How Do I Build More Rapport on my Discovery Calls?
Are you looking to spark deeper engagement in your discovery calls? If so, consider holding off on diving into project details right away.
It’s natural to want to jump straight into the specifics of the deal, after all, that’s why you’re having the conversation. But here’s the problem: as soon as you shift into project talk, the discussion can quickly become tactical, bogged down in details, and stuck in the weeds. When this happens, you risk missing out on the bigger picture, the real motivations behind why your prospect is considering change in the first place.
So, what’s the solution?
The instinct to slow down before getting tactical isn’t just a feel-good habit, it shows up in the data. Research published in the Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing on genuine small talk and negotiation outcomes in B2B relationships found that rapport established before the substance of a deal is discussed measurably improves negotiation outcomes later on, and that the effect depends on the rapport-building actually being genuine rather than a formality to get through.
That last point matters for discovery calls specifically. The organizational questions this post recommends, about leadership priorities and strategic goals, aren’t small talk in the throwaway sense. They’re genuine questions with real answers that inform the rest of the call. That’s likely why they build rapport more effectively than generic warm-up chat about the weekend: the prospect can tell the difference between a rep filling time and a rep actually trying to understand their situation.
Try this approach: resist the temptation to talk about their project for at least the first 15 minutes of your discovery call. Instead, focus on the broader context of what’s happening within their organization. Ask about company-wide initiatives, leadership priorities, and strategic goals. This not only helps you establish a higher-level understanding of their needs but also allows you to position your solution as a key piece of their larger business strategy.
“Ask about company priorities” is easy to agree with and hard to actually execute without a few real questions in hand. A few that work well across most discovery calls: “What’s the biggest initiative your leadership team is focused on this year?” “How does this project connect to that broader goal?” “If this project succeeds, what changes for the business beyond just this team?”
Notice that none of these ask about the product yet. They’re aimed entirely at understanding the world the prospect is operating in, which is exactly the point. Discovery calls that open this way give a rep something no feature walkthrough can: a clear sense of which parts of the eventual pitch will actually matter to this specific organization.
A useful test for whether a question belongs in this window: could the prospect answer it accurately without knowing anything about your product? If yes, it belongs in the first 15 minutes. If the question only makes sense once your solution is on the table, save it for after.
The technique backfires when it starts to feel like an interrogation rather than a conversation. Firing off four organizational questions back to back without reacting to any of the answers reads as a checklist being worked through, not genuine curiosity. Respond to what the prospect actually says before moving to the next question, even if that means the 15 minutes covers less ground than planned.
It also backfires when the rep clearly doesn’t know why they’re asking. If a prospect senses that the questions about leadership priorities are just a script to get through before the real conversation starts, the rapport-building effect disappears entirely. The questions have to sound like they come from genuine interest in the answer, not from a training document.
Finally, watch the clock without making it obvious. Glancing at the time or announcing “okay, fifteen minutes are up” turns a natural conversation into a timed exercise. Let the transition into project specifics happen when the organizational picture feels reasonably complete, not at a fixed number of minutes on a stopwatch.
By taking this step back, you gain valuable insights into what’s truly driving the decision-making process. You also build rapport and establish credibility, making it easier to guide the conversation toward value, rather than getting stuck in feature-heavy discussions too soon.
The 15-minute guideline is a strong default, not a rule to apply identically to every call. A prospect who opens by saying they only have ten minutes and needs to get straight to specifics is telling you something important, and overriding that stated constraint to force rapport-building on your own timeline undercuts the very trust you’re trying to build.
Renewal or expansion discovery calls with an existing customer usually don’t need the full 15 minutes either, since the rapport and organizational context often already exist from the original relationship. In that setting, a shorter check-in on what’s changed since the last conversation covers similar ground without artificially stretching the call.
Very short first calls, a fifteen-minute intro slot rather than a full discovery session, are the other clear exception. Trying to fit fifteen minutes of context-building into a call that only lasts fifteen minutes total leaves no time for anything else. Scale the approach down to two or three sharp questions rather than dropping it entirely, and save the fuller version for the next, longer conversation.
The organizational questions in this approach land better when they’re not the prospect’s first time thinking about the answer out loud. Spend a few minutes before the call looking at recent company news, leadership changes, or public statements about strategic priorities, so your questions build on what you already know rather than starting completely cold.
Understanding a customer’s real motivators is the same discipline this technique is built on, just applied earlier in the relationship. This is also close to what Hoffman’s Work The Deal™ methodology is designed to uncover: the buying signals and priorities sitting above the immediate project, which is exactly the layer discovery calls miss when they rush straight into tactical details.
So, next time you’re running a discovery call, slow down. Give yourself the space to explore the bigger picture before zooming in on the specifics. You’ll find that when you do finally shift to project details, you’ll have a stronger foundation to drive meaningful, high-impact conversations.
Fifteen minutes is a small investment against the length of most sales cycles, and it’s one of the few discovery call habits that pays off whether the deal closes in two weeks or two quarters.