Welcome to issue #74 ! Did someone forward this to you? If so, Subscribe here!

No matter your business, you’re inevitably doing at least one discovery call to begin your sales process where you must learn about your potential buyers, understand where they need the most help, uncover problems they might not know exist yet and decide if you are the ones who can help them best.

But, the question I always get is, “Am I doing these discovery calls well?”

Although there is no perfect way to run a discovery call there is a clear distinction between those who do these calls well and those who are leaving a lot of opportunity on the table.

Today, I’m going to share four reasons why your deals go sideways during and after discovery calls and how to do it differently to stand out with your buyers.

Here are four major reasons I see deals fall flat and flounder after discovery calls. Recognize which ones are happening to you and they become much easier to tackle and improve.

Most founders go into discovery calls without a clear framework for how they want the call to flow or what outcome they're aiming for.

The first few minutes are small talk, which is fine, but then there's an awkward pivot and suddenly you're just asking whatever comes to mind.

I call it “checking boxes”.

Your collecting data to qualify them on fit and budget but you’re not actual discovering the problems that are causing them to look for a solution. And, even more than that, the issues that will have them make a decision.

Real discovery is about understanding their problem and the actual impact that problem is having on their organization.

When you go in without a plan, your “checklist” questions dry up after some time and you’re left transitioning to talking about yourself and your business.

We’ve all bought products and services. Some that cost a good chunk of change. Why did we make the purchase?

Because deep down, somewhere, there was value created for our life, our family, or our business.

Even if we couldn’t quantify it exactly to a dollar amount, it was a clear net win.

This is precisely the reason buyers don’t get back to you or can’t make a clear decision. It’s the reason 40-60% of deals end in a “no decision”.

They didn’t feel there was value created.

They might have been excited but nothing you talked about articulated their problems and tied it back to where you could help. So, they ask for a proposal or for you to follow-up in a few weeks.

That’s because they don’t want to tell you what is really on their mind.

…they don’t think you can help them.

Some calls end with great energy and momentum but fizzle out quickly when you say, “Get back to me after you reviewed the proposal” or “I’ll follow up soon.” It sounds nice and friendly but it also makes you lose control of the deal immediately.

Now you’re left “following up” or “checking in” endlessly to get their attention back.

The moment you leave without a confirmed date, (or, at worst, a detailed next step) you're chasing.

It doesn’t mean they won’t, it just means you’ve delayed the sales process unnecessarily and brought extra friction to it.

The majority of founders never send a follow-up email after the discovery call. The next time you email them is to “check-in”.

If you do send one, you're probably sending one that is too long. It's got the proposal, some notes, a few open questions and a "let me know what you think" at the bottom.

You haven’t given them a follow-up, you’ve given them homework.

I know you think you’re being helpful but that’s just dumping information on someone and letting them decipher on their own. Especially if you are lobbing a proposal over the fence before ever speaking about pricing or the partnership structure.

I know why you do it. Talking about money is scary so sending it over to them reactively seems like the right alternative.

But, they haven’t seen value yet and they might not know fully what you provide. You’re now making them do the work to figure it out.

Once again, you lose control and I promise you it does way more harm than good.

First, you have to have some guardrails around your calls.

It doesn’t mean you need to follow some script every time but it does mean you want to be in control from the start.

That involves knowing things like:

This way you can navigate the time you have together and make it impactful.

Here’s a simple way to create a structured sales call if you don’t have one.

It's called a discovery call for a reason. You're there to discover what's happening in their business, what problems exist, where they want to go and what success actually looks like for them.

Resist the urge to talk about your business. It doesn’t mean you can’t answer questions or share insights but you want to focus on their business problems for the majority of time.

At the end of the call, make sure you leave time to recap exactly what they said.

Walk through the three or four things you learned and confirm you captured it correctly.

Note any action items on both sides that need to be completed. (Ex: They have to check on something to inform pricing or you need to get them an answer on a question.)

ICYMI: Here are 12 questions to help you think through discovery differently.

If you did the first two correctly, a next step on the calendar should be an easy transition. You recapped their main problems and have an idea where you could help.

What needs to happen next to continue these discussions?

That’s your next step. Don’t overthink it.

Talk through it together and put a plan in place on why it makes sense for the next call and what will be accomplished on that call. Get a date locked in on the calendar and create action items that need to happen in between that next call.

Have you never set up another call at the end of your current one? Here’s the why and how to do that effectively.

You want to send a follow-up shortly after the call, but not any old follow-up.

It needs to be short and precise, and sent within 24 hours.

It recaps what you talked about, confirms the action items you both agreed to and states the next step that is already on the calendar.

That email keeps everyone aligned, closes the loop on anything that could fall through the cracks and signals to your buyer that working with you is going to feel organized and professional.

I call it the “Control Email”. Here’s how to write it properly.

When those four things are in place, the deal stays alive because there's real momentum behind it.

Everyone knows what comes next.

Nothing gets lost in translation.

And you show up as the guide your buyer is hoping for, not just another vendor making them figure it out on their own.

At the end of the day, you're not there to sell someone something. You're there to help them buy what they need for the problems they actually have.

In order to do that, you must understand the problems they have.

That doesn’t happen through collecting data on their business.

→ It’s done through understanding the impact it has on their business.

→ How it affects their team or them, personally.

→ What it’s costing them in dollars or time or morale.

→ What inefficiencies exist because of this problem.

And the list goes on.

Don’t be afraid to pull back the curtain and expose what’s actually happening to them day-to-day and the impact because of it.

The better and more consistently you do that, the better your conversations get.

And the better your conversations get, the more likely they understand the value partnering with someone like you can have on their organization.

That’s how you earn a next step and keep momentum with the partnership discussions.

Before your next discovery call, write one sentence for what you want the outcome of that call to be. The one thing you want to walk away knowing about this person's situation.

That single sentence will keep you anchored on them instead of defaulting to talking about yourself when your “checklist questions” run out.

Resist the urge to talk about yourself. Keep going back to the outcome goal. Keep digging.

Try it and let me know how it goes. I read every reply.

Need to get a quick W? Let me roast one of your sales calls so you can get immediate & actionable feedback to use on your very next call → Get Roasted Now

Want to build a repeatable sales foundation? Let’s see if the 90-day Sales Accelerator is right for you → Grab time to chat here