Discovery Call Notes Template: Free Form and Filled Example

A discovery call notes template for scoping a consulting or agency project should capture the client's situation, the problem in their words, success criteria, scope, budget, stakeholders, the decision process, risks, and one next step with an owner and a date. Copy the free template below. It works on paper, in Word or in Google Docs.

Recording is optional. If you want the client's exact words for the proposal, tell them first. We make an AI notetaker, and further down we say where ours fits and what it does not do. You do not need it to use this template.

Use one note per call. Select the table, copy it into Word, Google Docs or your notes app, and replace each bracket with what you hear. The last column gives one question that fills each field.

A running order that covers every field without turning the call into a questionnaire. Spend most of it listening: the client should talk far more than you do.

Five questions the client answers before the call, so you spend the call on the problem instead of the basics. Paste them into the invite or a simple form.

1. What does your organization do, and who would we work with?
2. What made you look for outside help now?
3. What would a good result look like, and by when?
4. Is there a budget range or a deadline we should know about?
5. Who else should join the call?

A consultant scoping a project for a mid-sized logistics company. The client, the people and the numbers are invented.

1. Write the problem and the success criteria in the client's words, in quotation marks. They go straight into the proposal.
2. Write "unknown" when you did not learn something. A guess in the budget field turns into a number in the proposal.
3. Keep facts and your read apart. Your read goes in the last row only.
4. Name people by role as well as by name, so the notes make sense to a colleague who joins later.
5. Recap out loud before you hang up: the problem, the outcome, the next step. Correct the notes while the client is still there.
6. Send a short recap the same day, with the next step and its date.

A sales discovery call template usually follows a qualification framework such as BANT: budget, authority, need and timeline. Those four are in this template too. A consultant or agency needs more, because the call also shapes the proposal.

A recording helps with the fields where wording matters: the problem, the success criteria and the budget. You work from what the client said instead of your memory of it. It also adds duties, so it is optional.

A recorder with no bot shows the client nothing, so telling them is your job. Put one line in the invite and say it again at the start.

• In the invite: "I would like to record our call so I can capture your requirements accurately in the proposal. The recording stays in my notes. Tell me if you would rather I did not."
• At the start: "Before we begin, I am recording this for my notes. Is that all right with everyone?" If anyone says no, stop and use the template by hand.

In California, recording a confidential conversation without the consent of all parties is an offense (Penal Code section 632). In Germany, recording someone's non-public spoken words without authorization is a criminal offense (section 201 of the Criminal Code). Under the GDPR, a recording needs a lawful basis, and people must be told the purpose and the legal basis when their data is collected from them (Articles 6 and 13). Some clients also rule out recording in their own policies or NDAs. Rules differ by country and state, so check the rules where everyone on the call is.

After the call, fill each field from the transcript, not from memory. Use the field names as the headings of your summary, so every call with every client reads the same way. Where the call did not cover a field, write "Not discussed" instead of a guess. Before the client's words go into the proposal, play the moment they came from.

Here is how Reline fits. It captures your microphone and the computer's audio locally on Mac, Windows, Linux (beta) or in the browser, and no bot joins. Transcription, AI and storage run in the cloud. Reline transcribes while it records, so it cannot transcribe a file from another recorder. The recording is kept, so you can press play on any transcript line before you use the words. Summaries cite nothing, so check them against the transcript. Chat answers can cite a note or a moment.

Our BANT Qualification Lens fits a discovery call. Run it on the call's note and it reads the transcript, pulls out budget, authority, need and timeline, marks anything the call did not cover as "Not discussed", and adds an overall qualification score from 1 to 10, key risks and recommended next steps. It was written for sales calls. To match this template, open the Lens in the app and choose "Add to my workspace", which makes your own copy, and edit that copy: add success criteria and scope, and remove the score if you do not want one. Treat what it writes as a draft and check it against the recording.

• Speakers: labels are Me vs Other, plus beta voice numbering you name yourself. Names are not automatic. In a room, everyone arrives through one microphone, so check who spoke before you quote anyone.
• Clients: notes are private by default, and a workspace role alone grants nothing. Give each client its own folder and share it only with the people on that engagement.
• CRM: no CRM connector. You paste the notes in by hand.
• Paperwork: a DPA is available. There is no SOC 2 report.
• Price: $15 per seat a month. Free is 10 hours of transcription and 1 hour per recording.

The template is yours either way. If you do record, tell the client first, and fill the fields with what they said, not with what you hoped to hear.