Sales discovery questions: a B2B question bank, with an industry research step

Good sales discovery questions ask a buyer to describe what they did recently, what it cost and who was involved. They avoid questions that invite a guess, such as "Would you use this?" The best question bank is useless if you do not understand the buyer's industry, so this page starts with a short research step and then gives the questions, grouped by what you need to learn.

For how to structure the call itself, including the agenda and follow-up, see how to run a discovery call. For product research interviews rather than sales calls, see customer interview questions.

A worked example: maintenance software for waste haulers

Suppose you sell software that schedules preventive maintenance for garbage and recycling trucks. Your first calls are with fleet and operations managers at private waste hauling companies. You have never worked in waste management. This example is hypothetical and used throughout the page.

Step 1: Learn the industry for 45 minutes before the first call

Industry knowledge changes which questions you ask and how the buyer hears them. A buyer who has to explain basic terms will often keep the conversation shallow. Spend 45 minutes on three things:

1. Name the industry precisely. Look it up in the NAICS search on the Census Bureau site. NAICS is the standard federal statistical agencies use to classify business establishments. The exact industry name helps you find trade associations, government data and the right peers.
2. Read how a public company in the industry describes itself. Use the SEC's EDGAR search tools to find a public company in the same industry and read its 10-K. Investor.gov explains that Item 1 describes the business and markets, Item 1A lists the most significant risks, generally in order of importance, and Item 7 gives management's view of results. Note the words the company uses for its work and the risks it worries about. In the example, you might see fuel, labor and regulatory costs. Treat these as topics to raise, not facts about your prospect.
3. Talk to one or two people who do the work. A 15-minute conversation with a fleet maintenance manager at a company you are not selling to will teach you the vocabulary faster than reading. Industry research has a fuller one-week plan.

Write a one-page note: how the industry makes money, the three to five problems people mention most often, and the words insiders use for them. Then adapt the questions below.

Questions about the current process

These open the call and let the buyer talk about familiar ground.

• "Walk me through how a truck gets scheduled for maintenance today."
• "Who decides when a truck comes off the route, and how do they know?"
• "What tools or spreadsheets does that involve?"
• "How long has it worked this way?"

Questions about problems and what they cost

Ask for the most recent example, then its consequences.

• "Tell me about the last time a truck broke down on a route."
• "What happened to the route that day?"
• "What did it cost, in overtime, rental trucks, missed pickups or customer complaints?"
• "How often does something like that happen in a month?"

If the buyer cannot remember a recent case, the problem may be less painful than you assumed. That is useful to know.

Questions about what they have already tried

• "What have you tried to fix this?"
• "What did you like and dislike about it?"
• "Why did you stop, or why are you still using it?"

These answers name your real competition, which is often a spreadsheet or an extra hire, and tell you which objections to expect.

Questions about timing and change

On its B2B buying journey page, Gartner says its research shows 99% of B2B purchases are driven by organizational changes. Look for the change.

• "What made this worth a conversation now?"
• "Is anything changing this year, such as new contracts, new sites or new regulations?"
• "What happens if nothing changes for the next six months?"

Questions about people and decisions

• "Who else is affected when a truck goes down?"
• "Who would need to agree before you changed how maintenance is scheduled?"
• "How did the last purchase like this get approved?"
• "Who would use a new system every day?"

How to interview B2B users, buyers and champions explains how to map these roles without assuming authority from a job title.

Questions that define success

• "If this worked well a year from now, what would be different?"
• "How would you measure it?"
• "What would make you decide this was a mistake?"

Rewrite the questions that invite guesses

Rob Fitzpatrick's book The Mom Test is about asking questions that produce reliable answers even when people are inclined to be polite. The table applies that idea to sales questions.

Pick eight, not forty

You will not ask every question. Pick one or two from each group, put them in the order above and leave half the call for follow-ups such as "What happened next?" and "Can you give me an example?" After each call, mark which questions produced specific answers and replace the ones that did not.

Your next step

Do the 45-minute industry step before your next call and write the one-page note. If you have no one in the industry to ask, Instant Expert can find people who match a description, such as "fleet maintenance managers at private waste haulers." You review who it finds, it sends your invitations, and you pay only for calls that get booked. The directory pages for operations professionals in waste management and procurement professionals in waste management are one place to start.