MEDDIC Sales Methodology and Process

Why use MEDDIC?

As a qualification framework, MEDDIC helps you to qualify first and foremost whether there is a real opportunity within the organization you are engaged with. Often this is an overlooked factor in sales as salespeople try to create opportunities within organizations that are unqualified. These areas of qualification (or unqualification as it is in this case) tend to fall into a few categories:

• The pain and value you are trying to solve not being strong enough
• The customer not being willing to run a buying process or not knowing their process
• The stakeholders not being strong enough or invested enough to get a deal done

MEDDIC works specifically to uncover these areas of qualification as well as acting as a framework for salespeople to use to put themselves back on the front foot to:

• Uncover more considerable pain and underpin the pain with metrics, thus driving urgency
• Uncover, influence, and in some cases take control of the process and criteria in which the customer will be making their decision.
• Build and empower stakeholders to understand the distinct value of your solution, building Champions and obtaining access to pivotal decision-makers

Why do you need a Sales Qualification Framework like MEDDIC?

Sales leadership teams are trying to create predictable revenue for their execs, board members, and shareholders. There are two critical factors required to create predictable revenue:

1. Efficient Resource Allocation
2. Forecast Accuracy

1. Efficient Resource Allocation

Sellers and their supporting peers are often the highest-paid individuals within their organization. This is for good reason as an elite Seller is likely to deliver exponentially more revenue than what their additional cost is over an average Seller.

A Seller who is unable to qualify their opportunities won’t just be inefficient to themselves, but they will also pull in other resources draining their efficiency too.

MEDDIC helps Sellers continually ensure that they are investing their time in the right deals, and if not, it gives a clear path of how they can get back on the right course or qualify out.

2. Forecast Accuracy

Being able to accurately forecast revenue performance allows organizations to confidently invest in strategies that support growth such as hiring to support the growing customer base and investing more in go-to-market strategies.

For the executive team, being able to work with an accurate forecast is imperative to their planning and execution.

Elite Sellers are accurate forecasters and elite sales leaders are too.

MEDDIC Helps Customers Too

Customers who are buying from a sales organization that utilizes MEDDIC also benefit from an approach that is optimized to be efficient. It means that it won’t just save the Seller’s time but the customer’s time too. Further still, the customer will benefit from a Seller focused on providing deeper clarity on the problem that the customer is trying to find a solution for. In doing so, the Seller will uncover a deeper quantification of the problem and potentially more benefits that the customer hadn’t yet considered.

Finally, the cherry on top will be that a good Seller will help the customer drive a deal through their organization securing budget and buy-in as they go, cutting the time to go-live considerably.

There have been several instances of customers outwardly commenting on what a great experience it is to buy from a company that uses MEDDIC. MEDDIC is as aligned to the customers buying process as it is the sellers sales process. In fact, you could argue MEDDIC more closely suits the buying process.

The head if purchasing at multi billion dollar organization, Siemens is quoted as saying he actively looks for MEDDIC in vendors that he is selecting to buy from.

MEDDIC is a Common Language for your entire Revenue Team

When used to its full potential, MEDDIC becomes the common language in which revenue teams refer to all factors of an opportunity with a new or existing customer. MEDDIC helps define:

• The way you measure the value you provide to your customers – Metrics
• Who the overall authority is inside of the customer’s organization – Economic Buyer
• What criteria is the customer is basing their decision upon – Decision Criteria
• What the process is to obtain the decision – Decision Process
• What is the process surrounding the paperwork – Paper Process
• What is the pain you are solving, and how serious it is – Implicate Pain
• Who is the person or persons who are supporting you internally – Champion
• What or whom are the other factors competing for the same resources you are – Competition

Suppose you consider all of the above and imagine all of the different terminologies and definitions you could have for these critical factors of your opportunities. In that case, it is easy to see why MEDDICC as a common language is such a valuable aspect of MEDDIC. Having everyone talk in the same language, with the same definitions for every part of a deal, adds an incredible amount of clarity to the state of the deal, therefore, increasing the ability the team has of being effective with their guidance on the next steps to progress the deal forward.

Sales Teams After MEDDIC

After implementing MEDDIC, sales teams will have a ‘common language’ to communicate with their entire revenue team. This results in more accurate and efficient communication that leads to better forecasting.

