A promising conversation about a customer story can still leave you unable to write a sensible proposal. You may know that someone wants “a video and a case study” without knowing who will appear, which claims can be supported or who approves the final work.
The purpose of discovery is to make those decisions clearer. It is not to run through a long questionnaire or force every prospect into your usual package. For a writer or production agency, the useful outcome is a scope you can explain, a smaller next step or a reason to stop.
Prepare the call using the account brief, then choose the questions that address its real unknowns. Do not ask for facts the person has already supplied.
Start with how the story will be used
Ask: “Where will this story need to do useful work?” A sales conversation, a product launch, a website library and a conference presentation can require different formats and levels of detail.
Then ask which audience needs it and what question that audience is trying to answer. A story for a technical evaluator may need a clear account of implementation. A short executive clip may need a concise explanation of the decision. Neither automatically requires an invented return-on-investment number.
Find out what the team already uses. If an existing piece works, ask what remains missing. The answer may be editing, a new customer perspective or a distribution task rather than another full production.
Find the experience worth documenting
Ask: “Which customer experience would make this useful for that audience?” Let the team describe the situation before narrowing the format.
Useful follow-up questions include what changed, what the customer actually did, what trade-offs they faced and which details they can explain publicly. Distinguish a real experience from a product claim the vendor wants someone to repeat.
Do not promise a dramatic before-and-after result before the interview. If the available evidence is qualitative, a careful account of the decision and implementation can still be valuable. Decide how that affects the proposed story instead of filling the gap with a percentage.
Check customer access before pricing production
Ask whether a participant is identified, willing and available. Find out who manages the relationship and who will invite them. A named company is not the same as an interview booked with an authorized spokesperson.
For a film, clarify whether the work is remote or on location, where the participant is based and what production access is realistic. For a written story, ask who can provide context and review technical details. These answers shape scheduling, preparation and cost.
If customer participation is uncertain, consider a separately scoped preparation stage. It might produce an interview brief and an agreed invitation process. Describe exactly what that stage delivers; do not price or promise an interview outcome you cannot control.
Make evidence and approval part of the scope
Ask: “What can we use to support the claims you want the story to make?” A useful answer identifies a source and someone who can confirm it. It does not need to mean sharing confidential customer data with you before a contract.
Ask who reviews factual accuracy, who reviews brand language and who can approve public release. Those may be different people at the vendor and customer. Agree how comments will be consolidated and what happens when reviewers disagree.
You are planning the working process here, not giving a legal opinion. The company should confirm its own permission and release requirements. Your proposal should explain which approvals you depend on and what happens if they arrive late.
Separate the main asset from its versions
“A customer-story package” can conceal many deliverables. Ask which exact assets are needed: a long film, short cuts, written story, transcript, subtitles, quote selections, stills or a sales summary.
For each, record the intended channel, language, format and reviewer. A vertical cut is not always a useful crop of a horizontal interview. A translated subtitle file is not the same as a reviewed local-language version of the story. Make the actual work visible before promising every possible variation.
Clarify what material the company will provide and what you will create. Existing brand footage, approved screenshots and customer assets may affect the production plan. Do not assume you can publish material merely because it appears on a shared drive.
A fictional discovery note that changes the proposal
Illustrative exercise: CedarSignal is an invented B2B analytics vendor. This is a completed planning example, not a transcript, testimonial or real client result.
| Question | Fictional planning answer | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Where will the story be used? | Sales needs an implementation example for technical evaluators. | Prioritize useful detail over a broad awareness film. |
| Is a customer participant ready? | A suitable customer is identified, but participation is not confirmed. | Separate preparation from the interview-dependent production commitment. |
| What evidence is available? | The team can describe the implementation; numerical outcomes are not yet approved. | Do not scope a quantified savings story. |
| What assets are required? | One written story and a two-page sales version, both in English. | A film and social cutdowns are outside this proposed scope. |
| Who approves? | Vendor editor consolidates comments; a customer contact must approve their contribution. | Include a clear review sequence and approval dependency. |
| What happens next? | Confirm participation and the review owner before requesting a production proposal. | The next step is a defined check, not an assumed closed deal. |
The smaller scope is more credible because it follows the work. It is not evidence that smaller proposals convert better, and it does not prescribe the right package for a real company.
End with one agreed next decision
Summarize the audience, intended use, candidate experience, deliverables and dependencies in plain English. Invite corrections. Ask which decision comes next and who needs to be involved.
Possible outcomes include a scoped proposal, a paid preparation stage, an introduction to the actual programme owner or a decision that the work is not suitable. Do not record a demo, a friendly call or a request for information as a sale.
If the person is interested but ownership is unclear, use the role-and-evidence guide before making more approaches. Researching one additional relevant function may help; contacting the whole team can make the conversation harder to coordinate.
When selected LinkedIn profiles are useful for that remaining research, inspect a small profile sample before choosing a larger extraction. Leadsforlinked is produced by the same team as this site. Its profile records can support research, but they cannot answer discovery questions, confirm customer participation or tell you that a company is ready to commission a story.