Fact find first. Close with their own words.
This is the sheet you run on every discovery call. Every answer you capture here is a bullet you can fire back when you present the proposal. If a section is blank, you are guessing later.
01Set up
Call details
02Two minutes, no more
Qualify fast
If two or more red flags come up here, shorten the call and do not book a presentation. Your hour is worth more than their curiosity.
Red flags
Tick anything you hear. Be honest, the sheet is for you.
03Say this first
The opener
This buys you permission, sets the agenda, and makes the close on the next call feel normal instead of pushy.
Permission and agenda
Frame the call before you ask a single question
"Thanks for taking the call. I am not going to pitch you anything today. What I would like to do is spend fifteen minutes understanding how you get work in at the moment and where it is falling over. If I think we can help, I will put together a proper plan and walk you through it. If I do not think we can help, I will tell you that too. Does that sound fair?"
Then, before the first business question: "Just so I know who I am building this for, other than yourself, is there anyone else involved in a decision like this? A partner, or a business partner?"
Write the answer into section 02. That one question kills most of the stalls in section 13 before they ever happen.
04Context
The business as it stands
You cannot sell growth until you know what growth of the right kind looks like for them.
05The reason they will buy
Where it hurts
Rank the pain. The proposal gets built around number one, and number one is whatever they said with the most heat in their voice.
06Lead to job
Enquiry flow
Where leads come from, what happens to them, and how many are quietly dying in an inbox.
07Can they cope
Capacity to scale
Never sell volume into a business that cannot deliver it. If they cannot cope, the campaign becomes your fault by month three.
08People
Staff and delivery
Staff pain is usually the emotional reason they buy, even when the stated reason is leads.
09Turn cost into return
The numbers
These four figures turn the proposal from a cost into a return. Get them even if they are rough.
10What we have to beat
Their competitors
Who they lose to tells you what the proposal has to beat.
11Ask while it is friendly
Decision process
Asking this at the close sounds like pressure. Asking it now sounds like planning.
Say this
Map the yes before you build the plan
"Let me ask you this now so I do not waste your time later. If I put a plan in front of you and you look at it and think, that is exactly what we need, what happens from there? Who else needs to see it, and how long does something like this usually take to get a yes or a no?"
12Their definition, not ours
What good looks like
This becomes the opening line of the proposal and the measure in every report.
13Open the one you are hearing
Objection and stall playbook
Written to be said out loud on the phone. The pattern never changes: agree, isolate, ask, lock. You never argue.
01
"I need to think about it."
Stall
What it usually means
Almost never that they need thinking time. It is one of four things: they do not see the value, the money scared them, there is no urgency, or they are not the person who decides and do not want to admit it. You cannot handle a stall you have not named.
Say this
"Absolutely, this is not a decision to rush and I would not want you to. Can I ask you one thing though, just so I know I have explained it properly. When you say you want to think about it, is it the fit you are weighing up, the money, or the timing?"
Then stop talking. Whatever they pick, you are now in a real conversation instead of a dead end.
If they say the fit
"Fair enough. Which part are you not sure about? Because if I have not shown you clearly how this fixes the [pain number one] problem, that is on me, not you."
If they say the money
"So if the money worked, you would be comfortable going ahead? Good. Let us look at it against what the problem is costing you. You told me you are losing about [cost of the problem] a month on this. What are we actually deciding here, whether to spend the money, or whether it comes back?"
If they say the timing
"What changes between now and then? Because if the answer is nothing changes, we are just having this same call in six weeks with six weeks of lost work behind us. If something real does change, tell me what it is and I will build the plan to start when you are ready."
Then lock it
"Here is what I will do. Take the week, and let us put fifteen minutes in the diary for Thursday at ten so you can tell me yes, no, or what you need changed. Does ten work, or is two better?"
Never
- Say "sure, give me a call when you are ready." You have just handed the deal to whoever calls them next.
- Fill the silence after you ask fit, money or timing. Let it sit.
- Discount to break a think about it. It confirms the price was made up.
02
"I need to talk to my wife." (or husband, or partner)
Third party
What it usually means
Two possibilities, handled very differently. Either it is genuine, because it is family money and a real conversation has to happen, or it is a polite exit. You find out by asking whether the partner would be for it or against it. Genuine ones answer straight away. Exits go vague.
Either way, do not fight it. A business owner who will not consult their partner on a spend like this is not the sort of client we want anyway.
Say this
"Of course, and honestly I would expect nothing less. Most of the owners I deal with make this sort of call together. Let me ask you though, when you sit down with her tonight, do you think she will be for it or against it?"
