20 Powerful Discovery Questions for Sales Reps

Are you losing deals right after your sales demo? 

A major reason for this to happen is sales reps presenting a generic demo about their products or services without truly understanding the prospect's pain points and goals, leaving prospects unconvinced that your solution is what they’re looking for.

You need to understand that successful closing calls are based on presenting a tailored product demo to your prospect’s needs and goal. To present a demo that converts, it’s important to ask the right discovery questions early in the sales process. 

These questions help identify sales barriers, uncover the prospect's biggest challenges, ascertain the true motivations of clients, determine product suitability, and build excitement for your product.

Here, we cover 20 questions you must ask during a sales discovery call to uncover your prospect’s pain points and guide them along the path to making the right purchasing decision.

But first, let’s get the basics right.

What Is a Discovery Call in Sales?

A discovery call is the first step in sales right after the prospect agrees for a meeting with you.

The discovery process helps you assess whether the prospect is the right fit for your product and whether you should take them to the next step in the sales process. It helps you find the prospect’s pain points, goals, hopes, and fears.

What Are Discovery Questions in Sales?

Discovery questions are carefully crafted questions that reveal prospect pain points, needs, and goals during a sales call. 

What makes a great sales discovery question? 

There is no rigid formula to this, but the questions you ask your prospects and how you ask them determine the quality of information you get.  

Your questions should be open-ended, which gives the prospect a chance to elaborate more about their business and give you context about their problems.

Asking the right questions will help you gain valuable nuggets of information from your potential customers, based on which you can present an effective sales demo. 

9 Discovery Call Questions for Identifying Pain Points

During a discovery call, identifying pain points is crucial. These pain points are the keys to understanding what challenges your prospect is facing, so that you can present the demo by highlighting specific features that solve their problems. 

Here are 9 sales questions to help you pinpoint these pain points:

What Sparked Your Interest in Exploring Our Solution?

You can ask this question to understand what aspect of your solution interests your prospect and how much they know about what you have to offer. You would get to learn about their specific needs from your solution, like if they mention a feature of your product, etc. 

How Are You Currently Managing the [Challenge]?

When you ask your prospects this question, they share details about their business practices. When they take you through their management step by step, you will understand the underlying problem in their current process. 

From this information, you can judge whether the practices they follow to overcome challenges are outdated or inefficient.  

Which Solution Are You Presently Utilizing To Do That? What Aspects Are Effective or Ineffective With That Solution?

This tells you what they like and dislike in their current solution and whether that matches with what you have to offer. 

If they find their present solution to be effective, you can tailor your pitch to how your solution is better. 

Do You Have Any Other Options To Fix This? If Yes, What Are Those?

This question will reveal what options of alternative solutions the prospect has to fix their problems internally—that is, without buying any product or service. 

By understanding their present options, you can explain how your solution will help them do those tasks better, and save their time and resources.    

What Specific Outcomes Do You Anticipate From a New Solution?

While answering this question, the prospect will reveal their goals and expectations from a new solution. You can use that information to align with your solution while pitching them.

What Makes This a Current Priority?

You can ask this question when you want to understand the urgency behind their quest for a solution. Knowing their biggest priorities will allow you to position your offer effectively.

Why Wasn’t This Problem Addressed Before? Why Now?

When you know the prospect’s problem isn’t new, it is important for you to understand why it was not solved before and what has changed now. What was the problem before? Was it their priorities, or budget, or decision maker?

When you ask this question, prospects shed light on the delay, and reveal the actual reason that led them to your doorstep. 

What Features Are Essential in a Solution? What Integrations Are Indispensable for Your Team’s Operations?

While answering this question, the prospect will reveal their functional requirements and integral needs. With this information, you can also decide whether they are product fit.

Are You Evaluating Any Other Solutions at This Point? Is There Any Particular Reason Behind Your Choice?

Asking this question will help you understand if they’re evaluating any of your competitors, and what they’re actually looking for in your solution. These insights will allow you to position your solution strategically during the demo.

5 Sales Discovery Questions That Highlight Your Solution’s Value 

You know that your solution is helpful, and it will improve your prospect's current situation. But, how do you make your prospects realize that they need your solution without annoying them?

Here are 5 probing questions that will help you highlight the value of your solution and make the prospects think:

How Is This Issue Affecting the Rest of Your Team?

With this question, you emphasize the ripple effects of not having a solution in place. It will make them realize if they don't fix this problem soon, the efficiency of the sales team will be compromised at large. Based on this information, you can tailor your sales pitch and tell them how your solution can help them .

What’s the Main Metric You Use to Track Success?

From this question, you’ll get to understand their success metrics. You can use this information to show the prospects how your solution can enhance their tracking process and help them achieve better results.

How Much Money Would You Be Saving as a Company if You Take Care of [Pain Point]?

