Tanveer Mostafa's discovery framework

In his post, Tanveer Mostafa shares the discovery framework that helped him close over $3.6M ACV at Salesforce.

Here's a simplified version of his approach, often sold by consultants for $30k+:

Step 1: Ask the core 4 questions

1. What are their short and long-term goals?

2. What challenges obstruct these goals?

3. Who is their competition?

4. Who is their ideal customer?

Step 2: Department-level discovery

Involve reps or execs from each department, starting with marketing. Ask questions like:

- How does a customer find you?

- How do they engage with you?

- What tools are involved?

- Department size and challenges?

- Impacted KPIs?

- Value per lead and conversion rates?

Step 3: Diagnose and prescribe

Identify which of the 4 problems the business faces:

1. Customer dissatisfaction

2. Productivity issues

3. Visibility

4. Cost

Map out these problems and position the solution (not the product) to address them. Once validated, introduce your product as a potential answer.

Tips for better discovery

Kyle Asay has two key tactics to make them smoother and more effective by addressing buyer skepticism:

• Dos the seller know anything about me?

• Will they push me to buy, even if it’s not a fit?

How to remove tension

1. Ask Insightful Questions

Instead of:

• “Tell me about your role.”

Try:

• “Many [insert role] we work with focus on improving [key priority]. How are you approaching this opportunity?”

2. Empower the “No”

Instead of:

• “Thanks for helping me understand your business. Let’s find 30 minutes to dive deeper into how we might help.”

Try:

• “Based on our conversation, we may help you improve [outcome] by enhancing [use case]. If we continue, we’ll share how we drive [outcome] through [method]. Is [outcome] a priority worth discussing further?”

Use these tactics to turn discovery calls into productive conversations.