MEDMEN: What People Get Wrong with the Paper Process

00:08 Pim Roelofsen: Welcome to The MedMen Show. This is Andy Whyte — 00:11 Andy Whyte: — and that's Pim. And what we're going to talk about in this episode is what people get wrong with the paper process. 00:21 Pim Roelofsen: The paper process? 00:22 Andy Whyte: Yes indeed. The P in MEDDPICC most commonly is the paper process. And that second word — the process part — is actually what I think people get wrong the most. They focus too much on the process part of the paper process. Process only. They don't think about the timing, the dependencies, the people. They just think: I need to get this mapped out and follow it step by step. 00:51 Pim Roelofsen: Yeah. And that's wrong. Absolutely. And as it comes together while you're working your deal — people will provide you with information as you qualify. And you might believe them. Which can be tricky. It's not that they're intentionally lying, but things change. 01:08 Andy Whyte: Exactly. And as we always say — our customers are not experts at buying solutions like ours. We don't want them to be experts at buying solutions like ours. So the idea of the customer being the expert at guiding through the more formal part of the process — the paper process — and knowing what each and every step looks like and when it happens, is unlikely. Picture yourselves: think about a process you go through once every three, six, nine, twelve months. I used to forget what the expense process was and I did that every month. I always forget which link I need to go to, what category things go into when I'm submitting expenses. And that was every month. People doing something even less frequently — and probably ten times more complicated — the idea of the customer being really sharp on it is just unrealistic. 02:02 Pim Roelofsen: I mean, you're right. And I'm not sure how I'm going to do my own expenses after the trip that got me here! But yeah — that's a great point. And I think the people part of this is really important as well. Because the more sight and involvement we have of more people — if anyone listening to this thinks about a deal that really moved on rails — it wasn't moving fast because you had each step perfectly mapped out. It moved fast most likely because you found somebody in the business who could make it happen. 02:45 Andy Whyte: Yeah. And you got them on board with all the other elements of MEDDPICC. So they understood the value, they understood the other stakeholders, and they understood what was needed to get things done. That's how you get things done very, very quickly through the paper process. And there's also the thing about starting to think about this too late. We say this about the decision process too — but it extends into the paper process. How often does it happen where sellers are suddenly at end of quarter thinking: "I need internal resources on the customer side to do things that are part of the paper process." Legal, finance, procurement — these people are super busy. And there's a real risk of slippage from not having a clear understanding and execution plan against the paper process. 03:36 Andy Whyte: And I'd add on top of that — things we see as part of the paper process are things that don't typically get talked about, or are less tangible in the way we think about them in sales. Things like negotiation. Going into a conversation with various stakeholders in procurement. Whether that's a closing meeting with a pricing strategy in mind, with different pricing models and commercial offers all worked out. That for me is part of the paper process. And your internal paper process too — particularly if you work for an organization where there are levels of approval you have to go through just to get a price to the customer. Those are all part of the paper process. 04:17 Andy Whyte: So it's really about getting ahead of it as quickly as you can. The paper process can really start before the first meeting — if you've got an NDA, for example. And we're now seeing really innovative marketplaces like AWS Marketplace, which is becoming a great way for vendors and customers to work together towards a triple win: a win for AWS, a win for the ISV, a win for the customer. That's really part of the paper process too — it's how the deal gets done. And the worst thing you could do is leave it to the last minute and realize the transaction is going to happen through a marketplace and you haven't prepared for that. 05:00 Pim Roelofsen: Right. So — paper process. Keep in mind it's not just the process, it's the people, the timing, the dependencies. Don't forget that the customer is unlikely to have a really strong view of what the paper process should look like — not because they're trying to be difficult, just because it's not their job to be experts in it. And make sure you use it as part of your strategy for negotiation, for pricing, for making sure you've got everything you need to close the opportunity as quickly as you can. 05:31 Andy Whyte: Spot on. Cheers to that! 05:33 Pim Roelofsen: Cheers!