The primary purpose of discovery questions in initial customer discussions is to implement a consultative approach. By asking open-ended and targeted questions, the consultant or sales professional aims to uncover the customer's specific business challenges, strategic goals, pain points, and success metrics. This information-gathering process is crucial for gaining deep insights into the customer's unique situation. These insights then enable the consultant to tailor the conversation, subsequent demonstrations, and the overall solution proposal to directly address the customer's identified needs, thereby establishing relevance and building trust. This aligns with the "Discover" phase of methodologies like SAP Activate.

A. Demonstrating features is a prescriptive activity that should only occur after understanding the customer's needs through discovery.

C. Negotiation of pricing and terms is a late-stage activity in the sales cycle, well after value has been established.

D. While effective discovery can streamline a sales cycle, its primary goal is thorough understanding and alignment, not speed.

1. Official Vendor Documentation: SAP Activate Methodology. The "Discover" phase is the initial phase of the methodology. Its purpose is explicitly stated as helping customers "understand the solution capabilities, the business value, and the benefits the solution brings to their organization." This is achieved by gathering information to tailor the engagement.

Source: SAP Activate Roadmap Viewer, "Discover Phase Overview," SAP SE. (Accessed via public SAP resources on the Activate methodology).

2. Academic Publication: The principles of consultative or solution selling, which are foundational to modern B2B engagement, emphasize needs diagnosis before prescription. Research in this area confirms that effective questioning to understand a buyer's problems is a key differentiator.

Source: Rackham, N. (1988). SPIN Selling. McGraw-Hill. While a book, its principles are widely taught in university business programs. Chapter 4, "The SPIN Strategy," details how questions are used to uncover "Implicit Needs" and develop them into "Explicit Needs," which is the core of discovery.

3. University Courseware: Business and sales curricula at major universities consistently teach that the initial stage of customer engagement is for discovery, not pitching. The goal is to diagnose the problem before proposing a solution.

Source: Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. In marketing and sales strategy courses (e.g., MKTG 454 - Sales Force Management), the concept of "needs analysis" or "discovery" is presented as the first and most critical step in the sales process to create a customer-centric value proposition.