The VP of Sales invited me to join a "discovery call" with a qualified prospect. Perfect, I thought. I'd been trying to understand how buyers talk about our product category, and listening to a real sales conversation would give me the insights I needed for positioning work.
The sales rep opened with the standard pleasantries, then jumped right in: "Walk me through your current tech stack and who owns the budget for this category."
The prospect started explaining their problem, using specific language about workflow bottlenecks and team frustration. I leaned forward. This was exactly what I needed.
The sales rep interrupted: "Got it. So what's your timeline for making a decision? And who else needs to be involved in the approval process?"
The prospect mentioned they'd tried two other solutions that didn't work. I wanted to know why. What failed? What language did they use to describe the gaps?
The rep moved on: "Great. And what's your budget range for solving this problem?"
The call ended 30 minutes later. The rep was thrilled. "Qualified! Budget confirmed, timeline is Q1, decision committee identified. I'll move them to stage 3."
I had learned nothing useful for positioning. I knew their budget and buying committee, but I had no idea how they actually thought about the problem, what alternatives they'd evaluated, or what words they used to describe value to their leadership.
That's when I realized: Sales discovery calls and PMM discovery calls are fundamentally different activities that happen to share the same name.
Sales discovery optimizes for qualification. PMM discovery optimizes for understanding. Same format, completely different goals, completely different questions.
Most PMMs don't have a framework for discovery calls that surfaces positioning insights. We borrow from sales methodologies like BANT, MEDDIC, or SPIN Selling. Then we wonder why our customer conversations don't produce useful messaging inputs.
Sales frameworks are designed to answer: "Should we spend time on this deal?" PMM frameworks need to answer: "How do buyers think about and describe this problem?"
Those are not the same question.
Why Sales Discovery Frameworks Don't Work for PMM Research
Sales and PMM both run discovery calls. But we're discovering completely different things.
What sales discovery optimizes for:
- Budget qualification: Can they afford this?
- Timeline identification: When will they buy?
- Decision process: Who needs to approve?
- Pain severity: Is this urgent enough to close?
- Competitive landscape: Are we in the consideration set?
Sales needs to know whether to invest time in this opportunity. Their questions are built around qualification and objection handling.
What PMM discovery needs:
- Buyer language: What exact words do they use to describe the problem?
- Alternative solutions: What have they tried? Why did those fail?
- Value articulation: How do they explain this investment to stakeholders?
- Problem context: What triggered them to start looking for solutions?
- Mental models: How do they categorize and compare solutions?
PMMs need to understand how to message and position. Our questions should extract the language and context that informs GTM strategy.
The questions are fundamentally different:
Sales asks: "What's your budget for this?"
PMM needs: "How do you typically justify investments in this category internally?"
Sales asks: "Who's the decision maker?"
PMM needs: "When you explain this problem to leadership, what language resonates?"
Sales asks: "What's your timeline?"
PMM needs: "What prompted you to start looking for solutions now versus six months ago?"
Sales asks: "What's your biggest pain point?"
PMM needs: "Walk me through the last time this problem actually impacted your team."
Same topic—buying process, pain points, competitive context—but framed to surface completely different insights.
When PMMs use sales discovery frameworks, we get sales-qualified data. We learn budgets and timelines. We don't learn how to position.
The solution isn't to sit in on more sales calls. It's to run our own discovery calls optimized for the insights PMMs actually need.
The PMM Discovery Call Framework
Here's the framework I use for discovery calls that actually inform positioning and messaging work.
Before the Call: Setup That Matters
Who to talk to:
Not just happy customers. You need a mix:
- Recent customers (bought in the last 3-6 months): Memory of evaluation process is fresh
- Lost deals (chose a competitor or status quo): Reveals why your positioning didn't resonate
- Power users (active, engaged customers): Understand ongoing value articulation
- At-risk customers (low engagement, missed renewals): See where messaging broke down
Most PMMs only talk to customers who love them. That creates survivorship bias. The most useful positioning insights often come from people who almost didn't choose you.
Research prep:
Don't go in cold. Spend 10 minutes reviewing:
- Their LinkedIn to understand their role and background
- Your CRM notes on the deal (if they're a customer)
- Their company website to understand their business context
- Any public content they've created about the problem space
You're not preparing to pitch them. You're preparing to ask informed questions.
Set clear expectations:
When you send the meeting invite, be explicit:
"I'm from product marketing, not sales. I'm researching how people in [role] talk about [problem space] to improve how we explain our product. This is a research conversation—I won't be selling anything or following up on opportunities. I'd love 30 minutes to understand your experience."
This changes the dynamic. People are more candid when they know you're not trying to close them.
Opening the Call (First 5 Minutes)
Your introduction:
"Thanks for taking the time. Just to set context: I'm on the product marketing team, not sales. My job is to understand how people actually talk about [problem] so we can improve our messaging and positioning. I'm here to learn from your experience, not pitch you on anything."
