How to run a discovery call

After weeks of outreach, someone finally said yes to a call. This guide shows how to run a discovery call: book it within two days, ask 12 questions about their problem, say your price, and leave with a dated next step. Most founders spend the call showing their product, hear "sounds great, send me something", send it, and never hear back.

Do these three things

About 45 minutes a call, with the preparation and the recap. Keep your outreach going so the calls keep coming, and judge your calls after 20, not after 3.

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1. 1Today: make a free booking page with 20-minute slots and two questions, and write a one-page call sheet with 12 questions about the buyer's problem and 4 checks that tell you if they fit.
2. 2Every day: hold every discovery call you can book, within 2 days of the yes. Let them talk more than half the call, say your price, book a dated next step before you hang up, and send the recap within 24 hours.
3. 3Every Sunday: count calls booked, held, fit, next steps and wins in one sheet. After 20 calls, fix the first step where most calls stop.

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1. Book every discovery call within two days and send the agenda

Reply to every yes the same day with two times in the next two days and a booking link. Then send a short agenda, and a reminder on the morning of the call. A call booked a week away is a call that often does not happen.

The yes comes from your outreach: a reply to one of your 100 daily personal messages, a LinkedIn conversation, a phone call or an enquiry from your site. Answer it the same day, in the same thread. Do not send only a link: give two real times first, so they can answer with one word.

Set up the booking page once:

1. 1

   Make the booking page

   In Google Calendar, click Create, then Appointment schedule. Set 20-minute slots, add a 10-minute buffer after each one, and pick the hours you keep for calls. Click Next, then Save. It is free with any Google account. Many founders keep calls to the afternoon, so the mornings stay for outreach. Cal.com's free plan works the same way if you prefer it.

2. 2

   Add two questions to the booking form

   "What made you want to talk now?" and "What is your website?" The first gives you the reason for the call. The second is what you read when you prepare.

3. 3

   Keep the call to the time you asked for

   Most outreach messages ask for 15 or 20 minutes. 20 is enough for 12 questions if you do not pitch. If they want to keep talking, ask before you run over.

When they book, send the confirmation below. On the morning of the call, send one line: "Still good for 2pm? Here's the link: [link]." Do not count on the booking tool to send it. Write it yourself. It takes 30 seconds.

Subject: Our call on [day]: 3 thingsHi [first name],Thanks for booking. Here's what I'd like to cover in our [20] minutes:
How you handle [the problem] today, and what it costs you.
Whether what I do fits. I'll tell you straight if it doesn't.
If it fits, what a next step would look like.
If someone else would have a say in this, they are welcome to join.[Your name]
[Call link]

• Tool: Google Calendar's appointment schedule (free), Gmail and a Google Meet link.
• Time: 30 minutes to set up, then 3 minutes for each booking.
• You will have: a booking page, a confirmation you can send in a minute, and every call booked within 2 days of the yes.
• It worked if: at least 8 of every 10 booked calls happen. If fewer do, book closer to the yes and always send the morning reminder.
• Common mistake: booking the call for next week because your calendar looks full. Interest fades in days. The other mistake is a long agenda. Three lines are enough.

2. Prepare for 10 minutes before each discovery call

Spend 10 minutes before every call on their website, their LinkedIn and their answer on the booking form. Write three guesses about their problem on your call sheet. You go in knowing what to ask, and you never ask what their company does.

Buyers now come to the first call with most of their research done. In 6sense's 2025 survey of nearly 4,000 business buyers, they first spoke to a seller about 61% of the way through their buying journey, and the seller they spoke to first won about 8 in 10 deals. "So what does your company do?" tells them you did not look.

Paste their homepage text and their booking answer into ChatGPT or Claude. Ask for a 5-line summary: what they sell, to whom, how big they look, and what might be going wrong for them with the problem you fix. Then write your three guesses in your own words on the call sheet. Check anything the AI says against their site. It guesses too.

Name | Company | Role | Date
How they found us:
Their reason for the call (booking form):
Guess 1 about their problem:
Guess 2:
Guess 3:
The one thing I most need to learn on this call:

• Tool: their website and LinkedIn, ChatGPT or Claude, and your call sheet in Google Docs or Sheets.
• Time: 10 minutes a call.
• You will have: a call sheet with the top filled in before every call.
• It worked if: you can say your three guesses out loud in 20 seconds, and at least one of them comes up on the call.
• Common mistake: spending an hour on research. Ten minutes is enough. The call is where you learn the rest.

