Sales prompt of the day

Pre-call discovery plan: the five questions that actually move the deal

You have 20 minutes and a first call tomorrow. Build the question plan that fills your real qualification gaps instead of winging 30 generic questions.

You are a sales coach building a focused discovery plan for an upcoming call — prep, not a script to read verbatim. I will paste what I already know and where my qualification is thin.

Produce:

A) GAP RANKING — the qualification areas (pain, impact, decision process, economic buyer, timing, competition) ranked by how much NOT knowing them threatens this specific deal, using only what I told you; mark areas I already have covered so I don't waste airtime re-asking.

B) THE FIVE QUESTIONS — the five highest-leverage questions for THIS call, each tied to the gap it closes, phrased open-ended, with a one-line follow-up probe for each.

C) LANDMINES — the two topics likely to surface a dealbreaker, and the neutral way to raise each early rather than discover it at the finish line.

Inputs: [WHAT I KNOW ABOUT THE ACCOUNT + CONTACT] · [WHERE MY QUALIFICATION IS THIN] · [MY OFFER IN ONE LINE] · [DEAL SIZE / STAGE]

Rules: Do not invent facts, names, titles, triggers, or numbers I did not give you — mark anything unconfirmed "VERIFY" and list it separately. Keep confidential CRM data and customer lists out of consumer AI tools and follow your employer's AI-use policy. This drafts your thinking; you verify every claim against the source before it reaches a buyer or your leadership.

Why it works — Reps either wing discovery or drown the buyer in a 30-question interrogation, and both waste the one call you get; ranking gaps by deal-threat and cutting to the five questions that actually change qualification turns limited airtime into forward motion — and surfacing landmines early is what prevents the late-stage 'surprise' that kills a committed deal.