FAQ
Questions about call intelligence for agencies, tools, and coaching
Last updated: Published by Tim Kilroy
This page answers 45 common questions about Tim Kilroy’s AI tools for agencies, his coaching, and running better sales calls.
Each answer leads with the direct answer, then the supporting facts. Jump to a topic below.
What the tools are
What is call intelligence for agencies?
Call intelligence for agencies is the practice of reviewing sales and discovery calls to learn what is working, then using that insight to improve the next conversation. Tim Kilroy offers it through the Call Lab tools: Call Lab Instant analyzes a recorded pitch, Call Lab reviews a pasted transcript, and Call Lab Pro adds methodology scoring and progress tracking.
What AI tools does Tim Kilroy offer for agencies?
Tim Kilroy lists his AI tools in the Agency Growth Stack, which spans sales intelligence, demand generation, and growth. The tools covered on this site are Call Lab Instant, Call Lab, Call Lab Pro, and Discovery Lab. He also describes AI tools for content visibility. The current full list is published at timkilroy.com/agency-tools.
What is Call Lab Instant?
Call Lab Instant is a free tool that gives instant coaching on delivery, pacing, and persuasion power. You hit record, deliver your pitch, and get feedback in about 90 seconds. It needs no transcript and no account, and it identifies key moments and objections and breaks down your talk-to-listen ratio.
What is Call Lab?
Call Lab is the standard tier of Tim Kilroy’s call intelligence tools. You paste a call transcript and get a complete coaching breakdown covering what worked, what did not, and exactly what to change next time. It includes coaching recommendations, objection handling analysis, and next-step suggestions for the deal.
What is Call Lab Pro?
Call Lab Pro includes everything in Call Lab, plus scoring against sales methodologies such as SPIN, Challenger, MEDDIC, and Sandler. It adds an end to end sales review, call follow up steps, guidance on what to say in your next call, and tracking of your improvement over time.
What is Discovery Lab?
Discovery Lab is a free prospect research tool. It researches any prospect in about 60 seconds and returns a brief with a company overview, recent news, conversation starters, and smart questions to ask. It is designed so you walk into a discovery call already understanding the prospect’s business.
Does Tim Kilroy have a tool for content visibility?
Yes. Tim Kilroy describes his AI tools as covering sales-call review, prospect research, and content visibility. This site focuses on the call and research tools. For the current content visibility tool and its details, check the Agency Growth Stack page at timkilroy.com/agency-tools, which lists every tool in one place.
Pricing and cost
Is Call Lab Instant free?
Yes. Call Lab Instant is labeled Free in Tim Kilroy’s Agency Growth Stack, and it requires no account. You record your pitch and receive coaching on delivery, pacing, and persuasion power in about 90 seconds. It is the lowest-friction way to try call intelligence before moving to a transcript-based review.
Is Discovery Lab free?
Yes. Discovery Lab is labeled Free in the Agency Growth Stack. It produces a prospect brief in about 60 seconds with a company overview, recent news, conversation starters, and questions. Because it is free, it is a sensible first tool for agencies that want better pre-call preparation without a budget decision.
How much do Call Lab and Call Lab Pro cost?
Call Lab is listed as the Standard tier and Call Lab Pro as the Pro tier. This site does not quote their prices because current pricing was not supplied for this guide and can change. Check timkilroy.com/call-lab and timkilroy.com/call-lab-pro for the latest pricing before you buy.
How much does Agency Studio coaching cost?
Agency Studio costs $399 per month and is built for founders under $50K a month in revenue. Agency Studio+ costs $999 per month and adds a custom plan and a monthly one-on-one session with Tim Kilroy. Both prices come from Tim Kilroy’s published agency growth by stage page.
How much does agency coaching cost for a 7 figure agency?
For agencies past $1 million a year, Tim Kilroy’s work goes fully custom through SalesOS and DemandOS, which are scoped after a free WTF call rather than sold at a fixed price. The custom zone covers agencies between $1M and $20M in annual revenue. Ask for a scope on the call to get a specific number.
Is the WTF call really free?
Yes. The WTF call is a free 30-minute strategy call. Tim Kilroy describes it as no pitch: you talk about what is going on in your agency, he helps diagnose the real problem rather than the symptom, and you leave knowing what to fix first, whether or not you work together.
How the tools work
Do I need a transcript to use Call Lab Instant?
No. Call Lab Instant works from a recording. You hit record and deliver your pitch, and the tool analyzes it directly. If you already have a transcript of a real client call, Call Lab is the tier designed for pasted transcripts and gives a fuller coaching breakdown with objection analysis and next steps.
Do I need an account to try the call tools?
