You need to show something on the first call
The modern approach and sequencing to discovery calls
Pick any market map of your choice, and you’ll find 5+ options for any product. If you’re exhausted from trying to understand these, imagine what it feels like for your users and buyers.
People want fast, ‘easy-to-use’ products that ‘improve our efficiency.’ The problem with software and buying software is that it’s rarely fast (even when people say they’ll buy quickly), tools are rarely easy to use (sorry), and ‘efficiency’ is a blanket statement that leads to ‘ROI’ metrics at which CFOs roll their eyes (and sometimes laugh).
Customers have far too many options to sit through a 30-minute discovery call without seeing your product. A highly contested and debated topic is whether you should demo on the first call. I’m here to say you’re doing your pipeline and top-of-funnel efforts a disservice by not doing this but how you demo and what you discuss are the main failure points companies encounter on the first call.
More questions and discovery aren’t necessarily a good thing; quality questions and quality discovery are what matter most. That’s what you must make as easy as possible for prospects.
Some thought starters for approaching quality questions & discovery heading into your first discovery call (reminder: all highly customizable based on your timing, product, use case, etc)
0 minutes – Do research or waste valuable time on the first call
You should prep—even if you’re a solo team and an expert Founder-led seller. You want to be able to teach your future team how to approach a call and, more importantly, why. I’m also sorry to say this, but this is far more important than creating an ICP document with blanket coverage on 'who we target,' because you’re demonstrating the creative thought process behind why this is a potentially valuable prospect and what a great call at your company looks like.
First 5 minutes – Stop asking for budget, authority, and need so quickly. If they can’t fit your technical profile, you can save yourself time since they can’t buy anyway.
What are the three main criteria that, if unmet, would allow you to end the call early? For example, if a prospect needs to have a cloud environment and you don’t confirm what cloud they’re on in the first two minutes, you risk wasting 28 more minutes—only to find out at the end that they’re required to be on-premise. Some may argue, 'Well, it might be worth it,' but you could use those 28 minutes productively rather than spending a full hour across two calls trying to convince them you’re a fit when, in reality, they weren’t qualified from the start.
Example of three primary questions to ask:
“Looking at your job posting, I saw you all use AWS, is that right? Are you using a solution to solve [the problem you solve], or exploring what’s out there?”
Note: With the above, we have identified: Do they fit our tech stack, are they using a competitor, or just kicking the tires.
Why this matters: If not a fit on tech stack, now you can qualify here. If they are using a competitor, figure out why they are seeking a new solution if they already have a tool in place.
“Since this isn’t a new market, you are probably familiar with a lot of the general capabilities. On our first call, we typically show a high level demo of our product to explain where we can add value. Is it most helpful to walk through a general demo of the product, or highlight the main differentiators on why we stand out?”
Note: Rather than asking “what’s your success criteria,” or pitching against a competitive solution, you can now uncover what’s most important to the prospect today, giving you a nice segue into asking “why are these the most important capabilities to you?”
Why this matters: People want to see the product, but the failure mode of demoing on the first call is not understanding what the prospect is seeking and why. This gives you the permission to ask many relevant questions before the demo rather than confusing people why you are asking questions without context.
“Okay, this has been super helpful. Before I show you the product, can you walk me through how you typically evaluate solutions and if you’re planning to include others in the process?”
Note: Don’t ask for someone’s boss (yet). You’ll piss them off.
Why this matters: You need to earn the permission to make the ask for them to include relevant stakeholders (yes, this includes their boss and eventually the signer), but devaluing the person giving you the time on the first call is a great way to lose their trust and scratch your head asking yourself why they went dark on you after the first call.
Next 15 minutes
Show the product based on what you’ve heard, focusing on high-level details. They don’t need something bespoke on the first call—save that for the 'next call.' Traditional guidance suggests doing deep discovery to create a personalized demo for the second call. The problem is, the prospect is likely talking to three or more other vendors that week and won’t remember filling out your verbal checklist. They’ll remember which solutions seemed most engaging and best aligned with the primary problems they need to solve.
Example: “Aanya, you mentioned at the beginning of the call that you built an agent to solve this, but the main challenge isn’t putting it in production. The challenge was that as it runs and customers interact with it, it’s hard to track the success, is that right? Awesome, so to start, let me show you how we solve for this and I’d love to ask you more about where things break down to make this capability more relevant to you.”
Next 5 minutes
Q&A. Instead of asking, “So, what do you think?” or “What do you think are the next steps?” try asking, “Based on what you shared with me at the beginning of the call and throughout the demo, we covered X, Y, and Z, which should help address Solution 1, Solution 2, and Solution 3. Assuming I’ve got that right, what questions do you have to better understand if we’re the right fit for your team?'”
Next 5 minutes
Sell the next meeting. Rather than “okay, let’s book a time now,” for the sake of booking the next meeting, tell them what the next meeting will be based on what you discussed. For example, “so, I’m really glad you brought up these questions today. As I mentioned, the demo we went through is just a quick runthrough of the features based on what you shared with me, but as a next step, we’d love to do a more fully detailed demo based on your requirements. Assuming that works for you, when is the best time for you to meet next?”
What sets this approach apart is the delivery and sequencing. Remember, it’s highly unlikely that you’re the only solution in the market for a prospect. This means you need to show, tell, ask, and sell more assertively. Take all the best practices from traditional selling and weave them into a modern, rapid-fire approach to win more deals—and win them faster.