Build a discovery question bank tailored to one persona
Generates a 15-question discovery bank built around one persona's actual responsibilities and failure modes, organized by call stage, with listening notes on what strong and weak answers sound like. Beats generic question lists because the interview forces your product, competitor, and deal-death context into every question.
You are a discovery coach who has reviewed thousands of recorded sales calls. You know the difference between questions that produce real information and questions that produce polite noise. You never suggest 'What keeps you up at night?' or 'Tell me about your challenges' — those signal a rep who did no homework. Build me a discovery question bank for one specific persona. Requirements: - 15 questions total, organized into four sections: Current State (how they do it today), Pain & Impact (what breaks and what it costs), Buying Process (who decides, how, when), and Priority (why this, why now). - Every question must be open-ended and specific to the persona's world — reference their actual responsibilities, metrics, and tools, not generic 'business challenges'. - For each question, add one line on what a strong answer sounds like versus a red-flag answer, so I know what to listen for. - Mark the 5 questions I should always ask if time is short. - No stacked questions (two questions in one), no leading questions that telegraph the answer I want, no questions answerable from their website. Before you write anything, interview me. Ask me these questions ONE AT A TIME, waiting for my answer each time: 1. What do you sell, and what outcome does it deliver? 2. Which persona is this bank for — role, seniority, and what they own? 3. What are the two or three problems your product most often solves for this persona? 4. What does this persona usually use today instead of you (competitor, spreadsheet, nothing)? 5. What's the most common reason deals with this persona stall or die? Once you have my answers, produce the question bank. If my persona description is vague, ask one follow-up before proceeding.
How to use it
- 1
Copy the prompt into Claude, ChatGPT, or any LLM.
- 2
Answer the five interview questions — be specific on question 5; the reason deals die shapes the best questions.
- 3
Review the bank and cut any question you already know the answer to for a given account.
- 4
Rerun the prompt per persona — a CFO bank and an end-user bank should look completely different.
- 5
Drop the shortlist of 5 into your CRM call template so it's in front of you on every call.
Best practices
Build one bank per persona, not one master list — the whole point is specificity.
After 10 calls, come back and tell the model which questions produced the best answers; ask it to double down on those patterns.
Pair this with the question sequencing prompt in this category to control the order, not just the content.
If a question feels like something a prospect has heard 50 times, reply 'make question 4 impossible to answer with a rehearsed response' and regenerate.
Example: what this looks like in practice
An AE at a 60-person RevOps platform sells to VPs of Sales at mid-market SaaS companies. She answers the interview: the product consolidates pipeline reporting, the persona owns forecast accuracy, deals usually die when the VP can't get budget from finance. The bank comes back with questions like 'Walk me through what happened the last time your forecast missed by more than 10% — who felt it first?' and flags a red-flag answer: 'if they say the forecast never misses, they're not the real owner of the number.' She uses the 5-question shortlist on her next three calls and books two second meetings, both times because the impact questions surfaced a number the prospect hadn't said out loud before.
Best fit
This prompt is one gear in a bigger machine. We orchestrate 20+ tools into outbound systems our clients own — and guarantee the results.
Apply for a Pilot Spot → →Frequently asked questions
The best questions are specific to the persona and impossible to answer with a rehearsed response — questions about what broke last quarter, who felt it, and what it cost. Generic openers like 'what are your challenges?' produce generic answers. A strong bank covers current state, pain and impact, buying process, and urgency, which is exactly the structure this prompt enforces.
More discovery calls & demos prompts
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Produces a sub-180-word summary email built on the prospect's verbatim phrases, with impact-paired bullets, an invitation to correct you, and next steps with your commitments listed first. Mirroring their language proves you listened in a way no template can, and the email becomes the artifact your champion forwards internally.
Build a demo storyline from your discovery notes
Converts raw discovery notes or a transcript into a three-act demo storyline that opens on the prospect's problem in their own words, sequences scenes by deal importance, tells you what NOT to show, and scripts the close. It's the difference between a feature tour and a demo the champion replays internally.
Build a multi-threading plan for a stalled single-threaded deal
Diagnoses why your single-threaded deal stalled, maps the three or four other roles you need relationships with, and writes both paths in: language that gets your contact to introduce you, and direct outreach that references the live evaluation without burning the relationship. Turns 'my contact went dark' from a dead deal into a workable plan.