13 Sales Discovery Call Questions To Discover Buyer’s Pain Points

As a sales professional, you understand the need to ask the right questions during sales discovery calls to learn about the client’s motives, identify potential roadblocks to the sale, assess the product’s suitability, and raise awareness of a specific need.

The goal of every good discovery call is to identify potential stumbling blocks in the buying process at the outset before they delay the sale. Through effective questioning, you can learn about the prospect’s major pain points, decide whether to pursue a deal with them, and tailor your sales pitch to their requirements as part of the sales discovery process.

But what are the questions you should ask a prospect during a discovery call?

The secret to closing more sales is to guide the decision-maker until they reveal their motivations and challenges. To do that, you’ll need to ask questions that push your prospect to think beyond the obvious “what” of their problem and share more about the “why.”

To make it more digestible, we’ve broken down questions to ask on a sales discovery call into three categories:

1. Questions to ask on a sales discovery call to identify prospect pain points
2. Sales discovery call questions to demonstrate your value
3. Sales questions to learn about the buyer’s journey

Before we dive deeper, join our community of over 200,000 marketers and get insights on how to run effective sales and marketing campaigns to generate more leads.

13 questions to ask on a sales discovery call

1. Can you tell me more about the challenges you’re trying to resolve?
2. How are you currently tackling this issue?
3. What product or service are you currently using?
4. What are you hoping to accomplish with a new product or service?
5. What specific features do you want a new product or service to have?
6. How does this problem influence your staff?
7. What is your team’s primary success metric?
8. If you could find a solution, how much money could you save?
9. How would a change of percentage in metric improve your situation?
10. In your opinion, what would constitute the new solution’s success?
11. What service or product attributes are most critical to you when making a purchase decision?
12. How many other people on your team want to find a solution to this issue?
13. Do you have qualifying criteria for a solution provider? Who developed those criteria?

25 Free Tips to

Double Your Leads

without having to double your traffic. Learn how to increase your website conversion rate today!

Get My Free Guide

Questions to ask on a sales discovery call to identify prospect pain points

Establishing a need is one of the most crucial aspects of making a sale. A customer will only buy from you if your product or service addresses a central pain point. However, you will effectively promote your offering as a solution to your target market once you have a firm grasp of their actual pain points.

Here are some questions to ask on a sales discovery call to identify prospect pain points:

1. Can you tell me more about the challenges you’re trying to resolve?
2. How are you currently tackling this issue?
3. What product or service are you currently using?
4. What are you hoping to accomplish with a new product or service?
5. What specific features do you want a new product or service to have?

1. Can you tell me more about the challenges you’re trying to resolve?

How a prospect responds to this question might shed light on pressing thoughts. It’ll help you figure out the prospect’s pain points to tailor your sales pitch and present the product or service you’re selling as the appropriate solution.

2. How are you currently tackling this issue?

Asking a prospect this question during a discovery call can help you identify ineffective or outdated methods. By understanding their current processes, you can emphasize how your product or service would provide an enhanced solution and allow them to streamline their operations, saving them time and money in the long run.

Small Business, Big Growth Potential

Written by our expert marketing team to help your small business grow your online presence!

Get My Free Guide

3. What product or service are you currently using?

Follow-up question: In what ways is this product or service effective or ineffective?

By asking about the prospect’s current solution, you can find out the pros and cons of the competitor and see if your product is a good fit.

For example, if your prospect says, “Currently, we are using manual processes, which require a lot of time and effort from our staff,” then you know that they are looking for a more efficient and automated solution. You can discuss how your product or service can help save them time and reduce their staff’s workload.

4. What are you hoping to accomplish with a new product or service?

The response to this question will show the prospect’s key performance indicators (KPIs) and whether their expectations are reasonable.

For example, suppose the prospective customer expresses a desire to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and increase profitability. In that case, you know their expectations are achievable, and you can discuss how your product or service can help meet those goals.

5. What specific features do you want a new product or service to have?

Follow-up question: Which integrations does your team need to function?

This is one of the most important questions to ask during a sales discovery call since it reveals whether or not your offering is a good fit for the customer based on the features and integrations the customer needs.

You can get a better idea of the prospect’s must-have features and what integrations are necessary for smooth functioning, allowing you to tailor a solution that meets their requirements.

Free Online Guide to

Build Your B2B Marketing Strategy

Written by experts that have driven over 7 million leads for our B2B clients. Download Now!

