Generic discovery questions get generic answers. "What are your biggest challenges?" invites a polite non-answer. Vertical-specific questions show you've done your homework and give the prospect a reason to be honest — because you're speaking the language of their actual day-to-day.
Here are discovery frameworks for three verticals SDRs commonly work into: SaaS, manufacturing, and logistics. For each question, we've included what you're actually trying to learn and how to follow up.
SaaS Discovery Questions
SaaS buyers are usually sophisticated. They've been through dozens of sales processes, they know what a leading question sounds like, and they'll shut you down if you lead with outcomes you can't prove. The goal is to get them talking about specific operational pain — not abstract goals.
"What does your current setup do well, and where does your team work around it?"
What you're learning: Where the real friction is. Workarounds reveal pain better than complaints do — they're real costs someone is paying every day. Follow up: "How often does that happen?" or "Who ends up owning that workaround?"
"When your team misses quota, what's usually the root cause?"
What you're learning: Whether the problem is pipeline, conversion, ramp time, or territory. This question won't get a deflected answer from a VP who's actually thought about it — they know. Follow up: "Is that consistent across the team, or specific to certain segments?"
"How long does it take a new rep to run an independent discovery call?"
What you're learning: Ramp time and enablement gaps. If the answer is "three to four months," you have a clear cost-of-delay number to work with. Follow up: "What's the bottleneck in that process?"
"Who else is involved when you evaluate tools like this?"
What you're learning: The buying committee. This is a classic MEDDIC qualification move that doesn't feel like one. A VP who's bought tools before will tell you exactly who has veto power. Follow up: "When you bring them in, what do they typically care most about?"
"Where does most rep time go in a typical week that you'd rather it didn't?"
What you're learning: Where the sales leader sees time being wasted and what they'd reprioritize if they could. Answers often point directly to the category of problem your product solves. Follow up: "Has anything you've tried moved the needle on that?"
Manufacturing Discovery Questions
Manufacturing buyers are skeptical of software for a reason — they've been burned before. They want to talk operations, not vision. Use their language: floor, line, run, throughput. Avoid SaaS buzzwords. The discovery goal is to surface a specific operational cost — downtime, rework, scheduling friction — that your product addresses.
"Walk me through how a new order flows from quote to your production floor. Where do things slow down?"
What you're learning: The bottleneck in their order-to-delivery workflow. Most manufacturers have at least one handoff that happens on spreadsheets, phone calls, or tribal knowledge. That's the opening. Follow up: "How often does a delay there cause a missed delivery date?"
"How do you handle last-minute spec changes from customers?"
What you're learning: Flexibility and cost of change. Late spec changes are expensive and almost universal in custom manufacturing. If they're managing this manually, there's visible pain. Follow up: "Does the customer know when they've triggered a cost because of that?"
"What's your current visibility into inventory and lead times when you're quoting a job?"
What you're learning: How their quoting process works and whether it's driven by real-time data. Manufacturers who quote from memory or stale spreadsheets routinely over-promise on delivery. Follow up: "How often does a quoted timeline end up slipping?"
"When something goes wrong on the floor, how quickly does your team know?"
What you're learning: Their visibility into real-time production status. If the answer is "we walk the floor" or "we get a report the next morning," there's a gap you can speak to. Follow up: "Who does that information need to reach when it happens?"
"Where does your production data live today — your ERP, spreadsheets, or something else?"
What you're learning: Their current system landscape and integration complexity. An honest "it's a mix of everything" is gold — it means there's no single system of record and consolidation is a real pain point. Follow up: "How long does it take to pull a report that combines all of that?"
Logistics Discovery Questions
Logistics buyers live in a world of margins, exceptions, and relationships. Every decision has a cost-per-mile implication. Discovery in this vertical is about surfacing volume, frequency, and the cost of the problem — not the ideal future state. Get them talking numbers early.
"How many carriers are you actively managing relationships with right now?"
What you're learning: Their carrier base complexity. A shipper managing 40+ carriers manually has a coordination problem. A shipper managing 5 has a capacity problem. Both are real, and they require different conversations. Follow up: "How many of those are contracted versus spot?"
"When a shipment gets delayed, what's your process for notifying the customer?"
What you're learning: Their customer communication workflow and whether it's proactive or reactive. Reactive notification is a relationship risk. If your team is manually pulling tracking and emailing customers, that's a scale problem. Follow up: "How much time does that take per week?"
"How do you handle spot freight right now versus contract lanes?"
What you're learning: How much of their volume is volatile and how they manage it. Teams leaning heavily on spot freight often lack visibility into what they're paying relative to market rates. Follow up: "What's your process for deciding when to go to spot versus calling a contract carrier?"
"What does your team's load planning process look like today?"
What you're learning: Whether they're running an optimized process or doing it manually. Dispatch teams still building loads in spreadsheets or a TMS from 2010 have high-friction workflows that cost real money. Follow up: "How long does it take to plan a full day's loads?"
"What's the biggest thing keeping your team from hitting on-time delivery targets?"
What you're learning: The highest-priority operational pain in their network. This is an intentionally open question that lets them tell you where the fire is. Good logistics operations leaders know exactly where they're bleeding. Follow up: "Is that consistent, or does it spike around certain times of month or year?"
When You Don't Know the Vertical
You won't always have time to get deep on a new vertical before your first call. The baseline approach: ask about their operational flow before you ask about pain. "Walk me through how [core process] works at your company" almost always surfaces something. Combine that with their job title to infer what they're measured on, and you have enough context to ask a useful second question.
Callframe generates pre-call briefs that include vertical-specific context — surfacing what the prospect's company actually does, what their typical operational pain looks like, and suggested discovery angles based on the ICP you've defined for your team. It's the equivalent of having done your homework before you dial.
Building Your Question Bank
The best discovery questions come from listening to your best reps. Record your calls — check your local laws, as many U.S. states and most of Europe require all-party consent before recording — then pull transcripts and look for the specific questions that preceded the moments where prospects opened up. That's your real question bank.
Use vertical-specific questions as a starting point and adapt them based on what works for your product, your ACV, and your buyers. The goal is always the same: get the prospect talking about something real, in their own words, in a way that connects to a cost they're already paying.