Standard work

Discovery call standard work

Discovery call standard work is licensed CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Katafacts (katafacts.com).

1 · What it is

What it is

Discovery call standard work is the same three-column job instruction as the canonical version — major steps, key points (a specific technique, not a generic prompt), and the reason each one matters — pointed at a sales discovery call instead of a shop-floor task. The lean connection is master-plan §4.2's Value Selling thesis: a discovery call is where the voice-of-customer evidence an eventual deal A3 or value hypothesis depends on actually gets gathered, and it fails the same way an untrained gemba walk does — without a repeatable technique, a rep skips the exact question that would have surfaced the real problem.

2 · When to use it

When to use it — and when not to

Use it when

A discovery motion needs to work the same way regardless of which rep is running it — a new hire, a fill-in, or your best performer on an off day.
You keep losing deals to 'no decision' or a surprise late-stage objection, and suspect the real compelling event or the real decision process was never actually surfaced.
You want to see honestly which steps in the call still have no real technique behind them yet, not a checklist that looks complete but isn't.

Not when

The sales motion is genuinely transactional with no real discovery conversation (e.g. self-serve, low-touch) — forcing a discovery script onto a motion that doesn't have one adds process without adding signal.
You're still figuring out what actually separates a won deal from a lost one — go run the win-loss interview guide first, then write the standard work once you know what to listen for.
The 'key point' would just restate the step ('ask about budget') — a real key point adds a specific technique a step alone doesn't convey.

3 · How to fill it in

How to fill it in

Purpose: What does this call need to establish, and why does it matter for how the deal moves afterward?
Steps, key points & reasons: Drafted from your description of the call — major steps, each with zero or more key points and, for every key point, the reason it matters. A step with no technique yet is flagged, not hidden.
Narrative: Drafted from the steps actually built.

4 · What good looks like

What good looks like

The example below is a mid-market new-business discovery call — four of five steps carry a real technique and reason, and the close step is honestly left flagged rather than padded with a generic 'schedule next steps' instruction.

Same example, as a downloadable xlsx workbook.

Download .xlsx

Work instruction

Discovery call standard work — mid-market new business

Sales — mid-market discovery calls

Priya Anand, Sales Enablement · 2026-03-02

Purpose

A repeatable technique for the first substantive call with a mid-market prospect, so the deal's compelling event, cost of inaction, and real decision process get surfaced regardless of which rep is running the call — the same reason any other work instruction exists.

Steps, key points & reasons

5 steps · 5 key points

1. Open by stating what you already know, not by asking a generic question

Reference the specific trigger that led to this call (a form fill, a referral, a piece of content they engaged with) — Opening with 'so tell me about your business' signals you didn't do any preparation and spends the buyer's limited attention re-explaining things you could have found yourself.

2. Uncover the compelling event — why solve this now, not six months ago or from now

Ask directly what happens if nothing changes, and let the silence sit rather than filling it — A prospect who can't name a real consequence of inaction usually doesn't have urgency yet — probing early avoids building a whole deal on a problem nobody's actually motivated to fix.
Get a specific date or event tied to the urgency, not a vague timeframe like 'soon' — 'Soon' isn't a compelling event — a renewal date, a board commitment, or a regulatory deadline is something you can actually build a mutual action plan's timeline against later.

3. Quantify the cost of the current state in the prospect's own numbers

Ask the prospect to estimate the cost themselves before offering your own framing — A number the buyer calculates and defends internally survives scrutiny in the business case; a number you supplied gets challenged as sales math the moment you leave the room.

4. Confirm who else is involved in the decision and how it actually gets made

Ask who has said no to something like this before, and why — A past 'no' from procurement, security, or a skeptical stakeholder is the single most predictive thing you can learn about how this deal dies — surfacing it now beats discovering it at the mutual action plan stage.

5. Close with a specific, scheduled mutual next stepNo key point yet

Narrative

Four of five steps carry a real key point grounding the technique in a specific reason a newer rep wouldn't otherwise know. The close step is honestly left without one yet — 'confirm a mutual next step' still needs a concrete technique for handling a prospect who resists scheduling, not just the instruction to do it.

5 · Common mistakes

Common mistakes

Writing a key point that's really just a question to ask, with no technique behind it.
'Ask about their timeline' isn't a technique — it's the topic. The technique is how to ask it so the answer is real instead of a polite deflection.
Treating every discovery call as needing the exact same script regardless of deal size or segment.
A rigid script that ignores what's actually different about an enterprise vs. a mid-market conversation produces the same failure work instructions warn against everywhere else in this catalogue: steps a person follows without judgement.
Skipping the cost-of-inaction step because it feels pushy.
Without a number the buyer calculates and defends themselves, the eventual business case has nothing real to stand on — this step isn't optional, it's where that evidence gets created.

6 · What it connects to

What it connects to

upstream

Win-loss interview guide
A pattern of losses traced back to a specific discovery gap (missed compelling event, unsurfaced decision process) is exactly what turns into a new key point here.

downstream

Deal A3 — win-rate root cause analysis
When a discovery gap shows up as a recurring loss pattern rather than a one-off, that's the Pareto category a deal A3 chases to root cause.

7 · Where AI helps

Where AI helps

Judgement — stays yours

Deciding whether a step genuinely needs a technique or is simple enough not to
Deciding whether a drafted key point reflects a real, usable technique or is worth sharpening

Analysis — AI helps

Drafting major steps, key points, and reasons from a rough description of the call
Drafting the narrative from the steps actually built

Drudgery — automated

Counting steps and key points
Identifying which steps still have no technique
Exporting to xlsx in the house format

9 · Rate this kata