Listen before you recommend
Identify the buyer’s problem, desired outcome, and decision process.
Learn the skill
Ask about a recent example of the problem before describing your solution. Concrete situations reveal who is affected, what they currently do, and why the problem matters.
Explore the decision process without assuming your contact is the only decision-maker. Ask who needs to review the proposal and what each person needs to understand.
Reflect the buyer’s words back and invite correction. A useful summary includes the problem, impact, desired change, and important unknowns.
Read, then apply
Start with the closing guide. The teacher profile offers further reading.
The internal-decision close →Ideas from Zig Ziglar →A service business asks for an AI CRM. The owner says leads are being lost, but nobody knows whether the problem is response time, ownership, or missing records.
Your assignment
Write five discovery questions. Role-play the owner, then summarize what you know and what still needs evidence before recommending a tool.
What you’ll produceA discovery brief with problem, impact, decision participants, and unknowns.
Review your work
- Questions explore recent behavior.
- The summary invites correction.
- The recommendation waits for evidence of the actual problem.
Practice with an AI assistant
Copy this prompt into your preferred assistant, or ask a colleague to use the scenario. Check the feedback against the checklist above.
Your practice notes
Your notes save automatically in this browser.
Check your understanding
This is your own practice record. You can return to any lesson whenever you need it.