Your Obsession with Opportunities is Costing You Revenue

The average salesperson might assume that the best way to increase revenue is to increase opportunities. What we then see is a huge amount of innovation surrounding boosting pipeline volume, but a lack of innovation in other areas. In a webinar, MEDDICC CEO Andy Whyte explored how focusing solely on opportunities can be to a salesperson’s detriment, and how you can use MEDDPICC to boost revenue in other ways.

Opportunities are important, but they are just one of four key levers in sales. The others are Average Contract Value, Conversion Rate, and Time to Close. While these are widely recognised, they are often not treated with the same importance as opportunities.

This is where the Sales Velocity Equation comes in. It demonstrates the impact of improving each of the four levers.

Sales Velocity = ACV x Conversion Rate x Number of Opportunities / Time to Close

Small improvements across each lever can create exponential results. If you want to get a more in-depth look at how you can use the Sales Velocity Equation, check out this article. 

When we look at sales this way, the quality of your opportunities is what needs to be spotlighted. Which is better: 30 opportunities, 2/3rds of which are duds, or 10 solid opportunities? Using MEDDPICC, you can improve the quality of your opportunities, which can help with the other sales metrics too! Even if you improve upon each metric by simply 10%, the rewards you reap can be exponential.

So, let’s dive into the 8 actionable tactics you can use to improve each sales metric, and increase your revenue!

When qualifying leads, focus on the customer. Instead of asking, “Is there a deal here for me?”, ask, “Is my solution valuable to this customer?” Spend time demonstrating value rather than interrogating customers about whether they are ready to buy. When we center the customer in qualification, we generate better opportunities and higher conversion rates.

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. Showing up prepared improves your chances of success and demonstrates that you care about the customer’s business. This helps build trust and makes it easier to Implicate Pain, which can increase ACV and conversion rates. However, you can only prepare deeply if you qualify effectively. You cannot prepare for every prospect, so focus on the customers who will benefit most.

The first conversation is the spark of interest. Your goal is to turn that spark into momentum by focusing early on the Decision Process. Ask questions like: “What happened the last time you bought a solution like this?” Be prepared to answer their questions quickly too. By working with prospects to understand what they need to see to choose your solution, you can reduce Time to Close.

Working with just one stakeholder limits the perceived value of your solution. By implicating more stakeholders in the pain, you demonstrate wider business impact. Showing how the problem affects multiple departments can help increase ACV by highlighting enterprise-wide value.

Map who is involved in the deal, what they care about, and how to engage them. Identify Pain, then Implicate it with metrics so customers understand the wider impact. But make sure to differentiate your solution. There is no point mapping pain if competitors can simply step in and offer a solution without explaining your value.

Customers may know what they want at a high level, but they often lack detailed criteria. Elite sellers differentiate across technical, economic, and relationship dimensions. This helps shorten Time to Close and can increase ACV by helping customers discover additional value they hadn’t considered. Remember: the customer is not an expert on your product. It is your job to show them how they can benefit.

Deals can have strong potential, but Time to Close can make or break them. Create urgency by using Pain and Value together. Show what happens without your solution and what value they gain with it. Align on business case, key initiatives, and deal process. Ensure your Champion has real incentive to move the deal forward.

Without a compelling event, you are essentially order-taking. If you don’t have one, create one by tying outcomes to value and time-bound business goals. For example: “When X is implemented by Y date, ROI will increase by Z%.” Make sure to consider compliance, financial alignment, and real business urgency.

We hope that with these 8 actionable tactics, you can go forward and improve your revenue from all angles, and not be so obsessed with opportunities!