Not for Call Lab Instant, which is listed as requiring no account. That makes it the easiest way to test call intelligence. For Call Lab, Call Lab Pro, and Discovery Lab, check the tool pages on timkilroy.com for current access requirements, since sign-up details can change over time.
Which sales methodologies does Call Lab Pro score against?
Call Lab Pro scores calls against SPIN, Challenger, MEDDIC, Sandler, and more. Methodology scoring lets a team see which parts of a framework they apply and which they skip. Combined with progress tracking, it helps sales leads coach consistently across many calls instead of reviewing each one from scratch.
How fast does Discovery Lab research a prospect?
Discovery Lab researches a prospect in about 60 seconds. That speed matters because, as Tim Kilroy notes in his discovery call playbook, most agencies blow the discovery call before they dial in by not preparing. A one-minute brief removes the usual excuse that there was no time to research.
What does a Discovery Lab brief include?
A Discovery Lab brief includes a company overview, recent news, conversation starters, and smart questions to ask. The goal is to help you sound like you have been following the prospect’s business, so the call can focus on understanding their problem instead of basic background questions.
What does Call Lab tell me after reviewing a call?
Call Lab returns a complete coaching breakdown: what worked, what did not, and what to change next time. It includes coaching recommendations, objection handling analysis, and next-step suggestions. Call Lab Instant focuses instead on delivery, pacing, persuasion, key moments, objections, and your talk-to-listen ratio.
Can I track my sales call improvement over time?
Yes, with Call Lab Pro. Tracking improvement over time is one of its listed features, alongside methodology scoring. Call Lab Instant and Call Lab give feedback on individual calls, so if you want to see whether habits are changing across weeks of calls, Pro is the tier built for that.
Who it is for
Who are these AI sales tools built for?
The tools are built specifically for agencies. They suit agency founders who still run sales, account leads who take discovery calls, and first sales hires who need feedback without the founder on every call. Tim Kilroy’s broader work focuses on marketing, creative, development, PR, and content agencies.
Who does Tim Kilroy coach?
Tim Kilroy coaches established marketing and creative agency owners, including PR, development, and content agencies. His custom work targets agencies between $1M and $20M a year, while Agency Studio serves founders under $50K a month. He reports coaching more than 300 agencies and over 25 years of agency and marketing experience.
Is Tim Kilroy’s coaching a good fit for a PR agency?
Yes. Tim Kilroy names PR agencies among the agencies he works with, alongside marketing, creative, development, and content agencies. The common thread is that the agency sits inside its clients’ marketing and sales layer. PR agencies that have outgrown referrals face the same positioning and pipeline questions covered here.
Is this for solo founders just starting out?
Partly. Tim Kilroy’s own guidance is that below about $20K a month you need reps and a clear offer more than a coach. The free tools, Call Lab Instant and Discovery Lab, still help a solo founder prepare for and review calls. Structured coaching starts making sense around $20K a month.
Who is Tim Kilroy?
Tim Kilroy is an agency consultant and coach who works with marketing and creative agency owners on positioning, lead generation, sales processes, and operations. He reports coaching more than 300 agencies, has been a marketing and agency leader since 1997, and has launched three agencies, with two exits.
Is Tim Kilroy a marketing agency mentor or a coach?
Both, in practice. Tim Kilroy offers group coaching through Agency Studio and one-on-one support through Agency Studio+, plus custom growth systems for larger agencies. His approach is closer to a working mentor than a curriculum: founders bring live problems to calls and leave with a number, a decision, or a next action.
Compared to alternatives
Is Discovery Lab a donor prospect research tool?
No. Discovery Lab researches companies for agency sales calls. Donor prospect research tools, such as Blackbaud ResearchPoint and DonorSearch wealth screening, are built for nonprofits researching potential donors. If you raise money for a nonprofit, a donor-focused tool is the better fit, and Discovery Lab will not replace it.
What are the best prospect research tools for nonprofits?
Nonprofits usually look at donor-focused tools. Pages ranking for this search include Blackbaud ResearchPoint, which describes itself as donor prospect research, and DonorSearch, which offers wealth screening for nonprofits. The 2026 Kindsight benchmark reports a median tool and technology spend of $17,500 among participating organizations. Discovery Lab is not built for donor research.
Are there free prospect research tools?
Yes. Discovery Lab is a free prospect research tool for agencies, labeled Free in Tim Kilroy’s Agency Growth Stack. It builds a company brief in about 60 seconds. Free prospect research tools for nonprofits are a different category focused on donors; check donor-research providers directly for any free tiers they offer.
What are grant prospect research tools, and is Discovery Lab one?
