Discovery Call Script Template

Opening (0–3 min)

Thanks for making time — before we dive in, I'll share what I'd love to cover, and I want to make sure it matches what you're hoping to get out of this call. Sound fair?

My plan: understand what's driving this conversation right now, what you've tried, who else is involved, and if it looks like a fit, agree on a clear next step. What would make this a good use of your 30 minutes?

Context questions (3–8 min) — ask everyone

• What prompted you to take this call now, versus six months ago?
• Who else on your team is feeling this, and how?
• What have you already tried to fix this?

Route from here based on their answer:

Branch A — Economic Buyer / Budget Holder

• What's this problem costing the business today, in dollars or lost opportunity?
• If you solved this, what changes at the P&L level?
• What's already budgeted for this category this year?
• Who else needs to sign off once we get to a number?

Branch B — Technical Evaluator / Champion

• Walk me through how this fits into your current stack.
• What are the non-negotiables for your evaluation criteria?
• Who owns the final technical sign-off?
• What's killed similar projects here before?

Branch C — End User / Day-to-Day Pain

• Walk me through what this actually looks like in your week.
• What's the workaround you're using today, and how much time does it eat?
• If this got fixed, what would you stop doing that you hate doing now?

Pain quantification (use in every branch)

• How often does this happen — daily, weekly, per deal?
• What's the cost of one instance of this going wrong?
• On a 1–10, how urgent is fixing this — what makes it that number and not lower?

Close (last 5 min)

Based on what you've shared, here's what I'm hearing: [restate pain, impact, and who's affected in their words]. Does that sound right, or am I missing something?

Here's what I'd suggest as a next step: [specific next step — demo, technical call, business case review] with [specific people] by [specific date]. Does that work, and is there anyone else who should be in the room?

Objection recovery

• "Just send me a deck": Happy to — it'll actually be more useful if I tailor it to [their stated pain] rather than send the generic version. Can I ask two quick questions first?
• "We're just looking": Totally fair — most people looking still have something specific that got them looking today. What was that for you?