How to Prepare and Structure a Pre-Demo Discovery Meeting in Software Sales

As a solution consultant or pre-sales professional, one of the most crucial steps in a software sales engagement is the pre-demo discovery meeting. This meeting sets the stage for your demo and plays a major role in how well you connect with your prospect. If you don’t fully understand their pain points, goals, and needs upfront, your demo will likely miss the mark.

The key to success in this phase lies in preparation and structure. A well-executed discovery meeting gives you the insights you need to tailor your demo, build rapport with your prospect, and ultimately drive the sales process forward.

Let’s break down how to best prepare for and structure a discovery meeting that sets you up for success.

1. Do Your Homework Before the Meeting

Preparation is everything - you really need to set time aside for research... This includes reviewing any previous interactions with the sales team, checking out the prospect’s website, understanding their industry, and getting a sense of their challenges. It might also include looking at the company report through Companies House (not so easy for partnerships like law firms or government bodies of course...)

Here’s what you should focus on:

• Company Background: What does their business do? Who are their customers? What are their key goals? This is the most important piece of prep. You have to go in to the meeting with some idea of their business model and therefore how you will benefit it. You don't have to have it nailed down - if you had you wouldn't need discovery. But you need some idea and that will drive a lot of your questions.
  

• Previous Communication: What have the sales team or account executives learned from previous calls? What challenges have they discussed? This is useful background and its about not embarrassing yourself ("Oh sorry, I didn't realise you had a demo last month")
  

• Industry Trends: Are there industry-specific trends or challenges that could impact the prospect’s business? This helps you speak their language and adds context to the conversation. Really important that you can show credibility in your questions and understanding of industry trends for this customer when you probe around which are being felt most keenly by this particular customer.

  
  

2. Set Clear Objectives for the Meeting

The discovery meeting is your chance to gather the information you need for a highly relevant demo. Your goal is not to pitch the product yet but to learn about the prospect’s pain points, objectives, and environment. Clearly define your objectives for the meeting:

• Understand their challenges: What problems are they trying to solve, and how are these impacting their business?

• Identify key stakeholders: Who are the decision-makers, users, and influencers involved in the process?

• Learn about their current processes: What solutions are they currently using? What’s working well, and where are the gaps?

• Uncover the ideal outcome: What does success look like for them? What specific features or capabilities are they most interested in?
  

3. Structure the Meeting for Maximum Insight

A well-structured meeting ensures you gather all the necessary information without losing focus or time. Here’s an example framework you can follow for your discovery meeting - but organise your own based on how long you have and whether you have a sales person or other people from your company on the call (if you do, you need a prep call to talk all this through so everyone knows their role):

Introduction (5-10 minutes)

Start by setting expectations for the meeting. Let them know that the goal is to understand their needs, and that the information you gather will help you tailor the upcoming demo to address their specific challenges.

• Icebreaker: Begin with a quick, casual question to build rapport (e.g., “How have things been going with your team lately?”).

• Purpose: Briefly explain the purpose of the discovery meeting and what you hope to accomplish.
  

Exploring Pain Points & Goals (15-20 minutes)

Now it’s time to dive into the meat of the conversation. Use open-ended questions to get the prospect talking about their challenges and objectives.

Some key questions might include:

• “What specific challenges are you trying to address with this solution?”

• “How are these challenges impacting your team or business?”

• “What are your top goals or objectives for the next 6-12 months?”

• “What’s driving the need for change at this point?”

As they respond, listen closely for both spoken and unspoken pain points. If they mention a problem briefly, dig deeper to understand the full scope. This will help you prioritize what to highlight during the demo.

Current Solutions & Workflows (10-15 minutes)

To understand how your solution fits into their existing processes, ask about their current tools, systems, and workflows.

• “What systems or tools are you currently using to manage this process?”

• “What’s working well with your current solution, and what isn’t?”

• “Are there any integration requirements or limitations we should know about?”

This will help you identify both opportunities (features that fill gaps in their current solution) and constraints (technical limitations or resistance to change).

Stakeholders & Decision-Making Process (10 minutes)

It’s important to understand who’s involved in the decision-making process and what factors influence the decision. I would often let my sales counterpart own this piece and we might even start with it so they can start the meeting and understand these before handing over to me. They will ask questions like:

• “Who will be involved in evaluating this solution on your side?”

• “What are the key factors that will influence the decision?”

• “What’s your timeline for making a decision and implementing a solution?”

This information will guide you in tailoring your messaging and demo to different stakeholders, ensuring you address their individual concerns.

4. Wrap Up and Next Steps

At the end of the meeting, take a few minutes to summarize what you’ve learned. Reconfirm their pain points, needs, and goals, and let them know how this information will help you build a more targeted demo.

Then, clearly outline the next steps. If you haven’t already, schedule the demo and ensure the prospect knows what to expect. You can say something like:

• “Based on what we discussed, I’ll tailor the demo to focus on solving [specific challenge], and I’ll highlight how we can help you achieve [goal]. I’ll send you a calendar invite for the demo, and we can get started from there.”
  

Note Taking in the Discovery Meeting

With more and more discovery meetings happening online now people are becoming used to having these recorded. I'm a big fan of this as it takes a lot of pressure out of making sure you note down accurate findings.

If you do have to take notes where the meeting is in person or recording is not permotted then the one aspect I would encourage is trying to make sure you have a short hand to note who said what. Its much more powerful in your follow up demo to be able to say "Jane told us that X was a problem due to Y - this is how we solve that Jane" than "someone said" or "we heard" - way too general, way too lazy...

Using Slides in a Discovery Meeting

As we have said - you never want to pitch in the discovery meeting, so we don't use slides in that sense. But personally I quite like to have at least an agenda slide with enough detail to start the meeting off - it signposts what you will talk about and helps guide the conversation so you don't go in to areas that more naturally will surface later.

I have also used a diagram to show a framework of understanding that can be hard to describe in words. As a practical example if I am doing discovery around a process which is multi staged I like a disgram that shows my view of that typical process - it level sets I have the right stages from the customers perspective, makes sure I don't forget to ask about an important stage, and helps avoid jumping around where the customer talks about the end at the beginning etc!

Post-Meeting: Analyse & Tailor Your Demo

Once the meeting is over, take a moment to reflect on what you’ve learned. Review your notes, consult with the sales team, and begin structuring the demo to directly address the challenges and goals that came up during the discovery meeting. The more personalised and targeted your demo is, the more likely it is to resonate with the prospect... And by personalised we mean both in terms of overall message but also in delivery by addressing specific people in the room/on the call and what they specifically asked about or told us.

A pre-demo discovery meeting is a vital part of the software sales process. By taking the time to thoroughly prepare and structure this meeting, you’ll gain the insights needed to deliver a demo that truly speaks to your prospect’s needs. The more you understand their challenges, goals, and workflows, the better equipped you’ll be to showcase how your solution can make a real impact. With a solid discovery process in place, you’ll not only build a better demo but also foster a stronger relationship with your prospect, paving the way for a successful sale.