Learning about your customer, asking discovery questions , scoring leads… you already know the basics of sales qualification.
You’re past that; you want more.
You need an effective sales methodology—one that can help you find more qualified buyers, quicker. MEDDPICC can help you achieve just that. We’re talking 30% growth rates in saturated markets and 250%+ in start-ups.
If you are struggling to qualify quality leads, try out the MEDDPICC sales methodology and set your organization up for success.
NOTE: MEDDIC™ and MEDDPICC™ are branded training products in the UK and are sold in the UK by Andy Whyte (MEDDIC.com). We do not do any training or sell any products related to MEDDIC™ and MEDDPICC™.
What Does MEDDPICC Stand For?
MEDDPICC stands for: Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Paper process, Identify pain, Champion, and Competition.
Here’s a brief explanation of the MEDDPICC acronym:
- Metrics — What are the economic benefits of your solution?
- Economic buyer — Who makes the buying decisions? Which person has the ultimate authority?
- Decision criteria — What factors drive the purchase decision?
- Decision process — How are decisions being made in the company?
- Paper process — What process is being followed to keep the paperwork in order?
- Identify pain — What pain points you must resolve?
- Champion — Which person or end-user has a level of power, influence, and credibility?
- Competition — Who is your competition?
Pretty cool right?
Now, let’s dive deeper into the MEDDPICC sales process.
What Is MEDDPICC Anyway?
MEDDPICC is one of the most popular B2B enterprise sales qualification methodologies. It can help you identify high-quality prospects. It’s a checklist of the following:
- Information you need to know
- Tasks you need to do
- Relationships with people you need to nurture
MEDDPICC vs. MEDDIC
Despite having almost the same name, MEDDPICC and MEDDIC are (slightly) different from one another.
MEDDPICC is a variation of MEDDIC. The updated methodolog is expanded to take care of more nuanced needs for a complex B2B sale.
Why Should You Use MEDDPICC?
The MEDDPICC sales process is a tried-and-tested strategy that helped many sales professionals around the globe achieve extraordinary results. You can use it to:
- Collect quantifiable and actionable high-quality data to improve forecast and overall results
- Review and remedy gaps in sales campaigns, shortening the overall sales cycle
- Help sales management focus on coaching rather than micromanaging
MEDDPICC ensures you don’t overlook the more vital parts of the sales process while simultaneously standardizing your sales methodology, leading to consistently good results.
The 8 Letters of MEDDPICC Framework: A Step-by-Step Guide
Checking off every letter in MEDDPICC can seriously increase your chances of closing deals. If you can’t tick off each letter of the framework then you know which areas require your attention.
Let’s look at how you can check off every letter in the MEDDPICC framework and achieve your sales objectives.
1. Metrics
Metrics in MEDDPICC is all about the real, quantifiable numbers—the end value, KPI improvements, the hard dollars—your prospect hopes to achieve. For instance, instead of giving you a vague goal of “increasing win rates,“ your prospect will tell you they want to increase their win rates by 10% in 2021.”
Direct and specific financial goals.
When you know the benefits that matter most to your prospect, you can customize your offering to the buyer. You can encourage them to buy by leveraging your product or service as the best solution to help them achieve their goals.
Be sure to identify every percentage of improvement your solution can bring to increase your offering’s appeal in the prospect’s eyes.
Questions to consider:
- What goals does the prospect want to achieve? How can you help them?
- How do they measure their success?
- Which areas can be improved to help the prospect save time, boost productivity, and accelerate revenue?
- What percentage of improvement do you anticipate upon making the changes? If successful, how much revenue will the business generate or save?
2. Economic Buyer
The economic buyer is the ultimate decision-maker. They are someone who makes buying decisions in the company and signs the final contract.
Find out who has the budget, the power to spend it. Or better yet, who can create the budget.
You want to meet the economic buyer as early as possible in the sales process. Have conversations with the economic buyer to learn about their preferences and decision-making process.
If you can’t speak directly to the economic buyer, work with your point of contact to understand their mindset and viewpoint. What are their expectations and priorities? How do they make buying decisions?
Tailor your pitch to their motivations. Share how you can solve their pain points, then build trust and demonstrate the ROI. Trust us, you will get their attention! And when you score an economic buyer’s backing, no one will refute your product’s worth.
Questions to consider:
- Are you talking to the decision-maker?
- What does success look like for them?
- Is there anyone else involved in the final decision?
- How can you customize your sales pitch so it appeals to the decision-maker?
- How do you proceed if your offering fulfills the success criteria?
3. Decision Criteria
Next, you have to understand the decision-making mentality of the prospect.
Different buyers have different ideals. Your job is to present your solution in a way that makes the prospect think it adheres perfectly to their exact wants and needs. But before you do this, you have to know what your buyer wants.
Suppose you and your partner go to buy a house. While you want big rooms, your partner wants a property in the city.
Now, if your realtor shows you a spacious property in the countryside, it’s highly likely the deal won’t go through, despite the big rooms. Your partner specifically wants to stay in the city, so a country house will not appeal to them.
