My sales script is a Google Doc.
Every morning at 6, before I'm at my desk, it gets read top to bottom and turned into a prep doc for each sales call on my calendar that day. Same questions, same order, with room for notes under each one.
I set it up that way because I know what a founder does on a sales call without a script. We have a great conversation. We find three things in common. Forty minutes go by, and we hang up knowing how their weekend was and nothing about whether we can help them.
Then we write a proposal anyway.
This is the question half of that doc. The pricing and the pitch stay home. What's here is what I ask, why it's in that spot, and what I'm listening for once I stop talking.
One Thing Before You Start
I run this as three calls.
Triage is 15 to 30 minutes. Deeper discovery is 45 to 60. The close gets its own hour.
Most founders try to do all of it in a single 45-minute slot, and discovery is what gets squeezed. They rush the questions to save time for the pitch, then pitch something that doesn't match what they would have heard.
You don't have to copy my three calls. Do keep the order. Every phase below earns you the right to ask the next one.
How to Use This
Six phases. Under each question, Listen for is the answer that tells you something. At the end of each phase, Make or Break is the one thing that decides whether the phase worked.
Change the {braces}. Use your own words everywhere else. Let them do most of the talking.
1. The Opening
Before any of these, find the human. Without something in common, they can't trust you, and people don't tell the truth to someone they don't trust.
Then take the lead.
What inspired you to book this session today? What's the biggest thing you want to get out of this call?
Listen for: A specific problem with a recent date on it. "I was curious" is a tire kick. "We lost two clients in August" is a reason.
My intention today is to help you get clarity on what your options are for {the outcome they want}. If it looks like we're the right fit, we'll talk about how. If we aren't, I'll point you toward the best next step for where you are right now. Sound good?
Listen for: The yes. You just told them you might say no, and you got their permission to run the call. Both matter later.
If we found an opportunity where we could help you move forward a lot faster, how soon might you be looking for support?
Listen for: A timeframe. This is the question most founders save for the last five minutes. Ask it in the first five. If the answer is "sometime next year," you want to know before you spend an hour diagnosing.
Make or Break: The frame. Say out loud that this might not be a fit, and mean it. It tells them you've done this before, and it takes the pressure out of the room for both of you.
2. The Diagnosis
What they tell you they need and what's holding the business back are usually different things. These questions get you from the first to the second.
Why is now the right time to have this conversation?
Listen for: An event. Something broke, someone quit, a number came in low. No event usually means no urgency.
Where do you want to be three years from now? And if we were talking 12 months from today, what would have happened to make you overjoyed?
Listen for: Whether the 12-month answer is a number or a feeling. You'll need both, but you can only build a plan against the number.
Where is the business now?
Then get the actual figures. Gross revenue. Profit. Number of employees. Number of clients. What a new client is worth.
Listen for: How fast they answer. A founder who knows what a new client is worth has been thinking about growth. One who has to guess has been thinking about delivery.
What's preventing you from getting to that 12-month picture?
Listen for: Their first answer, which you write down, and then what they say after "what else?" The second or third answer is usually the real constraint.
What have you tried to fix this?
Listen for: The pattern in what failed. If they've hired three people for the same job and all three "didn't work out," the job description is the problem.
What happens if it doesn't change in the next 12 months?
Listen for: A cost, in dollars or in time. Help them do the math if they haven't. What is one missed lead worth? How many went unanswered last quarter?
Then say it back before you move on.
You shared that you're trying to accomplish {outcome} and you're looking for help with {challenge, in their words}. Did I get that right?
Listen for: The correction. Watch their face. If something's off, ask what you missed.
Make or Break: Their words. Write down the exact phrase they use for the problem and use it for the rest of the relationship. The moment you translate it into your language, they stop feeling heard.
One more thing from my own doc. On the second call, I go back and ask the first call's questions again in a different way. People forget what they told you, and the second answer is more honest.
3. The Disqualify Questions
These are the ones that save you a wasted proposal.
You can't disqualify well until you know what a good client looks like, and that answer is in your own books. I wrote about how to find it in Your Ideal Customer Is Already in Your Invoices. Do that first. Then these questions have something to measure against.
What does an ideal client get from working with you for 12 months? What's the biggest outcome you've ever helped a client achieve?
Listen for: A real result with a real client behind it. I can't market a firm that can't tell me what it's good at. Your version of this question is whatever a client has to bring to the table for your work to land.
What conditions have to be in place for a client to get that result?
Listen for: Whether they know. A founder who can name the conditions will also meet yours.
You mentioned {things are solid}. If that's the case, why are we talking today?
