Discovery: An Action and a Sales Stage

~ Guest blog by Ceire McQuaid - an inspir'em coach & trainer.

Discovery is the foundation of every successful deal. Get it right and you accelerate momentum, build trust, and protect pipeline quality. Get it wrong and even the most promising opportunities stall, slip, or quietly die.

Strong discovery creates clarity for both buyer and seller, and anchors every subsequent stage of the sales cycle in real business value. In contrast, weak discovery leads to bloated pipelines full of unqualified deals, inaccurate forecasts, and, as a consequence, often results in nasty late-stage surprises.

Although often labelled as a sales stage, the most effective sales teams understand something deeper: discovery is also an action. A behaviour. A mindset that continues from first engagement until the deal is either won or consciously disqualified.

The best sellers stay curious, testing assumptions and revisiting what they think they know long after others would move on.

Jump to section:

• Discovery is the foundation of your deal
• Discovery is both a stage and an action
• Discovery is where MEDDPICC comes to life
• Making discovery part of the “who ecosystem”
• Discovery requires discipline before and during the meeting
• Discovery doesn’t end when the meeting does
• Conclusion: Treat discovery as your competitive advantage

Discovery is the Foundation of your Deal

Discovery determines whether you're working on the right opportunities in the first place. It shapes how well you understand the customer’s priorities, how credibly you position your solution, and how confidently you progress the deal.

Rushed or shallow discovery creates false optimism. Deals appear healthy in forecast calls, but unravel under scrutiny. This is why A-Players qualify out earlier. Research shows the best performing salespeople exit poor-fit opportunities up to 24% sooner than their peers, freeing up time and energy to focus on deals that genuinely deserve investment.

“No one ever regrets qualifying out.”

Strong discovery also sets the tone for everything that follows. Demos, proposals, and negotiations only land when they're grounded in a clear understanding of customer pain, impact, and urgency. Trust grows when customers feel you're genuinely invested in understanding them: their problems, who cares, why it matters now, and what could go wrong if nothing changes.

Discovery is Both a Stage and an Action

Discovery is a named stage in most sales processes. It has entry criteria, exit criteria, and defined outcomes. Treating it as a single meeting, however, is one of the most common, and costly, mistakes sellers make.

As a stage, discovery starts once you have:

• Confirmed ideal customer profile (ICP) and account fit
• Identified the right personas
• Formed a value hypothesis worth testing

As an action, discovery continues across every interaction:

• Each stakeholder conversation
• Each objection raised
• Each shift in deal dynamics

The best sellers continuously test assumptions, validate understanding, and uncover new information. This prevents late-stage surprises and ensures the deal evolves in line with the customer’s reality, not the seller’s hope.

Discovery is Where MEDDPICC Comes to Life

“Discovery is not random curiosity. Without structure and intent, sellers hear lots of information but leave meetings unable to progress the deal. This is where MEDDPICC becomes practical rather than theoretical.

At inspir’em, we're practitioners first. We see daily how disciplined discovery directly improves deal quality and predictability.

Three elements are critical during discovery:

1. Identified pain (I) What problem is urgent enough to justify change? Not surface symptoms, but the underlying issue creating risk, cost, or missed opportunity.
2. Metrics (M) How is that pain measured? Time lost, revenue missed, costs incurred, targets missed. Without Metrics, pain remains abstract, and easy to deprioritise.
3. Champion (C) Who feels this pain most acutely and is motivated to drive change internally? Without a Champion, even well-understood problems struggle to progress.

Although MEDDPICC lists Metrics first, in practice discovery often starts with Identified pain, then quantifies it with Metrics, and finally reveals ownership through your Champion. Leave discovery without clarity on at least one of these, and the deal remains high risk.

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Making Discovery Part of the “Who Ecosystem”

High-quality discovery is rarely done alone.

Elite sellers treat discovery as a team sport, leveraging their wider ecosystem to uncover, validate, and sharpen insight. They bring in the right people at the right moments - not to take over the conversation, but to add credibility, perspective, and momentum. Often, the most powerful question is the one asked by someone else in the ecosystem.

This includes:

• Channel partners who bring industry context, pattern recognition, and political insight. They may be working on other projects with your customer and able to offer valuable insights on stakeholders and budget priorities.
• Pre-sales and technical teams who surface constraints, dependencies, and implementation realities, often highly trusted by customers.
• Executives and senior leaders who can ask powerful questions in peer-level stakeholder meetings.
• Customer success will be able to access deeper insights at a practical level on deployment and value to the customer. After the initial delivery, they will be able to spot additional opportunities, and help mitigate any hurdles to success - something particularly valuable for any expand deals.

Some of the strongest discovery insights emerge outside the core sales conversation. A technical architect uncovering a hidden blocker. A partner validating urgency based on similar accounts. An executive sponsor asking a question that reframes the problem entirely.

Used well, this ecosystem:

• Deepens credibility
• Accelerates access to senior stakeholders
• Strengthens Metrics, pain, and Champion alignment

In short, discovery improves when sellers stop trying to own all the answers, and instead deploy the right people at the right moments to uncover the truth.

Discovery Requires Discipline Before and During the Meeting

Great discovery begins before the meeting ever takes place.

Strong sellers enter discovery with:

• A working value hypothesis – taken from their experience with others
• Insight into industry and business priorities
• Clear intent for what must be validated

This preparation moves conversations beyond generic questions into meaningful dialogue.

Once in the room, execution matters just as much. Discovery is not about asking more questions, it’s about asking better ones. Questions that encourage reflection, surface impact, and connect operational issues to executive-level priorities.

This requires:

• Active listening
• TED-style questions (“Tell me…”, “Explain…”, “Describe…”)
• The discipline to stay in discovery longer than feels comfortable

Discovery is where trust is built. Buyers trust sellers who make them feel understood, not those who rush to pitch.

Discovery Doesn’t End When the Meeting Does

One of the most overlooked aspects of discovery is what happens after the conversation.

Reflection is where sellers:

• Qualify what they’ve learned
• Decide whether the opportunity deserves further investment
• Demonstrate professionalism through effective follow-up

A strong follow-up reflects the customer’s language, confirms pain and Metrics, and aligns next steps. It signals that you were listening, and that their challenges matter.

Reflection also demands honesty. If discovery has not uncovered clear pain, measurable impact, or a potential Champion, the deal should remain unqualified. Carrying weak opportunities forward only damages pipeline health and forecast credibility.

Conclusion: Treat Discovery as your Competitive Advantage

Discovery is not admin. It is not a hurdle on the way to pitching. It is the foundation of every credible, predictable deal.

When discovery is treated as both a stage and an action, supported by preparation, MEDDPICC discipline, reflection, and a strong ecosystem, it becomes a competitive advantage that is hard to replicate.

Products can be copied. Pricing can be matched. But the ability to uncover real business value, qualify with confidence, and guide customers toward clarity sets elite sales teams apart.

If you want healthier pipelines, stronger trust, and more predictable revenue, elevate discovery. Not as a moment, but as a mindset.

This blog is one of our Discovery series. These blogs are accompanied by our newsletter and a live webinar.

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