The sales team (and beyond) will become more aligned on how deals are analyzed, and activities are applied. For example, suppose you are scoring the strength of a deal. In that case, you can use the same criteria throughout, or should you wish to implement stage gates of qualification over the top of your sales process, then certain elements of MEDDIC can act as the requirements to move a deal forward.

After embracing MEDDIC, sellers will no longer have to rely on ‘gut feel’ for where they stand with their deals. Likewise, sales leaders won’t need to rely on a seller’s gut feel combined with their filter of how optimistic or pessimistic their seller is typically to decide how the deal stands.

In short, after a sales team implements MEDDIC, they are always going to know where they stand in deals and what to do next. Sometimes the answer to that question will be to qualify out.

Symptoms you need MEDDIC

Some consistent symptoms will point to a scenario where the salesperson needs to qualify better and sell better. They are as follows:

If you have no real Champion, or even worse, a ‘Faux Champion‘ – A Champion, he acts like they are your Champion, but they don’t qualify and block you from making progress, whether consciously or by stopping you broadening your engagements within the customers business. If they do not have power and influence, they cannot act as a true Champion because they lack the strength internally to help you.

You don’t know how the customer is making their decision or the process in which the decision will be made. 

You are unable to access influential stakeholders, and even if you do, you are unsure of what their pains and, subsequently, their criteria for your solution are:

The customer doesn’t feel the pain you solve strongly enough or see the value in your solution.

Your competition continually seems to be on the front foot and is landing effective blows against your proposition, putting you on the back foot and constantly playing catch up. 

You don’t seem to be losing deals outright, and your customer decides not to buy now. “It’s not a no; it’s just a not right now.”

Economic Buyer

The Economic Buyer is the overall authority in your deal. They have the power to say “yes” when others say “no” and “no” when others say “yes.” They are usually the person to which the overall budget rolls up. 

Identifying and working with their requirements and demonstrating how your product fits their needs will lead to success.

What does your economic buyer look like? They will have overall discretion over funds, in-depth knowledge of available budgets, and speak the language of business. Think of the language in the companies annual report; this is how the Economic Buyer will talk. 

They have the knowledge, perspective, understanding, and energy to commit to a meaningful purchase. 

Data suggests that over 80% of deals lost or slipped do so without having access to the Economic Buyer. By contrast, over 80% of deals are won when forecasted when strong engagement with the Economic Buyer.

Decision Criteria

The first D in MEDDIC stands for Decision Criteria. Simply put, this is the criteria on which a purchase decision is made. 

These criteria fall into three categories.

Technical Criteria

• Does your solution have the technical ability to do what the customer needs?
• How will the buyer implement your product? Will this require more or less work than they expected?
• Is your solution viable from an infrastructure and security perspective?
• Are they comfortable working with your interface?

Economic Criteria

• Does your solution deliver a strong enough return on investment (ROI)?
• What will implementation cost financially and in terms of resources?
• Is there an opportunity cost? 
• Are there resources that could be better deployed in other places?

Relationship Criteria

• Does the customer want to work with you?
• Have you listened to the stakeholders’ individual needs and inspired them to trust in your solution?
• Does your roadmap align with their aspirations?
• Is the direction of your company aligned with how they want it to be?

If your customer already has comprehensive Decision Criteria, you will need to ensure your solution matches up well. Not all customers will have clear Decision Criteria in mind. In these instances, it is a fantastic opportunity for you to influence the Decision Criteria towards the strengths of your solution. 

In any instance, whether the Decision Criteria is well constructed or not, it is the job of the salesperson to attach their value to the Decision Criteria. They need to adapt it to include additional areas of value that they can provide that are either unique to their proposition or differentiated enough to be defensible as strengths.

Paper Process

The Paper Process is the newest addition to the common elements of MEDDIC, but for a good reason. The Paper Process is cited as the number one reason why deals slip. In today’s world of B2B sales, the process to get deals closed is complicated and time-consuming. Deals can stall on issues relating to the paperwork, sometimes for months.

Therefore focusing on the Paper Process and mapping it out with your customer has become a critical factor in enterprise sales. 

Be mindful of what may delay the paperwork process. Are your team prepared and equipped to deliver contracts quickly? Is your customer expecting any periods of team absences – holidays, maternity or paternity leave, or managing other projects – that may delay your deal’s progress? Your job is to ensure your customer is confident in their responsibilities in the process, ready and able to act accordingly to ensure the Paper Process timeline remains prompt and hassle-free.

