Customers & Research

How do I run good discovery calls in India when the person keeps saying yes to be polite but never converts?

A starting point

Politeness bias is real, and in many Indian conversations a warm yes is social lubrication, not a purchase signal. As a starting point, stop asking whether they like it and start asking what they use today, what they paid, and what broke last time. Watch for the gap between a friendly meeting and an unanswered follow-up: the silence after the call is often the honest answer.

Go deeper

Hand-picked from around the web, each with a note on why it earns your time.

2 resources 2 link-checked Listen Read

Listen

🎧 Podcast
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Why we picked it This is the canonical conversation on why people give you nice-sounding feedback you cannot trust, with Rob Fitzpatrick (author of The Mom Test) and a host who openly admits he underestimated how much everyone lies to be supportive. It is the peer-story version of the polite-yes problem: founders walking through how they misread encouragement as demand and what they do differently now. The lesson travels well beyond India, but it is exactly the muscle you need when the yes keeps coming and the conversion does not.

The Mom Test with Rob Fitzpatrick (The Art of Product, Ep. 90)

On The Art of Product Podcast by Derrick Reimer and Ben Orenstein (hosts), with Rob Fitzpatrick About 45 minutes

  • Do not ask people if your idea is good, everyone is biased toward being kind, so the burden is on you to dig for the truth.
  • Anchor questions in specific past behavior (how they solve this today, what it costs them) rather than future-tense promises, which is where the polite yes hides.
  • Ask for a real commitment of time, money, or reputation as the next step, a genuinely interested buyer gives something up, a polite one does not.
Open artofproductpodcast.com →

Read

📄 Article
✓ Link checked India Free Beginner

Why we picked it This piece names the exact trap you are describing: in India, open disagreement often reads as rude, so a prospect will say yes because they sense you want a yes, not because they intend to buy. It goes past diagnosing the problem and gives you concrete moves, asking gentle but firm confirming questions and listening for qualifiers, so you can tell a polite yes from a real one on the call itself. A practical starting point for anyone selling into Indian buyers.

Selling to India: Avoid Assumptions

From Sales & Marketing Management by Gunjan Bagla 8 minute read

  • A yes in an Indian discovery call is often a face-saving reflex, so treat it as a question to probe, not a signal to close on.
  • Replace vague agreement-seeking with specific confirmation (for example, do you mean yes, you will place an order this quarter) so the prospect has to commit to something concrete.
  • Listen for conditions, qualifiers, and indirect hedges, they are usually where the real hesitation lives when a direct no feels impolite.
Open salesandmarketing.com →

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