Prospecting and discovery
What you'll be able to do
Ask more than you tell — discovery surfaces the real need, and the right recommendation follows.
- Lead with questions, not a pitch — discovery drives the recommendation.
- Use open questions that surface goals, fears, and timelines.
- Reflect back what you heard to confirm and build trust.
Selling these products well starts long before any recommendation, in discovery. The best openers aren't pitches — they're questions. Discovery is where you uncover goals, fears, timelines, and the 'why' behind the money. Sellers who talk less and ask more in this phase consistently recommend better and close more, because the recommendation writes itself once the need is clear.
Use open questions that invite a story: 'What would you like your money to make possible?' 'What's kept you from sorting this out so far?' 'When you picture retirement, what does a normal Tuesday look like?' Then listen — and reflect back what you heard, which both confirms accuracy and signals that you actually understood.
Discovery also doubles as the start of your KYC and needs analysis. Done with genuine curiosity, it builds the trust that every later step depends on; done as an interrogation to fill a form, it builds resistance. The mindset is 'help me understand you,' not 'let me qualify you.'
Key points
- Lead with questions, not a pitch — discovery drives the recommendation.
- Use open questions that surface goals, fears, and timelines.
- Reflect back what you heard to confirm and build trust.
- Discovery seeds KYC and the needs analysis — do it with curiosity.
Examples
Instead of pitching, the rep asks, 'What would you like your money to make possible in the next ten years?' The client's answer reveals the real goal — and the right products become obvious.
Pitfalls
- Pitching products before understanding the client's goals.
- Treating discovery as a form to fill rather than a conversation.
Ask your sales coach
In a real Adept rollout this routes to your firm's compliance-approved Claude project; in the demo it opens a fresh Claude chat. Never share real client details.