What to learn
What is broken, how big the problem is, what they already tried, how they decide, and whether you can genuinely help.
Agency discovery and sales
Agency sales training: discovery calls, qualifying, and follow-up
Agency sales training from Tim Kilroy teaches a repeatable way to win clients: discovery calls that learn instead of pitch, honest qualifying, and follow-up that keeps deals moving. The aim is a sales process your team can run, so good-fit deals close whether or not the founder is on the call.
Last updated:
How do agencies run a discovery call that wins clients?
Treat it as discovery, not sales. Tim’s definition: a discovery call is a structured conversation whose only job is to understand the prospect’s problem well enough to decide whether a next step makes sense. The selling comes later.
He calls the payoff Return on Understanding. The depth of your understanding of a prospect’s business drives your ability to sell to them, serve them well, and keep them.
The common mistake
Walking through your process and case studies, then asking about timeline. Tim calls that a pitch with a question stapled to the end.
Prepare first
Most agencies blow discovery before they dial in, because they never actually think about the prospect’s business.
What counts as a qualified prospect?
In Tim Kilroy’s five-stage agency sales funnel, a prospect only counts in a stage when they did something observable, not when you did. Qualifying the prospect means you both agreed out loud there is a real problem, it is worth money, and they decide.
| Stage | What it means | Counts when |
|---|---|---|
| Aware | They know you exist | They could name you unprompted |
| Interested | They raised a hand | They took an action, not when you sent something |
| Qualified | Real problem, worth money, they decide | You can name the problem in their words |
| Proposed | Scope, price, and outcome are in writing | They opened it, not when you hit send |
| Closed | Signed | There is a signature |
How do I find where my sales funnel leaks?
Tim’s leak test takes about twenty minutes and a spreadsheet.
Pull the last 90 days
Ninety days reflects the agency you have now, not last year’s.
Count each stage honestly
Count prospects that entered each of the five stages. Do not round up.
Calculate stage conversion
Aware to interested, interested to qualified, qualified to proposed, proposed to closed.
Fix the worst stage
Work on the one stage losing the most people instead of buying more leads.
What should happen after the call?
Tim’s view is that the follow-up is part of the delivery. Every follow-up should include three parts, and your weekly activity should come from math, not mood.
Recap, relevance, friction
Recap what they said, not what you said. Show relevance to their specific situation without reselling. Then guide them through the friction between “interested” and “yes.”
Pipeline math
Quarterly revenue goal divided by average deal size gives deals needed. Divide by close rate for proposals, by proposal rate for conversations, then by 13 weeks for your weekly number.
Founder magic
Founders close deals others would lose, often without being able to explain how. Tim’s sales work drags that knowledge out of your head into a process the team can run.
AI call review
Tim’s Call Lab tools review sales calls and return coaching feedback, and Discovery Lab builds a prospect brief in about 60 seconds. Some tiers are free.
Common questions
Short answers here. See all 44 questions on the FAQ page.
What is agency discovery?
Agency discovery is the stage where you learn what is broken in a prospect's business, how big the problem is, what they have tried, how they make decisions, and whether you can genuinely help. Tim Kilroy is emphatic that a discovery call is not a sales call. Its goal is a next call, if one makes sense.
More in the FAQ: What is agency discovery?How do I run a discovery call that does not turn into a pitch?
Prepare by actually thinking about the prospect's business before you dial in, then spend the call learning rather than presenting. The most common problem Tim Kilroy hears is a pitch with a question stapled to the end. Leave knowing the problem, its size, what they tried, and how they decide.
More in the FAQ: How do I run a discovery call that does not turn into a pitch?How do I qualify a prospect on a discovery call?
In Tim Kilroy's sales funnel, a prospect counts as qualified only when you have both agreed out loud that there is a real problem, that it is worth money, and that they are the one who decides. A useful test: you can name the problem in their words, not yours.
More in the FAQ: How do I qualify a prospect on a discovery call?Why do prospects ghost after the discovery call?
Usually because the call was a pitch, so you never learned enough to make your proposal land, and the generic version sounds like every other agency. Weak follow-up adds to it. Tim Kilroy recommends every follow-up include a recap of what they said, relevance to their situation, and guidance through the friction between interested and yes.
More in the FAQ: Why do prospects ghost after the discovery call?Is there sales training for agency teams, not just founders?
Yes. Tim Kilroy's sales work focuses on getting what the founder knows out of their head and into a process the team can run, so good-fit deals close whether or not the founder is on the call. It runs through coaching for smaller agencies and through SalesOS for agencies above $1M a year.
More in the FAQ: Is there sales training for agency teams, not just founders?How many sales conversations do I need each week?
Tim Kilroy's formula: quarterly revenue goal divided by average deal size gives deals needed. Divide by close rate for proposals needed, then by proposal rate for conversations needed, then by 13 weeks for your weekly number. Pick one constraint to improve each quarter rather than fixing everything at once.
More in the FAQ: How many sales conversations do I need each week?Talk to Tim about your agency
Tell Tim where your agency is stuck. The contact page at timkilroy.com is the direct route for questions about group coaching, one-on-one coaching, or custom work.