Customer Call Checklist

Author

Mike Gallardo
September 29, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

The Best Sales Newsletter

How to Prepare and Have Really Great Calls With Your Customers

Hey sales friends,

Every two weeks two AEs on my team do a deal review with their manager, me, VP of sales and CRO.

In this weeks newsletter I’m breaking down the number one question I ask, why it’s valuable and how knowing the answer can take your sales process to the next level.

Let’s dive in!

The Situation

In every Deal Review there’s always a lot of customer context, backstory and eventually details around where the deal’s at right now.

A lot of times AEs share that a call is scheduled with the customer, in order to show next steps are locked in and the deal’s progressing.

So far so good, but when that’s the case, here’s the question I always ask…

The Question


Appreciate you for walking us through everything, Sally.

For that call scheduled on November 19th can you talk to me about:

1. The objective for that call. If all goes well what’s the ultimate outcome and what next step do you plan on setting?

2. The discovery for that call. What exact questions do you plan on asking, both to current and new stakeholders?

Thank you.

The Purpose

The entire purpose is to understand how much preparation the AE’s doing ahead of their calls.

For larger deals you need to map out everything ahead of time in order to make sure you make the best use of everyone’s time.

And one of the best ways to do that is by thinking through:

  1. The objective including the next steps you want to set, assuming everything goes well.

  2. The discovery questions you need to ask throughout the call and why.

Nail those things and pretty hard not have an intentional, organized and highly productive call with your buyer.

Discovery Checklist

If you’re struggling to come up with discovery questions to ask here’s some ideas for you:

  1. Priority Alignment

    This is especially important for new stakeholders:

    “Hey Jim, I’ve had several conversations with Sally and here’s what I understand to be the priorities of ABC Company today.

    What’s your perspective on [insert priorities]?”


  2. Timelines

    This is especially important to understand from your customer’s perspective:


    “Hey Sally, Excited for our potential partnership. If you don’t mind can you walk me through the exact steps on your side if we decided to move forward?”

    “Hey Sally, couldn’t be more excited to kick off this partnership. Curious, what exact steps do you imagine would need to happen on your end to make a confident yes or no decision here?”



  3. Multi Threading

    If things are going well ask to include important decision makers:


    “Hey Sally, Appreciate you’re time today. And I’m excited for the potential partnership here. Do you mind if I make a recommendation for next steps?

    Great, usually what clients find helpful from here is getting executive alignment. The last thing I’d want to happen is to build a trial plan with you and not be able to move forward.

    So what we usually do is include my Head of Sales and your CFO so we can all walk through the business case together, align on commercial terms, and confirm the trial details. How does that sound?”

    “Hey Sally, now that you’ve seen how we help with X who else on your team would find value from this?”


  4. Vendor of Choice

    If you don’t know whether or not your the vendor of choice don’t be afraid to ask:


    “Hey Sally - Now that we’ve walked through everything I have a direct question if that’s OK?

    Great, given your priorities of X and Y and how we’re differentiated in solving those by Z, would you say ABC Company is the vendor of choice assuming we can align on pricing?”

    “Hey Sally, I have to ask, if the decision to move forward or not was yours would you be picking ABC Company?”

Next Steps

Prepare for your next call by following the strategies I’ve outlined and then let me know how the call goes!

You can also share that plan with your manager (if they’re joining) or walk them through it ahead of your call for their input and feedback.

Either way I bet you see a huge difference in the control, confidence and outcomes you have for your calls.

So put it into practice and let me know how it goes!

Wishing you a big Q4,
- Mike G

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