Discovery Call Script — The Assessment (45 min)

Talk < 20% of the time. Client talks 80%. One question, then listen. Keep them on track — if they ramble, “That’s great context — let me ask you this…” and steer back. Target: leave with 5–7 concrete pain points + a trigger + their hourly value.

Recording: Zoom + Fathom running. Framing for consent (say this): “I record these so the AI analysis afterward can catch patterns across the whole conversation that notes miss — the recording is raw material for your custom report.”

0. Open & frame (2 min) — you set the agenda

“Thanks for the time, [Name]. Here’s how I’ll run this so it’s useful for you: I’m going to ask a lot of questions about how your day and your business actually work — I’ll probably talk less than you do, and that’s on purpose. My job today isn’t to pitch you anything. It’s to find where you’re losing time or leaving money on the table, so the report I build you is specific to [Company] and not generic. Sound good? Then at the end I’ll tell you honestly whether there’s enough here to be worth fixing. Fair?”

(This frame puts you in control, sets the 80/20 talk ratio, and pre-frames the honest close.)

1. SITUATION (5–7 min) — cheap context, move fast

Don’t linger; you did recon and you have the intake. Confirm and fill gaps only. - “Give me the one-sentence version of what [Company] does and who you do it for.” - “How many people, and where does the revenue come from — one main line or a few?” - “Walk me through your typical day. Where does your time actually go?” - “What’s the software you live in day to day?”

Challenge the stack once: “Do you think [current tool / doing-it-by-hand] gets you to [their goal], or does something have to change?” — get them to say it out loud.

2. PROBLEM (15 min) — find 5–7 concrete pains across 3 axes

Rotate through Effectiveness, Efficiency, Quality. Pull until you get a story, not a summary — “they spend 90 minutes every morning copying Shopify into a spreadsheet,” not “they want to be more efficient.”

Effectiveness (revenue leaks): - “When a new lead comes in, walk me through exactly what happens — and how fast.” - “Where do deals stall or slip through? When’s the last time you know you lost one to slow follow-up?”

Efficiency (time leaks): - “What’s the task you’d pay the most to never do again?” - “What eats your week that you know a machine should be doing?”

Quality (experience leaks): - “Where does the work or the client experience feel inconsistent — depends who’s doing it or what kind of day it’s been?” - “What in your business looks like it was built in 2015?”

Write down each pain in their words. Aim for 5–7. Don’t solve yet.

3. IMPLICATION (10 min) — make the pain cost something

This is where SPIN and field-tested agree hardest. A named pain they’ll tolerate is not a sale. Make the cost real, in their numbers.

• Cost of inaction: “What changes if you don’t fix [top pain] in the next 90 days?” → listen for concrete consequences: a hire they can’t replace, a missed launch, churn, a revenue number.
• “If that keeps happening every week for the next year, what does that add up to — in hours, in dollars, in deals?”
• “What’s it doing to you — the hours, the stress, the stuff you’re not getting to?”
• The trigger: “Why are we having this conversation now, and not six months ago?” → a real timeline lives in the answer. No trigger = deal drifts.

Let the silence work. They should be the one saying it’s expensive.

4. NEED-PAYOFF (5 min) — let them value the fix

Flip from pain to gain. They articulate the payoff, so you don’t have to sell it.

• Hourly value (required — get a number): “Roughly, what’s an hour of your time worth? … As the owner it’s probably more than that — but let’s use your number.” (This makes the ROI math in the report theirs.)
• “If [top pain] just… went away — got 8 hours a week back, or replied to every lead in 2 minutes — what would you do with that?”
• “If we could ship one fix in the first week that recovered [X hours], is that the kind of thing worth moving on?”

5. Honest close (3 min) — book the walkthrough, don’t sell

If there’s real pain + trigger + budget: “Straight answer: yes, there’s plenty here worth fixing — I counted [N] specific leaks, and at least one I think we ship in week one. Here’s what happens next: I take today’s recording, run it through my analysis, and build you a report — 3 to [N] specific fixes, each with the tool, the time it saves, and the cost, plus a 4-day quick-start plan. It’s $999 for a solo setup, $1,999 with a team, and it’s guaranteed: if there isn’t one fix worth 5+ hours a week, you don’t pay. I’ll have it back to you in [X days] and we’ll walk it together — I’ve got [DAY/TIME] or [DAY/TIME] for that. Which works?” → book the walkthrough live, on the calendar.

If NOT a fit (no real pain / no trigger / no budget): say so. “Honestly, I don’t think you need to pay me right now — what you’ve got is working. If [trigger] changes, come back.” Walking away from bad-fit deals protects the brand and your capacity.

After the call

1. Export the Fathom transcript.
2. Run it through the AI Analysis skill (the internal playbook) → 5–7 opportunities categorized E/E/Q with time-savings.
3. Filter (kill the ones that don’t fit this business), verify every tool’s price/features “current as of today,” build the report in Claude Design (drop the transcript into the report template’s chat and say “fill in the assessment,” then correct by hand).
4. Fill the notes template → feeds the proposal generator.