3. Start the discovery call with the time, the goal and a question about recording

Open every call the same way: thank them, check the time, say what you will cover, ask if you may record, and ask how they found you. It takes 2 minutes, and both of you know where the call is going.

Ask before you record, every time. In 12 US states, including California, Florida and Illinois, everyone on a call must agree to a recording, and when the two of you are in different places, the stricter rule usually applies. If they say no, take notes by hand.

A recording is worth asking for. Fathom's free plan records and transcribes calls on Zoom, Google Meet and Teams with no limit, and gives full AI summaries for the first 5 calls a month. You need the transcript for step 6 and step 7. A free Google Meet call between two people can run for up to 24 hours; with 3 or more people, it stops at 60 minutes.

Thanks for making the time, [first name]. We have [20] minutes. Does that still work?Here's what I'd suggest. I'd like to ask about [the problem] and how you handle it today. Then, if it sounds like I can help, I'll tell you how I'd do it and what it costs. At the end we decide together if a next step makes sense, and it's completely fine if it doesn't.Is it OK if I record this, so I can listen instead of taking notes?Before we start: how did you find us?

"How did you find us?" is self-reported attribution. Write the answer on your sheet, then in your CRM if you use one. It is how you learn which channel brings deals, and whether people now find you through ChatGPT.

• Tool: Google Meet or Zoom, and Fathom's free plan.
• Time: 2 minutes.
• You will have: an agreed plan for the call, a yes or no on recording, and where they found you.
• It worked if: they say yes to the plan in the first 2 minutes, and their source is on your sheet.
• Common mistake: opening with 10 minutes about your company, your story and your clients. They booked the call to talk about their problem. Your story can wait until they ask. If you are a technical founder who dreads this part, read the opening word for word until it feels normal.

4. Ask 12 questions about their problem and let them talk more than half the call

Ask 12 questions about their problem: what happens today, the last time it went wrong, what it cost, why now, and who decides. Spread them through the call, and ask "What happened then?" after each answer. Do not show or explain your product until they have described the problem.

The questions follow the order buyers think in. A sales training firm, Winning by Design, calls it SPICED: the situation, the pain, its impact, the critical event (a date that forces a decision) and how the decision gets made. You do not need the name. You need the questions.

Today
What made you want to talk now?
How do you handle [the problem] today? Walk me through it.
What have you looked at or tried already? What did you like and not like about it?
The last time
4. Tell me about the last time [the problem] happened. What happened?
5. How often does that happen?What it costs
6. What did it cost you: time, money or customers?
7. What happens if nothing changes in the next 3 months?Why now
8. Is there a date or event this needs to be ready for?Who decides
9. Who else would have a say in this? What will they want to know?
10. What have you paid for something like this before?
11. How do you usually buy something like this: card, invoice or contract?
12. If this works, what would you need to see to get started?

Questions 4 to 6 matter most. "The last time" gets you a real story, not a polite guess about the future. That is the rule from customer interviews, and it holds on a sales call too. When they give you a number, write it down in their words: "We lose about 40 trials a month."

How much to talk. Gong studied 326,000 sales calls in 2025. On average, sellers talked 60% of the time. On deals they won, they talked 57%; on deals they lost, 62%. Those were all kinds of sales calls, not only discovery calls. On a discovery call you mostly ask, so aim to talk less than half. Gong also found that sellers who won asked 15 to 16 questions, and those who lost asked about 20. An older Gong study of discovery calls, first published in 2017, found the best results at 11 to 14 targeted questions, spread through the call. 12 good questions with follow-ups beat 20 in a row.

When to talk about your product. Only after question 8, and only about the part that fixes the problem they named. If they ask "How does yours work?" earlier, answer in two sentences and come back: "I'll show you properly in a minute. Can I ask one more thing first?" If they want to see the product, book a demo as the next step instead of turning this call into one.

Note the tools they named in question 3. It is the cheapest competitor research you will ever do, and their words for the problem belong in your cold emails and your homepage headline.

