1 min lesson
Timed mock discovery call
Use "Timed mock discovery call" to explain each part and the role it plays.
Step 1 of 3
Discovery is the stage most AEs think they're good at and most fail in the loop, because they pitch when they should question and they leave without an economic buyer or a next step.
Build the persona first, then run the clock. The interviewer in the real loop will play a technical buyer with a genuine workflow pain and at least one trap, usually security. Your job is to diagnose, quantify and exit with a committed next step, all while talking less than the buyer.
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Full explanation
Run the 15 minutes in five moves
Run the 15 minutes in five moves
Interactive diagram. Step through it with the Next and Previous controls below, or Tab to a region to read its detail.
Two gates decide the call: quantifying the pain and exiting with a committed next step.
"You said onboarding takes about three weeks. If a new engineer could ship a real PR in week one instead, what would that be worth across the 40 people you plan to hire this year? I'm trying to put a number on this so it survives your CFO, not just so it sounds good to us."
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Advanced table
Grade the call against this rubric
Grade the call against this rubric
- Dimension
- Question quality
- Pass bar
- Open, layered, follow-ups that dig; no leading pitch-questions
- Self-score 1-5
- __
- Dimension
- Pain quantification
- Pass bar
- At least one pain converted to a defensible number
- Self-score 1-5
- __
- Dimension
- Multi-threading
- Pass bar
- Economic buyer, security veto and champion all named
- Self-score 1-5
- __
- Dimension
- Decision process
- Pass bar
- Eval steps, security gate and budget timing surfaced
- Self-score 1-5
- __
- Dimension
- Talk ratio
- Pass bar
- You spoke under 40% of the time
- Self-score 1-5
- __
- Dimension
- Next step
- Pass bar
- Specific action, date, owner and a thread to the absent buyer
- Self-score 1-5
- __
| Dimension | Pass bar | Self-score 1-5 |
|---|---|---|
| Question quality | Open, layered, follow-ups that dig; no leading pitch-questions | __ |
| Pain quantification | At least one pain converted to a defensible number | __ |
| Multi-threading | Economic buyer, security veto and champion all named | __ |
| Decision process | Eval steps, security gate and budget timing surfaced | __ |
| Talk ratio | You spoke under 40% of the time | __ |
| Next step | Specific action, date, owner and a thread to the absent buyer | __ |
Rerun the whole call until every row is a 4+ and the flow feels automatic.
When the buyer drops the security trap, the failure mode is to either dodge it or to over-promise on the spot. Do neither. Acknowledge it as a real requirement, ask one clarifying question about what their review needs and route it to a next step. "Code not training a model is table stakes for you, understood. Who owns that review and can we get them what they need in writing this week?" You are showing you can carry the deal through security, which is exactly the Cursor motion.
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Optional practice