Sales Call Prep

The difference between a discovery call that goes somewhere and one that stalls is usually 15 minutes of prep that most people skip. The skill builds a brief that takes three minutes to read — company snapshot, prospect profile, your strategic angle, an ordered question plan, an objection playbook keyed to this specific prospect, and clear outcome goals with red flags for early disqualification.

The question plan is structured in three tiers. Situation questions to map the lay of the land. Pain questions to find where it hurts. Impact questions to quantify the cost of inaction. Eight to ten questions in priority order — because a great salesperson talks 30% and listens 70%, and the brief should load the conversation with questions rather than talking points. Each question is paired with what the answer tells you, so you're not just reading from a list.

The "your angle" section is the strategic core. Primary pain to explore, proof point to lead with, differentiator versus alternatives — three lines that determine whether the call has direction or meanders. The skill spends the most time getting these right because everything downstream depends on them. The objection playbook then anticipates the three to five most likely pushbacks for this exact prospect — not generic "what if they say it's expensive", but "they're inbound from the pricing page so they'll probably ask about discounting before the demo."

Two practical defaults. Emergency-prep mode when there's under 10 minutes to the call — three strong questions, one opener, one clear next-step goal, nothing else. And a disqualification checklist the user runs mentally during the call: does this match the ICP, is there budget authority, is the timeline realistic, is there genuine pain. If fewer than two are true, the brief says walk early rather than invest in a proposal. The next step is always specific: not "let's stay in touch" but a scheduled action with a date.