What Are Discovery Calls in the B2B Industry?

Some calls are more important than others. In the B2B industry, discovery calls are arguably one of the most important types of sales-related calls. They allow you to touch base with prospects. Maybe a prospect sent your B2B company an email, or perhaps a prospect called your B2B company to inquire about a product or service. Regardless, you may want to leverage a discovery call to interact with the prospect.

Discovery Calls Defined: What You Should Know

Discovery calls are sales-related calls with prospects who've expressed some form of interest in a product or service. Prospects can express interest in products and services in different ways. They may email your B2B company, call your B2B company, send your B2B company a private message on social media, use your B2B company's chatbot, etc. Regardless, a discovery call comes after this initial interest.

Discovery Calls vs Cold Calls

Some sales reps assume that discovery calls are the same as cold calls. While they both involve calling prospects, they aren't necessarily the same. Cold calls are sales-related calls with prospects who haven't interacted with your B2B company in the past. Discovery calls, on the other hand, are sales-related calls with prospects who've expressed some form of interest in a product or service.

To express interest in a product or service, prospects must interact with your B2B company. It may not be a two-way interaction. Rather, prospects can express interest in a product or service during a one-way interaction. The bottom line is that discovery calls involve reaching out to prospects who've interacted with your B2B company, whereas cold calls involve reaching out to prospects who haven't interacted with your B2B company.

The Importance of Discovery Calls

Discovery calls are important because they allow you to qualify leads. Research shows that over half of all B2B companies struggle to generate qualified leads. Qualified leads are those that have been vetted. If a lead matches your B2B company's ideal buyer profile, it's safe to qualify the lead. With discovery calls, you can ask prospects questions to determine whether or not to qualify them.

You can use discovery calls to nurture prospects through your B2B company's sales process. Most prospects won't agree to purchase a product or service during their initial interaction with your B2B company. Rather, they require nurturing. Discovery calls offer an opportunity to nurture prospects. You can touch base with prospects while conveying a unique value proposition. Assuming a prospect matches your B2B company's ideal buyer profile, you can follow up with the prospect at a later date as well. 

The Intelligence reports that you get from SalesLeads will go directly into Discovery Calls as we've already identified project(s) at the company. Be sure to utilize the techniques spelled out in this article.