Short answer
In B2B tech, customers usually state their need as technical specs or products. Good discovery turns those specs back into the business problem: what’s happening now, what it’s costing them, how they want to solve it, and small agreements along the way. Use SIAM’s four question types (Situation, Implication, Approach, Micro-commitment) and qualify on MANT-C as you go.
The spec trap: stated need vs real need
In technology sales, the stated need almost always arrives as technical specs or a product list: a storage requirement, a software requirement, compute, security, a particular configuration, or a shortlist of products to evaluate.
That’s because technology buyers do their own research before they talk to you. They come out of it with specs.
When a customer arrives with clearly defined specs, one of two things has happened:
- A competitor has already worked on the requirement and shaped it, or
- The customer has done their own homework.
Either way, if you simply respond to the specs, you’re competing on price against a requirement someone else wrote. The field seller’s job is to go deeper and convert the specs back into the why: why exactly are you looking for this? What problem are you trying to solve?
That’s what discovery is for.
The one question I’d ask
If a seller could ask only one discovery question, mine would be:
“Through this solution, what exactly is the business goal you’re trying to achieve?”
It opens everything up: the problems and challenges they’re facing, the goals they’re working towards, and the gap between the current situation and the future goal that the technology is meant to fill. Once you understand that gap, you’re no longer selling specs; you’re helping close it.
The four types of discovery question: SIAM
In B2B Tech SalesOS, discovery uses SIAM: four types of question, each with a different job.
1. Situation analysis: what’s happening now?
Situation questions get to the root of the challenge behind the specs: the current state, the problems it causes, what’s been tried before.
For example: “Can you briefly explain the current situation, and the problems it’s causing?”
Do your homework first. Questions you could have answered yourself waste the customer’s time and signal you didn’t prepare.
2. Implication analysis: what is it costing them?
This is where discovery earns its value. In SIAM, implication questions try to quantify the impact: the financial impact first, then the other impacts of not solving the problem (on customers, employees, compliance, competitiveness, reputation).
For example: “Can you quantify the impact of not addressing this?”
Implication questions turn “it would be nice to fix” into “we need to fix this”, and they give the customer a business case they can take to whoever approves the spend.
3. Approach analysis: how do they want to solve it?
Approach questions show how the customer is thinking about a solution: what they’ve considered, what must-haves they have, the timeframe, and what business goal the solution should serve. This is where you set the stage for positioning your solution, and where you learn about competitors.
For example: “What are the business goals you want to achieve through this solution?”
4. Micro-commitment: small agreements along the way
Micro-commitments are taken during the discovery session, not just at the end. Small checks that the customer agrees with where the conversation is going:
- “Is my understanding correct?”
- “Do you think this approach would help you solve the problem?”
- “Would you be open to exploring an alternative if we proposed one?”
Each “yes” is small, but together they matter. Micro-commitments gradually build the customer’s commitment to you as the solution provider, and they end the meeting with a clear next step instead of a polite goodbye.
SIAM vs SPIN selling: what’s the difference?
Many sellers know SPIN: Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-payoff. SIAM differs in two ways:
- Micro-commitments. SPIN has no micro-commitment step; you keep asking questions without checking agreement along the way. In SIAM, micro-commitments are essential, because they’re what gradually moves the customer’s perception and commitment towards you.
- Quantified implications. In SIAM, the implication step explicitly tries to put a number on the cost of not acting, financial and otherwise, rather than relying on the customer to state the payoff.
How do you qualify during discovery?
Discovery and qualification run in parallel, in the same conversation. While you’re learning about the problem, you’re checking whether the deal is real. In B2B Tech SalesOS we qualify on MANT-C:
| Factor | What you’re checking |
|---|---|
| Money | Is there a budget, or a way to create one? |
| Authority | Who decides, and who influences the decision? |
| Need | Is the problem real and significant? (Your implication questions answer this.) |
| Timing | Is there a date or event forcing a decision? |
| Competition | What else are they considering, including doing nothing? |
You’re not interrogating the customer with five checklist questions. You’re making sure that by the end of discovery you know the answers.
How do you plan discovery questions before a call?
Good discovery is prepared, not improvised. In Mastering Discovery Questions I teach a 5-step process:
- List the features of your solution.
- Convert them into advantages and benefits.
- List the customer’s business problems and challenges.
- Map the benefits back to the real business problems they solve.
- Develop your questions for each SIAM section, and prepare before every meeting.
The guide works through each step with an example and gives 35+ sample questions across the four SIAM sections that you can adapt to what you sell: Mastering Discovery Questions.
Discovery for technical solutions
Discovery is hardest when the product is technical and so is the buyer. Infrastructure, security and observability conversations can run for an hour on features and end with no business case.
The fix is the same principle: translate technical requirements into business impact. Ask what the problem is costing, who outside IT feels it, and what business goal the investment serves. If you sell Elastic Observability, our Elastic Observability Sales Playbook applies this approach to that platform.
Common discovery mistakes
- Responding to the specs instead of asking why they exist.
- Pitching too early. The moment you present, the customer stops telling you things.
- Skipping implication questions, so there’s no business case and no urgency.
- Waiting until the end for commitment instead of taking micro-commitments throughout.
- Qualifying late, after weeks invested in a deal with no budget or authority. That’s how deals stall later. (See how to recover stalled deals.)
Where discovery fits in B2B Tech SalesOS
Discovery and qualification are step 2, Qualify, of the seven steps in B2B Tech SalesOS. Everything after depends on it: a deal qualified on all five MANT-C factors can be forecast with evidence; a deal where you only know the specs is a guess. That’s why teams that fix discovery usually see their forecast become more reliable too.
If you’d like help building this into your team’s process, see our pipeline and sales process consulting.
Frequently asked questions
What is SIAM?
SIAM is the discovery method in B2B Tech SalesOS: Situation, Implication, Approach and Micro-commitment questions. It turns a customer’s stated specs into a business problem with a quantified impact, and builds commitment as the conversation goes.
What’s the best single discovery question?
“Through this solution, what exactly is the business goal you’re trying to achieve?” It reveals the problems, the goals and the gap between them.
How is SIAM different from SPIN selling?
SIAM adds micro-commitments throughout the conversation, and its implication step explicitly quantifies the cost of not acting.
What is MANT-C?
The qualification framework in B2B Tech SalesOS: Money, Authority, Need, Timing and Competition, including the option to do nothing.
Plan your next discovery call properly.
The 5-step method and 35+ sample questions across all four SIAM sections.
