You will produce and practise an opener that you can adapt to any discovery meeting.
You wrote an opener for lesson 1.1, Why the first two minutes decide the whole meeting, and it probably reads well on the page. Then the meeting starts eight minutes late, the buyer says they now have twenty minutes instead of forty-five, and your carefully timed thirty seconds comes out as a jumble. Or the buyer answers "what would you like to get out of today?" with something you did not expect, and you nod and carry on with your plan.
An opener only works when it is so familiar that you can bend it without breaking it. This exercise gets you there. You will draft two versions, practise them with someone who tries to throw you, record both, and save the wording you will actually use.
Write your four parts in full sentences, the way you would say them aloud. Time, purpose in the buyer's terms, their agenda, and the possible outcomes, including no fit.
Here is Priya's draft for her meeting with Joel, the cafe owner from lesson 1.2, Prepare a hypothesis, not a pitch:
"Thanks for making time, Joel. We said forty-five minutes, is that still alright? What I'd like to do is understand how the books work across your two cafes now, and whether anything is worth changing. Before I start, what would make this useful for you? At the end, if it looks like I can help, we can talk about what that would involve. If it doesn't, I'll say so, and I may know someone better suited."
Read it aloud and time it. Priya's comes to about thirty-five seconds.
Now write the version for a meeting that starts late or gets cut. The aim is to keep all four parts and cut everything else, then reshape the meeting out loud so the buyer knows what has changed.
Priya's short version: "We've lost some time, so let's make the twenty minutes count. I'd suggest we focus on how month end works now and where it hurts. What's the one thing you most want answered today? If there's a fit, we'll book a second slot to go through options."
Notice what changed. The purpose narrowed to one topic. The agenda question asks for one thing, not a list. The outcome now includes a second meeting, because twenty minutes is rarely enough to decide anything. Your short version should do the same: drop the topics you can cover later, and say so.
Find a partner: a colleague, a friend, someone from your study group. Brief them to play the buyer and to answer the agenda question with something you did not prepare for. Give them a few ideas and let them choose, so you do not know which is coming:
"I'm not sure why I'm here, my partner booked it." "I want to know your price before anything else." "We already use someone, I just want a comparison." "Can you just show me the product?"
The last one is covered in lesson 1.3, Handle the buyer who wants the pitch first. For the others, the rule from lesson 1.1 holds: write the answer down, say back that you will cover it, and then cover it. "Price is fair to ask. I'll give you a range once I know which parts you'd use, and we'll get to it before the end." Run the standard version twice, with different surprises.
Record both versions on your phone, video if you can. Then play them back and listen for one thing above all: the pause after the agenda question.
Most people ask "what would make this useful for you?" and then fill the gap after half a second with "for example, some people want to know about..." That kills the question. The buyer takes your example instead of giving their own. Count how long you waited. If it is under two or three seconds, record it again and hold the silence longer, even if it feels awkward. Module 6 comes back to silence in detail.
While you listen, also check for these: the time question was asked and not assumed, the purpose mentioned the buyer before it mentioned you, and the no-fit outcome was actually spoken aloud. People drop that last part under pressure more than any other.
Last, pick the better recording of each version and write down its exact wording. Save both in your meeting template, the document or note you will open before every discovery meeting from now on. If you do not have one yet, start it now with two headings, standard opener and short opener. You will add to it in module 2 and module 6.
You have two recordings, a standard opener under forty-five seconds and a short version under thirty, each with all four parts. You have heard yourself pause after the agenda question. And the final wording sits in your meeting template where you will see it before your next meeting.
Priya's finished template entry is six lines long. It took her about twenty minutes, most of it spent on the short version, because her first draft tried to keep everything.
Book twenty minutes with your partner and have your draft from lesson 1.1 open before you begin.
Record two versions of your opener with a partner, one standard and one for a shortened meeting, and save the better wording in your template.
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