Listen for: What's missing. Ask it with curiosity. Nobody books a sales call because everything is fine.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how seriously are you thinking about doing this?
Listen for: Anything at 7 or below. Follow it with: "Is solving {outcome} not a priority right now? What needs to happen on your end before it becomes one?"
What were your biggest takeaways from what I sent over?
Listen for: Whether they opened it. Between calls I send a case study or a resource that matches their problem. If they didn't look, that tells me where this sits on their list.
And one that isn't a question at all.
Did they say thank you? At any point, in any form. I track it. A prospect who can't manage it on a free call will ask you to prove yourself every month as a paying client, and will stop doing their part the first time results are slow.
Make or Break: Your willingness to act on the answer. Every founder I know can spot a bad fit by minute ten. Very few end the call.
4. Budget and Authority
These feel awkward because they usually show up cold, ten minutes before the end. Asked in the right spot, they're just more diagnosis.
Who else feels this pain inside the company?
Listen for: Names. That's your stakeholder list, and you got it without asking "are you the decision maker?" which nobody answers honestly. Anyone they name needs to be on the next call or bought in before it.
How many new clients would you need to bring on for this to pay for itself? Do you believe this would help you do that?
Listen for: A small number, said out loud, by them. You already have what a new client is worth from the diagnosis. Now it's their math.
If money weren't an issue, would you want this in your business?
Listen for: The pause. A fast yes means the conversation really is about cash flow, and you can work on terms. A slow one means something else is in the way.
What's missing for it to be an easy yes?
Listen for: The real objection. Money is almost never it. Neither is time. It's usually that they've tried something like this before, or they aren't sure it will work for them specifically.
Make or Break: The order. None of these work unless the diagnosis put a dollar figure on the problem first. Price only sounds expensive when there's nothing to compare it to.
On when to say your price: my rule is to hold it until I can show the return against their numbers. The one exception is a low fit. Then I say it early, on purpose, and let it do the disqualifying for me.
5. The Close
If the first four phases did their job, this part is short.
The real problem is {what you heard}. Your biggest opportunity is {what you see}.
Then stop talking.
Listen for: "Yes, exactly," or a correction. Both are useful. Silence followed by a subject change means the diagnosis missed.
Would you like our help with that?
Listen for: The answer to the question you asked. It's seven words and most founders never say them. They describe the offer for twenty minutes and wait to be asked.
Can you see this working in your business to get you {outcome}?
Listen for: Hesitation. If you hear any, go back to "what's missing for it to be an easy yes?"
Where do you want to go from here?
Listen for: Them naming the next step. A buyer who proposes the next step is further along than one who agrees to yours.
And after the yes:
Why is this your next step?
Listen for: The reason they bought, in their own words. Write it down. It makes onboarding easier and it's the first line of your renewal conversation.
Make or Break: The quiet after you ask. Ask once, clearly, and wait. Whoever fills the silence with a discount loses.
6. The Off-Ramp
Not every call should end in a proposal. Have the words ready so you aren't making up a polite exit in real time.
When it isn't a fit:
From what you're telling me, I'm not sure I'm able to help you right now. Let me send you {resource}. Read it, then reach back out and we'll continue the conversation.
Listen for: Whether they do. The ones who read it and come back have qualified themselves. Most won't, and that's an answer too.
When the fit is right and the timing is wrong:
It sounds like this isn't the priority right now, and that's fine. What needs to be in place for you to be ready? Let's put a check-in on the calendar for 90 days out.
Listen for: A specific condition. "After we hire our ops lead" is real. "When things calm down" never arrives. Send one resource, book the check-in, and move on.
When to end it early: They won't share numbers. They won't let you lead. They open with "just pitch me." Or the timing is plainly wrong because they're overloaded and losing clients, and they can't put the business first right now. Say so kindly and give them their half hour back.
Make or Break: Doing it. An off-ramp you never take is a pipeline full of people who were never going to buy.
The Test After You Hang Up
Run any discovery call through these three questions.
Can you write their problem down in their words? If the notes are in your vocabulary, you were pitching.
Do you have a number? What the problem costs them, in dollars or hours. No number, no proposal.
Who talked more? If it was you, book another call before you send anything.
Go Run One
Take your next sales call and change one thing. Ask "how soon might you be looking for support?" in the first five minutes.
Then keep a tally for a month. Every call, write down whether you sent a proposal and whether it closed. You'll see how many proposals went to people who told you no in minute four, if you'd asked.
And if you book time with me, you now know every question I'm going to ask. Come ready.