Discovery: Executing with Curiosity
~ Guest blog by Genevieve Martin – an inspir’em coach & trainer.
Most sellers know they should ask great questions, but the real differentiator isn’t the questions themselves; it’s the mindset behind them.
When you approach deals with genuine curiosity, discovery stops being a checklist and becomes a way to uncover what truly matters to your customer. Your questions become more meaningful, your qualification more thoughtful, and, as a result, your deals become stronger.
This is where curiosity becomes a competitive advantage. It helps you reveal root causes, understand decision‑making dependencies, shape a compelling business case, and qualify out early when you can’t meaningfully solve the problem; a discipline high‑performing teams excel at.
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Why Curiosity Beats Scripted Discovery
Prepared questions are a useful guide to a conversation, but don't rely on them too much. When we cling too tightly to a script, we stop listening for nuance. Small but critical clues that reveal underlying issues, organisational constraints, or unspoken priorities are missed. The conversation becomes rigid, and the customer feels interrogated rather than understood.
Curiosity changes the dynamic. Instead of trying to get through your list, you follow the thread of what the customer is actually saying and explore the details behind their challenge. You notice tone, hesitation, contradictions, and gaps, and you ask the next question because you genuinely want to understand, not because it’s next on your sheet.
This is how you uncover the information that rarely appears in an RFP:
- The internal friction slowing progress
- The technical or supply‑chain dependencies shaping timelines
- The political dynamics influencing priorities
- The hidden costs of inaction
- The real criteria the Economic buyer will use to make a decision
These insights directly strengthen your MEDDIC or MEDDPICC qualification. They help you validate the pain, understand the Decision process, and build a business case that aligns with what the customer actually values, not what you assumed they valued (and we all know what happens when you assume...).
The Role of Preparation: Build a Hypothesis, Not a Script
Curiosity doesn’t mean turning up unprepared. In fact, the most curious sellers are often the most prepared. They do the work upfront so they can be fully present in the conversation.
High‑performing teams consistently:
- Research the customer’s industry, market pressures, and emerging trends
- Understand the role they’re speaking to and the likely KPIs, constraints, and priorities
- Speak to others within the customer’s organisation to build context
- Form a hypothesis about the likely challenges or opportunities
- Prepare a small number of strong opening questions
This preparation gives you credibility and allows you to form a value hypothesis before you enter the meeting. For this, AI tools are increasingly helpful, as our recent blog "Research, AI & Better Discovery" detailed. Being properly prepared gives you the confidence to let go of the script and follow the conversation where it naturally leads, testing and refining your hypothesis in real time.
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*inspir’em Leader members, you can find this template in your member library
What Curiosity Looks Like in Practice
Curiosity is not about being chatty. It’s about being intentional. In the best conversations, the seller speaks for roughly 20–30% of the time, and the customer speaks for 70–80%. The seller guides the conversation, but the customer does the heavy lifting.
Sellers who excel at this tend to demonstrate three behaviours:
- They Bring Credibility to the Table
They understand the customer’s world well enough to be genuinely useful. Their knowledge of the industry, the organisation, and the problem space means their questions land with weight. Customers open up because they feel understood, not judged.
- They Maintain a Customer‑Centric Mindset
Their goal is not to “win the deal”. Their goal is to make a meaningful difference to the customer. The purchase order is simply a milestone on that journey. This mindset builds trust quickly.
- They Are Genuinely Interested
They want to walk in the customer’s shoes. They want to understand the detail behind the challenge. They are curious about the dependencies, the blockers, the implications, and the opportunities. This curiosity encourages the customer to think more deeply than they have before.
When these behaviours combine, customers often reveal insights they haven’t articulated internally, and is when discovery becomes valuable for both sides.
What Happens When Curiosity Is Missing
When sellers over‑prepare their script and treat the meeting as an exercise in “getting through the questions”, several things happen:
- They miss the nuance in the customer’s responses
- They fail to explore unexpected but important details
- The conversation feels stilted and unnatural
- The customer shares only surface‑level, well‑known issues
- The seller walks away with a false sense of qualification
This is how deals enter the pipeline with weak MEDDPICC foundations. It’s how forecasts become inaccurate, and it’s how sellers waste time building proposals that never resonate with the Economic buyer.
Practical Ways to Build Your Curiosity Muscle
Curiosity is a skill you can develop. Here are practical steps to strengthen it:
1. Practice Internally
Choose a real challenge within your own organisation. Prepare a few questions, then have a conversation with a peer to understand the root cause. Afterwards, ask:
- How did the conversation feel?
- What did they reveal?
- What did you miss?
2. Practice With Existing Customers
Start with accounts where you already have trust. Invite a peer to join the call and give you feedback afterwards. If appropriate, record the call and listen back. Notice where you could have gone deeper.
3. Prepare with Intention, not Assumption
Do your research. Build a hypothesis. Use AI tools to simulate the customer’s role and uncover likely challenges. Preparation gives you the confidence to be flexible.
4. Enter the Conversation With an Open Mind
Your job is not to confirm your assumptions. Your job is to understand the truth. Smile, build empathy, and let the conversation flow naturally.
Summary: Curiosity Improves Deal Quality
Executing with curiosity is not a “nice to have”. It directly improves discovery quality, qualification accuracy, and deal progression. It helps you understand whether you can genuinely help — and if so, how to build a compelling, customer‑centred case for change.
If you want one practical next step:
Choose one upcoming customer conversation and commit to speaking no more than 30% of the time. Prepare well, stay curious, and follow the thread. You’ll be surprised by what you uncover.
This blog is one of our Discovery series. These blogs are accompanied by our newsletter and a live webinar.
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