If they say she will be for it, go to the lock. If they hesitate, ask what she will be worried about and handle that objection instead. You have just been handed the real one.
"What would she want to know that I have not covered?"
Get everyone in the room
"Here is what I would suggest, and it is only because I do not want you having to defend my proposal for me. Rather than you going home and trying to remember the numbers, would it be easier if I jumped on a quick call with the two of you? Fifteen minutes, she can ask me anything directly, and nobody is hearing it second hand. Is she around tomorrow evening, or is Saturday morning easier?"
If they will not put you on with the partner, arm the champion
They are now presenting for you, so they need to be able to. Give them exactly three things and no more, slowly enough to be written down.
- The problem in one line, in their own words from section 05.
- The number, what it costs and what it should return.
- The risk answer, what happens if it does not work and how they get out.
"Do me one favour. When you talk to her tonight, do not lead with the price. Lead with what it is costing us to leave it alone. If she asks what happens if it does not work, tell her exactly this: [the review point, the reporting, the get out]. And if she has a question you cannot answer, do not guess, just tell her the bloke on the phone said to call him. I will take the call."
Never
- Imply they need permission. "You can make this call yourself, can't you" loses the deal and the respect.
- Let them go without a set time to speak again. "I will chat to her and get back to you" is the sound of a dead lead.
- Send the proposal and hope the partner reads it. Nobody reads a proposal they did not sit through.
03
"I need to run it past my business partner."
Third party
What it usually means
A different animal to the spouse objection. A spouse argues about risk and household money. A business partner argues about numbers, priorities and who is accountable if it fails. Often the partner is the sceptic and your contact is the champion, which means your proposal is about to be presented by someone who cannot answer the hard questions.
Also worth knowing: sometimes the business partner does not exist. It is a shield. You find out when you ask for their name and a time.
Say this
"Makes sense, you would not make a call like this on your own. What is his name? And where does he usually sit on marketing spend, is he the one pushing for growth or the one watching the bank account?"
The answer tells you which version of the pitch the partner needs. A growth partner wants the upside. A money partner wants the downside covered.
"What is the first thing he is going to say when you tell him?"
Get on the call with both
"Rather than you having to sell my plan to him, let me do that part. Get him on a call with us for fifteen minutes and he can put me on the spot with whatever he wants to ask. If he pokes a hole in it, better we find it now than in three months. What day are you both in the office together?"
If the partner will not join
- Send a one page summary, never the full proposal alone. Full proposals get skim read and price shopped.
- Give your contact the answer to the exact objection they predicted above.
- Set your follow up for the morning after their next partner meeting, and ask when that meeting is.
"When are you two next sitting down together? Right, so I will call you the morning after that, Wednesday at nine. If he has questions I have not covered, put them in an email before then and I will come with the answers."
Never
- Go around your contact and call the partner directly. You will lose the champion.
- Accept "I will talk to him" without a date for that conversation and a date for yours.
- Let a proposal be presented in a partner meeting you are not in unless you have armed them properly.
04
"Just send me some information."
Stall
What it usually means
Nine times out of ten it is a polite way to end the call. Information does not sell anything, a conversation does. But you cannot refuse to send anything either, so you trade.
Say this
"Happy to. Only thing is, if I send you a generic pack it will tell you what we do for everyone and nothing about your business, so you will read it and bin it. Give me ten minutes now on how you get work in, and what I send you will actually be about you. Fair?"
"And I will send it on one condition: that we get five minutes on the phone once you have read it, so it does not just sit in your inbox. What suits, Tuesday or Wednesday?"
Never
- Send anything without a booked time to discuss it.
- Send a full proposal as "information". It gets forwarded to the cheapest competitor.
05
"That is too expensive." / "Can you do it cheaper?"
Money
What it usually means
Too expensive compared to what? Either they have a cheaper quote, or they do not yet believe the return. Almost never that they cannot afford it. Find out which before you touch the price, and do not touch the price at all if you can avoid it.
Say this
"When you say too expensive, is it more than you had in mind, or more than someone else has quoted you?"
More than they had in mind
"What did you have in mind? Right, so we are [the gap] apart. Let us look at what that gap buys, because at [average job value] a job, one extra job a month covers the whole thing and everything after that is yours."
Someone else quoted cheaper
"Good, you should be comparing. Can I ask what is in theirs? Because the cheap ones are cheap for a reason and it is normally one of three: no strategy, junior staff on your account, or no reporting so you never find out it is not working. Which of those are you comfortable with?"
If you have to move
Never cut the fee and keep the scope. Reduce the scope or stage the start, and take something in return: a longer initial term, a case study, an introduction, a faster start date.