Get My Free Guide

Sales discovery call questions to demonstrate the value of your offering

 Now that you know your prospect’s pain points and the effectiveness of the solutions they’re currently using, you’re confident that your offering will significantly improve their life. However, you still need to win them over.

The best way to develop trust in your product is to let your potential customers decide whether they need it, rather than listening to you explain how great it is. The trick is to ask in-depth questions that demonstrate your product’s value.

Here are sales discovery call questions to help prospects quantify their problems and see the benefits of your solution:

6. How does this problem influence your staff?
7. What is your team’s primary success metric?
8. How much money could you save if you could find a solution?
9. How would a change of percentage in metric improve your situation?
10. In your opinion, what would constitute the new solution’s success?

6. How does this problem influence your staff?

By asking a potential customer this question, you can get them to think about the impact beyond their interests or the company. It’ll encourage them to think more holistically about their situation and how your offering can help address their issues beyond the surface level.

7. What is your team’s primary success metric?

Follow-up question: How would that metric change if you did find the proper solution?

Asking this question during a sales discovery call might demonstrate to the prospect how to enhance a crucial team metric and prompt them to consider the benefits of your offering to the team and themselves.

Ultimately, the follow-up question would allow the prospect to think about how the proper solution could improve their current metric.

Measuring the metrics that affect your bottom line.

Are you interested in custom reporting that is specific to your unique business needs? Powered by MarketingCloudFX, WebFX creates custom reports based on the metrics that matter most to your company.

• Leads
• Transactions
• Calls
• Revenue

Learn More

8. If you could find a solution, how much money could you save?

Asking your prospect this question on a sales discovery call is a great way to place monetary value on your offering. It helps demonstrate how your solution can positively affect their team’s metrics and allows them to understand how much value they could derive from it.

9. How would a change of percentage in metric improve your situation?

By asking your prospect how a change in metric percentage would improve their situation, you help them visualize how your solution could positively impact their team’s metrics and see the potential value they could get out of it.

You are giving them a chance to weigh the monetary benefit of your offering, which could encourage them to invest.

10. In your opinion, what would constitute the new solution’s success?

Asking your prospect this question allows them to visualize their investment’s end goal and encourages them to consider the potential benefit they could gain from investing in your offering.

Whether the prospect can achieve their desired outcome from implementing your solution will determine their success.

Questions to ask on a sales discovery call to learn about the buyer’s journey

 Now that you’ve established that the prospect is a good client prospect, you should learn as much as possible about their organization’s buying process. This step facilitates the planning of subsequent stages, accelerating the sales process and increasing the number of closed deals.

Here are the questions to ask on a sales call to learn more about the buyer’s journey:

11.  What service or product attributes are most critical to you when making a purchase decision?
12.  How many other people on your team want to find a solution to this issue?
13.  Do you have qualifying criteria for a solution provider? Who developed those criteria?

11. What service or product attributes are most critical to you when making a purchase decision?

This question reveals the importance the customer places on features such as cost, speed of implementation, user-friendliness, after-sale service, and product capability. It provides valuable insight into the decision-making process and helps you develop an effective sales strategy that you can tailor to meet the customer’s specific needs

12. How many other people on your team want to find a solution to this issue?

Knowing the number of people involved in the decision-making process provides valuable insight into the customer’s priorities and helps to understand their decision-making process better. This information can help you develop an effective sales pitch and consider any potential objections or challenges that might arise.

13. Do you have qualifying criteria for a solution provider? Who developed those criteria?

The answer to this question can shed light on the identity of the company’s top decision-makers and the nature of their questions should they become active in the sales process. This information can help you refine your sales strategy and anticipate any objections or challenges the customer might have.

Time to Level Up Your Sales

Our long list of services helps you grow every aspect of your business with marketing strategies that are proven to increase bottom-line metrics like revenue and conversions.

In the past 5 years, we’ve managed more than 14.9 MILLION transactions across our client base.

Send Me a Proposal

Discover the best consultative selling techniques to surpass targets and improve connections with prospects

If you put in the effort to craft a stellar discovery call, you can determine whether the prospect is a perfect match for your offering. You can easily surpass your quota and stand out from the competition by focusing your efforts on the most promising leads.

Need more help? Check out our digital marketing knowledge base for tried-and-true methods and insights to assist your sales team in adopting simple consultative selling techniques to surpass targets and improve connections with prospective clients.

Still got questions? Contact us online or call 888-601-5359 to speak with a business consultant.