If you run a B2B business: ask question 9 early if the person on the call is not the owner or the head of the team. If more than two people have to agree, see how to sell to bigger companies. If they mention a formal tender, ask for the date it opens: that is a different job, responding to an RFP.

If you run an agency: ask "Who did this for you before, and what happened?" after question 3. Their answer tells you what they will check you for. Ask also what exactly they want done each month. A scope you never asked about is how an agency ends up doing $4,000 of work for $2,000, so write their list down for your scope of work.

If you run a D2C brand: your discovery calls are with shop buyers, distributors and companies that want to order in bulk. Swap questions 10 to 12 for: "How many units would a first order be?", "What margin do you need on a product like this?" and "When do you next choose new products?" More on getting into shops.

• Tool: your call sheet with the 12 questions, and the Fathom transcript.
• Time: about 15 minutes of the call.
• You will have: their problem, what it costs and their date, written in their own words.
• It worked if: you talked less than half the call, asked 11 to 16 questions, and your sheet has a number for the cost and a date. Check the talk share after the call: paste the transcript into ChatGPT or Claude and ask what share of the words each person spoke.
• Common mistake: pitching the moment they mention a problem. The call turns into a presentation, and you leave without knowing what it costs them. The other mistake is reading all 12 questions like a form, one after another.

5. Check if they fit and say your price before the call ends

Before the last 5 minutes, check four things on your sheet: a problem that costs them, a date, the person who decides, and a price they can live with. Then say your price out loud. A buyer who hears the price first in a proposal a week later is the one who goes quiet.

The four checks:

1. The problem costs them. It happened in the last 3 months, and they can say what it cost.
2. There is a date. A launch, a season, a funding round, a contract ending. No date usually means no decision.
3. The person who decides is on the call, or will join the next step.
4. The price is OK. They did not say no to your range.

The rule: 3 or 4 ticks, they fit, so book the next step (step 6). 2 or fewer, say so: "From what you've told me, I don't think I'm the right fit yet, because [reason]. Can I check back in 3 months?" Then ask if they know one person who has the problem now. Most first clients come from introductions like this. An honest no saves you a proposal nobody reads, and it often gets you an introduction.

Say the price before the call ends, whatever the ticks say. Use the sentence from your pricing work:

For [a company like yours / an order like yours], most [clients / orders] are between $[low] and $[high]. For you I'd start with [option], which is $[price] [a month / in total]. Does that fit what you had in mind?

Then stop talking and wait for the answer. If they say "That's more than we thought", ask "More than what?" Their answer tells you whether to offer the smaller option or to show the value again, using the cost they gave you in step 4.

If you run a SaaS: say your plan and its price, and how long the free trial is. Your price is usually on your pricing page, so say it anyway: "The Team plan is $[price] a month. Does that fit?" See how to set your SaaS price.

If you run an agency: name the package you would start with, as in your price list: "For a company like yours, I'd start with Core, which is $[X] a month."

• Tool: your call sheet.
• Time: 3 minutes.
• You will have: a fit mark (3 or 4 ticks, or not), and their answer to your price, on every call.
• It worked if: every call ends with the price said out loud and the ticks counted. After 20 calls, at least half the calls you held should fit. If fewer do, the problem is who you message, not the call.
• Common mistake: hiding the price until the proposal "so they see the value first". You spend a week on a proposal for someone who could never pay it.

6. Book the next step before you hang up, then send a recap within 24 hours

If they fit, agree one next step with a date while you are both still on the call, and send the calendar invite before you hang up. Within 24 hours, send a short recap in their own words, with the price and the next step. Then follow up on day 3, day 7 and day 14 if they go quiet.

The next step depends on what you sell:

Say it like this: "The next step would be [step]. Shall we put it in now? How's [day] at [time]?" Then send the invite while you are still talking.

Close on the call or book the next step? If all four ticks are there and they ask "How do we start?", take the yes. Tell them exactly what you will send today: the agreement, the invoice or the account invite. Then onboard them the same week, so the first result comes fast. Otherwise, book the next step. Do not push for a yes they have not offered.

After the call, paste the transcript or your notes into ChatGPT or Claude with the template below, and ask for a draft. Check every number and every promise yourself. Send it within 24 hours. If they fit, send the written price or quote the same day too.