Set the agenda:
"I'd love to spend the next 25 minutes understanding your situation—how you handle [X], what you've tried, and how you think about solutions in this space. Then I'll leave 5 minutes at the end for any questions you might have. Sound good?"
This framing does three things:
- Removes sales pressure so they're more open
- Positions you as someone interested in their perspective, not your product
- Sets a structure so the conversation doesn't wander
Discovery Questions (Next 20 Minutes)
This is where PMMs extract positioning gold. The structure matters.
Current State Questions (5 minutes)
"Walk me through how you currently handle [problem]."
Don't ask if they have the problem. Ask them to show you how they deal with it. This reveals:
- The actual workflow (not the theoretical one)
- Workarounds they've built
- Where current solutions break down
- The language they use internally to describe tasks
"What terminology does your team use to describe this?"
People in different industries use completely different language for the same concept. A developer says "CI/CD pipeline." A marketer says "content workflow." A finance person says "approval process."
You need to know how your ICP actually talks about this, not how you think they should.
"How do you explain this problem to your leadership when you need resources or budget?"
This is how they frame value internally. These are the exact phrases that resonate with decision-makers in their world. Use them in your messaging.
Problem Exploration Questions (5 minutes)
"What prompted you to start looking for solutions?"
This identifies trigger events. Most people don't wake up one day and decide to solve a problem they've tolerated for years. Something changes. A new executive joins. A competitor launches something. A manual process breaks at scale.
Understanding triggers tells you when to reach prospects and how to create urgency.
"What have you tried before? Why didn't it work?"
This maps the competitive and alternative landscape—not just direct competitors, but also:
- Internal solutions they built
- Adjacent products they tried to repurpose
- Manual processes they attempted to systematize
When someone says "we tried building this in-house but it was too complex to maintain," that's a positioning point.
"If you could wave a magic wand and fix one thing about how you handle this today, what would it be?"
People will tell you their actual priority, not the feature list you think matters. Sometimes it's not a product gap—it's that existing solutions require too much training, or integrations are too fragile, or reporting takes too long.
Competitive and Alternative Context (5 minutes)
"What other solutions did you evaluate?"
Let them name competitors. Don't lead with "Did you look at [Competitor X]?" Just ask what they considered.
Then follow up: "How did you think about the differences between them?"
This tells you what differentiation actually matters to buyers, not what your internal team thinks matters.
"How did you explain those differences to stakeholders when making the decision?"
This is the one-liner they used to justify their choice. If someone says "we went with you because the other tool required engineering resources we don't have," that's a competitive positioning message.
"What made you ultimately choose [your product / their chosen solution]?"
If they're a customer, you learn what actually closed the deal. If they're a lost deal, you learn what your positioning missed.
Language Mining (5 minutes)
"How would you describe [our product/this category] to a colleague who's never heard of it?"
Don't give them your elevator pitch and ask if it resonates. Let them explain it in their own words. They'll use metaphors, comparisons, and framings you'd never think of.
I once heard a customer describe our product as "Zapier but for data teams." We'd never positioned it that way. It was perfect. It became our homepage hero copy.
"What's the one-line pitch you'd give to your boss to justify investing in this?"
This is your value prop, in their words. They've already sold this internally. Use their language.
Listen for:
- Exact phrases they repeat
- Metaphors and comparisons
- How they describe ROI or value
- Words they use vs. words you use
Closing the Call (Last 5 Minutes)
"Is there anything I didn't ask about that you think is important for me to understand?"
This catches what you missed. Sometimes the most valuable insight comes here.
Thank them and explain what happens next:
"This has been incredibly helpful. I'm going to use these insights to improve how we talk about [problem] in our messaging. You won't get a sales follow-up from this—I might reach out in a few months if we're doing similar research, but that's it. Really appreciate your time."
Then actually don't follow up with sales. If you say it's research, it needs to be research. Burning trust here ruins your ability to do this work.
What to Do With the Insights
Running great discovery calls is half the work. The other half is organizing insights so you can actually use them.
The problem most PMMs face:
You run 15 discovery calls. You take detailed notes. You capture amazing quotes. You identify patterns.
Six months later, you're writing messaging for a new launch. You vaguely remember that customers used a specific phrase to describe this problem, but you can't remember which call it was from. You have notes in:
- A Google Doc from that one interview
- Scribbled notes in a notebook
- A Notion page you created and forgot about
- Somewhere in Slack DMs with your manager
You spend 45 minutes searching for the quote. You can't find it. You end up guessing at the messaging instead of using the actual buyer language you heard.
Sales teams record discovery calls for qualification. They put notes in CRM to track deal progression.
PMMs need discovery calls organized for positioning research. We need a way to surface buyer language, competitive insights, and positioning patterns when we're building messaging months later.
The scattered Google Docs and Notion pages approach doesn't work. You need discovery insights and customer research organized in one place where you can search by theme, competitor mention, or specific language.
Platforms with case study and win/loss modules let you organize customer research insights in one repository instead of scattered notes. When you're building positioning six months later, you can surface the exact buyer language from discovery calls instead of guessing what you vaguely remember someone said.