Implicate Pain

Initially, the I in MEDDIC stood for Identify the Pain, and many organizations will still refer to the I as Identify. At MEDDICC, we refer to the I in MEDDIC as a three-stage process. This process is as follows:

i1 – Identify the Pain:

This is straightforward. By Identifying the Pain, you are doing just that ‘identifying it’ This does little to evoke urgency or emotion with your customer. Using the pain analogy is like pointing out a bruise that your customer has on their arm.

i2 – Indicating the pain:

This is what most modern sales teams do – they Identify pain and then Indicate to the customer how much the pain is hurting them, whether it be by Lost Revenue, Costs, or Risks to their business. Usually, the pain is indicated by an ROI report or business case. In the pain analogy, this is like telling the customer how much the bruise hurts them if you poke it.

i3 – Implicating the pain:

Elite Sellers Implicate the Pain upon their customer. They Identify the Pain, Indicate how much it is hurting their customer, and then go deep with their customer to understand just how painful the issue is for the customer. By focusing on the implications of the pain, the customer lives in the moment of pain, radically increasing the severity of the pain in the customer’s mind driving the urgency. 

In the pain analogy, this is like sternly poking at the bruise on the customer’s arm.

Use Open-Ended Discovery to uncover pain

Use open-ended discovery questions to unpack your buyer’s pain instead of imposing your idea of problems from an initial meeting. By entering into a holistic, authentic conversation with your buyer, you’re enabling them to articulate their position and what they find to be blocking their progress. This then allows you to delve deeper into the reasons and structures behind these problems.

When you truly understand the business’s pain/s, you are setting the stage to create your Champions.

Champion

No Champion, No Deal. Big Champion, Big Deal. It is as simple as that. Every single CRO I have asked which part of MEDDIC they see as most important has said Champion.

Champions are respected stakeholders within your customers business who meet very distinct criteria:

1. They have Power and Influence
2. They are selling internally for you
3. They have a vested interest in your success

Power and Influence is non-negotiable

If your Champion has the other two qualifying criteria but is without Power and Influence, they are a Coach, not a Champion. Whereas you can work with your potential Champion to help them sell internally for you and to have a vested interest in your success, Power and Influence are non-negotiable. If they lack it, you can’t change this factor, and you will need to find another Champion. 

Selling Internally is easily identifiable

Often sellers think it is not easy to identify if their Champion is selling internally for them, but it is easy. You ask your Champion: “Has our solution come up in discussions with other stakeholders?” If it hasn’t, then this is a red flag for your deal, but if it has, then it is vital to understand how your Champion acted in the discussions. Did they talk about your solution positively? Did they stick up for your solution if anyone had any criticisms? You can find out the answers to these questions by simply asking your Champion. 

Having a Vested Interest doesn’t mean Bias.

For a Champion to have a vested interest in your success, the value of your solution has to align with your Champions’s goals. This can mean your solution will solve a problem your Champion has that means their job will be easier, or they’ll get a bonus or promotion. 

Having a vested interest doesn’t necessarily mean a bias towards your or your company—quite the contrary. Your Champion will lose credibility if they are seen to be biassed. 

Competition

The original MEDDIC did not include a second C for Competition. However, the landscape of modern sales has evolved so much that it is imperative to focus on Competition to qualify opportunities correctly. 

It is not just that there are more direct competitors today (there are), but that there are also a vast array of indirect competitors. Whether they be solutions that aren’t direct rivals to you but offer a similar proposition or an entirely different proposition with the same goal. On top of this, your customers have never been more empowered to solve their problems themselves by building. 

This means that your Competition is no longer just your direct rival solution providers but any individual or vendor competing for the same resources or budget as you are. 

Winning out against the competition is not enough in itself; approaching your competition strategy with the correct attitude is what will lead you to secure bigger deals, more consistent customers, and general upscaling across your business. Highlight the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities of both your brand and your competitors. Be honest and comprehensive about their position and define the unique, specific ways you will combat them. How will you build yourself up against these in discussion with your customer?Lastly, never talk down the competition. It will immediately lose your respect and credibility in your customer’s eyes and is not an attitude that will strengthen your business. The customer is, ultimately, buying into you. If they don’t trust you, they’ll go elsewhere.