The ultimate discovery call checklist

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Imagine walking into every sales discovery call with a five-point checklist based on analysis of hundreds of thousands of calls. Yeah. Kind of a big deal.

A: Great question. A discovery call is one the first—and most crucial—steps that comes after a lead is assigned to a sales rep. It’s an opportunity to meet each other, discuss pain points, business needs, and your company’s potential solution. Ideally, this is the first step on the journey toward a closed-won deal. 

Here’s the thing: discovery calls can be a little awkward. Redundant. Personalities might clash. The fit can feel off. But as we point out in The 7 Best Discovery Call Tips for Sales You’ll Ever Read, a discovery call can set the trajectory of a given deal. It can shape how reps present their solution, uncover scenarios for handling objections, and even reveal what negotiation leverage will (or won’t be) available at the end of the sales process. 

Ask any seasoned sales rep and they’ll tell you: gotta nail the discovery call. Which is what makes this discovery call checklist so valuable.

A: Discovery call checklist, cheat sheet—whatever you want to call it, this asset is designed to help sales reps structure, run, and objectively crush their discovery calls. The checklist comprises five essential elements of a successful discovery call—a proven formula, if you will. They are: 

Each element in the discovery call checklist is accompanied with additional context and data, which comes directly from our AI-assisted analysis of more than 500,000 sales discovery calls. It’s data-backed. It’s proven. And if, after reading this simple but powerful discovery call checklist, you print it out and pin it up for quick reference, we won’t tell anybody. Promise.

A: Yes. This discovery call checklist is designed to be a simple and handy reference for sales reps as they prepare for their calls. However, we did put our heads together to provide a few more best practices for sales calls. 

For one thing, sales reps would do well to ask more questions. Treat questions as a medium through which you tease out business needs, pain points, and even budget. 

Next, remember that nobody wants to be interrogated—especially business professionals with purchase intent. Space things out, pace the conversation a bit, and give space for rapport, trust, and storytelling to grow. This, of course, will require good communication and listening skills, two traits common to most successful salespeople. 

Successful sales people also address multiple problems during their discovery calls—not just the business problem their product or service can solve. Don’t just focus on one business problem you can solve. 

Finally, top sellers know to schedule their discovery calls for Monday afternoons. There’s just something about early-morning discovery calls later in the week that increase no-show rate.

A: That’s great news! And it’s one of the most underrated purposes of a discovery call. While your prospect is most certainly evaluating you, this is also your chance to qualify the prospect. Stick to our discovery call checklist and you’ll hang up the phone with a clear understanding of whether or not this deal is worth pursuing.