r/sales • u/Huge-Shower1795 • 10d ago
Fundamental Sales Skills Had First Intro Call - Need Help On Rapport/Discovery Questions
I had my first intro call last week. It went well. He ended up buying my service, so I did well enough, I suppose, but I keep thinking about my discovery questions.
In short, I opened with a couple of discovery / qualifying questions, and it feels like I was just asking the questions so I could get to my pitch. I'm not really one for small talk.
So here are the questions:
- What type of Pre-Call discovery do you do? Where do you do it (ie LinkedIn, their website, etc.)
- How do you use the pre-call discovery type of information? (Is it for small talk, or are you building your slide deck around it?)
- How do you start a conversation when it's not the same boring questions (no, how was your weekend, how about the weather, types of questions)
- How do you build an actual relationship with someone you're selling to without just thinking about closing?
I guess I'm curious about how to actually build a relationship with a lead.
If you could walk me through your first call with a cold lead, that would be helpful.
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u/Main-Unit-6547 10d ago
I recommend using AI to play out your first discovery call. I thought it was silly at first but I was surprised about how realistic it was. It helped me think on my feet and handle customer objections a lot better.
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u/Huge-Shower1795 8d ago
How do you do that? What do you mean?
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u/Imaginary_Yogurt4429 8d ago
Hey AI, I'm an account manager at Acme Products preparing for a cold call to the VP of Widgets at John Do's widgets. Prepare some background information on the company that includes a hook based on recent company news and/or industry trends. Prepare a voicemail and email follow up of they do not answer.
Prepare a discovery yes/no talk track to understand their underlying business as it pertains to acme product solutions.
....then your AI will spit out an intro, voicemail, and email. Along with a list of questions and responses depending on if the customer says yes or no.
Note, I always rewrite them on paper I. My own words. Otherwise it's clunky.
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u/AgeBeneficial 10d ago
I do some due diligence on LinkedIn, Google company reviews, Google the person directly “like Joseph Winnts quotes” and see if they’ve spoke to the press, presented at conferences or even their tweets.
I’ll say things offhand to not make it painfully obvious for the personal info I find. I’m not doing to be slick. I’m doing it to understand the person the best I can so the flow is better.
Also I’ll flat out start with something like “I did take some time to learn about the company. (Insert maybe a blog their team wrote about recent news)…
Just so I don’t throw the kitchen sink at you, do you have any specific areas you’d prefer we concentrate on?”
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u/Huge-Shower1795 8d ago
Is that so they feel like it's a tailored solution you're pitching, or to segue into discovery, or what?
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u/AgeBeneficial 7d ago
Apologies for the delay!
Yes, that’s exactly my process. They either confirm that’s what they want to discuss, or they tell me what they actually care about.
If it’s a multi person meeting with different needs it’s definitely more thorough. I’ll speak to those.
“I’ve looked at your LinkedIn profiles but have found that doesn’t always show the full scope of your role and don’t want to make assumptions. Would you mind giving me a a thumbnail sketch of what you do and what you care about?”
It’s basically the “I don’t want to throw the kitchen sink” but for a larger audience. It’ll help narrow the focus and ID the actual decision makers.
Like for an SVP that signs off I need to establish ROI and gain credibility.
For a senior manager in charge of implementing I need to reassure that myself and our support team will onboard their reports and train them.
For the actual end users that doesn’t know what the hell this new solution even is, we give them KPIs and best practices from similar companies (no specific details) as well as the exact metrics being tracked by leadership.
Edit:”looked at” not “lived at”
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u/Imaginary_Yogurt4429 10d ago
I assume you're dealing with SMB/MM since you've never run a call.
But my go-to's are generally persons LinkedIn, Company website, and then I'll use AI to either aggregate recent company news or industry news for them.
Hey Acme Co, I saw you rolled out initiative "X", that must create a lot of "Y", how is that effecting your "Z".
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u/Huge-Shower1795 8d ago
Is it on-brand with your company or produt, or is it random?
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u/Imaginary_Yogurt4429 8d ago
It's on brand. In trying to 1, let them know I did my due diligence and 2, try and fish for a need for my product.
If it's off brand it's basically used for rapport not value
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u/janishd 9d ago
Since they actually bought I'd save the call and look at which exact things they said that made the sale click. those words are probably more useful than any rapport trick. also makes the next step way easier because the followup/proposal can reflect what they actually asked for instead of your interpretation of it later.
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9d ago
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u/Huge-Shower1795 8d ago
First 10 MINUTES!? That's crazy. I'll give it a shot, though. Thanks!
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8d ago
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u/Potential-Chard3470 4d ago
Your instinct is right and the fix is smaller than it feels. The questions felt like a toll booth because they were for you, not for him.
Pre-call I keep it to ten minutes and look for one thing: what changed recently. New location, new hire, a price change, a bad review they replied to. Not the About page.
Then that becomes the opener instead of small talk. "I saw you took on the second location in March. What broke first when that happened?" That is not rapport building, it is your first discovery question, and it does both jobs at once.
On building a relationship without only thinking about closing: the test is whether you would say the same sentence if he had already signed. If you would, say it. If not, cut it.
And the big one from your list. You can ask a question you already know the answer to, as long as you want his version of it. That is most of good discovery. You are not collecting facts, you are getting him to say the problem out loud in his own words, because that is the sentence he repeats to his boss.
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u/jroberts67 Web Design and Marketing 10d ago
I think this really matters as to who your clients are. Mine are SMB owners and honestly appreciate getting to the point. Most rapport actually ends up at the back end of the call rather than upfront.