Internal script
Free 15-Minute Discovery Call
This is not a shorter version of the 60-minute paid assessment. Its job is to deliver one genuinely useful recommendation fast enough to earn trust, then transition into booking the paid assessment. It should feel generous, not like a sales gate.
Hard constraints
- You will not have time to build a proper baseline (hours/week, signed off). Any number you give here is a reasonable estimate, not the guaranteed figure — don't attach the 5-hour guarantee language to anything said on this call.
- You need to walk away with exactly one concrete recommendation, not a menu. Resist the urge to diagnose everything — that's what the paid assessment is for.
- This call can be run by someone less senior than whoever runs full assessments — the cheat sheet below is built so a competent team member can deliver real value without needing deep expertise on every call.
The script
What to say, minute by minute
Opening (1 min) — Set the frame
- "Thanks for booking time. Here's how this works: I'm going to ask a few quick questions about how your firm runs, and by the end I'll give you one specific recommendation you can act on — whether or not we ever talk again. If it turns out there's a lot more to dig into, I'll tell you honestly, and that's what our full assessment is for. Sound good?"
Quick Discovery (7–8 min) — Ask these four, in order
- 1. "What's the most painful part of the week, right now?" Open-ended on purpose. Whatever they lead with is usually the real answer.
- 2. "Roughly how many people are on your team, and is it mostly compliance work, or do you have a growing advisory/CAS side?" This tells you their billing model fast — hourly compliance shops need the non-billable-recovery frame; CAS-heavy firms can hear straight ROI.
- 3. "When something comes in from a client — a document, a request — what actually happens to it?" One follow-up question, not a full process walkthrough. You're listening for: is there a system, or is it email and memory?
- 4. "If you could fix one thing about how the practice runs, with no budget limit, what would it be?" Often reveals the emotionally-loaded priority, which sometimes differs from what came up in Q1 — worth having both.
Deliver the Recommendation (3–4 min)
- Use the cheat sheet below to match what you heard to one recommendation. Say it with structure:
- "Based on what you've described, here's the one thing I'd start with: [recommendation]. Here's roughly what that would look like: [1-2 sentences]. And here's a rough sense of what it's worth: [X hours/week or a plain description of the win] — that's an estimate, not a guarantee, since we haven't done a full baseline yet."
Transition to the Full Assessment (3–4 min)
- "That's one fix. In a full assessment, we spend 60 minutes actually mapping your workflow properly, and you get a complete written report — quick wins, medium projects, and one bigger strategic opportunity, each with real numbers attached, plus a 4-day plan you can start on immediately. It's $1,500, and if we don't find at least 5 documented hours a week you can get back, it's fully refunded. And if you move forward with implementation afterward, that $1,500 becomes a full credit — so it's effectively free."
- If they hesitate on price: "Totally fair to think about it. The recommendation I just gave you is yours regardless — no strings. If you want to go deeper later, the offer's there."
- If they want to book now: move straight to scheduling.
Close (1 min)
- "I'll send a quick recap by email with the recommendation we talked about. [If booking the assessment: confirm date/time.] Thanks for the time today."
Quick recommendation cheat sheet
Match the pain to one recommendation
Each of these is a safe, genuinely useful quick win that doesn't require deep diagnosis to state confidently.
What you heard
We're constantly chasing clients for documents
Recommend
A live document checklist per engagement with automatic reminders tied to what's actually missing — removes the need for anyone to manually track who owes what.
What you heard
Onboarding a new client takes forever
Recommend
A single intake flow that populates every downstream system once, instead of re-entering the same information three times.
What you heard
We don't really have a system for tracking who wants to work with us
Recommend
Even a lightweight CRM — most firms this size have literally nothing beyond memory and a spreadsheet, and it's a fast, low-cost fix.
What you heard
Clients email asking where their return/file is
Recommend
A simple status view clients can check themselves, so staff aren't interrupted constantly during peak season.
What you heard
I'm still doing scheduling myself / back-and-forth over email
Recommend
Automated scheduling tied to your calendar — small fix, disproportionately valuable because it's the owner's own time.
What you heard
We don't really have a marketing/lead system, it's all referral
Recommend
Worth naming as a real gap, but this is a bigger conversation — flag it as something the full assessment should cover, don't try to solve live.
What you heard
Answer is vague, or several things came up equally
Recommend
Default to document collection/chase — it's the single most common and highest-confidence win across almost every firm profile.
What you heard
Nothing on this list clearly fits
Recommend
Say so honestly — "Nothing's jumping out as an obvious quick win from what you've told me, which usually means there's more going on under the surface than a 15-minute call can surface. That's exactly the case the full assessment is built for." This is a legitimate, honest outcome — don't force a recommendation that doesn't fit.
Post-call follow-up
Send within a few hours of the call.
Subject
Your recommendation from today's call
Body
Hi [Name],
Thanks for the time today. As promised, here's the recommendation we discussed:
[Recommendation name] — [1-2 sentence recap]
That's yours to take or leave. If you'd like to go deeper, here's the link to book the full assessment: [booking link]. $1,500, credited in full toward implementation if you move forward, with a 5-hours-a-week guarantee or a full refund.
Either way, good luck with it.