The same logic applies here. You have to know your buyer and understand what will get them excited about your product.
A good tip is to figure out what’s on your prospect’s wishlist and what outcomes they’re looking for from your solution. For example, if you’re selling software, your prospects would use criteria like ease of use, integration facilities, onboarding, price, and potential ROI.
Customize your pitch to prove how your product or service meets all the criteria. Even better if you can come up with things your buyer doesn’t have on their wishlist, but should.
Questions to consider:
- What are the driving factors behind your prospect’s buying decisions?
- If your prospect had a wishlist for your solution, what important criteria would be on it?
- How can you tailor your sales pitch to highlight these criteria?
- What else can you do to justify this purchase?
4. Decision Process
While the Decision criteria describe the factors your prospect’s company looks for, the Decision process tells you about how they make a decision.
This specific MEDDPICC guideline will help you understand the prospects’ decision-making process , so your deal doesn’t hit any roadblocks.
Ask your contact to walk you through their typical buying process—
- Who’s involved in the meetings
- What paperwork is required
- What kind of approval processes takes place before closing the deal
- How long this usually takes.
This knowledge will help you forecast your sales process accurately. Without it, you won’t know how to actually win your deal.
Questions to consider:
- Who do you need to talk to when finalizing decisions?
- Is there a formal procedure or paper process involved before approval?
- How do they come to a final buying decision?
5. Paper Process
The point of adding a P to MEDDIC is to help sales reps understand the paper process and the associated timeline. You can then make more accurate predictions, and hence, improve your chances of closing a deal.
Then there’s also the fact that the larger the organization, the more complex the paperwork. So it’s better to sort the paperwork details ASAP and stay ahead of legal departments and administrative tasks, avoiding further delays.
Questions to consider:
- What is the process of getting everything completed and signed?
- How long do the prospect’s legal processes take?
- Who all are involved, and are there any frame agreements in place?
- Are there any mandatory terms and conditions?
- Which contractual paperwork serves as the basis of negotiation?
6. Identify Pain
Your prospects will only buy your solution if they deem it valuable, which depends on whether your product or service can solve a particular pain point. But, if you don’t know that pain point, how can you connect their problem to your solution?
A strong pain impacts the customer in terms of time, cost, revenue, or risk if it isn’t solved within a time frame. Even a weak pain can cause delays or reduced budget. Pain, along with a Champion, is one of the two major qualifiers in the discovery phase you need to have if you want to win more deals.
Most sales reps make the mistake of assuming. They try to connect the dots from past conversations and then make big recommendations to their prospects without truly understanding their prospects’ current circumstances.
Not only is this lazy behavior, but it’s also not very effective. Instead, keep asking yourself, “What happens next?”
This will help you identify your prospect’s pain points, allowing you to tailor your pitch to explain how your product or service can alleviate that pain.
For example, if your prospect has low website traffic, try to figure out how much revenue they are losing because of it. Then explain how your offering can help eliminate this problem and boost traffic.
Questions to consider:
- What pain points does the prospect have?
- How does the pain point affect the prospect’s bottom line?
- What are the consequences of leaving the pain point unattended?
7. Champion
During the sales process, you will have lots of questions. What do prospects like about your solution? What are they thinking? Is the decision turning out in your favor?
While praying and wishing to find out answers won’t help you, engaging with your champion will.
Your champion is your inside person—your point of contact or an end-user who stands to benefit most from your solution. The person who backs you up in front of decision-makers and the economic buyer. Your champion will give you valuable information and support to help you close the deal.
You must choose your champion wisely. Their respect and influence (or lack thereof) within the buying organization can influence your chances of winning the sale.
Once you do find the right person, foster and nurture a trusting relationship with them. Educate them about your solution, present information that helps them advocate for you, or ask them to prep for meetings with you.
Questions to consider:
- Who has the most to gain by your offering?
- What is this person’s interest in your offering?
- Does this person have influence?
- Can they explain your product benefits as they relate to the company?
8. Competition
Competition is the most underestimated risk factor when it comes to securing and closing a deal.
Even when your prospect assures you that they aren’t looking into other solutions, the purchasing team may still request additional quotes to compare prices, or decision-makers can ask for comparisons. It’s human psychology.
But that’s not all.
Competition can go beyond your rival company’s solution. It could also refer to the dreaded status quo, where the prospect has an “if it isn’t broken why fix it” mentality.
It’s why you must know your competitive advantages and understand how the competition is solving your prospect’s pain points and meeting their success metrics.
Additionally, be honest when talking about your competition and their pros and cons. Talking bad about your rivals and praising your own solution can be tempting, but resist you must always take the high road.
Questions to consider:
- Who are you competing against and why?
- Do your prospects have a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach?
- Is there anyone championing your competition?
Time To Implement MEDDPICC in Your Sales Job
Nothing is guaranteed in the world of sales. You can do everything right and still lose the deal. But using MEDDPICC will increase the chances of you closing more deals and accelerating revenue.
MEDDPICC can help you identify your strengths and USPs, as well as uncover blind spots and weaknesses.
