Sales Engineer Playbook · Skill
Technical discovery: finding what the customer actually needs
Solution design + technical discovery is systematically uncovering a customer's requirements, constraints and success metrics, then mapping the product to them — surfacing fit, gaps and risks before committing to a demo or POC.
Why most people get it wrong
- • Jumping to a solution before discovery
- • Happy-ears (ignoring gaps to keep the deal alive)
- • Requirements list without business context
- • Over-promising capability
- • One-size solution regardless of fit
What "strong" looks like in this move
- • You run discovery that goes past "what do you want" to "what outcome, measured how."
- • You can produce a simple requirements-to-capability map with honest gaps.
- • You qualify technical fit and can say "not a fit" with reasons.
- • You hand AEs a clearer picture of the deal's technical shape.
For the SDR → Sales Engineer move
Discovery is the SE skill an SDR is *closest* to — SDRs already qualify at the top of the funnel (BANT-style). The step up to SE is deeper, technical, outcome-led discovery and the ability to map the product to what you find. Demonstrating that you can run a real technical discovery and produce a capability map is a direct SE readiness signal, and it feeds every other SE skill (demo, POC, trust).
Try it today
Run structured discovery on one opportunity and capture outcomes, not just asks.
Ten minutes. One real thing, not a study session.
How you'd show it
- • A discovery question set you built and used.
- • A requirements-to-capability map for a real or sample opportunity.
- • A gap or non-fit you surfaced early, with the outcome.
See where this ranks among your real gaps.
Check your readiness — 3 minutes →Related skills