Discovery is where a call is usually decided, and it is where sellers talk too early. This fictional call shows one buyer who opens with a question about price, and a seller who does not skip the questions.
Fictional practice call. The seller and the buyer are invented. This is not a recording of a real call or a real customer.
Setup
A seller at an accounting-software company returns a web-form request from the owner of a small design agency. The buyer wants to know the price. The goal is to understand the situation, the problem and what it costs before saying anything about the product.
Rubric focus: Questioning, Needs discovery, Active listening, Handling of silence, Structure, Next step.
How to use this page
Read the transcript once for the story. Then read it again with the notes and, before each note, decide what you would have said. Notes marked Worked are worth copying in your own words, not word for word. Notes marked Improve point to a line you can rewrite and say aloud. The scorecard groups what you saw under the criteria DIRI AI uses in its reports, so you can pick one criterion to practise next. Pick one, not six. The call is short on purpose: it shows one pattern clearly, and a real call will not follow it line for line.
Transcript with notes
1. Seller: “Hello Mr Okafor, it's Ana from Kestrel Books, returning your request for information. Is now still a good time for ten minutes?”
- Worked: Refers to what the buyer did and checks the time before talking.
2. Buyer: “Yes, I've got a little time. Mostly I want to know what it costs.”
3. Seller: “I'll come to the price. So that the number means something, may I first ask how invoicing works at your agency today?”
- Worked: Does not dodge the price question, and says why a question comes first.
4. Buyer: “I send invoices from a spreadsheet. About twenty clients, monthly.”
5. Seller: “Do you use any accounting software at the moment?”
- Improve: A closed question, and he had already answered it in line 4. Listen before you ask. Try: "What happens after the invoice goes out?"
6. Buyer: “No. Chasing is the part I hate. I never know who has paid.”
7. Seller: “What do you do when you don't know?”
- Worked: A short open question that follows his strongest word, "hate".
8. Buyer: (Pause.) I open the bank app on Sunday evening and match payments by hand. It takes ages.
9. Seller: (The seller waits a few seconds.)
- Worked: Silence after a long answer. Silence is a question, and he fills it.
10. Buyer: “And twice I chased a client who had already paid. That was embarrassing.”
11. Seller: “So the pain is Sunday evenings, and the risk of chasing someone who has already paid. Have I got that right?”
- Worked: A summary in his words, with a check. It shows he was heard.
12. Buyer: “Exactly. Three hours every month, at least.”
13. Seller: “Then I can answer your price question properly, next to those three hours. May I send the price and a two-line summary of what you told me by tomorrow noon?”
- Worked: The price arrives after his own numbers, and the next step has a time.
Scorecard
An illustrative reading of this call against the criteria on How we score.
| Criterion | 0 to 100 | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Questioning | 60 | Mostly open questions; the one in line 5 was closed and redundant. |
| Needs discovery | 85 | Situation, problem and cost all surfaced before the product. |
| Active listening | 80 | Follows "hate", the pause and the number he gives. |
| Handling of silence | 85 | Waits instead of filling the gap. |
| Structure | 70 | Clear order; the price promise in line 3 is kept in line 13. |
| Next step | 75 | A concrete send with a time, but no date for the next talk. |
Each criterion is shown from 0 to 100, as in a report. No total is printed: a real total is built by rules that read the transcript, not by averaging criteria, so adding up this table would mislead. A real report may read the same call differently.
What to take from this call
- Answer a price question with a reason to ask first, then keep the promise and answer it.
- Open questions follow the buyer's strongest word. A closed question repeats what you have already heard.
- Wait after a long answer, and summarise in the buyer's own words before you move on.
Exercise
Ten minutes, one prepared scenario.
- Write three open questions for your own product: one on the situation, one on the problem, one on what the problem costs.
- Run the prepared scenario and count, in the transcript, how many of your questions could be answered with yes or no.
- After a long answer, count to three before you speak. Notice what the buyer adds.
- End with one sentence that starts "So if I've understood..." and check whether the buyer corrects it.
Closest prepared scenario: a buyer who answers precisely and wants reasons.
Practise it out loud. The Free plan covers 3 voice calls a month, up to 5 minutes each; see pricing for current terms.