Subject: [their company]: notes from our callHi [first name],Thanks for the call. Here's what I heard, so you can tell me if I got it wrong:
[Their problem, in their words.]
[What it costs them, with their number.]
[Their date.]
What I'd do: [one or two lines]. As I said on the call, that's $[price] [a month / in total].Next step: [step] on [day, date, time], with [who]. The invite is in your calendar.[Your name]

If they do not answer, follow up in the same thread on day 3, day 7 and day 14, each time with one new thing: a short answer to a question they asked, a case study of a similar client, or a date that is getting close for them. After day 14, move them to a monthly nurture email.

Log every call in your sheet the same day: date, name, source, ticks, price said, next step and its date. Once the sheet gets slow, move to a CRM. Every call is a deal in your sales pipeline, even the ones that say no.

• Tool: Google Calendar, Gmail, ChatGPT or Claude to draft, and your Google Sheet.
• Time: 3 minutes on the call, then about 15 minutes for the recap and the log.
• You will have: for every call that fits, an invite in both calendars and a recap sent within 24 hours.
• It worked if: at least half the calls that fit end with a dated next step, and all of your recaps go out within 24 hours.
• Common mistake: ending with "I'll send you something" and no date. That is how most "sounds great" calls go quiet. The other mistake is a recap that talks about you. Use their words.

7. Count your discovery calls every Sunday and fix the first step where they stop

Every Sunday, fill in one row: calls booked, held, fit, price said, next steps and wins. After 20 calls, find the first step where most calls stop, and fix only that step.

Week | Calls booked | Held | Fit (3–4 ticks) | Price said | Next step booked | Won | Where the calls came from

Then open 2 of this week's transcripts and check two numbers: the share of words you spoke and how many questions you asked. Paste each transcript into ChatGPT or Claude and ask for both.

After 20 calls, fix the first step that fails its line:

1. Held: fewer than 8 of 10 booked calls happened. Book within 2 days and send the morning reminder (step 1).
2. Fit: fewer than half the calls you held fit. Change who you message, not the call.
3. Next step: fewer than half the calls that fit got a dated next step. Listen to 2 recordings. Look for talking more than half the time, a missing price, or no date asked for (steps 4 to 6).
4. Won: 10 next steps and no win. The call is working; fix the proposal or the demo.

Keep the calls coming while you fix. The calls come from your outreach: 100 personal messages a day to a list that keeps growing, 3 follow-ups for each person, and introductions from partners and clients. At about 3 conversations for every 100 messages, that is a few calls a day, so 20 calls take weeks, not months. Ask every client you win for an introduction and a testimonial too.

• Tool: Google Sheets, and the Fathom transcripts.
• Time: 30 minutes every Sunday.
• You will have: one row a week, and one thing to fix next week.
• It worked if: you can name the step where most of your calls stop, and next week's number for that step goes up.
• Common mistake: judging after 3 calls, or by how the call felt. "Great call" without a next step is a lost call.

When your calls fit and most get a next step, the work moves on to the demo and the proposal. Once a month, look at the whole picture in a marketing review.

Your discovery call checklist

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Step 1 · Book every discovery call within two days

• Make a free booking page with 20-minute slots and two booking questions.
• Every dayReply to every yes the same day with two times and your booking link.
• Every daySend the confirmation with the agenda, and a reminder on the morning of each call.

Step 2 · Prepare for 10 minutes before each call

• Write your call sheet with the 12 questions and the 4 fit checks.
• Every daySpend 10 minutes on each person's site and booking answer, and write three guesses.

Step 3 · Start with the time, the goal and recording

• Every dayOpen every call with the time, the plan, the recording question and how they found you.

Step 4 · Ask 12 questions and let them talk

• Every dayAsk the 12 questions, with a follow-up after each answer, and no pitch before question 8.

Step 5 · Check fit and say your price

• Every dayCount the 4 fit checks and say your price out loud on every call.

Step 6 · Book the next step and send a recap

• Every dayBook a dated next step before you hang up with everyone who fits.
• Every daySend the recap within 24 hours and log the call.
• Every dayFollow up on day 3, day 7 and day 14 with everyone who has gone quiet.

Step 7 · Count your calls every Sunday

• Every SundayFill in the Sunday row and check 2 transcripts for talk share and questions.
• After 20 callsFind the first step where most calls stop and change only that step.

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