Turn a discovery call into a qualification scorecard.
“Did I actually qualify that call, or did I just have a nice conversation?”
Runs your call against your qualification framework, captures the deal, and names the gaps you still have to fill.
What this skill does
Takes what you learned on a discovery call and lays it out on a qualification framework, one field at a time. It captures the problem in the buyer's words, the impact and quantified pain, how they actually buy, who signs, and who is fighting for you inside. Then it does the part reps skip: it names what you still do not know and what to ask next.
Inputs
- Works today with: your notes, a transcript, or a rough recap you paste in. Even bullet points work. The skill maps them onto the framework and shows the holes.
- More powerful connected to a meeting or transcription tool: it reads the call directly, pulls the buyer's own quotes, and stops you from scoring pain you only imagined.
- Sharper connected to a CRM: it writes each field back to the opportunity and checks the qualification against the stage the deal claims.
How it works
- 1Score every field, name every gap
Each framework field gets one of three states: EARNED (the buyer said it, and you can quote it), ASSUMED (you inferred it, not confirmed), or MISSING. Assumed and missing are the deal risk. The output leads with them, not with the fields you already have.
- 2Problem before solution
Capture the problem in the buyer's language first, before any product talk. If you cannot write the problem as a sentence the buyer would agree with, you do not have discovery, you have a pitch.
- 3Quantify the pain
Pain without a number is a nice-to-have. Push for the metric: hours lost, dollars leaking, deals slipping, the cost of the status quo. If the number is not there yet, mark it MISSING and make it the next call's job. An illustrative example: "roughly 6 hours a week per rep on manual list building" is a quantified pain, "it is a pain" is not.
- 4Decision process and economic buyer
Map how they buy, not just who likes you. Who signs, what the steps are, what has killed a deal like this before, whether you have met the person who controls the budget. Liking you is not access.
- 5Champion versus contact
A contact takes your call. A champion sells for you when you are not there and has something to gain if this lands. Test it: have they given you something that cost them anything, an intro, a proof point, an internal date. If not, mark champion ASSUMED.
Output format
DISCOVERY SCORECARD · illustrative deal
Field State What we have
Metrics (pain) EARNED ~6 hrs/wk/rep on manual prospecting
Economic Buyer ASSUMED VP Sales named, not yet met
Decision Criteria EARNED Must cut ramp time, integrate with CRM
Decision Process MISSING No steps, no timeline captured
Identified Pain EARNED Reps miss quota in first two quarters
Champion ASSUMED Enthusiastic, no action taken yet
Competition MISSING Not asked
Top gaps to close next call:
1. Decision process. Get the actual steps and dates to signature.
2. Meet the economic buyer. A named VP you have not met is not access.
3. Test the champion. Ask for one internal intro and see what happens.
Tips
- No field scored EARNED without a quote or a specific fact behind it.
- Quantified pain is a number with a unit, or it is MISSING, never "significant."
- Champion is not marked real until they have taken one action for you unprompted.
- The gap list is ranked by deal impact, not by framework order.
Build a demo that maps to the buyer's problems.
Maps every feature you plan to show to a problem the buyer actually stated, and cuts what does not map.
Give the deal a dated path to signature.
Builds a close plan with the champion: milestones, owners, dates, and exit criteria, written to send.