sales-discovery

name	sales-discovery
description	Use before pitching or demoing to a prospect or existing account — to run structured discovery that names the real problem, its cost, the decision process, and whether a human sale is even warranted.

Sales Discovery

Discovery is the work of understanding an account's real problem before you try to solve it. In a product-led company most accounts should never need a salesperson, so discovery has a second job: qualify hard and disqualify fast, spending human time only where it genuinely unlocks value. A demo before discovery is a pitch into the dark.

Steps

1. Anchor on the problem, in their words. Ask what they're trying to accomplish and what they do today instead. Keep asking "and what does that cost you?" until you reach a number — hours, dollars, missed outcomes. If there's no cost, there's no deal.
2. Find who feels the pain. Identify the person whose problem this is (not just who took the call). The economic buyer, the daily user, and the blocker are often three different people — name them.
3. Understand the decision. How do they buy? What's the timeline, the budget reality, and what would have to be true to say yes? A "great call" with no path to a decision is a stall wearing a smile.
4. Use product usage as evidence. For product-qualified accounts, look at what they already do in the product. Their own usage is your strongest discovery input — it shows the problem is real and already being solved partway.
5. Qualify or disqualify — out loud. Decide whether a human sale is warranted. If self-serve serves them better, say so and route them back; disqualifying kindly and early is a service that protects your pipeline and their trust.
6. Only then, demo to the problem. If qualified, show exactly the path to the outcome they named — nothing else. Close on their stated outcome, not on a feature tour.
7. Capture the signal. Log the problem, the cost, the objections, and the reason a deal advances or stalls. Route recurring patterns to Product and Growth.

Quality bar

• The account's problem is stated in their words with a quantified cost.
• The buyer, user, and blocker are each named; the decision path is understood.
• A clear qualify/disqualify call is made — no account drifts in limbo.
• Every demo maps to the stated outcome; every stalled deal has a logged reason.

Output format

Account: <name>
Problem (their words): <statement> — cost: <quantified>
People: economic buyer <who> | daily user <who> | blocker <who>
Decision: process <how> | timeline <when> | budget <reality>
Product usage signal: <what they already do>
Verdict: QUALIFIED → demo to <outcome> | DISQUALIFIED → route to self-serve because <reason>
Signal logged: <objection / stall reason → routed to Product/Growth>