--- name: discovery-calling description: "Structure and execute discovery calls to uncover customer needs, pain points, business context, and buying process. Use when designing discovery frameworks, creating questioning guides, training reps on discovery skills, or building discovery scorecards. Triggers on phrases like 'discovery call', 'needs assessment', 'MEDDICC', 'BANT', 'SPIN selling', 'discovery framework', 'questioning guide', 'buyer pain points', 'buying committee', 'decision process', 'qualification framework'." --- # Discovery Calling & Needs Assessment Structure and execute high-impact discovery calls that uncover customer needs, business context, pain points, stakeholders, and decision processes using proven qualification frameworks. ## Workflow ### Phase 1: Pre-Call Preparation 1. **Research the prospect**: - Company profile: industry, size, revenue, growth stage - Recent news: funding, acquisitions, leadership changes, product launches - Technology stack: current tools, likely pain points, integration needs - Competitor intelligence: likely current vendor, switch triggers - Buyer profile: role, responsibilities, typical challenges at their level 2. **Define discovery objectives**: - Primary goals: qualify/Disqualify, uncover pain, map stakeholders, understand timeline - Key questions to answer: Is there a real need? Do they have budget? What's the timeline? - Success criteria: minimum information needed to advance opportunity 3. **Prepare discovery framework**: - Customize question guide based on prospect industry and role - Identify priority areas (not all prospects need the same depth everywhere) - Plan for different call lengths (15 min, 30 min, 60 min versions) ### Phase 2: Discovery Call Execution 1. **Call opening** (2-3 minutes): - Set agenda and confirm time commitment - Establish credibility (brief value proposition) - Set collaborative tone ("I want to make sure this is relevant for you") - Get permission to ask probing questions 2. **Context exploration** (5-10 minutes): - Current state: "Walk me through how you handle [process] today" - Team structure: "Who else is involved in this?" - Scale and scope: "How many people affected? How often does this happen?" - History: "Have you tried solving this before? What happened?" 3. **Pain and impact uncovering** (10-15 minutes): - Problem identification: "What's frustrating about the current approach?" - Quantify impact: "How does this affect revenue/time/productivity?" - Root cause probing: "Why hasn't this been solved yet?" - Emotional impact: "How does this affect your team's morale/day?" 4. **Solution fit assessment** (5-10 minutes): - Vision of success: "What would 'fixed' look like for you?" - Criteria: "What factors will drive your decision?" - Objection anticipation: "What would make you say no?" - Differentiation: "What's non-negotiable vs. nice-to-have?" 5. **Process and timeline** (5-10 minutes): - Decision process: "How do decisions like this get made at your company?" - Stakeholders: "Who else needs to be involved? What do they care about?" - Timeline: "When do you need this solved? What's driving the urgency?" - Next steps: "What would the next step look like if this is a fit?" ### Phase 3: Post-Call Qualification & Scoring 1. **Qualification framework scoring**: - MEDDICC assessment: Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, Champion, Competition - BANT check: Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline - Custom scoring: 1-5 per category, overall qualification score 2. **CRM documentation**: - Log call notes in structured format - Update opportunity stage and score - Set next steps with owner and deadline - Flag risks and blockers 3. **Next action planning**: - If qualified: schedule demo/proposal, involve technical team - If partially qualified: nurture, address objections, re-engage - If disqualified: recycle to marketing nurture, note reason ## Templates ### Discovery Questioning Guide ``` DISCOVERY CALL — Questioning Framework ======================================== Framework: [MEDDICC-enhanced] | Duration: [30 minutes] OPENING (2-3 min): "Thanks for making the time, [Name]. I'd love to learn about your current approach to [area] and understand if we might be a fit. I'm thinking about [X] minutes — does that work? I'll ask a lot of questions, and please feel free to push back if anything doesn't make sense." CONTEXT & CURRENT STATE (5-10 min): "Walk me through how your team currently handles [process/problem]." "Who's involved in this today? How is it organized?" "How long have you been doing it this way?" "What tools or systems support this process?" "How has this evolved over the past year?" [Listen actively, take notes, probe deeper on pain signals] PAIN & IMPACT (10-15 min): "What's working well? What's frustrating?" "When things go wrong, what's the impact? Can you give me a recent example?" "How does this affect [revenue/efficiency/customer experience/employee satisfaction]?" "If nothing changes over the next 6 months, what happens?" "What have you tried so far? Why didn't it stick?" [Probe for quantification: time, money, risk, opportunity cost] [Listen for emotional language — these are high-motivation signals] VISION OF SUCCESS (5-10 min): "What would 'solved' look like for you? Be specific." "What metrics would tell you this was successful?" "What features or capabilities are must-haves vs. nice-to-haves?" "What would make you say 'this wasn't worth it' after 6 months?" [Map their success criteria to your solution capabilities] DECISION PROCESS & STAKEHOLDERS (5 min): "How do decisions like this typically get made at [company]?" "Who else would need to be involved in evaluating a solution?" "What does each person on that team care about most?" "Have you gone through a process like this before? What was that like?" TIMELINE & URGENCY (3-5 min): "When do you need this resolved? What's driving that timeline?" "What happens if you don't solve this soon?" "Are there any upcoming events or changes that affect timing?" CLOSING & NEXT STEPS (2-3 min): "Based on what we've discussed, it sounds like [summarize key pain points]." "I'd recommend [next step: demo / technical deep-dive / stakeholder call]." "What would that look like from your side?" "When would be a good time for that?" [Confirm specific next step with date, time, participants] ``` ### MEDDICC Scorecard ``` MEDDICC QUALIFICATION SCORECARD ================================= Opportunity: [Acme Corp — Analytics Platform] Rep: [John Smith] | Date: [2025-01-15] SCORING: 5 = Fully understood / 3 = Partially understood / 1 = Unknown ┌────────────────────────┬────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┐ │ METRICS │ 4 │ "We lose 40 hours/week on manual │ │ │ │ reporting. That's ~$200K/yr in │ │ │ │ wasted capacity." │ │ │ │ Risk metric: compliance exposure │ ├────────────────────────┼────────┼──────────────────────────────────────┤ │ ECONOMIC BUYER │ 3 │ VP of Ops (Jane Smith) has budget │ │ │ │ authority. Not met yet — need intro. │ │ │ │ CTO is technical champion. │ ├────────────────────────┼────────┼──────────────────────────────────────┤ │ DECISION CRITERIA │ 4 │ Must integrate with existing BI │ │ │ │ stack. Compliance certifications │ │ │ │ required. ROI within 12 months. │ │ │ │ Nice-to-have: mobile access. │ ├────────────────────────┼────────┼──────────────────────────────────────┤ │ DECISION PROCESS │ 3 │ 1. Vendor shortlist → 2. Demo │ │ │ │ round → 3. Reference checks │ │ │ │ → 4. Legal/security review │ │ │ │ → 5. Final decision (Q2 target) │ │ │ │ Timeline: ~8-10 weeks │ ├────────────────────────┼────────┼──────────────────────────────────────┤ │ IDENTIFY PAIN │ 5 │ Clear, quantified, urgent. │ │ │ │ "This is keeping our VP up at night." │ │ │ │ Multiple stakeholders affected. │ ├────────────────────────┼────────┼──────────────────────────────────────┤ │ CHAMPION │ 4 │ Director of Analytics (Mike) is │ │ │ │ actively advocating. Has internal │ │ │ │ influence. Willing to do demos. │ │ │ │ Needs: talking points for VP. │ ├────────────────────────┼────────┼──────────────────────────────────────┤ │ COMPETITION │ 3 │ Currently using: in-house solution │ │ │ │ Also evaluating: