the conversation is happening now. Use these questions to identify the baseline before discussing problems or priorities:
How are you handling this today?
What does your current process look like?
What prompted you to explore this now?
Questions to Identify Problems and Challenges
Problem-focused questions uncover what is not working and why it matters. The goal is to understand impact, not to diagnose or pitch. These questions reveal friction points that shape follow-up conversations and guide lead nurturing. Examples:
What has been most frustrating with the current approach?
Where do things slow down or break?
What happens if this issue stays unresolved?
Questions to Clarify Priorities and Decision Factors
Priority questions help you understand urgency, success criteria, and how decisions are made. This prevents misalignment on what actually matters. Use these questions to guide next steps and avoid focusing on low-impact issues:
Which challenge is most urgent right now?
What does success look like for you?
How will you decide whether to move forward?
5 Steps to Run a Discovery Call
Running a discovery call works best when you treat it as a connected process rather than a one-off conversation. These five steps outline how to prepare, guide the discussion, and carry insights forward after the call ends.
1. Prepare the Context and Objective
Before the call, you need clarity on who you are speaking with and why the conversation matters. This means reviewing any available background and deciding what information you need to learn. When the objective is clear, the call stays focused and avoids drifting into generic discussion.
2. Set Expectations and Open the Call
The way you open the call sets the tone for everything that follows. Briefly explain the purpose of the conversation and how you plan to use the time. Clear expectations help the prospect feel comfortable sharing openly instead of bracing for a pitch.
3. Ask Discovery Questions and Listen Actively
This is the core of the discovery call. Ask open-ended questions and give the prospect space to explain their situation in their own words. Listening closely, rather than rushing to respond, often reveals priorities and concerns that would otherwise stay hidden.
4. Align on Priorities and Next Steps
As insights emerge, it becomes important to clarify what matters most and what should happen next. Not every issue raised during the call deserves equal attention. Aligning on priorities and next steps ensures the conversation leads somewhere concrete instead of ending ambiguously.
5. Capture Insights for Follow-Up
The value of a discovery call depends on what you do after it ends. Document key insights while they are still fresh and use them to guide follow-ups and future conversations. When discovery insights are not captured properly, context is quickly lost.
A strong discovery call flows from preparation through follow-up, with each step reinforcing the next.
Common Mistakes in Discovery Calls
Most discovery call mistakes happen when the conversation loses focus or insights are not handled properly afterward. Here are common mistakes to avoid during a discovery call:
Talking more than listening, which limits what you learn about the prospect’s real needs
Asking vague or surface-level questions that fail to uncover context or impact
Turning the call into a sales pitch too early, before understanding fit and priorities
Skipping clarity on priorities or next steps, leaving the conversation without direction
Failing to document discovery insights, causing important details to be forgotten
A successful discovery call depends on focused listening, clear questions, and proper follow-through.
Sample Discovery Call Script
Sample 1: Short Discovery Call (15–20 minutes)
Use this when the prospect has limited time or when the call is an initial qualifier.
Opening
“Thanks for taking the time today. I’d like to understand your current situation and see whether it makes sense to continue the conversation.”
Context
“Can you walk me through how you’re handling this today?”
“What led you to explore this now?”
Challenges
“What’s been the most difficult part of the current setup?”
“Where do you feel things slow down the most?”
Priorities
“If you had to fix just one thing first, what would it be?”
“What would a good outcome look like for you?”
Close
“Based on what we discussed, I suggest we [next step]. Does that make sense?”
Sample 2: Deeper Discovery for Complex or B2B Sales
Use this when the deal involves multiple stakeholders or longer evaluation.
Opening
“The goal of this call is to understand how things work on your side today and what you’re trying to improve. I’ll ask a few questions, then we can decide on next steps.”
Context
“How is this process currently handled across your team?”
“Who’s usually involved when decisions like this are made?”
Challenges
“What’s causing the most friction right now?”
“How does that impact your team or results?”
Decision Factors
“What does success look like six months from now?”
“What needs to be true for you to feel confident moving forward?”
Close
“I’ll summarize what I heard and suggest a next step. Let me know if I miss anything.”
Full Discovery Call Script (End-to-End)
This is a complete script, written as a real conversation. You can use it as-is or adapt phrasing to your style.
Opening
“Thanks for joining today. The purpose of this call is to understand your current situation and see whether it makes sense to explore next steps together. I’ll ask a few questions, and we can decide how to proceed after. Does that work for you?”
Context Exploration
“To start, can you walk me through how you’re handling this today?”
“How long has this process been in place?”
“What prompted you to look into this now?”
Problem Identification
“What’s been the most frustrating part of the current approach?”
“Where do things usually break down or take longer than expected?”
“What happens if nothing changes in the next few months?”
Priority Clarification
“Out of everything we discussed, what feels most urgent right now?”
“What would improvement actually look like for you?”
“How do you usually evaluate whether something like this is working?”
Next Steps
“Based on what you shared, it sounds like the main priority is [summary]. Did I get that right?”
“If that’s the case, the next logical step would be [demo, follow-up call, internal review]. How does that sound?”
Close
“I’ll follow up with a summary of what we discussed and outline next steps. Thanks again for the conversation.”
How Discovery Call Insights are Used After the Call
A discovery call only creates value if you use the insights afterward. What you learn should guide follow-ups, qualification, and how future conversations are framed. Discovery insights directly support lead management by keeping context consistent instead of relying on memory or disconnected notes.
Tips to Make Discovery Calls More Effective Over Time
Discovery calls become more effective when you apply what you learn consistently, not just during the conversation. Here are practical tips to improve discovery calls over time:
Review past discovery notes before follow-ups, so conversations continue instead of restarting
Capture the same core insights after every call, such as challenges, priorities, and next steps
Use discovery insights to shape follow-up messages, not generic templates
Make discovery information easy to reference later, especially across multiple conversations
Discovery calls improve when insights are consistently captured, reused, and built on over time.
How CRM as a Service Supports Better Discovery Calls
Discovery calls produce information that directly affects how efficiently you can move opportunities forward. When details are scattered across documents and inboxes, you spend time searching, re-asking questions, and reconnecting information. This slows follow-ups and makes each next step harder than it should be.
As a Teams-native app, CRM as a Service helps you work more productively by keeping discovery insights inside Microsoft Teams. You can access key details instantly during chats and handoffs, reduce manual tracking, and keep everyone aligned without switching tools. With less friction in daily work, follow-ups happen faster and deals progress with fewer delays.
TeamsWork is a Microsoft Partner Network member, and their expertise lies in developing Productivity Apps that harness the power of the Microsoft Teams platform and its dynamic ecosystem. Their SaaS products, including CRM as a Service, Ticketing as a Service and Checklist as a Service, are highly acclaimed by users. Users love the user-friendly interface, seamless integration with Microsoft Teams, and affordable pricing plans. They take pride in developing innovative software solutions that enhance company productivity while being affordable for any budget.
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