A good discovery call is mostly listening. The hard part of designing one for an AI agent isn’t making it talk — it’s deciding what it should ask, and when it should stop.
Open with their world, not your product
Start with a question the prospect can answer without thinking: what they’re working on, what takes too long, what they’ve tried. Pitching in the first ten seconds is the fastest way to a hang-up.
Call excerpt● Live
AgentThanks for taking the call — what prompted you to look at this?
ProspectWe’re missing calls after hours.
AgentGot it. Roughly how many of those turn into deals when you do catch them?
Three questions are enough
- Pain: what’s slow, expensive or annoying today?
- Impact: what happens if it stays that way?
- Next step: would a 20-minute walkthrough be useful?
Guardrails
Tell the agent what it must never do: quote custom pricing, promise features, or argue with a “no”. If someone asks not to be called again, they go on the do-not-contact list and the call ends politely.
Rule of thumb
If a human rep would need to check with someone before saying it, the agent shouldn’t say it.