Discovery call: 12 questions that save you from bad projects

A discovery call is where you find out whether a project is worth taking, long before any contract. The questions you ask decide what you learn. The twelve below are grouped by what they reveal, and each group lists the answers that should make you pause. Use them as a list to work from, not a script to read out.

How to run the call

Plan 45 minutes. Allow 5 minutes to open, 3 minutes for each of the 12 questions, and 4 minutes to wrap up. That is 5 + (12 x 3) + 4 = 45 minutes.

Write short notes during the call, using the client's own words where you can. Right after the call, spend 10 minutes tidying them while you remember. A note that says "wants it modern" is less useful than one that says "wants the site to look current next to two named competitors."

Group one: the problem

These questions find out what the project is really for.

1. What is happening now that made you start looking? You want the trigger, not the wish list.
2. What would be different in six months if this went well? This gives you the result in their terms.
3. What have you already tried? Past attempts show what has failed and why.

Red flags: the problem keeps changing during the call; the answer to question two is a task rather than a result; they have tried several times with several suppliers and describe every one as a failure, with no learning attached.

Group two: success and money

These questions find out how they will judge you, and whether the numbers work.

1. How will you know it worked? Ask for something observable.
2. Is there a budget set, and what is the range? Ask directly.
3. What happens if this is not done by your date? This separates real deadlines from preferences.

Red flags: no way to measure success; a budget well below the work, with an expectation that scope will fit anyway; a deadline with no consequence behind it, or one that was set before anyone asked what the work involves.

Group three: people and decisions

These questions find out who will make the project easy or hard.

1. Who decides, and who else will have an opinion? List the names and roles.
2. Who will be your day-to-day contact, and how much time can they give? A project needs answers within days.
3. How did the last project like this get approved? Past process is a clue to future process.

Red flags: the person on the call cannot name the decision maker; five people will give feedback and nobody will consolidate it; the day-to-day contact is already overloaded.

A project with many reviewers needs a plan for feedback. If this group raised concerns, plan that in the proposal rather than hoping.

Group four: working together

These questions find out whether the practical terms will hold.

1. What do you need from us that you did not get from others? This reveals past frustrations.
2. What do you expect us to need from you, and by when? Content, access and approvals are common causes of delay.
3. Is there anything about this project that worries you? Leave a silence after asking. People may add more after a pause.

Red flags: an expectation that you will work without their input; complaints about previous suppliers that are really complaints about scope changes; hesitation about written agreements or deposits.

Send a recap the same day

End the call by saying you will email a short recap. Within a few hours, send three or four lines: the problem as you understood it, the outcome they want, the budget range and the next step with a date. This does two jobs. It lets the client correct any misunderstanding while it is cheap to fix, and it gives you a written record to build the scope from. If they do not reply to the recap, that is also information about how responsive the project will be.

Use the answers

Within a day of the call, sort what you learned into three piles.

• Clear: answers you can write straight into a scope statement.
• Unclear: things you need to confirm by email before you quote.
• Warnings: red flags, with a note on how you would deal with each if you proceed.

Count the warnings. One or two can be managed with a clause or a deposit. Three or more, especially if two are in the money and decision groups, suggest you should either decline or price the extra risk openly.

A common mistake is to ignore the pile of warnings because the project looks interesting. Interesting projects with unclear decision makers and no budget are still bad projects.

Connect the call to your pipeline

A discovery call is the step between a lead and a qualified opportunity. If you want a shorter first pass before booking a full call, how to qualify a lead in ten minutes gives you a five-question screen. Where the call result sits in your stages is covered in pipeline stages: how to define them so everyone agrees.

Calls come from somewhere, and a steady supply helps you decline weak ones without fear. How to find new local clients with a lead search routine shows a weekly habit for that.

Test your estimate straight after

Before you send a proposal, break the work into tasks and milestones, even roughly. If you cannot list the tasks, you did not learn enough on the call. How to break a project into tasks and milestones takes you through it, and gaps found here are cheap to fix with a short follow-up email.

Next step

Choose the three questions from this list that you ask least often. Add them to your next call and note what you hear. After three calls, adjust the list to fit the clients you actually see.