An international service discovery call should establish whether a project has a workable next step. Before booking, prepare a short brief covering the business problem, target audience, current website or campaigns, practical constraints and the decision you need to make. Then agree the meeting language, date, time zone and participants. This helps an overseas buyer and an Istanbul provider spend the conversation on relevant questions rather than basic introductions. It also prevents a discussion about marketing from being mistaken for an approved delivery plan. This guide offers a reusable brief, a sample agenda and a way to record the outcome. The worked project below is fictional and does not describe a Lead Magneters client, package or promised result.
1. Name the decision before describing the solution
Begin with one sentence explaining what the business needs to decide. For example: 'We need to decide whether our current enquiry journey needs a website review before we increase advertising.' That gives a discovery call a practical boundary. 'We want better marketing everywhere' leaves the provider guessing which problem is most urgent. Add the service or offer involved, who buys it and what currently happens when someone enquires.
Separate observations from explanations. You may know that several recent enquiries were outside your service scope. You may suspect that the advertising message caused this. Record both, with the suspicion labelled as a hypothesis. Bring a small, relevant summary if available, including its period and definition of an enquiry. Avoid selecting a channel simply because it is familiar; the first conversation should test whether the proposed work addresses the actual problem.
2. Use a one-page brief that both sides can read
Use these fields as a starting template: business and website; service to discuss; intended customer and market; observed problem; current approach; desired decision; known constraints; people responsible; open questions; and links to relevant public pages. Keep each answer short enough to review before the meeting. Include an 'unknown' answer where necessary rather than writing a confident estimate that later becomes a planning assumption.
For a website project, identify the page and customer action that need attention. For SEO, describe the service questions you want people to discover and the pages that currently answer them. For advertising, distinguish the media budget from the work needed to prepare and manage a campaign. A discovery brief does not replace a proposal, but it should make the request specific enough for a provider to identify missing information and discuss suitable next steps.
3. Agree the meeting logistics across markets
Confirm the full date, duration and named time zone rather than sending only 'Tuesday at ten'. Ask each participant to check the invitation in their own calendar, especially when someone is travelling or a country changes its clocks. Google Calendar documents how events appear in invitees' local time zones and how to assign an event time zone. Do not reuse an old time difference without checking the actual date.
Ask which language everyone can use comfortably for the conversation and written follow-up. Geography or a person's name does not establish that preference. Confirm who sends the meeting link, who can join and what happens if the connection fails. Lead Magneters receives and visits clients in Istanbul and works with clients elsewhere through online meetings. Contact the team to discuss the appropriate arrangement; this does not imply an office or in-person coverage in every international market.
Check Google's event time zone guidance →
4. Make the conversation usable for every participant
Offer the brief directly as readable text or an accessible document before the call. W3C guidance explains that screen sharing alone can leave information inaccessible and recommends providing materials separately. Ask about communication needs, test the connection and agree any captioning or interpretation arrangements. Avoid treating automatically generated captions as a substitute for checking important names, quantities and decisions.
During a page review, describe the element being discussed instead of saying only 'this button here'. Give people time to ask questions and write a short recap of an important decision. If some participants attend in person and others join online, check that both groups can hear and contribute. These preparations support a more useful discussion without requiring a new tool or a complicated presentation.
5. Bring useful evidence without bringing every account
Start with public website links, approved service descriptions and a small summary of relevant observations. For example, a buyer could show the enquiry form and explain which questions arrive repeatedly. If figures are used, state the period, currency where relevant, source and what each measure counts. Search clicks, submitted forms and accepted projects are different observations; do not use them interchangeably when describing the problem.
A first discovery call does not automatically require administrator permissions, passwords or a customer database. If a later assessment needs platform access, identify the task, correct account and appropriate role separately. Use an approved access process rather than putting credentials into the brief. Existing supplier responsibilities and ownership questions belong in a handover plan when the project reaches that stage, not in an unstructured exchange during the first meeting.
6. Keep the agenda focused on fit and dependencies
An illustrative thirty-minute agenda could allow five minutes to confirm the brief, ten to examine the problem, ten to discuss dependencies and five to agree the next step. Adjust that allocation to the participants and the question; it is not a promised meeting length. Ask what the business can deliver, which customer action matters and what has already been tried. Then ask what information would change the recommendation.
Useful dependency questions include who approves website copy, whether the enquiry team can respond in the intended language, who controls the relevant accounts and what deadline is genuinely fixed. Budget and scope should be discussed together. If no budget range is available, say so and ask which scoping information is needed before a meaningful estimate. A provider should not need to invent a price, launch date or performance guarantee to make the conversation useful.
7. Work through a fictional project brief
Consider a fictional equipment-maintenance company evaluating an English enquiry page for buyers outside its existing market. Its brief says: 'We want to understand whether overseas buyers can assess our service scope before contacting us.' It supplies the current page, an approved description of the work and an anonymised summary of recurring questions. It records that the website editor and service manager must review any proposed change.
The call reveals that response coverage and the information needed to assess a job are still unclear. The next step is therefore a limited scope review: the company confirms supported work and enquiry ownership, while the proposed provider identifies the page questions to resolve. No advertising launch has been approved. This example shows why a small discovery decision can be valuable even when it produces more preparation rather than an immediate campaign.
8. Finish with a written decision record
Use a compact follow-up record with these fields: decision discussed; facts confirmed; assumptions still open; proposed work; responsible person; information needed; agreed next action; and review date. Mark each action as proposed or agreed so that enthusiasm during a call does not become a mistaken commitment. If the correct outcome is to pause, record the condition that would justify restarting.
For example: 'Client to confirm supported job types; provider to prepare questions for a page review after that information arrives; campaign changes not agreed.' Ask participants to correct misunderstandings through the chosen follow-up channel. Record a due date only when the responsible person has accepted it. In your CRM, keep a completed conversation separate from a scoped opportunity: attendance alone does not establish fit, authority or a delivery-ready request.
9. Prepare the next conversation with Lead Magneters
If you want to discuss SEO, Google Ads or website work with Lead Magneters, bring your website address, the service you want to promote and the decision that needs attention. Include the intended audience and any constraints that affect delivery or follow-up. You do not need to have every answer ready; identifying the unknowns is part of preparing a useful conversation.
Use the consultation or contact page to discuss an Istanbul meeting or an online arrangement. Confirm the practical details with the team rather than assuming a particular platform, language or delivery schedule. Keep the brief small, the evidence relevant and the next step written. That gives both sides a clearer basis for deciding what to investigate before committing to a larger marketing project.