Yesterday, I connected with a sales rep from a virtual assistant placement company to dive into why they were having low conversion rate.

We role played how that rep did discovery calls and it was clear that the way they approached discovery was a leading factor into their low conversion.

Here are the same best practices that I shared with that rep that I am going to share with all the small business owners, solopreneurs, sales professionals, and founders that is going to read this post.

1. Do your research- know who it is your talking to before you even get on the discovery call with your lead or prospect.

2. Discuss outcomes early- use an up-front contract in the beginning of the call to share what you would like to see happen as next steps if both parties find the call valuable and of alignment.

3. Ask questions- the more questions you ask, the more information you can extract from your lead or prospect to be able to align your solution to the problem they have.

70% of the sale happens in the discovery phase and poor execution leads to wasted time, energy, and money.