What you'll get
- 10 copy-ready blocks
- Spreadsheet-ready
- 6 min read
- Call plan (five minutes before the call)
- Operations (day-to-day owner)
- Finance (budget owner)
- IT (technical evaluator)
- Procurement
- Executive sponsor
- and 4 more
How to use it
- Step 1: Fill in the call plan. Choose six questions from the person's function and one closing question.
- Step 2: Ask, then follow the answer. A good follow-up beats the next question on the list.
- Step 3: Write notes against the account, using the header in Part 4.
- Step 4: End every call with a named next person and a dated next step.
A discovery call in a large account is one of several. Its job is to learn what this person sees from where they sit, and who else you should hear from. Pick six questions for the function in front of you. Do not ask all 36.
Part 1: Call plan
Call plan (five minutes before the call)
Call plan (five minutes before the call)
Account: [company] Person: [name, title] Function: [ ]
What we already know (do not ask again): [ ]
What only this person can tell us: [ ]
Six questions chosen: [numbers]
Closing question: [ ]
What I will offer if it is useful to them: [one specific thing]Part 2: Questions by function
Operations (day-to-day owner)
Operations (day-to-day owner)
1. Walk me through what happens today when [process] runs. Where does it slow down?
2. What does a bad day look like, and how often does it happen?
3. What have you already tried, and what happened?
4. If this were fixed, what would your team stop doing?
5. Who notices first when it goes wrong: your team, another team or the customer?
6. What is planned for the next year that makes this harder or easier?Finance (budget owner)
Finance (budget owner)
7. How does [company] decide whether something like this is worth funding?
8. Which number would have to move for this to matter to you?
9. When is next year's budget set, and what is already committed?
10. Who else has to sign off above a certain amount, and what do they ask?
11. How have similar projects been judged afterwards?
12. What would make you say no, however good the case looked?IT (technical evaluator)
IT (technical evaluator)
13. Which systems would this sit beside, and which one is the system of record?
14. What does your review process look like for a new supplier?
15. What cannot change in the next 12 months because of other work?
16. Where does the data live, and who is responsible for it?
17. What went wrong the last time a tool was brought in from outside IT?
18. What would you need to see to be comfortable, and in what format?Procurement
Procurement
19. How does a purchase of this kind usually run: tender, pilot or direct?
20. What do you need from a new supplier before anything can be signed?
21. Which terms are fixed, and which are open to discussion?
22. How long does onboarding a supplier normally take?
23. Who do you take your brief from on this?
24. What makes a supplier easy to work with, from your side?Executive sponsor
Executive sponsor
25. Where does this sit among your priorities for the year?
26. What have you told the board or your leadership about it?
27. What would success look like in a year, in one sentence?
28. Who in your team will own it day to day?
29. What worries you about doing it, and about not doing it?
30. What would you want from us before you put your name to it?Users
Users
31. What takes longer than it should in your week?
32. Which workaround do you rely on that nobody planned?
33. What did the last new tool get wrong for you?
34. What would you not want to lose from how it works today?
35. Who do you ask when you are stuck?
36. If you could change one thing first, what would it be?Part 3: Closing questions
Four ways to end the call
Four ways to end the call
A. "Who else sees this differently from you, and should I hear from them?"
B. "If you were me, who would you speak to next, and may I say we talked?"
C. "What should I send you, and who else should receive it?"
D. "What would have to be true for a second conversation to be worth your time?"Part 4: Notes
Discovery notes header (paste into a spreadsheet)
Discovery notes header (paste into a spreadsheet)
Account Person Function Date In their words What surprised us Who else they named What we promised Next step Next step dateWorked example (illustrative, not a real company)
Illustrative example
Sam Carter of Quaywise, a warehouse-software seller, plans a first call with Marcus Lee, Head of IT Applications at "Northfield Logistics". Names are invented.
Call plan, filled in
ExampleCall plan, filled in
Account: Northfield Logistics Person: Marcus Lee, Head of IT Applications Function: IT
What we already know: second distribution centre opens in spring; Dana Whitfield suggested this call
What only this person can tell us: what can run beside the warehouse system, and how a review works
Six questions chosen: 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, and 6 from Operations
Closing question: B
What I will offer: a one-page summary of how the tool connects and what it storesFive mistakes to avoid
- Asking what you could have read. Company size, sites and systems named in public are homework.
- Running through the list. Six questions with follow-ups is a conversation. Thirty-six is a survey.
- Asking finance questions of an operations manager. They will guess, and you will write it down as fact.
- Pitching in the second half. Offer one useful thing and stop.
- Leaving without a name. Every call ends with who to speak to next.
Why this works on named accounts
On a lead list, discovery means qualifying one person: budget, authority, need, timing, next. In a named account you are not qualifying a person, you are learning a company, and each function holds a different part of the picture. Finance knows how money is approved. IT knows what cannot be touched. Operations knows what breaks on a bad day. Asked of the right person, six questions do more than thirty asked of whoever picked up. And every answer goes on the same account map, so the fourth conversation starts where the third one ended.
How account-based selling works →Common questions
How many questions should I ask on a discovery call?
Six prepared questions and one closing question are enough for 30 minutes, because the follow-ups take most of the time.
What is the best question to end a discovery call?
One that gives you the next person. Closing question B asks who they would speak to next and whether you may mention the call.
Should every stakeholder get the same discovery questions?
No. Each function knows a different part of how the company buys and works, so the questions change with the person's role.
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