The B2B sales conversation: cold call, discovery call and the questions that work

The short answer

A B2B sales conversation is two different conversations, and most of what goes wrong comes from mixing them up. The cold call is first contact with someone who has never dealt with you; it exists to understand the situation, create interest, qualify or disqualify, and book a next step, in that order, in about five minutes. The discovery call is that next step: a scheduled meeting where you explore the situation properly, with the buyer's goals, obstacles, stakes, decision-makers, past attempts, budget and concerns on the table. I am Tijs, Senior Account Executive at Bizzy, and this page holds the questions I use for both: ten for the cold call, eight for the discovery call, how to use them without sounding like a script, and what I see go wrong most often. It sits under the B2B sales funnel, at stage two.

The two conversations

Everything else on this page is one of those two. Cold emails follow the cold-call logic in writing; the rules for both in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany are in is B2B cold outreach legal in Europe?

The cold call: what it has to achieve

A cold call succeeds when it achieves four things, in this order.

1. Understand the situation. How things run today, where it hurts, who decides.

2. Create interest. A reason to be curious rather than a reason to politely end the call.

3. Qualify or disqualify. A fast no is worth more than a slow maybe; your time is the scarce resource.

4. Set a concrete next step. When there is a fit, book something specific there and then.

Most calls fail because the seller starts at step two and skips step one.

The ten cold-call questions

Four blocks. You never use all of them in one call.

Opening

1. "This is a cold call. Can I have thirty seconds to tell you why?" You ask for permission instead of taking it. Almost everyone says yes, and from that moment the other person is listening voluntarily.

2. "Before I called I saw [specific signal]. Is that right?" The most important of the ten. A vacancy, a move, a new location: something that shows you looked. A cold call with a real reason is a different conversation from one without.

Understanding the situation

1. "How do you find new customers today?" Open, not leading. You let the other person describe their own process in their own words, and you use those words for the rest of the call.

2. "Who does that, and how much time does it take per week?" This is where the pain surfaces. Time is more concrete than satisfaction, and people answer it more honestly.

3. "And what happens if that falls short for a quarter?" This makes the stakes visible. Without a consequence there is no urgency, and without urgency there is no second conversation.

Qualifying

1. "Is this on the agenda this quarter, or more likely later?" A friendly way to test timing. "Later" is a perfectly good answer, because then you know when to call back instead of pushing.

2. "Who else would be involved if you took this further?" Not "are you the decision-maker", which sounds like a test. This asks the same thing without diminishing anyone.

3. "Have you already tried something for this?" You learn whether a competitor is in play, whether there is an internal project, and which solution was rejected before. That last one is gold.

Closing

1. "What would you need to see to say this was worth it?" The other person defines their own success criterion. After that you only have to meet it.

2. "Shall we put half an hour in the diary on Thursday to look at it?" Specific, with a day and a duration. "I will send some information" is not a next step.

The discovery call: what it is

A discovery call is the first scheduled conversation with a company that has shown interest, whether it came from a cold call, an inbound request or a visit to your website. Its purpose is to find out whether there is a real fit between what the company needs and what you offer, before either side spends time on a proposal. You move beyond the assumptions you made before the call, listen more than you talk, and leave with the goals, the obstacles, the stakes, the people and the criteria written down in the buyer's own words.

The discovery call is also where the close is decided, weeks before the contract. Deals that need pressure at the end are deals where discovery skipped a question.

The eight discovery-call questions

Each block has a purpose, a question, and what a good answer gives you.

1. Goals. "What are the main things the business is trying to achieve this year?" Knowing the objective lets you connect everything that follows to it.

2. Obstacles. "What is getting in the way of that?" This is the pain, in their words. If the obstacle is one you solve, say so later, not now.

3. Stakes. "What happens if those goals are not reached?" A consequence turns a nice-to-have into a decision.

4. Decision-makers. "Who else is involved when you buy something like this?" Everyone who can say no should be known before the proposal. Check the registered officials and the organisation before the call so the question confirms rather than discovers.

5. Past attempts. "What have you tried for this before, and what worked or did not?" You learn the competitor in play and the reason the last solution was rejected.

6. Budget. "Have you set a budget for this, and roughly what range?" It feels early; it is not. A proposal outside the range wastes both sides' time.

7. Concerns. "What would make you hesitate about a solution like ours?" An objection raised now is a question you can answer; the same objection raised at the contract is a lost deal.

8. Next step. "Shall we book the follow-up now? I have Tuesday at ten or Thursday at two." Specific slots keep the momentum; a vague "I'll be in touch" loses it.

How to use them

This is not a script. A script is audible on the other end of the line, and once it is, the call is over. Use it as a map. On a cold call you always open with questions 1 and 2, pick two or three from the middle based on what you hear, and always close with question 10; six questions in five minutes is a lot, ten is an interrogation. On a discovery call you cover all eight, but in the order the conversation gives you, not the order above.

The ratio that matters: on a cold call, if you are speaking for more than a third of the time you are pitching rather than qualifying; on a discovery call, under half. And write down verbatim what they say about how they work today and what "worth it" means to them. Those two answers open your next conversation and your proposal.

What I see go wrong most often

• Calling with no reason. Without an answer to "why are you calling me, today", question 2 is empty and the call collapses into a pitch.

• Pushing past a clear no. Fast disqualification is a win. It saves three follow-up emails that go nowhere.

• Pitching in discovery. The demo can wait. A discovery call that turns into a presentation leaves you with your own assumptions instead of their answers.

• Leaving the next step vague. "I will send something over" is the end of the process, not the beginning.

• Not preparing the list. If a quarter of your list is unreachable or irrelevant, the problem is not your call.

Preparation makes both calls shorter

The best call starts before you dial. Two things decide almost everything: are you calling the right companies, and do you have a real reason.

For the first, build the profile on attributes that exist in the data rather than attributes you wish existed; building an ICP on filters that actually exist works through it for Belgium. For the second, hiring is the most usable signal: a company that is recruiting is changing something, and finding Belgian companies that are hiring shows where to look. Before a discovery call, read the filed accounts and the registered officials so that the budget and decision-maker questions confirm what you already suspect; how to read a Belgian company's annual accounts before you call is the five-minute version. For the telephone side more broadly, see B2B cold calling in Europe.

Frequently asked questions

How long should a good cold call be? Four to six minutes. Shorter usually means you jumped to the meeting too quickly, longer means you started pitching. The goal is the next step, not the call.

What is the difference between a cold call and a discovery call? The cold call is first contact and exists to qualify and book a meeting. The discovery call is that meeting, where you explore the situation properly. The ten questions belong to the first, the eight to the second.

Do I have to ask all the questions? No. On a cold call, open with 1 and 2, pick two or three from the middle, close with 10. On a discovery call cover all eight blocks, in whatever order the conversation gives you.

What do I do when someone says they are not interested straight away? Probe once with question 3, how they solve it today. If nothing comes back, disqualify and move on. A fast no is more valuable than a polite maybe.

Is cold calling allowed in Belgium and the Netherlands? Business-to-business calling is permitted, with rules around numbers on do-not-call lists and around what you do with the data afterwards. The detail per country is in the rules for cold outreach.