MEDMEN: Is MEDDIC A Process?

00:00 Pim Roelofsen: Welcome to The MedMen Show. My name is Pim, and that's Andy. 00:03 Andy Whyte: What are we talking about today, Pim? 00:04 Pim Roelofsen: Today, Andy, we are talking about whether MEDDIC is a process. So what do you think? 00:08 Andy Whyte: The short answer is no — MEDDIC is not a process. And we have to be very careful here, because people do genuinely think that. Like: "MEDDIC — do you start with metrics and then work through the letters in order?" No — that wouldn't work anyway. But the idea that it's a process is already problematic enough. So we have to be very clear: no, it's not a process. But it's not quite as straightforward as that. 00:35 Pim Roelofsen: Oh — what deal is ever straightforward though? 00:37 Andy Whyte: No deal is straightforward. The idea of thinking that a deal is a linear process happening through a confirmed set of steps and stages is madness. Absolute madness. So no, MEDDIC is not a process — but that doesn't mean it can't be applied to your sales process. And when people talk about MEDDIC in a process context, I'm pretty sure that's what they mean. That's certainly what we mean when we talk to our customers about MEDDIC and process. We're talking about embedding MEDDIC in your process because it's a common language. It adds so much value when you start putting in things like entrance criteria — before we move to a stage, we want to make sure we have a champion. Before we move to delivering a proposal, we want to make sure we've engaged the economic buyer. 01:19 Andy Whyte: We've even got customers who do this great thing where they score MEDDIC throughout the process — so ops teams can start to use MEDDIC to measure the strength of an opportunity through each stage. We've seen some of our customers get quite scientific with this, where they can say: "If we have a champion rated seven or above at this stage, it generally leads to these types of outcomes." And of course the opposite — if they've got a low champion score, it typically ends up in a worse opportunity, whether that means they won't win, will take longer, or will win for a smaller deal size. So there's certainly real value in embedding MEDDIC into your process. 02:04 Pim Roelofsen: Yeah. I would say the customers that gain the most traction from the get-go with an initiative are the ones that do this well. They look at their process and then empower their leaders with clarity on what they're looking for at each stage. In the early stages you're not looking for an M3 — because that's something you need to develop in collaboration with your champion, and it takes time. So it's very clear: this is what we're looking for here, these are the things we're looking to influence, we have a proposed champion we're going to work with. There's something for every stage — your entry and exit criteria. And it creates a lot of consistency. 02:43 Pim Roelofsen: But that's not the only benefit. Because once people start operating like this — and it starts with the leadership layer — you keep on embedding MEDDIC as a common language. Everybody has learned it. They know what each letter stands for, they have that level of proficiency. But this is how you mobilize it. Yes, you can underpin your process with it — but it's also a massive enabler of actually embedding MEDDIC and eradicating the flavor-of-the-month syndrome. 03:13 Andy Whyte: Yeah. And another point here is that sales involves a lot of process — not just the macro sales process, but what we'd call plays, which are basically smaller processes we're running. If you think about the definition of a process: a series of steps that lead towards a desired outcome. You're trying to get somewhere, and the best way of getting there is steps one, two, three, four, five. And of course, as we always say, sales is not linear — all kinds of things happen and the best salespeople adapt and evolve. But there are many smaller processes happening throughout. A value pyramid has a particular process. Great discovery has a particular process. Building champions has a particular process. Engaging with the economic buyer has a particular process. All of these things. So that's why I say it's not quite as straightforward or binary as "is it a process or isn't it?" 04:09 Andy Whyte: I guess this comes back to that thing we always say — if you think about MEDDIC as a common language, then you can make it whatever you want it to be. Because you can't say someone is doing it wrong if they are in fact using it in the way that works for them. 04:28 Pim Roelofsen: Cheers to that! 04:29 Andy Whyte: Cheers!