Top Solution Selling Discovery Questions for B2B Sales Reps

Sales strategies have evolved beyond heavy-handed pitches and outdated tactics. The days of being able sell by boasting about your product while undercutting competitors are long gone. Your B2B prospects are more informed than ever before, and your sales reps need to do more than focus on how impressive your offering is. Potential clients can figure that information out on their own. What your team should prioritize is the needs of the customer.

Cue solution selling.

This sales strategy differs significantly from old-school sales tactics, leaning heavily on addressing your prospect’s pain points and goals. Of course, your sales reps aren’t mind readers! Before diving headfirst into solution selling, they need to make sales discovery calls and ask the right questions to gain insight, build trust, and develop the ideal sales strategy.

How Is Solution Selling Different Than Other Strategies?

Solution selling is a master class in empathy. As is clear from the name, you’re selling a solution! It’s a far cry from the product-focused strategies of yesteryear. With solution selling, your reps go beyond a surface-level sales pitch. They must dig deep into what your customers truly need.

You’re offering an answer to their specific frustrations and challenges, painting a picture that makes your product or service feel like a must-buy. It’s about building trust and developing a rapport that’s more meaningful than small talk. When your reps understand what buyers need, you can perfectly frame your goods, offer a seemingly custom solution, and provide the support that makes all the difference. Suddenly, your company is more than a provider. It’s a valuable partner they can turn to again in the future.

Ultimately, solution selling is different because it shifts the emphasis on your products toward creating a solution to the buyer’s unique needs.

Why Is the Discovery Call So Important in This Strategy?

There's no one-size-fits-all approach to solution selling. Every potential B2B client your reps speak to will have distinct challenges and pain points to overcome. That’s why discovery calls are the most important conversation in the sales process. Your salesforce can’t employ this strategy until they build a personal connection, learn about a prospect’s pain points, and get insight from critical decision-makers.

A good discovery call can set your people up for success. The conversation they have during that first call can equip them with the knowledge they need to develop a fantastic pitch. It’s the first stage of the buyer’s journey and can put customers on their way to realizing that you have the best solution available.

Add These Solution-Focused Questions to Your Discovery Call Script

Rapport building isn’t easy, and every new potential customer your team talks to will bring a unique sales experience. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a systematic approach and winning sales script. There’s an art to collecting valuable information while building trust. The goal is to lend a helpful ear, encourage potential customers to open up, and ask the right questions to keep moving through the sales funnel. Add these open-ended questions to your discovery script to help your salesforce succeed in solution selling.

Tell Me About the Future of Your Company

This question seems straightforward at face value, but it’s one of the best questions to encourage prospects to think about how they envision their company’s success. With this information, your sales reps can position their sales pitch within the context of the client's ideal future. There’s always a drive to do better, make more money, and achieve success. A good discovery call will encourage B2B prospects to be candid about those details.

Your reps shouldn’t flat-out ask the potential buyer to tell them about the company. Whether this is a cold call or the contact came from an inbound lead, best practices say your reps should do their homework before making a discovery call. This question is more nuanced, opening the gates for deeper conversation and connection.

What Are Your Goals as a Company? How Can I Help? 

It’s always a good idea to be upfront and inquire about goals. Not only does this help your team develop a solution-selling strategy, but it can also help with lead qualification. As a sales leader, you know that trying to sell to someone who doesn’t need your goods is an uphill battle. If your product or service isn’t a viable solution for the prospect’s needs, you can move on to another lead.

But if what you’re offering does fit the bill, reps can learn why, how, and when. Asking about how your business can help encourages buyers to be forthright about what they really need from you.

Let’s Talk About Your Role and Your Personal Goals. How Can I Help? 

Here’s another multifaceted question that serves more than one purpose. On the one hand, it encourages the buyer to speak more about what goals they’re trying to achieve. It’s less about the company’s needs and more about this individual's needs. They might want to make changes or go above and beyond expectations. Your reps can determine how to make that happen with their solution-focused pitch.

On the other hand, it helps ensure that reps are talking to decision-makers. It’s another qualifier that plays into the BANT (budget, authority, need, and timeline) framework. There’s a much better chance of closing a deal when you’re working with the person responsible for purchasing decisions. When used well, this question can turn the prospect in a champion for your product.

If Everything Went Perfectly This Year, What Would That Look Like? 

Now you’re asking the prospect to tell you what their perfect outcome would be. It jumps straight over the solution and gets to the ideal outcome. This question aims to pull more information about what the buyer wants, allowing your reps to work backward until they find the answer to their problems: you!

What Obstacles Are Standing in the Way of This Ideal Outcome?

As your reps learn more about the perfect outcome, they can inquire about the obstacles preventing that from happening at this current moment. It’s peeling back the layers and continuing to work backward. You have the solution but need to figure out the other parts of the equation.

This discovery call question aims to create a deeper dialogue, pushing the buyer to get into specifics about what’s standing in their way.

Why Are These Obstacles and Outcomes an Immediate Priority?

Knowing why this B2B discovery call is happening now matters. Not only does it help to qualify the lead further, but your reps can also gain more insight into the buyer’s timeline and what issues are forcing them to inquire now.

Maybe the obstacles are on the verge of creating big headaches for the client shortly. Those details are good to know, because they help your reps form an impactful pitch that counts.

If You Found the Perfect Product/Service, How Would You Know?

Here’s another good question that turns things back on the prospect. Instead of pushing information at them, you’re asking the customer to tell your reps precisely what they need. It asks them to detail how they determine that a solution is the right one, putting valuable information in the hands of your team.

What Is Your Timeline and Budget for Achieving the Perfect Solution?

This discovery question is another critical qualifier. Budget and timeline are two significant factors that are often out of the prospect’s hands. While you can’t change those aspects of the sale, your reps can use them to their advantage.

Knowing what budget the customer is working with helps narrow down potential solutions. The same goes for understanding when that solution needs to be available. Timeline insight also helps paint a picture of where the customer is in the buying process. Are they too pressed for time to go through your entire sales process, or are they months away from making a decision, leading to the possibility of them looking at your competitors? Your team will figure those answers out with this question.

What Prompted Your Interest in Our Product/Service as a Solution?

The last question in your script should revolve around what piqued the prospect’s interest in your particular product or service. What made this potential B2B client explore further, leading to the discovery sales call?

Like other questions we covered, this one encourages buyers to explain the details they already like about your offering. Knowing what sparked their curiosity can help reps develop their pitch further and determine what angle they should take when providing a solution.

Enable Your Sales Reps to Connect With Customers and Sell Effectively 

Solution selling is a game-changing approach that can help your team surpass sales targets. When your reps don’t focus solely on how great your product or service is, they can work with prospects and develop a much stronger professional connection. At the end of the day, B2B sales are about finding the most practical and cost-effective way to solve problems. Your team can be a part of that problem-solving endeavor, recommending solutions that lead to triumphant sales moments. It all starts with a call and impactful sales discovery questions.

Let Flockjay be the sales enablement engine that empowers your reps in their solution-selling efforts. This all-in-one software platform can help your sales team share winning moments, obtain great discovery call scripts, and more. Check it out and see what difference it can make on your sales floor.

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