Let’s face it: for sales professionals, the sales process can be a pretty long and drawn out affair. We all just want to get to the big, sexy part where the deal gets closed, the contract gets signed and the client is onboarded and providing another steady stream of revenue for the business.
However, none of that glamorous stuff can be achieved without going through the full sales cycle. This usually begins with a client discovery process, which can either be carried out during a discovery call or by sending your client a discovery questionnaire.
The advantage of sending a questionnaire over conducting a call is that your client has more time to think about their answers and provide as much value within their responses as possible. That way, you’ll really be able to determine exactly what they need, what their objectives are and whether or not you can help them make their dreams a reality.
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Content Snare is here to help you create your next client discovery questionnaire. Sign up to access our built-in client discovery questionnaire template. It’s ready when you are.
What questions should I be asking in a client discovery questionnaire?
Whilst it’s important to establish certain pieces of information to begin the sales pipeline, at the same time, you don’t want to overwhelm the client by asking a million questions.
Here’s an organised guide of the right questions to include within your client discovery questionnaire to kick off the buyer’s journey in the best way possible.
Basic Information
This swift set of questions will allow you to collect the basic information regarding the client and their company.
- What is your full name?
- What is your email address?
- What is your primary contact number?
- Please describe your company.
- Please describe your role within the company.
Goals & Problem Solving
This section really does what it says on the tin. With the following questions, you’ll be able to figure out what’s going wrong within the client’s business, their current solution, how the client would like those problems to be addressed and how much time they expect the process to take.
- Please describe your goals for the business.
- What is your approximate timeframe for achieving those goals?
- What is the primary problem you're looking to solve or the biggest challenge you currently face?
- Are you having issues in (INSERT THE AREA OF BUSINESS YOUR PRODUCT RELATES TO)?
- What do you feel is the main reason for these problems?
- Why is solving this problem important to you?
- Why hasn’t it been addressed prior to this?
- Do you have any ideas of potential solutions?
- What would success look like for you?
- Without our product, do you have a plan in place to address this problem?
- What are the main obstacles preventing successful implementation of your plan?
- Please provide us with an approximate timeframe for implementation.
Budget
This section is pretty important as there’s no point in initiating a working relationship with a client if the investment needed and their budget are not aligned. You’ll get a good idea of whether you’re on the same page with these 3 questions.
- Please provide us with an idea of the budget you have available for this.
- Where does this budget originate from?
- Is the budget owner an “executive sponsor”?
Closing questions
Time to close the questionnaire! These last questions allow you to collect any final details needed, as well as figure out the impact your product/service will have on their business.
- What potential obstacles or curveballs do you think could appear during implementation?
- How can we make the process as seamless as possible?
- How will this solution improve your business and productivity?
- Upon implementation, what differences do you expect to see within your business?
- Please provide a date on which we can follow up with you.
- Do you have anything else to add?
Why is creating a client discovery questionnaire important?
Hooray! Now that you have your client discovery questionnaire sorted, we can assure you that your next discovery phase is going to be a breeze.
However, before we leave you to go and close some more deals, if you’re not yet convinced, here are a few more in-depth reasons to send a client discovery questionnaire to your prospective clients.
Prospects will understand your business better
A prospective client getting to know your business and products is just as important as you getting to know theirs.
Looking through your website, reading through success stories and browsing products that could be potential solutions is one thing but, for the prospect, communicating with you directly will help them to see the big picture and provide a much deeper understanding of what you can offer.
As well as this, sending them this type of questionnaire will also give them a better vision of your business in terms of professionalism. A well-structured, thoughtful questionnaire will tell them everything they need to know about how your business operates.
You’ll be able to build rapport with potential clients
When a prospective client has just come from having a fantastic discovery phase with you, it can make all the difference when it comes to their final decision as to whether or not they’d like to use your products or services for their project.
After a great discovery phase, clients are usually much more confident that you fully understand the obstacles they’re currently facing and how they can be eliminated for good.
Plus, by taking extra time to carry out this initial phase with care, the client will notice that you see them as more than just a revenue stream and that you care about them achieving a successful outcome with their business.
You’ll get a better idea of whether or not the client’s business is a good fit
Is it a match made in heaven? Or is it not…
Yes, it would be fantastic to be able to work with every client under the sun but, realistically, this just isn’t a possibility. The client discovery questionnaire contains enough questions to be able to figure this out without wasting either party’s time.
Whether it be down to budgetary reasons or a simple lack of correspondence between the client’s pain point and your product, you can’t always be the hero that transforms their future. Sometimes you have to take a step back and recognise that the partnership may be mutually incompatible.
Which tool should I use to create my client discovery questionnaire?
When it comes to creating your client discovery questionnaire, there are many options available that’ll pretty much do the job. However, a lot of them have a multitude of limitations that are likely to make the process incredibly time-consuming and difficult for everyone.
This is why online tools like Content Snare exist, making the process easier and allowing you to collect all of the information you need in the most efficient way possible.
Content Snare is quick and easy to use for both yourself and your clients. You can create beautiful requests from scratch to send to your clients or, to make things even simpler, you can choose from the range of built-in templates that are there and waiting for you on the site.
Sending your first request can take just minutes and, from there, there’s nothing left for you to do except wait for your client to begin filling in their responses. Anything your client types in is automatically saved, meaning that they can return later in their own time, which takes away the pressure from everybody.
With its automatic email reminder feature, Content Snare also ensures that your content gets delivered at the right time and all in one place. Those days of working your way through endless email threads just to communicate with clients and collect their information are well and truly over!
We hope this post has been able to provide you with some inspiration for your next client discovery questionnaire.
Are there any extra questions that could add more value to the questionnaire? Let us know in the comments below!
