The discovery ladder · 07 Discovery and demo

Ask about the past, not the hypothetical ("Talk me through the last time..."). 11 to 14 questions, no more than four in the first five minutes. Implication before need-payoff; Q12 only after a stated want. Follow before moving on ("Can you give me an example?" "What have you tried?") and write their words down verbatim for SPICED. Hunt for two live friction blocks: 1 the blank page; 2 consistency and the collapse; 3 voice and credibility; 4 the team problem; 5 the invisible audience; 6 tool sprawl and cost; 7 governance and risk; 8 proof and attribution; 9 the buying process; 10 Holly and the work itself. Always ask Q13 and Q14.

Q	Ask	Notes
1	"Take last week. Who at the firm posted on LinkedIn, and roughly how long did each post take them?" Follow: "And everyone else?" "What's an hour of that person's time worth?"	Blocks 1, 4. Note the hourly value; do no sums now (attempting ROI went with a 27% drop in close likelihood; vendor data)
2	"When did you last ask the team to post more, and how long did it last?" Follow: "What made it stop?"	Block 2. Then the founder story
3	"The last time you meant to post and didn't, what got in the way?"	Blocks 1, 2, 3
4	"What do you pay for today to get posts out or keep an eye on your market? A scheduler, a listening tool, an AI writer, an agency, a ghostwriter? And what did you get at the end of last month?" CRM: "The last time you bought a tool like this, did it have to connect to your CRM before anyone would sign?" If yes: "Then I'll be straight with you now: I'm not going to sell you a CRM connection today."	Block 6, 8; the incumbent
5	"How much writing of your own is there? Posts, articles, even emails you'd be happy to sound like. Was any of it written with AI?" If some was: "If we build a voice from writing that was itself AI, it learns to sound like that. So we'd be choosy, and you can mark any post 'don't learn from this'."	Decides the voice route
6	"When did anyone last look at your social media policy, and what prompted it?" Follow: "Has anything ever gone out under the firm's name that you wished hadn't?"	Block 7. Never repeat what they tell you about another firm
7	"When did you last find out about something at a client, competitor or regulator later than you'd have liked? Which names would you want to hear about first?"	Write the names down: a target name picks the story Holly drafts in step 1
8	"The last time posting went quiet for a few months, what did you notice in the three months after? Enquiries, introductions, referrals?" Never posted: "Where did your last three new clients come from?" If "that was the market": "It's very hard to tell from the inside." Then: "The damage doesn't show up when you stop. It shows up three months later, and by then you've decided it's the market."	Implication
9	"When the last person who posted regularly left, what happened to the enquiries that used to come through them?" (Recruitment: "When your last consultant who posted regularly left...")	Block 4, key-person risk
10	"Of the comments on the team's posts last month, how many got a reply within a day? What happens when someone senior comments and hears nothing?"	Block 5: replying, not prospecting. Never "every like is a named lead", "the name, role and company behind every like" or "by the next morning": all RED
11	"The last time someone senior wanted to post about something topical, how long did it take to get through review, and was the moment still there when it went out?" (Law: "...a partner wanted to post about a ruling...")	Block 7
12	(Only after a stated want.) "If the whole team were posting every week, in their own voices, inside your rules, what would be different in six months? How would you know?"	Their answer is the Delta
13	"Is there anything with a date on it driving this? A launch, a new office or practice area, a hiring push, a partner retiring, the new year?" Owners, late: "Has succession or a sale come up in the last couple of years? How much of the firm's name sits with you personally?"	No critical event is a red flag to forecast honestly, not a disqualifier. Never discuss the founders' own businesses or plans
14	(Always both.) "Who else needs to be comfortable before you'd roll this out?" and "Does anyone in compliance, risk or IT sign off tools that publish under the firm's name?" Considered deals: "What would they need to see, and in what order?"	Decides the motion. Note the paper process: data processing agreement, security questionnaire, partner sign-off, invoice terms

Say (founder story, in response to their Q2 answer)

"That's exactly what happened to us. Alex, who founded the business, runs a UK recruitment firm. He built a real audience on LinkedIn by posting himself, and told his team to do the same. It died inside a fortnight, because you can't ask twenty busy people to invent something from nothing every day. Mandates don't survive a busy Tuesday. Systems do. So Dom Watts, who has built software for most of his career, built the system. We're the customer: it's used every working day inside the recruitment business one of the founders owns."

Alex's follower and impression figures stay out until the pack lead re-confirms them. Commitment checks: time ("Would you bring three of your posts to the next call?"), reputation ("Would your compliance partner join the next call?"), cash (the signup). Never ask "Would you use AI to write your posts?", "Do you think this would help?" or "Who engaged with you, names and companies?"

The AI accusation audit (once, at the read-back)#

Say

"Before I show you anything: you're probably thinking this will post generic AI stuff under your name and embarrass you in front of clients."

Pause. Let them answer. Then:

Say

"That's the right worry. Holly drafts in each person's voice, built from their own writing. Your firm's rules check every post before it can go out. And you decide what Holly can do on its own; we recommend a person approves every LinkedIn post. Holly does the work. You keep the judgement."

Rule. Never say "nothing ever publishes without approval". The customer sets approvals.

By segment#

Segment pitches holds the fuller question sets. Lead questions: recruitment owner Q2, Q8, Q9; law firm Q6, Q11, Q14; consultancy and accountancy Q1, Q8, Q12; agency or freelancer Q1, Q4; owner-led 2 to 25 Q2, Q3, Q8; larger or regulated Q6, Q11, Q14.

Segment	Step 2 rule line	Watch for
Recruitment	"No guarantees of placements or timescales"	Never present engagement as a source of candidates (D1 open)
Law firm	"Nothing that could read as legal advice to an individual"	Technical Proof demo. Firms acting for the public: comment inbox, not the warmth list
Consultancy, accountancy	"No promises of results or savings"	Partners' hours are the cost
Agency, freelancer	Client sign-off by link	No white label; no agency price
Owner-led, 2 to 25	Optional	Vision Generation demo
Larger or regulated, 50 plus	"No statements about investment returns" (financial services)	Never say Maktura makes posts compliant