What is the MEDDIC sales process?
The MEDDIC sales methodology is a structured way to qualify prospects for sales. It’s meant to help buyers understand what their prospects want and close deals faster. MEDDIC stands for “Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, and Champion.” Each of these words is an integral part of the qualification process.
A group of sales leaders at the software company PTC developed it for the first time in 1996. Richard “Dick” Dunkel, Jack Napoli (the creators of MEDDIC), and their team looked at PTC’s success at winning new deals, failures that led to lost deals, and the reasons for these outcomes. They found a pattern: six factors consistently predicted whether a deal would close.
This is where the MEDDIC sales method got its start. Dunkel and Napoli used this plan to grow PTC’s sales from $300 million to $1 billion in four years. Since it was first made, it has been widely known and used by the world’s best sales teams.
Similar words: MEDDIC sales framework, MEDDIC sales technique, and MEDDIC sales qualification process.
What makes MEDDIC different from other sales frameworks?
One thing that makes MEDDIC stand out (especially for its time) is how quickly it screens possible customers. Most sales methods focus on getting to know potential customers and building relationships. MEDDIC, on the other hand, puts just as much stress on evaluating and qualifying potential customers. Every part of the MEDDIC sales method helps the seller get to the final close, and it also saves them time if the customer couldn’t buy or find an answer in their product to begin with.
One more thing is that MEDDIC is more detailed than other systems. A primary sales method like BANT or SPIN selling is usually about getting information about the person who might buy from you. They don’t break down the criteria, factors, and steps that go into making a choice. So, sellers who use MEDDIC are better prepared to deal with the complicated world of B2B sales today.
One crucial thing differentiating MEDDIC from other sales frameworks is its focus on finding a champion within the prospective company. The champion is someone who believes in your product and you. They’ll do anything to make sure that their company uses your answer. This person can help you deal with office politics, win over essential people, and eventually improve your chances of closing the deal.
Why Medicine is Important in Complex Sales
No longer are business deals hard to understand. Selling to SMBs is getting more complex and complicated because they work at a high level and face such complicated problems. So, knowing what makes a prospect a good fit for you (and vice versa) is more important than ever.
Also, time is of the essence when it comes to complicated sales. It’s possible to waste weeks nurturing a lead that would never turn into a customer if you miss one small detail about their goals or evaluation standards early on. Yes, you can still lose the deal even if you did everything right if one of the critical decision-makers doesn’t know you or doesn’t see the value you bring.
Today, an average business-to-business sale looks like this:
- People make decisions for each deal.
- It takes three to six months, or 102 days on average, for an SMB or mid-market sale to close.
- A sales cycle of six to twelve months for a business sale
- Picks between your business and a few other sellers
- Up to 70% of the buying process occurs before they talk to your team. Customers only spend up to 5% of their time talking to your salespeople.
- Red tape and office politics: Possible changes to the group-making decisions
- They don’t want to use it because they probably already have about 130 apps.
That’s why medicine is so essential for today’s sellers. If sellers spell out the steps and criteria for choosing the front, they don’t have to figure these things out weeks into a deal. And they make the most of the short amount of time they have with each possibility.
They get to know each member of the decision-making process better by assuming the roles of the economic buyer, the champion, and everyone else. This makes it more likely that everyone will agree with the choice. People who buy from businesses need to be able to customize their experiences, which they can’t do without a sales qualification system like MEDDIC.
Now, it seems clear. But until MEDDIC, no salesperson had ever used those strategies regularly.
The MEDDIC Framework Stages and Questions for Qualification
How to Measure Things
Before selling something, you need to know what the person wants to get out of it. You won’t be able to show value without this knowledge.
Metrics should be measurable, like cutting the sales cycle in half or getting 30% more sales from word of mouth. Most of the time, these numbers have to do with money or time.
Here are some questions you should try to answer:
- Do you have any goals for making more money?
- How long do you think it will take you to reach these goals?
- How do you know if you’re doing well in this area now?
There are several things that your item can do. If your customer says they care about how fast they make sales, there’s no point in showing them features that make paying easier.
You are ready for the next steps of the MEDDIC framework if you answer questions early on about specific measures. From an economic point of view, you’ll be able to defend your product and show how it can help each client reach their own “ROI.”
The Economic Buyer
The economic buyer is the one who can make or break the deal. They can switch between “yes” and “no” when other people say yes.” This person, like a VP, SVP, or CXO, is more important in the business.
Depending on the company your prospect works for, the economic buyer may also be the one who signs contracts and gives out money.
To find the economic buyer, here are some things you can ask:
- Who decides whether this project is worth putting money into?
- Who decides whether to fund new projects or tools in the end?
- Could you explain how you decide how to spend your budget?
You need to know this person’s name because they can stop anything. They must be the only ones you’re selling to who are genuinely sure.
When you find the deal’s economic buyer, talk to them directly about what they want, what they expect, and what decisions are most important to them. If you can’t contact them directly, ask someone at work about them, and try to learn as much as possible. Utilize what you’ve learned to make the sale go as smoothly as possible for that person.
These are the things that your goods must do right for a potential buyer to agree to buy them. Most of the time, these are three to five things they need to know or believe before they buy your goods.
The specifics will change from company to company. But they generally have to do with how easy it is to use, how well it fits with their current tech stack, how much it costs, and how much money they have.
