1. The Problem
Your top rep closes 60%. Your new hire closes 20%. Same product, same price, completely different pitch. Welcome to sales chaos.
Walk into any sales floor and you'll hear five different versions of the same pitch. One rep leads with features. Another starts with pain points. A third jumps straight to pricing. Your best rep has a discovery framework they perfected over three years. Your new hire is winging it with a half-remembered deck from onboarding. Deals slip through the cracks because nobody asked the right qualifying questions. Objections get mishandled because there's no standard response framework. Follow-ups are inconsistent—some reps send three emails, others send none. The result? Your win rate is a lottery. Your ramp time is six months. Your revenue is unpredictable. And your best reps are burning out trying to coach everyone else while hitting their own quota.
6 months
Average ramp time
New reps take half a year to hit quota because they're learning by trial and error instead of following a proven playbook. That's 26 weeks of lost revenue per hire.
40% variance
In win rates across team
Top performers close at 60%, average reps at 35%, new hires at 20%. Same leads, same product, wildly different outcomes because there's no consistency in approach.
$250K annually
Lost deals per rep
Inconsistent discovery means missed pain points. Poor objection handling means lost closes. Weak follow-ups mean deals go dark. Each rep leaves $250K on the table every year.
"I spent three years building a discovery framework that works. But when I try to teach new reps, they forget half of it by their first call. We don't have time to shadow every deal, so they just wing it and wonder why they're not closing."
— VP of Sales, SaaS company, 8 years leading teams
2. The 11 Building-Block Prompts
Example: 01: Discovery Questions
Generate 15 discovery questions for a sales call with this prospect profile. Questions should uncover: current process pain points, budget authority, decision timeline, technical requirements, and success metrics. Format as a numbered list with brief context for why each question matters. Prospect profile: Company: Mid-market SaaS company, 200 employees Role: VP of Marketing Problem: Manual content creation taking 20+ hours per week Solution we offer: AI content acceleration platform Deal size: $50K annually Output only the questions with context, no preamble.
✅ Generated Output:
✅ Intro Paragraph:
1. Walk me through your current content creation process from idea to published post. (Context: Identifies specific workflow bottlenecks and time sinks) 2. How many hours per week does your team spend on content creation versus strategy and distribution? (Context: Quantifies the pain and establishes ROI baseline) 3. What happens when you need to create content faster than usual—product launch, event, crisis response? (Context: Reveals breaking points and urgency triggers) 4. Who else on your team is involved in content decisions, and what's their biggest frustration with the current process? (Context: Uncovers additional stakeholders and their pain points) 5. If you could wave a magic wand and fix one thing about content creation, what would it be? (Context: Surfaces the core emotional pain beyond just time savings) 6. What content tools have you tried before, and why did they not stick? (Context: Identifies objections before they surface and positions against past failures) 7. How do you currently measure content performance, and what metrics matter most to leadership? (Context: Aligns solution to their success criteria and reporting needs) 8. What's your budget approval process, and who needs to sign off on a $50K annual investment? (Context: Maps decision-making structure and timeline) 9. If we could reduce content creation time by 70%, what would your team do with those extra hours? (Context: Paints vision of future state and gets them emotionally invested) 10. What's your timeline for making a decision, and what needs to happen between now and then? (Context: Establishes urgency and next steps) 11. On a scale of 1-10, how critical is solving this problem in the next 90 days? (Context: Qualifies urgency and prioritization) 12. What concerns do you have about AI-generated content—quality, brand voice, accuracy? (Context: Surfaces objections early so you can address them proactively) 13. How would you define success for this solution six months after implementation? (Context: Sets clear success metrics and expectations) 14. Who on your team would be the primary users, and what's their comfort level with new tools? (Context: Identifies adoption challenges and training needs) 15. If we move forward, what would prevent this from getting implemented successfully? (Context: Uncovers hidden obstacles and risks before they derail the deal)
✅ Meta Description:
Why this works: Generic discovery questions get generic answers. These questions are layered—each one builds context for the next, uncovers pain at emotional and operational levels, and qualifies budget, authority, need, and timeline (BANT) without sounding like a checklist. The 'context' notes train reps on why each question matters, so they know what to listen for. // Try it now: Copy this prompt into ChatGPT or Claude. Replace the prospect profile with a real deal you're working. Use these questions on your next discovery call and watch how much deeper you go than 'Tell me about your challenges.'
3. Your 10-Minute Quick Win
Test the Discovery Prompt Today
Pick one deal. Generate custom questions. Use them on your next call.
You don't need to overhaul your entire sales process today. Start with the Discovery Questions prompt. Pick one deal you're working—ideally a prospect you're meeting with this week. Copy the prompt from Section 2, replace the example prospect profile with your real deal details (company size, role, problem, solution, deal size), and run it. You'll get 15 custom discovery questions in 30 seconds. Read through them. Pick your top 10. Add them to your call notes. Then use them on your next discovery call and watch what happens. You'll go deeper than 'Tell me about your challenges.' You'll uncover pain points you didn't know existed. You'll qualify budget, authority, need, and timeline without sounding like you're reading from a script. And your prospect will feel heard—because you're asking questions that actually matter to their situation. That's the power of a proven playbook. Every question is designed to uncover something specific. Every question builds on the last. And every question moves the deal forward. Do this once, and you'll never go back to winging it.
Pick a Real Deal
Choose a deal you're working this week. Write down: company size, prospect's role, their main problem, your solution, and deal size. Be specific—'VP of Marketing at 200-person SaaS company struggling with manual content creation, evaluating $50K annual platform.'
Run the Prompt
Copy the Discovery Questions prompt from Section 2. Replace the example prospect profile with your real deal details. Paste into ChatGPT or Claude. Hit enter.
Prep Your Call
Read through the 15 questions. Pick your top 10 based on what you already know about the deal. Add them to your call notes or CRM. Reorder them so they flow naturally—start with easy questions, build to harder ones.
Run the Call
Use the questions on your next discovery call. Don't read them verbatim—use them as a guide. Listen to the answers. Follow up on interesting points. Let the conversation flow naturally, but make sure you hit the key questions.
Compare Results
After the call, compare what you learned to your typical discovery calls. Did you uncover more pain points? Did you qualify budget/authority/timeline more clearly? Did the prospect open up more? That's the difference between winging it and using a proven framework.
Winging It
Generic questions → surface-level answers
- Ask the same questions on every call
- Miss critical pain points and objections
- Don't qualify budget/authority/timeline
- Prospects give short, guarded answers
- Deals stall because you don't have enough info
Using the Playbook
Custom questions → deep insights
- 15 questions tailored to this specific deal
- Uncover emotional and operational pain
- Qualify BANT without sounding like a checklist
- Prospects open up because questions show you get it
- Deals move forward because you have clear next steps
By The Numbers
10 min
To prep a world-class discovery call
3x deeper
Insights vs generic questions
15 questions
Custom to your deal in 30 seconds
Using This Manually?
Imagine this running 24/7, integrated with your CRM, auto-generating playbooks for every deal stage.