Discovery

Most Zocket calls are lost in discovery, not in the demo. The pattern is familiar: we ask what modules they want, they say "show us everything", we demo the platform, and the deal stalls because nobody wrote down what problem it was supposed to solve.

This page fixes the order. Understand the current state first, then the problem statement, then the use case. Only then talk about modules.

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The four-layer sequence

Work top to bottom. Do not skip a layer because the prospect is enthusiastic; enthusiasm without a problem statement is the most common cause of a stalled pilot.

Layer	What you are trying to learn	Why it matters
1. Current state	What they do today, with which tools, and who does it	You cannot quantify a problem without a baseline, and the baseline is what the pilot gets measured against
2. Problem statement	What breaks, how often, and what it costs them	This becomes the POC success criterion. If you cannot write it in one sentence, you do not have one
3. Use case	What "solved" looks like in their words	This decides the lead module and the demo, not our product map
4. Qualification	Scale, budget authority, process, timeline	Decides whether to invest, and what the pilot has to prove

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Layer 1: Current state

Ask these before you say anything about Zocket. Aim for concrete nouns: tool names, headcount, frequency.

The universal five

1. "Walk me through what happens today between a brief and a live campaign. Who touches it?" You are mapping the stack and the handoffs. Kotak Neo answered this with LeadSquared for lead management, Mixpanel for product analytics and CleverTap for engagement, and the key detail fell out of it: no AI layer over campaign optimisation anywhere in the chain.

2. "Which tools are in the stack, and which one does the team complain about most?" The complaint names the wedge. Revolut India named Sprout Social, which turned the deal into a displacement rather than a greenfield sale.

3. "Who actually does this work, and how much of their week does it take?" Bharat Matrimony's answer, a two-person MIS team rebuilding the morning report by hand, became the entire business case.

4. "How many creatives, mentions, campaigns or reports a month? Give me a rough number." Volume decides whether we are relevant at all, and it is the input to the scraping calculator on any ORM or insights deal.

5. "What does the reporting look like today, and who receives it?" If the answer is a deck someone rebuilds every week, you have found the fastest path to visible value.

Current-state probes by vertical

Use two or three, not all of them.

Vertical	Ask specifically
BFSI lending	How many branches and languages does a campaign have to be adapted for? Who signs off the disclaimer, and how long does that take? How long from click to disbursal?
BFSI broking	How many pieces of content do you publish a day, and who writes them? What happens to a creative between design and exchange approval?
Neobank / fintech	Which platforms are you monitored on today, including ones you do not own a handle on? Does anyone get named personally in complaints? What report goes out on Friday?
Retail and durables	How many mentions a month across social and marketplaces? Who answers them, and by when? How many adaptations per campaign, across how many placements and sub-brands?
FMCG and D2C	How many SKUs, and do claims or disclaimers differ per product? Where does inventory truth live? What happens today when a product goes out of stock and the ads keep running?
B2B and industrial	Where does a lead stop being trackable: form, CRM, or close? How many MQLs a month, and who qualifies them? Is there an agency in the loop?
Consumer internet and media	How long does the morning or weekly report take to assemble? What does your analyst do with it once it exists?
Agency and OEM	How many clients would run on this? Do your designers need open files to finish the job? Is this your brand in front of the client, or ours?

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Layer 2: Problem statement

The goal is one sentence you can both agree on, in their words, with a number in it.

Template: "Today, [who] spends [how much time or money] on [what], which causes [consequence], and we would consider it solved if [measurable change]."

If you cannot fill that in by the end of the call, the next step is another discovery call, not a demo.

Sharpening questions

• "What does that cost you today?" Time, headcount, agency fees, or missed revenue. Make them put the number on the status quo before you put one on the solution.
• "How often does that happen?" A painful thing that happens twice a year is not a pilot.
• "What have you already tried?" Tells you what will be compared against, and what objections are already loaded.
• "If nothing changes, what happens in six months?" Separates a real priority from an interesting idea.
• "Who else feels this problem?" Finds the second stakeholder you will need.

Problem statements from real calls

These are worth reading before your own call, because they show the shape of a good one.

• Numeric UPS (Sreeja Sreedharan, Digital Marketing Mgr; Himabindu N): ad spend, leads, opportunities, closures and upsell live in three separate reports, so nobody can say where the money stops working. Solved looks like one funnel view with the CRM joined in, plus role-based views for the campaign manager and for leadership.
• Revolut India (Prema Dutta, Head of India Communications): paying for Sprout Social and still cannot see repeat negative commenters across platforms, or complaints naming the India CEO. Solved looks like the Friday report matching what they get today and adding what it misses.
• Dabur (Ankit Jaiswal, Institutional & B2B): a SKU goes out of stock and the ads behind it keep spending. Solved looks like stock-out detection pausing the affected campaigns automatically.
• Croma: the majority of the purchase journey finishes in-store, outside the 7-day click window, so the ad platforms cannot see it.
• Kotak Neo (Raj Bagri, AI Solutions): creative quality, time to go live and cost, with no AI layer over campaign optimisation anywhere in the current stack.
• Bata (Peeyush Vats; Nitin Mago, GM Head CRM): thousands of mentions a month across social and marketplaces, with tags and mentions not being captured reliably enough to create the right tickets.

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Layer 3: Use case

Now, and only now, ask what good looks like. You are listening for which module leads.

1. "If this worked perfectly, what would be different on a Monday morning?" The answer usually names the module for you.
2. "Who would use it day to day, and what would they stop doing?" Adoption lives or dies here. A tool nobody stops doing something for does not get used.
3. "What would you need to see to call a pilot successful?" This is the POC success criterion. Write it down verbatim and put it in the pilot plan.
4. "Is there a deadline or event this is tied to?" A festive season, a product launch or a board review gives the pilot a clock.

Map the answer to a lead module using Industry Plays, then confirm rather than assume:

"Based on what you have described, I would start with [module] and leave the rest until that is working. Does that match how you would sequence it?"

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Layer 4: Qualification

Cheap to ask, expensive to skip.

• Scale: monthly ad spend, mention volume, creative volume, number of sub-brands or markets
• Budget: is there a line for this, or does it come out of an agency budget being replaced?
• Authority: who signs? At Kotak Neo the final approval sits with the Chief Digital Business Officer, and the evaluation runs through multiple vertical leads first. Ask early.
• Process: how do they evaluate? Kotak Neo runs a two to three week pilot with different team leads, then feedback, then pricing. Knowing that shape changes what you propose.
• Security and IT: will their IT gate access? In enterprise and BFSI this is the longest pole, so start the security pack on day one rather than at contract stage.
• Systems: which CRM? This is the single most common integration blocker across every vertical.
• Agency: is one in the room, and do they need their own login?

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What to do with the answers

1. Write the problem statement into the account record the same day, in the customer's words.
2. Carry it into the POC KPI sheet as the success criterion. See the pilot plan and goal setting.
3. Use it to pick the lead module in Industry Plays and the angle in Marketing Positioning.
4. Anything you could not answer, and anything you promised to confirm, goes in writing. See Never Commit.