Grant prospect research tools help nonprofits find foundations and funders likely to support their work. Discovery Lab is not one of them. It researches companies before agency sales calls. Organizations seeking grants should use tools built for funder research and confirm coverage and pricing with each provider before committing.
Can I use Discovery Lab for prospect research in the UK?
Discovery Lab’s published description does not state any geographic limits. Its brief draws together a company overview, recent news, and suggested questions. Because the tool is free, the simplest way to confirm coverage for UK prospects is to run a brief on a company you already know and check the result.
Should I use Call Lab Instant or Call Lab Pro?
Start with Call Lab Instant if you want fast feedback on how you deliver a pitch, with no transcript or account. Choose Call Lab Pro if you run a team, follow a named methodology like MEDDIC or SPIN, and want to track improvement over time. Call Lab sits between them for single-call transcript reviews.
Are there reviews of Tim Kilroy as an agency coach?
Tim Kilroy publishes a testimonials page at timkilroy.com/testimonial with comments from named agency founders. This site does not reproduce or score those testimonials, and it does not publish its own ratings. Read them at the source, and bring any questions about fit to a free WTF call.
Discovery, qualifying, and positioning
What is an agency discovery call?
An agency discovery call is a structured conversation whose only job is to understand the prospect’s problem well enough to decide whether a next step makes sense. Tim Kilroy’s playbook is blunt: a discovery call is not a sales call. You are there to discover, not to run through your deck and case studies.
How do you qualify a prospect on a discovery call?
Learn what is broken in their business, how big the problem is, what they have tried, how they make decisions, and whether you can genuinely help. In Tim Kilroy’s sales funnel, a prospect counts as qualified only when both sides agree out loud that there is a real problem, it is worth money, and they decide.
Why do prospects go dark after a discovery call?
Usually because the call was a pitch with a question stapled to the end. Tim Kilroy sees agencies pivot to telling the prospect what they do before understanding the business, so they give a generic version that sounds like every other agency. The proposal goes out and the prospect goes quiet.
What is vertical positioning for an agency?
Vertical positioning means choosing a specific market to serve and committing to it long enough for that market to notice. Tim Kilroy calls positioning the choice to burn the boats. A niche buys faster trust and higher rates, but it also concentrates risk, so pick a market you can genuinely dominate.
Why do agencies keep losing deals on price?
Because the agency sells effort while the buyer pays for an outcome. When a prospect cannot see the specific change you create, the only thing left to compare is the rate. Tim Kilroy’s view is that a price objection is usually a positioning problem in disguise, not a sales skills problem.
Why don’t referrals scale for agencies?
Referrals come from past work and relationships, so you cannot decide to get more of them today. Tim Kilroy notes that you cannot say you need more money and therefore you will get more referrals. Agencies that rely on them hit a ceiling and need a system of scalable lead generation instead.
What is Return on Understanding?
Return on Understanding is Tim Kilroy’s idea that the depth of your understanding of a prospect’s business is directly proportional to your ability to sell to them, serve them well, and keep them. It is why his tools focus on research before the call and honest review after it.
Getting started and common problems
Where should I start if I don’t know what is broken in my agency?
Take the WTF Assessment, a two-minute diagnostic on timkilroy.com that points to where your agency is stuck and which tools to use first. If you would rather talk, book the free 30-minute WTF call. Either route gives you a starting point before you spend any money.
How do I contact Tim Kilroy?
Use the contact page at timkilroy.com/contact. Every contact button on this site goes there. You can also book a free 30-minute WTF call through timkilroy.com if you already know you want to talk through what is happening in your agency.
What should I fix first if my close rate is low?
Fix one constraint at a time. Tim Kilroy’s pipeline math works backward from revenue: goal divided by deal size gives deals needed, divided by close rate gives proposals, divided by proposal rate gives conversations. If conversations are plentiful but deals are not, review your calls with Call Lab to find where they break.
What if every sale in my agency depends on me?
Build a sales process your team can run. Tim Kilroy calls the founder’s instinct Founder Magic: real, but limited to one person. His agency sales playbook focuses on dragging what you know out of your head and into infrastructure, so good-fit deals close whether or not you are on the call.
Does this site rank Tim Kilroy’s tools against competitors?
No. This site describes Tim Kilroy’s own tools and is published by Tim Kilroy. Where it compares, it compares his tool tiers with each other or explains which category of tool fits a need, such as donor research for nonprofits. It does not claim to be independent and it does not rate competitors.
Want help turning better calls into more qualified clients?
Tim Kilroy coaches established marketing and PR agencies that have outgrown referrals. Reach out to talk about positioning, lead generation, and a repeatable way to win clients.