A SAM engagement rarely feels like an audit. It arrives as an offer: a free review to help you optimize licensing, clean up your estate, and make sure you are getting value. The framing is friendly and the cost is nothing, which is precisely why it works. A SAM engagement is voluntary and sales led, and the data it gathers is used to find gaps, build a commercial case, and where the numbers are large enough, to set up a formal audit. Responding well means treating the offer as the opening of a commercial process, not a favor. This playbook gives you the buyer side response.
Know what a SAM engagement is and is not
Microsoft verifies licensing three ways, and they are not the same thing. A SAM engagement is voluntary and sales led. A self verification is a contractual demand under your agreement that you cannot decline. A formal audit runs through a third party accounting firm under the audit clause in the Microsoft Business and Services Agreement. The SAM engagement sits at the soft end of that spectrum, and its softness is the point: because it is optional, you have more room to set the terms than at any later stage.
Why a clean SAM result does not protect you
A common and costly assumption is that a tidy SAM tool output is the same as a defensible position. It is not. SAM tool output is not audit defense. Microsoft uses its own counting methodology and its own data drawn from Azure, Microsoft 365, and management tooling, and Microsoft's calculation governs. A clean internal ELP produced by a SAM tool can still differ from the figure Microsoft arrives at, and when the two diverge, theirs is the one that sets the demand. Treating the SAM number as the final word is how customers walk into a gap they thought they had closed.
The recognized defensive move
Because the SAM engagement is voluntary, the strongest opening is often to decline the initial review and run your own internal assessment first, with independent help on your side of the table. This is a recognized defensive move, not obstruction. It lets you understand your real position before any of your data shapes a commercial case against you, and it means that if a formal demand follows, you respond from a position you built rather than one you were handed.
Declining is not the same as ignoring. A controlled decline is made in writing, professionally, and is paired with your own assessment. For the difference between a deliberate decline and simply going quiet, the broader sequence is set out in the SAM Engagement Playbook.
The response playbook, step by step
Whether you decline outright or choose to participate on your terms, the sequence below keeps control on your side.
- Treat the offer as commercial, not administrative, and route it to procurement and licensing leadership before anyone replies
- Do not grant tool access or share inventory data on the first contact
- Run your own internal assessment first so you know your real Effective License Position
- Decide deliberately whether to decline the review or participate from a controlled position
- If you participate, define the scope and the data you will share in writing before any access is given
- Reserve your rights so nothing shared in a voluntary review is treated as a concession later
Decline or participate: a quick comparison
There is no single right answer, but the trade is clear. The table below is indicative and meant to frame the decision, not to prescribe it.
| Consideration | Decline and self assess | Participate, controlled |
|---|---|---|
| Data exposure | none until you choose | scoped and pre agreed |
| Relationship signal | firm but professional | cooperative on your terms |
| Position if audit follows | built on your records | built on your records |
| Control | fully retained | retained if scoped tightly |
Indicative framing of the decision, not a recommendation for any specific case.
If you do decide to participate
Participation is sometimes the right call, particularly where the relationship matters and the estate is genuinely clean. The key is that participation be controlled rather than open ended. The detail of how to hold the line inside a live engagement is covered in controlling a SAM engagement if you participate, and what happens if the SAM motion escalates is set out in from SAM engagement to formal audit.
The next step
The SAM Engagement Playbook collects the full response sequence, the scripts for a controlled decline, and the assessment checklist you can use before you reply. Download the guide and use it to respond to the SAM motion from a position of knowledge rather than goodwill.
Respond to the SAM motion from knowledge.
Download the SAM Engagement Playbook for the full response sequence, the controlled decline scripts, and the self assessment checklist.
Download the SAM Engagement PlaybookIf this is live on your desk right now, our SAM engagement response service handles the outreach so you never overshare.