Discovery Call Questions: 25 to Ask a Local Business Owner
Twenty-five questions for a first call with a local business owner, plus what to look up before you ask any of them.
Robbert Veer, Founder
9 min read
Discovery call questions are what you ask a prospect on a first sales call to learn what they need and whether you can help. For an agency that sells to local businesses, five questions do most of the work. Look up everything the website can tell you first, then ask these five.
- Where do most of your new customers come from today?
- What do you want a visitor to do when they land on your website?
- What is one new customer worth to you?
- Who looks after the website now, and what does that take from you?
- If the website did its job, what would be different six months from now?
Twenty more follow, grouped by topic, with a filled-in notes sheet and a recap email.
What is a discovery call?
A discovery call is a first conversation with a prospect in which you ask about their business and decide together whether there is a project. For an agency it takes 20 to 30 minutes, and the owner does most of the talking.
We plan 25 minutes and split them into four parts.
| Minutes | Part | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 2 | Open | Thank the owner, name the one finding that led to the call and confirm how long you have |
| 2 to 17 | Questions | 8 to 10 questions from this page, in whatever order the answers lead |
| 17 to 22 | What you would change | Two or three changes, each tied to something the owner said |
| 22 to 25 | Next step | A date for the proposal, or an honest "this is not a fit" |
The times are our own plan for one call, and nobody measured them. Our rule of thumb is that the call has turned into a pitch once you talk for more than a third of it.
What should you look up before the call?
Everything the website can tell you. A question spent on something you could have read wastes the owner's time and shows that you did not prepare.
Most lists of sales discovery questions are written for software sales. Many of their questions ask for plain facts, such as company size, locations and current tools. For a local business, those facts sit on the website and the Google listing.
| Look it up | Ask on the call |
|---|---|
| Services, locations and opening hours | Which service earns the most |
| How the site loads and reads on a phone | Whether customers have complained about it |
| Whether there is a booking or quote form | How many requests arrive in a normal week |
| Where the business appears on Google | Which searches the owner wishes it appeared for |
| Reviews and star rating | Which customers the owner wants more of |
Bring one measurement with you. Google counts a page load as good when the main content appears within 2.5 seconds (web.dev). A homepage that takes 6 seconds on your phone is a fact the owner can check.
Leadodo's AI, Twip, reads the website side of this for every business in a search. It scores each site out of 100 across 10 domains, and its findings become the opening line of each letter and email. The same findings are your notes for the call. See how Twip scores a site.
The 20 other discovery call questions
Pick 8 to 10 for one call. Asking all 25 in 25 minutes would turn a conversation into a form.
Customers and where they come from
- Who is your best kind of customer, and how did the last three find you?
- Which service or job do you want more of?
- What area do you serve, and where would you like to grow?
- What do people ask when they call you for the first time?
- When someone picks a competitor, why do you think they do?
These tell you what the website is for. A plumber who lives on emergency calls needs a different site from one who wants bathroom remodels.
The website today
- When did you last change something on the website?
- What do you like about it, and what annoys you?
- How many calls or requests come through the site in a normal week?
- Has a customer ever told you they could not find something on it?
- Who can log in and make changes today?
Ask these with the site open in front of you both. The answer to question 13 is the number every later estimate rests on.
Money and value
- What does a typical job or customer bring in?
- How many more jobs a month could you take on?
- What do you spend on marketing now, and what has paid off?
- What would make this project a clear win for you?
Never open with budget. Once the owner has said what a customer is worth, the budget talk has a base.
Decision and timing
- Who else has a say in this?
- Is there a date this needs to be ready by, such as a season or an opening?
- Have you spoken with anyone else about the website?
- What would stop you from going ahead?
Question 23 brings a concern out while there is still time to deal with it. Our guide to sales objections has short answers to the ones agencies hear.
Past experience
- Have you worked with an agency or a freelancer before, and how did it go?
- What should I know about working with you that would make this go well?
An owner who was let down before will tell you what to avoid, if you ask.
Which questions should you change for each business?
Change the ones that touch your finding and the trade. The finding that earned you the call should come back as a question, so the owner describes the problem in their own words.
| What you found | The question it becomes |
|---|---|
| The quote form has 11 fields | "How many quote requests reach you in a normal week?" |
| The phone number is a picture | "When someone finds you on a phone, how do they call you?" |
| Saturday hours are missing from the site | "What do you offer that the shop down the road doesn't?" |
| The homepage took 6 seconds on a phone | "Have you opened your site on your own phone lately?" |
The findings in the table are made up.