"I cannot do the same work for less, that would not be fair on the clients paying full price. What I can do is start with [the narrower scope] and bring the rest in once it is paying for itself. That gets you moving at [the lower figure]. Do you want me to build it that way?"
Never
- Discount unprompted, and never discount twice.
- Defend the price before you know what it is being compared to.
06
"Not right now. Call me after the new financial year."
Timing
Say this
"No problem. What is happening between now and then that makes then better than now?"
"Here is my only concern. You told me you are [their pain] right now. If we start in three months, you are not seeing results in three months, you are seeing them in five or six, because this takes a run up. So the quiet stretch you are worried about is the one we would be working through. Would it not be better to have it building in the background while you get on with the busy season?"
Lock the diary either way
"Fine, let us do it properly then. I am putting you in for the second week of July, and between now and then I will send you the one thing I would fix for free in the meantime. Deal?"
Never
- Accept a vague month. Get a date in the diary or it never happens.
07
"We already have an agency." / "We do it in-house."
Incumbent
Say this
"Good, that is better than starting from nothing. How long have you been with them, and are you happy?"
"When they report to you each month, do they tell you how many enquiries came in and how many turned into jobs, or just clicks and impressions?"
If they cannot answer the second question, you have your opening. That is not a competitor, that is a supplier they are paying out of habit.
The low risk ask
"I am not asking you to sack anyone. What I would do is this: let me look over what is running now and tell you straight whether it is working. If it is, I will tell you to stay where you are. If it is not, at least you will know. That costs you nothing but half an hour. Worth it?"
Never
- Slag off the incumbent. They chose them, so it insults their judgement. Let the numbers do it.
08
"I have been burnt before." / "You lot all say the same thing."
Trust
Say this
"I do not blame you. Tell me what happened. Who was it, and where did it fall apart?"
Let them vent all of it. Take notes. Then repeat their own list back as your commitments, and put them in the proposal as terms.
"So what I am hearing is: you could never get anyone on the phone, you had no idea what they were doing, and the reports were meaningless. Right. Then those are the three things I am going to promise you in writing, and if I break any one of them you can walk. Does that sound like the opposite of what you had?"
Then de-risk
Offer whatever risk reducer we can actually stand behind: a short initial term, a clear review point, a named contact, and monthly reporting on jobs won rather than clicks.
09
"I want to get a few other quotes."
Process
Say this
"Sensible. Who else are you talking to? And what will you be comparing, because most of these proposals are not comparable and the cheapest one will always look the best on paper."
"Can I give you three questions to ask all of them? One, who will actually be doing the work day to day and can I meet them. Two, what exactly will you report to me each month. Three, what happens if it does not work. Ask us all the same three and the differences will be obvious. Then call me last."
Lock the last word
"When do you expect to have them all in? Right, I will call you the Thursday after that. I want to be the last conversation you have before you decide."
10
"We are flat out already, we cannot take on more work."
Capacity
What it usually means
This one is often true, and it is a real finding rather than a dodge. Do not push volume. Change the conversation to margin, mix and price.
Say this
"Then let us not talk about more work. Let us talk about better work. If you are flat out, you are in the strongest position you will ever be in to be picky. What if the same number of enquiries came in, but the low margin jobs stopped calling and the [best margin service] ones did? Would that be worth having?"
"And when the busy season ends, what does the pipeline look like? Because that is the quiet stretch we would be filling."
11
"Leave it with me, I will let you know."
Authority
Say this
"No worries. Just so I am not chasing you, when you say you will let me know, are you leaning towards a yes, a no, or genuinely undecided?"
"And if it is undecided, what is the one thing that would tip it either way?"
Never
- Accept "I will let you know" as an outcome. Get the leaning, get the reason, get the date.
12
The trial close, use it before you get any of the above
Close
Halfway through the presentation
"Before I go any further, how does that sit with you so far? Is that the sort of thing you were hoping for, or is it off the mark?"
Before you talk price
"Putting the money to one side for a second, is this the right plan for the problem?"
Get a yes here and price becomes a negotiation. Skip it and price becomes a rejection.
The close itself
"So we agreed the problem is [their pain, their words], this plan fixes it, and the numbers stack up. Is there anything else you need from me before we get started?"
14Log it while it is fresh
Objections raised on this call
The most useful thing you can hand over before the presentation call, and what the next rep needs if you are away.
15Read this out on the close call
The ammunition
Their words, their numbers, their reasons. When you quote a prospect back to themselves, there is nothing left to argue with.
16Before you hang up
Lock the next step
No date, no time, no names, no deal. Fill this in while they are still on the phone.