Updated: 31 October 2026

Sales discovery call questions

This prompt acts as a sales coach. You name the prospect type and your product, and it writes twelve open-ended discovery questions grouped into current situation, pain and impact and the decision process.

text-discovery-call-questions — chatgpt — 60 words

Act as a sales coach. I have a discovery call with [PROSPECT TYPE, e.g. operations head at a logistics firm] about [MY PRODUCT].

Write 12 open-ended discovery questions grouped into: current situation, pain and impact, decision process, budget and timeline. For each group add one follow-up question that digs deeper. Avoid yes/no questions and anything that sounds like a pitch.

Edit in the builder Copy & open ChatGPT ↗Copy & open Gemini ↗Copy & open Claude ↗

Ask only 5 or 6 of them on the call. Silence after an answer often gets the best detail.

Get a better result

What you will get

Twelve open questions in four groups (current situation, pain and impact, decision process, budget and timeline), each group ending with a follow-up that asks for an example, a number or a name.

Why it works

Grouping the questions by stage mirrors how a buyer thinks, from what hurts to who signs. Banning yes or no questions forces open answers, which is where the useful detail comes from. The follow-up per group exists because the first answer to any discovery question is usually polite and vague; the second one is where the real problem shows.

Common mistake

The questions are generic enough for any product.

Fix: Fill in the prospect type with a job title and an industry, and add one line on what your product replaces. The questions then name the work that person really does.

Also watch for

Half the list quietly pitches your product. Questions like “Would it help if you could…” are a pitch in disguise. Ask for them to be cut and replaced with questions about what happens today.
The budget questions come too early and too blunt. Keep budget last, as the prompt orders it, and phrase it around how past purchases were approved rather than asking for a number.

Try a variation: renewal call

Change the call to a renewal with an existing customer and ask for questions about what changed since they bought, who uses it daily and what nearly made them leave.

Still not right? Reply with this

Mark the five questions you would ask if I only had 20 minutes, and rewrite each follow-up so it asks for a recent, specific example.