Discovery and demo

skills/discovery-and-demo/SKILL.mdView on GitHub

Goal: a first call that qualifies the buyer and learns their situation, and a demo that shows them their own problem solved and ends with the ask. Written down so a new salesperson runs it the same way the founder does, and so every call produces the same notes in the CRM.

Before you start

This skill works on its own. If the person has their own marketing brain folder, read the positioning, messaging, offers and ideal customer files. If they do not have one, ask for any positioning, pricing or ICP notes. If there are none, ask five questions and work from the answers: who the buyer is, what problem they have in their own words, what they do today instead, what the offer and first step are, and the three objections that come up most.

Ask for two or three recordings of recent calls that went well, if they exist. The best script is usually already being spoken; the job is to write it down and tighten it.

Tools this skill uses when the person has them. None are required.

Steps

1. Decide what a qualified buyer looks like. Four or five yes-no facts that have to be true for the deal to be worth working: fits the segment, has the problem now, has a budget or a replacement cost, is the decision maker or can bring them, has a timeline. These come from the ICP card if it exists; otherwise write them with the founder now.

2. Write the discovery call structure. Thirty minutes, five parts, with time boxes:

   • Open (3 minutes): who you are, what the call is for, confirm their time, ask what prompted the call.
   • Their situation (12 minutes): open questions, listen. What are they trying to do, what is in the way, what have they tried, what does it cost them, who else is involved, what happens if nothing changes.
   • Fit check (5 minutes): the qualification facts, asked as natural questions, not a checklist. Budget as “what are you spending on this today”, timeline as “when does this need to be solved by”.
   • What you do (7 minutes): only if there is a fit. The one-liner, then the two or three things from their situation that the product addresses, then one proof point in their segment. Not the full pitch.
   • Next step (3 minutes): propose the demo or the first step, name the date, name who should be there, say what you will send.

3. Write the question bank. Fifteen to twenty open questions grouped by the five parts, in the words the company’s buyers use. Mark the five that must be asked on every call. Add the follow-up probe for each: “tell me more about that”, “what does that cost you”, “who else notices this”.

4. Write the call notes template. What gets written in the CRM after every discovery call, in the same fields every time: situation in two lines, the problem in their words, current workaround, decision makers, budget signal, timeline, qualification result (fits, needs review, does not fit) with the reason, next step and date. This is what makes the pipeline readable later.

5. Write the demo script. Forty-five minutes, built around the buyer’s situation from discovery:

   • Recap (3 minutes): their situation back to them in their words. Confirm nothing changed.
   • Agenda (1 minute): three things you will show, tied to the three things they said.
   • Show the problem solved (25 minutes): their scenario, their data or document if you can get it in advance, start with the end result then show how it got there. Three capabilities at most. Pause after each and ask what they would do with that.
   • Proof (4 minutes): one customer like them, before and after, in numbers.
   • The offer (5 minutes): what is included, how pricing works, the first step, in that order.
   • The ask (3 minutes): propose the first step with a date. Ask who else needs to see this. Agree the next meeting before the call ends.
   • Handle objections as they come, using the answers from the positioning doc; do not save them for the end.

6. Build the demo deck outline. Ten to twelve slides, one idea each: title, their situation, agenda, the problem in the customer’s words, how it works in three steps, three capability slides each with a before and after, proof, the offer, the first step, next steps. The deck supports the live demo; it is not the demo. Give the slide titles and the one line each slide carries; design follows the brand kit.

7. Write the buying committee variants. For each role in the buying committee (champion, economic buyer, user, blocker), the two slides or two minutes that change when they are in the room, taken from the stakeholder messaging matrix if it exists.

8. Write the follow-up. The email sent within two hours of each call: three lines of recap in their words, the agreed next step and date, the one asset promised. Draft it as a template with placeholders. The CRM note and the follow-up email are both done before the next call starts.

9. Set the review loop. Every two weeks, listen to two calls and compare them to the script. Update the question bank with what buyers actually ask. The script is a living file.

Rules

• Listen first. Discovery is most of the buyer talking; if the salesperson talked more than half the time, the call was a pitch.
• Qualify honestly. A call that ends in “does not fit” is a success; it saved weeks.
• Show their problem, not the product tour. A demo that could be given to anyone is a demo for no one.
• Every call ends with a next step and a date, or a clear no. “I’ll send some information” is not a next step.
• Notes in the CRM within the hour, in the template, every time.
• No pricing surprises. The offer and price are said on the demo, the same way every time.

Output

Return the qualification facts, the discovery call structure, the question bank, the call notes template, the demo script, the deck outline, the buying committee variants, the follow-up email template, and the review loop.

If the person has their own marketing brain folder, save to it:

• 4-playbooks/ as sales-calls.md: everything above, as one file
• 3-strategy/messaging.md: any objection or customer phrase that surfaced from the call recordings, appended
• 5-current/decisions-log.md: the date the script went into use

If they do not have one, return the file and suggest it live wherever the sales team keeps its assets. Do not set up a brain unless they ask.

Next: sales-command-center links this script with every other asset on one page. crm-setup turns the notes template into fields. call-mining feeds the review loop.