Walk me through how you structure a discovery call.
What the interviewer wants to hear
- Set agenda and agree time at the start
- Ask open questions about current situation and pain
- Understand impact and priority of the problem
- Learn decision process, stakeholders and timeline
- Agree a clear next step
Model answer
I start by thanking them, confirming the time we have and sharing a simple agenda: learn about their situation, share briefly how we help, and agree if a next step makes sense. Then I spend most of the call listening. I ask open questions about how they handle the process today, what is not working, and what that costs them in time, money or risk. I ask why it matters now, to understand urgency. I also learn who else is involved in the decision, how they usually buy, and their timeline. Only then do I connect our solution to what they told me, briefly. Before ending, I summarise their key points and agree a concrete next step with a date, and I send a written recap afterwards.
Can you answer it under time pressure?
Take a timed easy round and get scored on every answer.
More easy Business Development Manager questions
- In your own words, what does a Business Development Manager do, and how is it different from a sales executive?
- How do you research a company before your first call with them?
- Prospecting involves a lot of rejection. How do you stay motivated and productive?
- Which metrics would you track to understand if your business development work is going well?
- Why do you want to work in business development?
- How do you write a cold email that gets replies?
- How do you build trust with a prospect you have just met?
- How do you use LinkedIn in your prospecting?
- Tell me about a deal you are proud of winning.