Functions and limits of the product
return on investment (ROI) from using your product
There is also a group called “Nice to Have” that you may come across. These are things about your product that the prospect may not need for the deal to go through but will find helpful.
If you want to know how they make decisions, you can ask their team things like,
- “What are your must-have features?”
- What are some problems with the tech stack you have now?
- How much are you ready to spend on a solution to your issue?
You should push the team to talk about formal standards if they don’t already have them. It’s more likely that your product will be seen as an answer if you can get them to explain what’s important to them.
Making a Decision
You have a massive edge as a seller if you know how people decide what to buy. Because it’s different for each company, knowing ahead of time how it works for each client will help you overcome the red tape and other problems. You don’t have to guess who to talk to and when to do it when you proactively approach sales.
To find out how they make decisions:
First, find out what steps they’ve already taken. For example, have they talked to any competitors? Did they learn anything about your product?
Please learn about the people involved and how and where they fit into the process.
Ask them what to do next as you go through each step. This will help you find possible delays or roadblocks.
Set a date for making a decision.
If you know what role each stakeholder plays, you can share specific content and engage with them in a way that makes sense to them. This will help them make a choice.
Plus, you’re less likely to lose a deal because of being stuck. You’ll know exactly what they need to do to finish, and you can push them to do it. For instance, the economic buyer may have given the go-ahead for the buy but still hasn’t signed the contract a week later. Now that you know this, you can focus on getting that signature.
Find out Pain
The things that are making your prospect look for an answer are their pain points. They might be getting ready for something (like a company growth spurt) or something that has been going on for a while (like many customers leaving).
It’s broader than measures because it’s not tied to a certain number or KPI. This is what your client cares about most.
To discover what hurts someone, ask them: “What made them start looking for a solution?”
What will happen if they can’t figure it out?
How much time and money do they think these problems cost them?
Make this as clear as you can. Being aware that they might lose money because sales are slow is not the same as being aware that they might lose $500,000 in new deals this year.
Winner of
The champion is the person in the group who most feels the pain you’ve recognized. Not often are they the ones who can sign off. The push for top management and executives to join is from them since they deal with the issue daily. The champion will use their power to help you sell from the inside because they know how much they need your answer.
When someone works harder than others to move the deal forward, that’s the best sign that they are a champion. They will gather paperwork, get funds and approvals, set up demos, and give more information about what’s happening. They will likely say they will use the goods themselves or oversee people who do.
They don’t have to be bosses. They might be able to contribute on their own. But they need to be recognized, like an account executive who does a great job.
The economic buyer will consider the champion’s opinion the most when making the choice, even though this person doesn’t have the final say. They will fight for you during decision-making if you can get them on your side.
MEDDIC Deals with Problems in Sales Qualification
The MEDDIC sales qualification method is meant to help salespeople close deals quickly and work with various decision-makers.
Here are some of the problems that MEDDIC fixes:
It is not clear who makes the decisions. With many people involved, a typical sales strategy leaves it up to the seller to determine what drives, prioritizes, and needs each person. MEDDIC tells buyers to find out what each person’s job is to get a better idea of what everyone does.
It’s hard to tailor B2B sales to each customer. When they buy something, two-thirds of B2B buyers expect personalized information. People won’t like sellers who don’t know about or talk to each buyer separately when choosing a group. When sellers use MEDDIC, they customize their interactions with each person based on their job and preferences, which leads to more valuable conversations.
The sales process lacks perspective. Each business has its standard steps that suppliers must follow. When sellers know exactly what needs to happen for a deal to move forward in the sales process, they can start doing those things right away.
They are putting too much time into bad ideas.MEDDIC tells buyers to focus on deals with a better chance of going through. If a salesperson knows precisely what the prospect needs to move forward, they can solve their concerns or move on to leads that are more likely to buy.
Pain points without accurate data. There is something that everyone is trying to figure out. The issue is that sellers have a tough time defending their answer from an economic point of view since they can’t show results above a certain level. MEDDIC helps sales reps connect how much their product costs to what it does for the business.
The best ways to go about putting the MEDDIC sales process into action
The way MEDDIC sets up the evaluation process is pretty good, but there is a right and a wrong way to use it.
To make sure MEDDIC works well in your business, follow these tips:
Drive home the need to close the deal.
Prospects may not feel as rushed to choose if they don’t fully understand the problems and what could happen if a solution isn’t found. MEDDIC helps buyers figure out what will happen if they don’t act, which makes their sales pitch more urgent.
Change based on each sales chance.
Each sales chance is different, and the way each prospect chooses can also be different. It is essential to change and adapt your MEDDIC method to fit the wants and needs of each buyer or group of buyers.
Know what your goods can do for people.
The fact that your product is valuable means you need to be able to show people how well it can solve their problems based on metrics. If their goal was to cut production times by 20%, you’ll need to show how your product makes things more efficient to cut them by 50%.
Active listening is essential.
Paying close attention to your prospects helps determine what bothers them and what they need. This is an essential part of MEDDIC evaluation because you must know much about the prospect’s problems and goals. Solving problems is how you should sell.
Use MEDDIC as a point of reference all the time.
MEDDIC should be used for more than just getting qualified. During the whole process, use it. When you talk to prospects, please keep coming back to the criteria to ensure you meet their specific needs and move them toward a choice.