Adapt to the trade as well. For a restaurant, the questions on weekly requests and customer value are about table bookings and what a table spends. For a roofer they are about quote requests and the value of one roof. For a dentist they are about new patients.
A filled-in notes sheet
The business in this example, Harbor Street Plumbing at harborstreetplumbing.example, is made up. So are the answers.
Filled in.
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Business | Harbor Street Plumbing, harborstreetplumbing.example, 555-0117 |
| Looked up before the call | Homepage took 6 seconds on a phone. No quote form, only an email address. Google reviews are not shown on the site |
| Q1, where customers come from | "Mostly neighbors telling neighbors. Some from Google." |
| Q3, worth of a customer | "A water heater job is about $1,800." |
| Q7, work they want more of | "Water heaters. Less drain cleaning." |
| Q13, requests through the site | "Maybe two emails a week." |
| Q17, room for more work | "We could take five more jobs a month." |
| Q20, who decides | The owner and his wife, who does the books |
| Q23, what would stop them | "A directory company took our money in 2023 and nothing came of it." |
| What I would change first | A quote form on every page, a faster homepage and the reviews on the site |
| Next step | Proposal by Friday. A 15-minute call with both of them on Monday |
Seven questions were enough to write the proposal. The notes keep the owner's words, and those words go back into the recap and the proposal.
What should you never ask on a discovery call?
Anything the website already answers, anything that pushes the owner toward your answer and the budget question in the first five minutes.
- "Tell me about your business." You should know the basics already. Ask about what you could not look up.
- "What's your budget?" as an opener. Ask what a customer is worth first. Budget follows from value.
- "Don't you think your site looks dated?" A leading question gets a defensive answer. Ask what annoys the owner about the site.
- Two questions in one breath. The owner answers the easier one and the other is lost.
What happens after the discovery call?
Send a recap the same day and the proposal on the date you promised. The recap repeats what the owner told you, in their words, and names the next step.
Subject: What I heard today
Hi [first name],
Thank you for your time today. Here is what I took from our call.
You want more [service] work in [area]. The website brings about [number] requests a week, and [the finding] is one reason. One new customer is worth about [value] to you.
You'll have my proposal by [day]. If I got any of this wrong, tell me and I'll correct it first.
[Your name]
Filled in.
Subject: What I heard today
Hi Sam,
Thank you for your time today. Here is what I took from our call.
You want more water heater work in the neighborhoods you already serve. The website brings about two requests a week, and the missing quote form is one reason. One new customer is worth about $1,800 to you.
You'll have my proposal by Friday. If I got any of this wrong, tell me and I'll correct it first.
Dana
The proposal comes next, and our web design proposal template gives you the structure. After a yes, a web design questionnaire collects the details for the build.
Two earlier steps decide whether the call is worth holding at all. Lead qualification picks the businesses, and appointment setting gets the call on the calendar.
Questions
How long should a discovery call be?
Plan 20 to 30 minutes for a local business. We use 25, with 15 of them for questions. An owner who runs a shop or a crew rarely has an hour to spare, and a call that ends on time earns the next one.
How many questions should you ask on a discovery call?
Ask 8 to 10 in a 25-minute call. With 15 minutes for questions, 10 questions leave the owner 90 seconds for each answer. Ask fewer when the answers run long.
What is the difference between a discovery call and a sales pitch?
A discovery call is for asking, and a pitch is for presenting. On a discovery call the prospect talks most, and you leave with their goals, numbers and concerns. The pitch or proposal comes afterward and uses what you learned.
Should you talk about price on a discovery call?
Yes, if the owner asks. Give an honest range and say what moves it up or down. Refusing to name any figure costs you trust. Keep the exact price for the written proposal.
What are good sales discovery questions for a web design client?
Ask where new customers come from, what a visitor should do on the website and what one customer is worth. Then ask who maintains the site and what should be different in six months. Those five cover source, purpose, value, ownership and outcome.
Next step. Fill your calendar with calls worth preparing for. Your Outbound Machine sends a letter, three emails and two LinkedIn steps over 19 working days, and stops for every business that replies. See the sequence.
