Consulting Discovery Call Script
Three documents and three sheets that score every discovery call on five criteria, then check which one actually predicts a close.
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Qualification Scorecard
[Prospect] — [call date]
| Criterion | Score (0-3) |
|---|---|
| Decision-maker access | — |
| Budget confirmed | — |
| Problem specificity | — |
| Timeline urgency | — |
| Fit with specialism | — |
| Total (0-15) | — |
Scored from the call itself, on the same five criteria every time, before a recommended action is decided.
A consulting discovery call script almost always scores the call against a fixed set of criteria, each worth a set number of points, added up against a qualifying threshold. One BANT-MEDDIC hybrid guide scores budget and authority at up to two points each, need at three, timing at two, and a champion at one, qualifying anything scoring seven or above. The weights are picked because they sound reasonable, and none of the guides ranking for this query check them against what has actually closed.
Grove, Zald, Lebow, Snitz and Nelson's meta-analysis of 136 studies, published in Psychological Assessment, compared clinical judgment against mechanical, checked prediction rules. The checked rule came out about 10% more accurate on average, and the gap held regardless of the judge's experience. The mechanism that travels here is not the number, it is the method. A scoring rule earns trust by being tested against real outcomes, not by sounding reasonable when it was written. This pack scores five criteria on every call, then checks which one actually separated a win from a loss.
Okafor Advisory, a fictional solo operations consultant, logged 42 enquiries over a trailing year. Eighteen had a decision-maker confirmed on the call, and ten of those closed, 55.6%. The other twenty-four did not, and only two closed, 8.3%, a 47-point spread. Splitting the same 42 by budget confirmation instead, the criterion most published scorecards weight heaviest, the spread is only 13 points. Eleven of those twenty-four still received a full proposal, and only two closed, costing 45 hours nothing came back for.
What's in the pack
Call Guide
A five-part script for the call itself, structured so each part produces one of the Qualification Scorecard's five answers while the prospect is still talking.
Qualification Criteria
The 0-3 rubric for all five criteria, including the specialism fit a capability statement already states, plus how to check the weights against real outcomes.
Decline Note
Four variants, matched to the scorecard's actual weak point, so a no is a repeatable message rather than something improvised under deadline pressure.
Qualification Scorecard
Every call scored 0-3 on five criteria with a recommended action, before the fee itself gets priced or a proposal gets written.
Enquiry Register
Every enquiry logged with its source, its score, and its real outcome, won, lost or declined at intake, whether or not a proposal ever went out.
Conversion by Source
Win rate split by lead source and by each scored criterion, so a practice's own numbers say which one actually predicts a close.
How to use it
- 1
Open in River, or take it blank
Open the pack and describe a real discovery call, or download the Word documents and CSV sheets and run the scorecard yourself.
- 2
Score the call on five criteria
Rate decision-maker access, budget, problem specificity, timeline and fit from what was actually said, then state the outcome before hanging up.
- 3
Log the outcome, whatever it is
Add the enquiry to the register with its source and score the same day, including a decline, so nothing scored stays invisible to the later check.
- 4
Check which criterion actually predicts
Once roughly thirty calls have a logged result, split the wins by each criterion and move the scorecard's points to match what actually closed.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes. The zip is Word documents and CSV sheets, no account and no card. Edit with AI is the optional half: describe a real call and the agent scores it, drafts a decline note if it fails, or a proposal-ready summary if it clears. The rest sit in the template library.
What format are the downloaded files?
Three Word documents and three CSV sheets in one zip. The Qualification Scorecard, Enquiry Register and Conversion by Source sheets open in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets with every column intact, including the score history, no conversion needed.
Why does decision-maker access outweigh budget here, when most scorecards weight budget highest?
Because one practice's own closed enquiries said so. Decision-maker access predicted a win by a 47-point spread between its high- and low-scoring groups; budget confirmation, by only 13. Run the same split on your own register before trusting either weight.
How many calls do I need before the check means anything?
Roughly thirty with a known outcome. Fewer than that and a split by criterion is mostly noise, so the pack says to keep scoring and logging rather than recalibrating early on a handful of calls.
What happens once a call clears the scorecard?
The confirmed scope and budget range move into a proposal, and if the fee itself still needs work, the pricing model prices it from what similar engagements actually took. Clearing the scorecard is a reason to spend proposal hours, not a promise the proposal wins.
Does this replace BANT or MEDDIC?
No. It scores the same kind of information those frameworks ask for. What it adds is the check neither one runs: splitting closed enquiries by criterion to see whether the assumed weights match what this specific practice's calls have actually converted.
Qualify harder, not faster
Take the Word documents and CSV sheets blank, or send River a real call and get it scored against five criteria instead of one assumed-important one.
Edit with AI