When you ask this question, you will get to know about the areas where prospects can save time, money and other resources. 

You can use this information to quantify their potential savings and paint a vivid picture of your solution’s ROI.

What’s the Budget You Have To Solve This Problem?

Budget is an important factor in sales. By asking this question, you get to know if their budget aligns with your solution’s value, ensuring you both are on the same page financially.

How Would You Define Success When Using a New Solution?

Encourage them to envision how your solution transforms their operations. Let them imagine how things will improve with your solution. Will they gain more customers, automate tasks, or become more efficient?

3 Discovery Call Questions To Identify the Need for Your Solution

Does your prospect really need your solution?

To make sure that you are not wasting the prospect’s time or the other way around, ask these 3 effective discovery questions:

How High Is Solving [Pain Point] on Your Priority List?

Gauging their priority will help you understand where this challenge stands in their hierarchy of needs. Based on this information, you can predict how quickly they might buy your solution. 

Could You Walk Me Through the Goals of Your Company for the Upcoming Year?

This question gives you a chance to peek into their company’s future. You will get to know their goals and objectives for the long run. 

Armed with this information, you can align your solution with their company’s goals during the demo, and assure them how your tool would help them accomplish their goals quicker. 

What Are the Primary Hurdles in Achieving These Goals?

The prospect’s answer to this question will help you to present how your solution can help them overcome their obstacles. 

3 Best Sales Discovery Call Questions To Know Your Prospect’s Buying Process

Understanding your prospect's purchasing process is essential as it helps you set the next steps in the sales process and ensure the deal progresses smoothly.

These three questions will shed light on the path to a successful purchase:

What Are the Key Factors That Determine Which Solution Is Right for You?

Asking this question helps you understand what factors your prospect considers the most to be in their ideal solution when making a purchase decision. This can be price point, functionality, ease of use, scalability, or any other factor.

Have You Purchased Any Similar Solution Before?

Gaining insight into their buying history helps you understand their preferences and familiarizes you with their buying process. 

How Does the Buying Process Work After You Decide on the Product? Are Any Legal or Procurement Reviews Involved?

By asking this question you get to know who is involved in the decision-making process, how many stages of approval you have to undergo, and what their terms and conditions are during and after the purchase.

This helps you to forecast the deal better, and helps you to navigate the potential roadblocks in the decision process.

5 Expert-Backed Tips for a Successful Discovery Call

Before we part ways, we want to equip you with 5 discovery call tips from top-performing AEs that we interviewed in our Closers X Factor series:

Make the Discovery Process Less Interrogative

Varshni Gurumoorthy points out that your discovery call shouldn’t be only about the questions. “This is not an interrogation, and you should never make them feel like that. It's always a good mix of give and take,” she says.

To make the discovery less interrogative, Varshni frames 12 questions that are loosely based on lead qualification frameworks like MEDDPICC and BANT. And out of those 12 questions she gets the answer to 5-6 questions from research. 

Instead of asking those questions directly, she brings up the answer she found during the research naturally as part of her discovery conversation and clarifies them. 

Have a Consultative Approach During Discovery 

Kevin Deldjoui has a consultative approach for the discovery calls, where he acts like an adviser to suggest what’s the best solution for the prospect’s pain points.

He says, “I want to make sure that what I'm working with is going to fit their needs. So, I have to ask as many questions as possible.” 

Make Each Prospect Feel Unique To Build Rapport

Here’s what successful sales rep Jan Benedikt Mundorf says about rapport building:

"Find something that makes you really interested in them, and be curious. If you treat everybody the same, they will realize. You need to treat them case by case, and make them feel unique as well."

He suggests finding one thing about the prospect’s role, like a career switch or promotion, and expressing curiosity about that thing during the discovery session.

Add Value to Your Conversations

Qayam Noorani always leads the conversation with value. He offers to help the prospects understand their problems by preparing a business case that highlights how to fix them.

His business case covers:

• Different problems that the prospective buyers are facing
• The overall objective of his product
• Different available options to solve their pain points 
• Why his product is the best option
• What the product will bring to their business

Ask Prospects What They Need

Before moving on to the demo, Akshaya Sampath, asks the prospect the reason for coming on this call, and the top 3 requirements they are looking for. Then, she asks relevant follow-up questions based on these requirements.

"It is not about your solution, it is about their requirements. Once you place that first, you know how to drive the conversation," she notes.

Ace Your Discovery Sessions With the Right Questions

Remember, discovery calls are not mere conversations; they’re opportunities to understand, connect, and, ultimately, win over your prospects. 

Asking the right questions helps you truly understand your prospects and uncover their pain points, objectives, and fears. It will help you know whether your prospect is the right fit for your product or service. 

Now that you are armed with these 20 powerful questions, use them in your next discovery meeting, build lasting relationships, and close more deals.

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