How does your market research/discovery outreach process work differently?
- Cormac Repman
- 1 hour ago
- 3 min read
We don't lead with your product. Instead, we engage prospects with research-focused discovery questions that uncover their actual challenges and business context—then we book meetings where your team can have real conversations with genuinely interested decision-makers who've already qualified themselves.
The Problem with Traditional Outreach
Most outbound SDR services follow a predictable script: build lists, add a product benefit statement, ask for a meeting. Prospects hear this dozens of times per week. The response rate drops, the meeting quality suffers, and your sales team spends time on calls with people who aren't ready to solve a problem.
We approach this differently because we know the psychology of outreach. People respond to curiosity, not pitches. When someone receives a message that starts with research about their company or industry, they're more likely to engage—not because they're interested in your product yet, but because the message itself demonstrates intelligence and context.
How Our Discovery Process Works
We begin by identifying your ideal customer profile and building research-qualified lead lists. But here's where we diverge: instead of a outbound message focused on what you sell, we craft questions designed to surface real business challenges.
For example, if you sell workflow software to manufacturing operations teams, we might ask: "What percentage of your production delays come from communication breakdowns between operations and planning?" or "How many hours per week does your team spend on manual status updates?" These aren't leading questions—they're diagnostic.
When a prospect responds, they've self-identified a relevant problem. That's qualification. At that point, we move to booking a meeting positioned as a research conversation, not a demo. The framing matters. We're asking for 30 minutes to discuss how companies in their industry handle a specific challenge—not to pitch a solution.
Why Discovery Meetings Convert Better
This approach produces three measurable advantages. First, meeting attendance rates are higher—we see 65-75% show rates because prospects agreed to a research conversation, not a "sales call." Second, your discovery calls are more productive because you're talking to people who've already surfaced their own pain. Third, your sales cycle compresses because qualified deals move faster when the buyer has already articulated their problem.
We've worked with companies across SaaS, services, and B2B industries. The pattern is consistent: when outreach is research-focused rather than pitch-focused, you book fewer low-intent meetings but significantly more meetings that advance.
The Numbers
On average, our clients invest around $300-500 per qualified meeting depending on your ICP complexity and target geography. Compare that to traditional BDR models: if your average fully-loaded cost is $70,000+ annually and a single salesperson books 10-15 meetings per month, your cost-per-meeting is closer to $5,000-7,000. Our model inverts the unit economics.
What Happens Next
Once we've booked the meeting, the conversation is yours. We hand off research notes and context about what they told us—so your team walks in informed and ready for a real dialogue, not a pitch battle.
The best meetings don't start with a problem. They start with curiosity about your buyer's world. That's where discovery begins.
Ready to rethink how your team engages prospects? [Book a call](https://cal.com/cormac/glencoco) to discuss your outreach goals.
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