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6 discovery questions that consistently work

Mike Gallardo shares discovery questions that keep calls focused and productive.

Simple, well-placed questions uncover the best insights from deeper conversations:

1.) Start with your intentions

✅ Open discovery by getting straight to the point.

✅ Prospects signed up for your service for a reason.

➤ “What brought you to Acme?”

➤ “What piqued your interest?”

↳ Get prospects talking about reasons for showing up.

2.) Probe their answers further

✅ Don’t accept surface-level answers.

✅ Listen to expand your conversation.

➤ “You mentioned [X]. Can you talk more about that?”

↳ Most people only reveal part of the story at first.

3.) Walk backwards from target

✅ Help your prospect visualize future outcomes with deadlines.

✅ This reveals if they’ve examined your processes beforehand.

➤ “Can you walk me through the steps between now and [target close date] to make this happen?”

↳ Expose their buying process - this shows if deadlines are realistic.

4.) Save your time for next steps

✅ Don’t let your meetings instantly fizzle out.

✅ Protect your time by controlling the clock.

➤ “We’ve got about 8 minutes left. Can we align on next steps?”

↳ Insufficient time always leads to stalled deals.

5.) Use questions to set up demos

✅ Great demos are made using the buyer’s workflow.

✅ Anchor your presentation to how they’re operating.

➤ “What’s your process for X? Can you walk me through it step by step?”

↳ Compare past solutions to your current solutions.

6.) Reveal their decision criteria

✅ You can’t assume what matters most to them.

✅ Ask directly to position yourself as the best fit.

➤ “What would you say are your decision criteria for choosing a partner here?”

↳ Knowing what matters prevents you from guessing later.

Practical strategies for high-ticket discovery

Baaz Virk explains how one discovery framework helped close over $100K in sales without relying on scripts.

Prevents most objections, and gets customers to justify decisions:

Uncover business essentials

Keep everything simple.

All you need to find is:

✔ Current situation

✔ Desired situation

✔ Gap between them

If you can map these, customers are practically telling you how to sell them:

💬 “Walk me through what your process looks like today.”

Follow-up response using:

💬 “If this worked perfectly, what would that look like?”

Finally, probe deeper with:

💬 “What’s getting in the way of moving from A to B?”

Apply strategic frameworks

Don’t allow rigid scripts to confuse you when answers don’t match.

Clarify, and never move forward until you understand what they’ve said.

💬 Example: If they say, “We’ve tried solutions like this before.”

Instead of following the script, ask these instead:

💬 “What happened with those attempts?”

💬 “What made you decide to try again?”

Confront problems directly

💡 Don’t save objections like “we don’t have budget” for later.

💡 Tackle conversations in discovery by surfacing reality early.

💬 Example: If they mention budget concerns, say:

“Sounds like budget might be a challenge. Can we discuss your budget allocated for this?”

Why this, why us, why now?

Structure discovery around three whys.

Make prospects close issues themselves :

➤ Why this – Why do they believe this is a good solution?

➤ Why us – Why are you choosing us over alternatives?

➤ Why now – Why are you solving these problems now?

When prospects answer these, their escape route shuts down:

💬 Example:

“What makes you think this is the right fit versus in-house?”

“Why not stick with your current vendor for another year?”

Examine the problems layer

The gold comes after peeling back more layers.

Don’t be afraid to push with difficult follow-ups.

If a prospect leaves because of hard questions, they weren’t buying anyway.

💬 Example: If they say, “We’re trying to grow,” follow up with: “What happens if you don’t?”

“Who’s under the most pressure if that growth doesn’t happen?”

Search for the “no” decisions

💡 Go into every call anticipating nos, not a yes.

💡 That’s when your actual job of selling begins.

💡 Push back and offer them reasons not to buy.

💡 When doors close, objections can’t resurface.

💬 Example: “Why wouldn’t you do this right now?”

“What would stop you from moving forward even if this looked like the right fit?”

Stop asking about their “biggest challenges”

Marcus Chan breaks down how the worst discovery questions are still being used.

Come in with great questions by explaining their world and problems in a natural way:

Stop asking:

❌ “What are your biggest challenges?”

❌ “What’s keeping you up at night?”

❌ “Where are you struggling right now?”

Why it’s a bad idea:

Asking about their “biggest challenges” backfires.

It feels like an interrogation and gets your prospects defensive, so you only get vague throwaway responses like “optimize processes” or “drive efficiency.”

Explore their situations, not problems

⇒ Frame the discussion as curiosity about how things work.

This lowers your prospect’s guard.

🔑 Better: “Walk me through how you currently handle [specific process].”

When prospects explain workflows, frustrations surface naturally.

No need for customers to “admit” problems themselves.

Use follow-up that reveal pain points

⇒ Transition follow-ups with a people-focused question.

After prospects share, ask them further:

🔑 “How does your team feel about that process?”

Now you’ll hear what really matters: breakdowns, friction.

Shift attention using leadership angles

⇒ Shift attention upward to what leadership values most.

This bridges your conversation with strategic goals.

🔑 Ask: “What’s your boss most worried about this quarter?”

This question connects your deal to executive priorities.

Experiment with priorities and timelines

⇒ Set context around decisions by exploring what might change.

🔑 Probe with:

“What would have to happen for this to become a real priority for your CEO?”

“What would have to go wrong for this project to get delayed or cancelled?”

Uncover decision criteria, budget triggers, and political landmines.

Switch poor questions for better ones

⇒ Reframe your questions into valuable ones.

❌ “What challenges are you experiencing now?”

✔ “What’s the most significant initiative you’re working on?”

❌ “What’s not working?”

✔ “How is leadership measuring success on this?”

Make discovery about their world, not your feature pitch.

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