The goal isn't just to collect insights. It's to build a library of buyer language you can reference when writing messaging, building battle cards, or updating positioning.
What to track from each call:
- Verbatim quotes: Their exact words, not your interpretation
- Competitive mentions: Any competitor they evaluated or compared you to
- Alternative solutions: What they tried before, what they built internally
- Trigger events: What made them start looking for solutions
- Value articulation: How they explain ROI to leadership
- Pain points: Specific problems they mentioned
- Metaphors and comparisons: How they describe the category
When you organize discovery insights this way, you can:
- Search for all quotes about a specific competitor
- Find patterns in how different personas describe value
- Pull exact buyer language when writing new messaging
- Identify which trigger events show up most frequently
PMM Discovery Calls vs. Win/Loss Interviews
Discovery calls and win/loss interviews both involve talking to customers, but they serve different purposes.
Discovery calls are exploratory research:
- Broad conversation about how they think about the problem space
- Can happen with customers, prospects, or lost deals
- Goal: Understand buyer language, mental models, and competitive context
- Format: Semi-structured conversation following the framework above
- Timing: Ongoing research, not tied to specific deals
Win/loss interviews are structured post-decision research:
- Focused on why they made a specific buying decision
- Only happen after a deal closes (win) or is lost
- Goal: Understand what drove the final decision and what you could improve
- Format: Standardized questionnaire to enable pattern analysis
- Timing: Within 2-4 weeks of the decision
Both matter. Discovery calls inform how you talk about the category. Win/loss interviews tell you what's working (or not working) in your current positioning.
The best PMM research programs combine both: ongoing discovery calls to understand buyer language, plus structured win/loss interviews to validate whether your messaging and positioning are actually resonating in deals.
Tools that organize both discovery insights and win/loss interview data help PMMs track patterns across the entire buyer journey—from how prospects first think about the problem to what ultimately closes or loses deals.
Common Mistakes That Waste Discovery Calls
Mistake 1: Asking leading questions
Bad: "Don't you think our approach to [X] is better than the legacy way of doing it?"
Good: "How do you think about different approaches to solving this?"
Leading questions get people to agree with you. Open questions get them to share how they actually think.
Mistake 2: Turning it into a sales call
You're having a great conversation. They mention a pain point your product solves. You think "I should tell them about our feature that fixes this."
Don't. You said this was research, not sales. If you pivot to pitching, they'll stop being candid.
If they explicitly ask about your product: "I'm happy to connect you with our sales team if you'd like to explore that. For this conversation, I want to stay focused on understanding your experience."
Mistake 3: Not recording or taking detailed notes
You think you'll remember the great quote they said. You won't.
Always ask permission to record: "Do you mind if I record this so I can focus on our conversation instead of taking notes?"
Most people say yes. If they say no, take detailed notes and capture exact quotes when you hear positioning gold.
Mistake 4: Only talking to customers who love you
Your Customer Success team will happily introduce you to your biggest fans. Those conversations feel great. Everyone says nice things about your product.
You learn nothing useful for positioning.
The insights come from:
- People who almost didn't buy
- Lost deals who chose competitors
- At-risk customers who aren't getting value
- Prospects still evaluating
These conversations are uncomfortable. They're also where you discover what your positioning is missing.
Mistake 5: Asking about features instead of problems
Bad: "What do you think about our new dashboard feature?"
Good: "Walk me through how you currently make decisions about [X]. What data do you look at?"
People are bad at evaluating features in the abstract. They're great at describing problems and workflows. Ask about their world, not your product.
The Uncomfortable Truth About Discovery Calls
Sales discovery frameworks are everywhere because sales has systematized their process. BANT, MEDDIC, SPIN Selling—pick your methodology. Sales reps are trained on these frameworks. Managers coach to them. CRMs are built around them.
PMM discovery has no standard framework. We wing it. We borrow from sales because that's what's available. We sit in on sales calls and think we're doing customer research.
We're not. We're watching qualification happen.
If your discovery calls don't have a different structure than sales calls, you're not doing PMM research—you're just observing sales.
Most PMMs can't articulate what makes PMM discovery different from sales discovery. So we end up learning budgets and timelines instead of buyer language and positioning insights.
Your positioning is only as good as your customer understanding. If you're not running regular discovery calls optimized for messaging insights, you're guessing at how buyers think.
Sales discovery frameworks optimize for "should we pursue this deal?"
PMM discovery frameworks optimize for "how do we talk about this category in a way that resonates?"
Same call type. Completely different goals. Completely different questions.
The PMMs who run systematic discovery research build positioning that reflects how buyers actually think. The ones who don't build positioning based on internal assumptions and hope it lands.
Your choice.
Start running one PMM discovery call per week. Use the framework. Organize the insights. Reference them when you build messaging.
Your positioning will sound less like a product marketing team wrote it and more like something your buyers would actually say.
That's when it starts working.