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The discovery-call system

Build a tailored discovery plan before the call and a clean capture after it: the questions that surface the real problem and budget, a listening guide, and a structured summary that scores the deal and feeds your CRM.

medium ~30 min per call
when to reach for this

Discovery is where deals are really won — and where reps either uncover the budget, the urgency, and the decision process, or wing a feature tour and "circle back." A weak discovery call means a strong demo of the wrong thing weeks later. This system makes discovery repeatable: before the call, a tailored question plan grounded in this account; after it, a structured capture that pulls out the real problem, the qualification signals, and the next step — so every rep runs the same rigorous discovery, not just the naturals.

gather this first
  • What you already know about the account — the leads row, any intro email, the company site, and the brief from The pre-call account brief if you've run it.
  • Your value-prop.md and qualify.md (from Build the value narrative and Define your ICP) — so the questions probe the problems you actually solve and the criteria that predict a real deal.
  • After the call: the recording or your notes as a file — discovery-notes.txt — so the capture works from what was actually said, not what you remember.
the workflow

  1. Build a discovery plan tailored to this account

    In Claude Desktop, open the folder with what you know plus your value and qualification docs, and ask in the chat — no terminal needed. Generic discovery questions get generic answers. Have Claude ground the plan in this specific account and your real qualification criteria.

    you ask
    Read what we know about this account, value-prop.md, and qualify.md. Build a discovery plan: 6–8 open questions ordered to surface the real problem first, then its cost, urgency, budget authority, and decision process. For each question, note what a strong vs. weak answer tells me. Add 2 follow-up probes for the answers I most need to dig into. Keep it to one page I can glance at on the call.

    what you get back A tailored question plan — problem-first, mapped to your qualification criteria, with the tell for each answer — "if they can't name who signs off, that's the gap to close before a demo." Not a generic checklist.

    Lead with the problem, not your product. The budget and urgency questions land far better once the buyer has talked themselves into the pain.

  2. Make a listening guide for the live call

    You can't take perfect notes and listen well at once. Ask for a one-glance guide of what to listen for, so on the call you're present, not scribbling.

    you ask
    Turn that plan into a one-glance listening guide: the 4–5 signals I most need to catch (real pain, a number, a deadline, who decides, a competitor), and a one-line cue for each if I'm not hearing it. Keep it short enough to keep open in a corner of my screen.

    what you get back A short signals-to-catch card — "hear a dollar figure or a time cost; if not, ask 'what's this costing you today?'" — so you steer the conversation instead of just getting through your questions.

  3. Capture the call into structured signal

    After the call, point Claude at the recording or notes. Don't ask for a summary — ask for the structured fields that decide what happens next, scored against your rubric.

    you ask
    Read discovery-notes.txt. Extract: the real problem in their words, the cost/impact (with any numbers they gave), urgency and the trigger, budget and who has authority, the decision process and timeline, any competitor mentioned, and the open questions. Then score the deal against qualify.md (A/B/C with a one-line reason) and name the single biggest gap to close next.

    what you get back A structured discovery capture — every qualification field filled or flagged as unknown, an honest A/B/C score, and the one gap that matters most — so you know exactly whether this earns a demo and what to nail down first.

  4. Write the recap and the internal next-step note

    Close the loop while it's warm: a recap that confirms what you heard and proposes the real next step, plus a clean CRM-ready summary for your manager and the pipeline.

    you ask
    Draft two things: (1) a short recap email to the prospect that reflects their problem back, confirms what we agreed, and proposes a specific next step with a date; and (2) a 4-line CRM update — problem, qualification score, decision process, next step. Keep the email under 120 words, warm and direct.

    what you get back A send-ready recap that proves you listened ("you flagged onboarding eating two weeks per client — let's scope exactly that") plus a paste-ready CRM update, so the deal's real state is captured, not stuck in your head.

    Reflecting their problem back in the recap is the highest-trust move in selling — it shows you heard them, and it surfaces any misread before the demo.

make it your own
  • Straight into the brief: feed a strong discovery capture into The pre-call account brief before the demo, so the next call opens on exactly the problem and people discovery surfaced.
  • Recurring objections: when the same concern shows up in discovery across deals, route it into The objection battle-cards so the pattern becomes a reusable card.
  • Feeds the pipeline truth: the A/B/C discovery score gives The weekly pipeline review a real qualification signal instead of stage-name guesswork.
  • Standardize it (Power Track): save the capture prompt as a /discovery command so every rep's call produces the same structured fields — the foundation for a team-wide qualification standard (see the Features tab).
watch out for
  • A discovery score is a snapshot, not a sentence. It reflects what was said on one call — a buyer who was guarded can score low and still be a real deal. Use it to decide what to dig into next, not to write a deal off.
  • Discovery notes and recordings are sensitive customer data — they hold a prospect's problems, budget, and internal politics. Keep discovery-notes.txt in your approved workspace, never paste it into a tool you don't control, and scrub names to [prospect] if you share a prompt for help.
  • Transcripts and rushed notes garble numbers and who-said-what. Verify any budget figure, deadline, or commitment against your own memory before it goes in a recap or a forecast — don't let a misheard number set an expectation you can't meet.
  • Claude builds the plan and captures the call; you run the conversation. The listening guide is a prompt to stay present, not a script — read the room, follow the thread that opens up, and trust your judgment over the question order.

you'll end up with A tailored discovery plan and listening guide before the call, and a structured, scored capture after it — so every rep surfaces the real problem, budget, and decision process, and the deal earns its next step on evidence, not optimism.

Questions people ask

How is this different from the pre-call account brief?
The brief preps you for *a* call using what you already know about an account. This discovery system is built for the call where you're *learning* — it gives you a tailored question plan and listening guide going in, and a structured, qualification-scored capture coming out. Run discovery first on a new deal, then use the brief to prep the demos that follow.
Will it script my discovery call?
No, and it shouldn't. It hands you a one-page question plan and a short listening guide so you go in prepared, but the listening guide is a prompt to stay present and follow the thread that opens up — not lines to recite. Claude preps and captures; you run the actual conversation.
What do I feed in to capture a call?
The recording or your notes as a file (`discovery-notes.txt`), plus your `qualify.md` so Claude can score the deal against your real criteria. It extracts the problem, cost, urgency, budget, decision process, and competitor mentions into structured fields, flags what's still unknown, and gives an honest A/B/C score with the biggest gap to close next.
Is it safe to upload a discovery recording?
A discovery call holds a prospect's problems, budget, and internal politics — some of the most sensitive data in a deal. Keep the recording or notes in a workspace your company has approved, never paste them into a tool you don't control, and scrub names to `[prospect]` if you share a prompt for help.