How to Take Control of Your Deal

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Customers don’t control deal timelines—sellers do. Stop blaming customers for quarter-end rushes and own your ability to drive urgency.

• MEDDPICC’s value elements (Pain, Metrics, Decision Criteria) create urgency by quantifying the cost of inaction and the gain of solving pain.

• A qualified Champion is the driver of your deal—combine value elements with a strong Decision Process to power your deal like a bullet train.

“We are not in control of when deals close… Customers are…”

Yet, most deals are closed at quarter-end, and the biggest quarter of all is always Q4…

“It’s because customers know it’s our quarter/year-end so they play up to it…”

Oh really? How do they know? Do they have a giant calendar in their office with the financial dates of the 100-250 vendors an enterprise organization deals with?

Or… Did you tell them in relation to some time-bound incentive?

(I think we know the answer!)

Don’t get me wrong; I think it’s mega that we, as an industry, drive urgency. It’s one of the things we in sales should be proud of; we make things happen! But we should own it more and be more forward in discussing our ability to drive timelines.

The only reason I can think of why we don’t is that we’re worried about overcommitting and deals slipping… If only there were a framework that could help qualify if and when a deal is likely to close… 

Here’s the thing: most believe that MEDDPICC helps sellers predictably win revenue because of the project management mindset that the Decision Process and Paper Process provide.

And that’s obviously great, but fewer consider the more impactful elements that drive time-to-close, the value elements:

Identified Pain - What Pain does the customer have?

Indicated Pain - What is it costing the customer?

Implicated Pain - What are the implications on the customer’s business?

Metrics - What is the quantifiable value between the Pain & Gain?

Decision Criteria - Why is your solution the only one that can provide the value you’ve uncovered?

And how bringing these elements together creates a compelling reason to move forward urgently!

Pain + Quantification of the value in solving the pain (Gain) = Urgency

Of course, all of this is only useful if you have a qualified Champion to work with to uncover the Pain, and to take the value to other stakeholders. If the Decision Process and Paper Process are the rails on which your deal runs, then the Value elements are the train running on the tracks, and your Champion is the driver.

So ask yourself: what is powering your deal?

A Bullet Train, Steam Train, or Hand Car?