Discovery briefs

Updated July 11, 2026

Not every conversation ends with a carrier quote in hand yet. When you have a pulled call but no quote PDF, clicking Build proposal does not force a priced deck into existence. It builds a discovery brief instead, a deck that is honest about what it actually knows.

#When this path runs

Pull a call (or find a client through the Find the client card) on the New proposal page, then click Build proposal without dropping a carrier quote PDF. There is no separate button for this, and there is no options step first: with no quote to weigh recommendations against, ProClose skips straight from the pull to the built deck.

#What it deliberately leaves out

A discovery brief contains no premium and no fabricated numbers, by design. Specifically:

  • No premium summary slide, and no total.
  • No binding requirements.
  • No side-by-side comparison, since there is no proposed quote to compare against.
  • No coverage tables.
  • No optional excess liability slide.
  • No Recommendations slide, since that slide is built from a quote's coverage gap scan, which does not run without a quote.

If you have ever seen a competitor's tool invent a placeholder premium or a generic coverage table just to fill a deck, that is exactly what this path refuses to do. An empty field beats a wrong number every time a client might see it.

#What it contains

  • Cover. The prospect's name, your name as the preparing agent, and the call date if a call was pulled.
  • Client & policy information. Prospect, phone (if known), lines of business, current carrier (shown unmasked here, since there is no carrier being placed yet, only what the prospect told you), call sentiment, and a status row reading Discovery, awaiting a carrier quote.
  • What we heard. The same discovery content described in Call insights, explained: the call summary, coverage needs mentioned, a vault class match, key quotes, and the next step.
  • Why us. The same independent-agency positioning that appears on every deck.
  • Your agent. The closing slide, with the closing line asking for the quote rather than the sale.

#The vault class match

Inside the What we heard content, the brief also carries a class match against your Vault's appetite guide, built from the call's summary, coverage needs, key quotes, and transcript together. If the call sounds like a class you have real markets on file for, that market and contact show up right there. If nothing matches yet, the slide says so plainly rather than guessing a class.

#The close

Every discovery brief ends on the same note. The closing slide title reads Let's get you a quote., and the closing line reads We'll follow up and get this priced. That is the entire point of the deck: it is not trying to close a sale, it is trying to move the conversation to the next real step, getting a carrier to actually quote the risk.

#Frame it as a feature, not a shortcut

A discovery brief is not a lesser version of a priced proposal that happens to be missing pieces. It is the correct deck for a stage of the conversation where a priced proposal would be lying. Send one when you want a prospect to see, in writing, that you heard them accurately and know exactly what happens next, before any carrier has been asked to put a number on it.