Psychology Meets SaaS: Mastering the Discovery Stage

By Montgomery Ostrander

Introduction

In the fast-moving world of B2B SaaS, the discovery call is often treated like a procedural formality—ask a few questions, check some boxes, and move toward the demo. But great sales leaders know better: discovery is where deals are won or lost. And more importantly, it’s where trust is built.

What if we approached discovery not as a step in the sales cycle, but as a psychological event?

After all, discovery is about behavior change. You’re asking someone to disrupt the status quo, to invest time and money in solving a problem they may not fully understand. That requires more than a script—it requires empathy, curiosity, and a working understanding of how people think, decide, and commit.

In this post, we explore the intersection of psychology and sales discovery, with insights grounded in behavioral science, peer-reviewed research, and SaaS-specific applications. We’ll focus on three key psychological levers: behavior change, active listening, and pain exploration—and how Sandler-aligned selling turns these into revenue-generating habits.

Part 1: Behavior Change – Understanding the Buyer’s Readiness

The discovery call is fundamentally a conversation about change—and change is hard.

Psychologists Prochaska & DiClemente describe five stages of behavior change: Precontemplation, Contemplation, Preparation, Action, and Maintenance. Your buyer is in one of these stages whether they realize it or not. Most discovery failures happen when a rep assumes the buyer is in “Action” (ready to buy) when they’re actually still in “Contemplation” (curious, but cautious).

Sales Application: A great discovery call identifies where the buyer sits in this spectrum and tailors the conversation accordingly.

• Precontemplation? Ask awareness-building questions like, “What happens if nothing changes?”

• Contemplation? Use loss aversion framing: “What’s the cost of staying where you are?”

• Preparation/Action? Create urgency: “What’s stopping you from starting now?”

💡 Research Insight: A Harvard Business Review study found that buyers are 2.3x more likely to take action when their current situation is reframed as risky or unsustainable, rather than when future benefits are emphasized.

Great discovery is not about showing how great your product is. It’s about helping the buyer understand why change is necessary now.

Part 2: Active Listening – The Trust Accelerator

Trust is not built by talking—it’s built by listening. But not all listening is created equal.

Active Empathic Listening (AEL), studied by Comer & Drollinger (2006), involves three elements:

1. Sensing – Picking up verbal and nonverbal cues

2. Processing – Understanding both facts and emotions

3. Responding – Confirming understanding without hijacking the conversation

In SaaS sales, AEL increases buyer satisfaction, improves recall, and builds psychological safety—the feeling that “this person gets me.”

Sales Application:

• Mirror and paraphrase: “It sounds like your team is spending a lot of time on manual reporting—how is that impacting morale?”

• Use pause and follow-up: “Tell me more about that.”

• Match tone: Empathize with stress, celebrate wins

📊 Stat: According to Gong.io data, top performers listen 46% more than average reps and use 2.6x more validating language.

When buyers feel heard, they open up. And when they open up, you uncover the real reasons behind the deal.

Part 3: Exploring Pain – Where the Deal Really Starts

Prospects rarely show up saying, “Here’s our exact problem and how much we’re willing to pay to fix it.” Your job in discovery is to surface pain, quantify it, and connect it to emotional drivers.

Daniel Kahneman’s research on loss aversion shows that people are more motivated to avoid pain than to pursue gain. Your discovery questions should reflect this:

• “What’s frustrating about the current workflow?”

• “Who else is affected when this happens?”

• “What’s the downstream cost if this continues?”

Sandler’s PAIN Funnel™ is built for this. It moves from surface-level symptoms to core emotional drivers:

1. What is the issue?

2. How often does it happen?

3. What does it cost you?

4. How does that make you feel?

5. Why fix it now?

🧠 Behavioral Cue: When a prospect sighs, repeats themselves, or pauses before answering, you’ve hit something real. Stay there. Go deeper.

Don’t rush to solve. Linger in the problem. Pain creates urgency—and urgency drives deals.

Closing the Loop: From Insight to Action

Here’s the SaaS discovery call reimagined:

• You’re not “qualifying”—you’re diagnosing behavior readiness.

• You’re not “listening for buying signals”—you’re earning the right to challenge the status quo.

• You’re not “surfacing objections”—you’re guiding a change decision rooted in pain, emotion, and data.

Great discovery isn’t just about finding fit—it’s about facilitating clarity.

Takeaway Framework: The Psychology-Backed Discovery Map

Final Thought

Discovery is where you prove you're not just a seller—you’re a guide. A facilitator. A partner in making a better decision.

The most successful SaaS teams understand that psychology isn’t fluff—it’s the operating system underneath every high-converting sales conversation.

So don’t just teach your reps to sell. Teach them how people think.

And watch your pipeline transform.

Want to go deeper into building psychology-backed discovery playbooks? Let’s talk.