10 Discovery Questions That Uncover Real Budget
Stop asking 'what's your budget?' — it never works. These are the questions enterprise sellers use to map spending authority without ever using the word 'budget.'
Asking 'what's your budget?' is the fastest way to teach the buyer that you're about to price to their number. It also rarely works — most buyers either don't know or won't tell you.
Instead, map the economics of the problem before you map the economics of the solution. Here are ten questions that do it.
1. 'What's the cost of this problem today — in dollars, hours, or risk?' Anchors value.
2. 'If you don't solve this in the next six months, what changes?' Surfaces urgency.
3. 'How have you solved problems like this before?' Reveals past spending patterns.
4. 'Who would champion this internally?' Maps political capital.
5. 'What's the approval path for a project this size?' Reveals process without asking for budget.
6. 'What got funded in the last 12 months that's analogous?' Benchmark.
7. 'If we could prove ROI inside one quarter, what would change?' Tests appetite.
8. 'Who owns the P&L this would come out of?' Finds the economic buyer.
9. 'What does success look like 90 days after we sign?' Forces specificity.
10. 'What would have to be true for you to go to bat for this internally?' Recruits a coach.