Why MEDDICC is Ideal for Co-selling with Marketplaces

Last year, I declared Cloud Marketplaces to be the most significant opportunity we've witnessed in our industry since the rise of cloud computing and SaaS. We braced for pushback, debates, and skeptics.

But what we got was quite the opposite. The response was overwhelmingly positive, with a flood of agreement and insights from some of the sharpest minds in the channel, supporting this paradigm shift. You might wonder why I am so passionate about all things channel and Cloud Marketplace. I am genuinely enthusiastic about Go-to-Market strategies, but there's more to it..

MEDDICC, Co-Selling, and Marketplaces are a match made in heaven.

When applied effectively (remember, not all MEDDIC is equal), MEDDICC acts as the perfect common language to unite co-selling teams, focusing on Value, Stakeholders, and Process.

Here's how to communicate effectively with your partner:

Value

• [ I ] - What is the Pain the customer is experiencing, and what are the implications of that Pain?
• [ M ] - What is the measure of value we can add by addressing this Pain?
• [ Dc ] - How does our solution deliver this value in a superior/unique manner?

Stakeholders

[Value] - How are the various Stakeholders implicated by the Value elements? (Pain can mean various things to different people).

• [ Ch ] - Who is our Champion? What is their vested interest?
• [ E ] - Who is the Economic Buyer/s? What is their Economic Decision Criteria?
• [ Co ] - Who is the Competition? Is it a rival or another initiative?

Process

[Stakeholders] - Who are the stakeholders that are involved in the Decision Process? When and how do we engage?

• [Dp ] - Understand our current status in the Decision Process and strategize for progression and acceleration.
• [P ] - (early!) Learn about the customer's procurement preferences, including Cloud Marketplace benefits and their Paper Process.

If you are yet to engage with the customer, hypothesize on the questions. I.e., Instead of "Who is our Champion?" Ask: "Typically, when we work with an organization like this, who is our Champion? and what is typically their vested interest?"

The best bit? All of the above is how MEDDICC, as a common language, can help you hit the ground running with your co-selling efforts. The language expands all of the way through the customer engagement from Positioning > Selling > Closing > to Delivering Value, Upsells, and Renewals.