Can MEDDPICC Be Used For Small or Fast-Moving Deals?

“Can MEDDPICC be used for small or fast-moving deals?”

This is easily one of the most commonly asked questions we get. The short answer is yes. The slightly longer answer is that you should use MEDDPICC relative to the complexity of your deal.

The reason why this question is asked so much comes back to the fact that not all MEDDIC is equal, because so many organizations use MEDDIC as a checklist, a post-event admin activity; sales managers questioning derelict CRM fields and treating the letters of MEDDPICC like check marks to indicate the health of the deal.

They do this instead of using it as a common language to focus on the three critical parts of professional selling:

1. Value - (Metrics, Implicate the Pain, Decision Criteria)
2. Stakeholders - (Economic Buyer, Champion, Competition)
3. Process - (Decision Process, Paper Process)

Regardless of whether it's a deal that closes in 2 meetings or 200, you still have to focus on:

1. Selling the value your solution can bring
2. To the stakeholders who stand to benefit and who are involved in the
3. Buying Process that you must understand

What changes is the depth in which you focus on each part, and subsequently which MEDDPICC letter.

For example, in a transformational enterprise deal, you have to focus on engagement with the Economic Buyer. But in a fast-moving deal, not only may it not be possible, but trying too hard could actually slow you down.

So, what do you do? Do you do MDDPICC?

Nope!

You work to empower your Champion to sell to the Economic Buyer’s interests, which you have learned from industry experience and from the Champion themselves. This is where having a proactive approach to the Economic Decision Criteria will help you.

Likewise, in a fast-moving deal, your customer may not think they need to build a view of their Decision Process with you, but that doesn’t mean you should give up on it entirely. Instead, use the information you have to map out the process and continue trying to collaborate with your Champion on the necessary milestones, even if you don’t directly call out what you’re doing. A partial view of the Decision Process obtained by a few well-thought-out questions is better than blindness.

Of course, none of this matters if you haven’t Implicated Pain. Regardless of how fast the deal seems to be moving, pain is crucial. Without Implicating Pain and correlating how your solution uniquely solves it via Decision Criteria, you leave the door open for your Competition and/or the deal stalling due to inertia.

Another way of looking at this is to consider what kind of 'race' your deal is.

• Sprint Race - 1-3 meetings - Lighter MEDDICC
• Grand Prix - 3+ meetings - Thorough MEDDPICC
• Endurance Race - 10+ meetings - Deep MEDDPICC