How to run the discovery call

Every broker knows the six things they need. The order is what separates a call that produces accurate answers from one that produces the answers the merchant thinks will get them funded.

The order, and why

#	Question	Doing what
1	What is the money for?	Engagement, and it predicts urgency
2	How much, and when do you need it?	Sizes the deal, tests seriousness
3	What is the business doing monthly?	The primary qualifier
4	How long have you been trading?	The floor most funders enforce
5	Anything else being repaid daily?	The one they will not volunteer
6	Can you get four months of statements?	Predicts whether this moves at all

Question five is the important one

Existing positions are the most commonly withheld fact on a discovery call, and not always dishonestly — merchants often do not think of a previous advance as debt. Ask it as a mechanical question about their bank account rather than as an accusation: "is anything coming out daily or weekly at the moment?" gets a straighter answer than "do you have any other advances?"

What to do with a fail

Under the revenue or time-in-business floor: say so plainly and diarise the date it changes.
Heavily stacked: be honest about what that means for pricing before you spend a week on it.
Restricted industry: say it in the first two minutes, not on day four.
No statements available: find out why. It is sometimes a login problem and sometimes a signal.

A disqualification handled well is worth something. Merchants remember being told plainly that this is not going to work, and a diarised return at the point the blocker expires is one of the cheapest sources of funded deals a floor has.

Questions brokers ask

Use of funds, amount and urgency, monthly revenue, time in business, existing positions, and whether four months of bank statements are available — in that order.

Because a merchant who has not yet been engaged gives you the answers they think will get them funded. Asking what the money is for first costs thirty seconds and materially improves the accuracy of everything after it.

Mechanically, about the bank account: "is anything coming out daily or weekly at the moment?" That gets a straighter answer than asking whether they have other advances, which many merchants do not think of as debt.

Say so plainly, explain why, and diarise the date the blocker expires — a time-in-business milestone or a position being repaid. Those diarised returns are one of the cheapest sources of funded deals on a floor.

Long enough to get six honest answers and the statements ask, which is usually under ten minutes on a fresh lead. If it is running much longer, you are pitching rather than qualifying.

Keep reading

Qualifying an MCA lead on the first callFive questions that decide whether a file is worth packaging.Getting the bank statements without losing the merchantThe single biggest drop-off point in the whole process.Restricted industries, and who funds them anywayThe list is shorter than brokers think and longer than merchants hope.