Competitor X │ │ │ │ Status quo is strongest competitor │ │ │ │ Our edge: integration, speed │ └────────────────────────┴────────┴──────────────────────────────────────┘ OVERALL MEDDICC SCORE: 3.4/5.0 — QUALIFIED ⚠ Strengths: Metrics (clear), Pain (urgent), Champion (active) Gaps: Economic buyer not met, decision process partially known Risk: Status quo is strong competitor — need to quantify pain of inaction RECOMMENDATION: ADVANCE to demo stage Next step: Schedule demo with Jane Smith (VP of Ops) Owner: John Smith | Deadline: 2025-01-22 Prerequisite: Get Mike (champion) to brief Jane before demo ``` ## Integration Points - **CRM**: Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive (opportunity tracking, notes) - **Sales intelligence**: ZoomInfo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Lusha (prospect research) - **Call recording**: Gong, Chorus, Fireflies (conversation intelligence) - **CPQ**: Salesforce CPQ, PandaDoc (proposal generation) - **Scheduling**: Calendly, Chili Piper, Savvy Cal (next step booking) - **Email**: Outreach, SalesLoft, Yesware (follow-up sequences) - **Video**: Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams (virtual discovery calls) - **Analytics**: Tableau, Power BI (discovery quality metrics, win rates) ## Edge Cases | Scenario | Handling | |----------|----------| | Prospect unresponsive during discovery | Pause, summarize what you know, ask permission to pivot; offer to continue via email | | Discovery reveals no real pain | Respectfully disqualify; explain why; add to nurture; note for future re-engagement | | Stakeholder has no decision authority | Identify and map to economic buyer; position as "helping me prepare for your boss" | | Prospect compares to competitor directly | Acknowledge competitor; ask for criteria; differentiate on specific pain points | | Discovery call runs over time | Respect boundary; summarize; schedule follow-up for remaining topics | | Technical buyer vs. business buyer different needs | Tailor questions; document both sets of criteria; involve appropriate internal resources | | Prospect shares confidential/sensitive information | Acknowledge trust; confirm confidentiality; document securely; don't over-share internally | | Multiple stakeholders on call with conflicting views | Acknowledge differences; seek common ground; identify whose criteria matters most | ## Output ### Discovery Quality Dashboard ``` DISCOVERY CALL QUALITY — Team Performance ========================================== Period: January 2025 | Total Discovery Calls: 187 DISCOVERY COMPLETION RATE: Full discovery completed: 142/187 (75.9%) █████████████████████████░░░ Partial discovery: 31/187 (16.6%) Incomplete/failed: 14/187 (7.5%) MEDDICC AVERAGES (per qualified opportunity): Metrics: 3.8/5.0 [█████████████████████████░░░░] Strong Economic Buyer: 3.2/5.0 [█████████████████████░░░░░░░░] Needs attention Decision Criteria: 3.5/5.0 [███████████████████████░░░░░░] Good Decision Process: 3.3/5.0 [██████████████████████░░░░░░░] Good Identify Pain: 4.1/5.0 [█████████████████████████████░░] Strong Champion: 3.6/5.0 [████████████████████████░░░░░░] Good Competition: 3.0/5.0 [█████████████████████░░░░░░░░░] Below target DISCOVERY → CONVERSION FUNNEL: Discovery calls: 187 Qualified (MEDDICC ≥ 3.5): 112 [59.9%] Advanced to demo: 89 [79.5% of qualified] Proposal sent: 56 [62.9% of demos] Won: 23 [41.1% of proposals] TOP REP PERFORMANCE: 1. Sarah Chen — 28 calls | 78% complete | MEDDICC avg: 4.1 | Win rate: 48% 2. Tom Rivera — 24 calls | 75% complete | MEDDICC avg: 3.9 | Win rate: 42% 3. Lisa Park — 22 calls | 82% complete | MEDDICC avg: 3.7 | Win rate: 39% COACHING ALERTS: ⚠ 3 reps with MEDDICC score < 3.0 (below minimum) ⚠ Economic Buyer discovery avg (3.2) below target (3.5) ✓ Identify Pain scores strong across team (4.1) ✓ 12 calls flagged as "excellent discovery" — shared as best practices DISCOVERY CALL METRICS: Avg call length: 28.4 minutes (target: 30 minutes) Avg questions asked: 24 (target: 20-30) Talk-to-listen ratio: 35:65 (target: < 40:60) ✓ Next step confirmed: 91.4% (target: > 90%) ✓ ```