Mastering the MSP Sales Discovery Call: 15 Questions to Ask Prospects
The sales discovery call is a crucial step in the MSP sales process. This initial call sets the foundation for an effective sales strategy by gathering key details about the prospect's business, pain points, and goals. However, many MSP sales reps struggle with running an efficient discovery call that uncovers the insights needed to tailor their pitch.
In this guide, we will explore the msp sales discovery call best practices and the types of questions savvy MSP sales reps should ask prospects to kickstart the sales cycle on the right foot.
Why is the Discovery Call Important for MSP Sales?
The discovery call opens the door for MSPs to demonstrate value to potential clients. This first interaction establishes credibility and trust while allowing sales reps to qualify leads and uncover real sales opportunities.
However, discovery calls are often rushed or ineffective. Without asking the right questions, MSP sales reps miss out on invaluable insights that could accelerate deal closing.
An optimized MSP sales discovery call:
- Validates a lead’s buying potential
- Gathers crucial details to personalize the sales pitch
- Builds rapport and positions the MSP as a trusted advisor
- Kickstarts an efficient msp sales process by setting appropriate next steps
Arm your team to run strategic discovery calls that check all these boxes using the battle-tested question framework ahead.
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Essential Background Questions in the MSP Sales Discovery Call
Kicking off the discovery call by asking thoughtful questions about the prospect's organizational background establishes context for more tactical discussions later. It also indicates that you are invested in understanding their unique needs.
Here are 5 background questions all MSP sales reps should cover:
1. Can you give me a quick overview of your company and your role?
This opening query gauges your prospect’s seniority while allowing them to share helpful high-level details about their business. It also breaks the ice and makes them comfortable talking about themselves.
2. How large is your internal IT team currently?
Understanding existing IT staff size provides useful context on what gaps an MSP partnership could fill. It also indicates how much emphasis to place on various services like help desk support and end-user tech assistance.
3. Which core technologies form the foundation of your IT infrastructure today?
Gaining visibility into existing software, hardware, and systems helps qualify which MSP offerings align best with the prospect's stack. This drives more tailored solution recommendations later.
4. Can you walk me through a day in your life managing IT? What are your main responsibilities and focus areas?
Letting prospects describe their daily tasks spotlights top priorities, challenges, and any glaring gaps that your MSP can fill. Their emphasis on break/fix firefighting versus long-term strategy provides particularly useful insight.
5. Is there anything missing from your current IT environment that you wish you had?
This closing background question allows prospects to directly share their wish list, signaling areas ripe for MSP solutions. It also builds goodwill by showing that you aim to fill gaps rather than replace existing systems outright.
Key Pain Points to Explore with Prospects
Now that basic context has been established, the next critical phase of discovery focuses on uncovering the prospect's true pain points. As an msp sales manager, train reps to listen intently rather than defaulting to a product-pitching reflex.
Targeted questions to identify pain include:
6. What are the biggest IT-related frustrations your teams face today?
An open-ended query like this encourages prospects to share pain points organically, without being led down a specific path. The frustrations they choose to focus on offer clues into severe issues begging for solutions.
7. Which manual, repetitive IT tasks are draining your productivity?
Many core MSP offerings revolve around automating time-consuming IT duties like patching or onboarding. This question reveals workflows ripe for optimization via automation.
8. What IT areas keep you up at night worrying most about stability, security, compliance, etc?
Understanding a prospect’s top IT anxieties, whether downtime concerns or data breach fears, spotlights areas your MSP can directly mitigate through managed services. Ask follow-ups to dig deeper into the root of each worry.
9. How much of your team’s time is spent “firefighting” daily IT crises rather than focusing on long-term strategy?
If prospects admit that over 75% of IT effort involves reactive break/fix battles, it signals a prime opportunity for proactive MSPs to pitch preventative solutions.
10. Have you faced any major IT outages, data losses, or other issues recently disrupting your business?
Learning about previous IT disasters helps quantify the financial and productivity impact your MSP could mitigate via services like managed data backup and recovery.
These pain point questions lay the groundwork for your later sales pitch by revealing key areas where your MSP offerings can enhance efficiency, stability, and security for the prospect.
Strategic Discovery Questions on Business Goals
The most effective MSP sales discovery calls align identified prospect pain points with relevant business goals and metrics. This enables sales reps to tailor their pitch around desired outcomes beyond purely technological improvements.
Some smart goal-oriented questions include:
11. How does IT performance and stability currently impact your key business metrics?
This directly correlates IT reliability and support with tangible business outcomes, quantifying the revenue risks of downtime and subpar system performance.
12. What are your 3-5 year targets for business growth? How could technology and IT infrastructure accelerate hitting those goals?
Uncovering long-term growth plans provides a blueprint for sales reps to recommend exactly how the MSP’s solutions can systematically scale technical capabilities in lockstep with the growing organization.
13. Is there anything hindering your technology from innovating as fast as you’d like to gain a competitive advantage?
Identifying innovation bottlenecks spotlights areas like legacy system constraints ripe for modernization via the MSP. This question also segments forward-looking prospects open to exploring emerging solutions.
14. What technology-focused projects or initiatives does your leadership have planned over the next few years?
Getting prospects to share key strategic projects in the pipeline offers helpful context for sales reps to advise how MSP partnerships can systematically execute on those technology roadmaps.
15. How do you measure the ROI of your IT investments today? How would you ideally track and improve ROI over time?
Discussing ROI measurement signals which metrics like cost reduction or workforce productivity gains resonate most with prospects. This drives later MSP solution recommendations catered specifically to move those metrics.
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How confident are you that your reps are asking the right questions at the right time? Try Nayak today.
