How to Run a Discovery Call That Leads to a Clear Yes or No

How do you run a discovery call?

You run a discovery call by agreeing the agenda in the first minute, then asking questions in a set order: their current situation, the real problem and what it is costing them, what a good result would look like, and how they make decisions. Listen far more than you talk. Summarize what you heard so they can correct you, then agree one specific next step before you hang up, or agree that it is not a fit. A discovery call is a diagnosis. The pitch, if there is one, comes after you understand the problem.

The most common mistake I see is treating the call as a presentation with a few questions bolted on. The prospect leaves having heard a lot about you and having said very little about themselves, and nobody knows what happens next.

What a discovery call is for

A discovery call answers three questions, for both sides. Is there a real problem here that I can solve? Is it important enough to solve now? And what would it take for this person to decide? If you finish the call with those answered, the call worked, whether the answer is yes or no.

• For the prospect: does this person understand my situation, and can they help?
• For you: is this a client you can get a real result for, at a price that works?
• For both: what happens next, and when?

If you are early and still landing your first clients, these calls are where most of the learning happens. [How to get your first 10 customers](/blog/how-to-get-your-first-10-customers) covers getting the conversations in the first place.

Prepare in ten minutes

You do not need an hour of research. You need enough context to skip the obvious questions and ask better ones.

1. Read what they told you when they booked: the form answers, the email, the message that started the conversation.
2. Look at their website and the offer they sell, so you know the business in their words.
3. Write down your best guess at their problem, and the two or three questions that would confirm or kill that guess.
4. Decide in advance what a good next step would be if it is a fit, such as a proposal, a paid audit, or a second call with the other decision maker.

The Situation-to-Decision call flow

Situation-to-Decision is the call structure I set up with clients who sell services. Each stage answers one question, and you do not move on until it is answered.

The summary in stage seven matters more than it looks. When you play their problem back in their own words and they say "yes, exactly," you have earned the right to suggest a solution. If they correct you, you just avoided pitching the wrong thing.

Questions to ask on a discovery call

Open questions get stories. Closed questions get one-word answers. Keep a short bank and pick the ones that fit the conversation instead of reading them in order.

• "Walk me through how this works today."
• "What made you look into this now, rather than six months ago?"
• "What have you already tried? What happened?"
• "If this stays the way it is for another year, what does that cost you?"
• "If we were talking again in three months and this had gone well, what would be different?"
• "Who else would need to be involved in a decision like this?"
• "How have you made decisions like this in the past?"
• "Is there anything that would stop you from moving forward even if this looked like a fit?"

That last question surfaces objections while you can still talk about them. [How to handle sales objections](/blog/how-to-handle-sales-objections) covers what to do with the answers.

Mistakes that sink discovery calls

• Pitching too early. The moment you start describing your solution, the prospect stops telling you about their problem.
• Accepting the first answer. The first problem a prospect names is often a symptom. Ask "what happens because of that?" until you reach the cause.
• Leading the witness. "So this is costing you a lot, right?" gets agreement, not information. Ask, then wait.
• Skipping the decision questions. Finding out at the proposal stage that a partner has to approve everything wastes weeks.
• Ending without a next step. "I will send something over" is not a next step. A date on both calendars is.

How to use Claude before and after the call

Claude is useful on both sides of the call. It should not be running the conversation, but it can make your prep sharper and your follow-up faster. Use the Claude desktop app.

1. Before the call: paste in their booking form answers and a description of their offer, and ask Claude for your likely problem hypotheses plus the open questions that would test each one.
2. After the call: if you recorded it with the prospect's permission, paste in the transcript or your notes and ask Claude to summarize their situation, problem, cost, desired result, and decision process, using only what they actually said.
3. Ask it to list anything you did not find out, such as an unknown decision maker or an unclear timeline, so you know what to ask next.
4. Ask for a short follow-up email that recaps what you heard in their words and confirms the agreed next step. Edit it so it sounds like you.

If the next step is a proposal, [how to write business proposals with AI](/blog/how-to-write-business-proposals-with-ai) shows how to turn your call notes into one. If your calls keep surfacing the same problem, that is a sign you could package it: [how to productize a service](/blog/how-to-productize-a-service) covers how.