#77: The Talk Track Used By 400+ Startups To Qualify Deals

Read Time: 4 min

Today, I will discuss the most critical part of your sales process.

The discovery.

If you get this right, you are 80% of the way to the close. If you fail to execute this correctly, you’ll lose deals consistently and have no idea why they ghost.

One of the biggest challenges founders come to us with is: “We keep losing deals at the BOFU (bottom of the funnel). We walk them through a demo and never hear back.”

Why does this happen? Because they weren’t qualified correctly. Period. The goal of a discovery call is to identify two things. (1) Do they have problems, and do you have a product that solves them? (2) How painful are those problems? Pain is motivation. Are they motivated? If not, they’re not closing, regardless of how good you think your product is. When the pain of their current situation is greater than the pain of taking action, they buy. The goal of a discovery is to identify are they a broken leg or a bum knee. The former closes—the latter ghosts.

The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.

~Warren Buffett

Let’s break down how Rampd trains our clients to qualify. There are five steps in a discovery talk track that need to be executed. Let’s take a look at each.

5 Steps to execute:

1. Preamble

2. Identifying BANT

3. Recap Pain Points

4. About Us

5. Schedule Demo

Step 1: Preamble

The preamble is designed to do two things. (1) Control the conversation by conveying you’re the authority. People come to you because they believe you’re the professional who can help solve their problem(s). You need to convey that authority throughout the process. (2) Provide visibility into what they can expect as they walk through the buying process. Here’s what it looks like.

Hey [Prospect's Name], thanks for taking the time to connect today. I’m really excited to learn more about [Prospect's Company] and see how we can help with your [key challenge based on research].

How are things going on your end?

<Let them answer>

Great! I know you're busy, so if that works for you, let’s jump right into it.

Perfect. Just so we're on the same page, this call is focused on understanding your current approach to [problem your company solves] and exploring how we might help you address that. If it makes sense, the next step would be to set up a customized demo to walk you through our solution. From there, we can get you on a pilot to validate the tech and discuss the next steps and scaling up.

Does that sound good?

Step 2: Identifying BANT

Identifying bant is about asking specific questions to get the information you need to qualify leads into revenue opportunities. Here’s what it looks like.

Current Process:

How are you currently managing [problems your company solves]? What tools, processes, or systems are in place today?

Challenges:

What are some of the most significant pain points you’re experiencing with your current approach? Are there specific bottlenecks or issues impacting your team’s performance or efficiency?

Scalability and Efficiency:

As [Prospect's Company] grows, how are you ensuring your processes scale effectively? Are there areas where you’d like to improve efficiency or reduce costs? What does that look like?

Risk and Compliance:

Are there any specific risks or compliance requirements you’re concerned about, whether it's industry standards, regulations, or security? How are you currently addressing these?

Budget:

Typically, our solution is priced based on [pricing model: flat fee, usage-based, etc.], with a range of [price range] depending on the scope and volume. Does that align with your current budget for [solution area]?

Timing:

If this solution is the right fit for you, what is your ideal timeline for implementation? Are you looking to move quickly, or is this part of a longer-term plan?

Step 3: Recap Pain Points

Recapping pain points conveys to your prospect that you listened profoundly and you are aligned with what they shared. Here’s an example.

Thanks for sharing that! To recap, it sounds like your main challenges are:

• [Summarize key pain points mentioned by prospect]

• [Summarize pain point 2]

• [Summarize pain point 3]

Does that sound about right? Anything I missed or that you’d like to add?

Step 4: About Us

Now that you’ve listened and understood them, you can share how your product specifically solves the use cases they just shared. This should be no more than two minutes of information. The goal is to get them excited to hear a full demo. Here’s an example.

Great! Let me share how [Your Company Name] can help address the challenges you’ve outlined.

[Your Company Name] provides [brief description of your product/service], which is designed to [list key benefits that solve the prospect’s pain points]. Here's how we do it:

1. [Benefit #1]: [Explanation of how your product solves pain point 1].

2. [Benefit #2]: [Explanation of how your product solves pain point 2].

3. [Benefit #3]: [Explanation of how your product solves pain point 3].

Our solution has helped companies like [Customer Example] achieve [measurable results or outcomes], and we’d love to help you do the same.

What questions do you have about how our solution works or how it can fit into your current processes?

Step 5: Schedule Demo

You must book the demo on the call. No follow-up on email BS. If they can’t commit to a day and time scheduled on the calendar, tell them you can put a placeholder on the calendar for the next steps. They can do so if they need to add people or reschedule, but at least we have the next steps scheduled. Here’s an example.

The next step is to set up a personalized demo so we can demonstrate exactly how [Your Company Name] will solve the challenges we’ve discussed today.

It’s important that all key decision-makers are on the call, but if that’s not possible, we can always record it to share with them.

Does that work for you?

Awesome, I’m available [propose 1-2 dates]. Which of these works best for you?

Study this and use it. It will change the game for you. After you get this dialed in, you’ll never look at sales the same way again. We can help.

That’s it for today!

See you all next week.

Darren

P.S. If you’re interested in coaching, you can book a call with me here

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