What is MEDDIC and why should we use it?

Why Use the MEDDIC Method?

Definition of MEDDIC: What Are We Talking About?

MEDDIC is an acronym for Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, and Champion.

The objective of MEDDIC is to help you sell more by having a better mastery of the sales process.

And for that, it doesn't ask you to question the organization of your sales team. No, it invites you to question your clients and prospects and to position them at the heart of the process.

MEDDIC gives you a framework, a methodological grid to answer the essential questions for a successful sale. Here is everything you need to know about your prospects:

• M as Metrics (Indicators in English): What is the economic impact of your solution for your prospect?  

• E as Economic Buyer: Who is the person who will make the final purchasing decision?  

• D as Decision Criteria: What are the criteria that will be important in influencing the purchase (technical, economic)?  

• D as Decision Process: Generally, how are decisions made in your prospect's structure? What are the steps?  

• I as Identify Pain (Identified Problems and Obstacles): What problems are encountered by your prospect and therefore, consequently, their needs?  

• C as Champion (Prescriber): Who will be the person likely to truly connect with your product, the one who will be able to talk about it and promote it within their company?  

The more you address a qualified prospect identified through this grid, the higher your chances of closing a sale!  

Origin of the MEDDIC Approach

We owe the MEDDIC method to two men: Jack Napoli and Dick Dunkel. They both worked at PTC Corporation, a company specializing in technologies. With MEDDIC, PTC Corporation's Sales team recorded 40 consecutive quarters of continuous growth during the 90s! What was special about the products sold by PTC? High-cost and, above all, disruptive tools, necessarily transforming organizations. The MEDDIC system then proved to be a perfect tool for this type of complex sale, notably thanks to the identification of a "Champion". This person guaranteed the internal integration of the project within PTC's clients.

Since then, MEDDIC has been considered particularly interesting for:  

• long sales cycles of more than four months  

• large budgets  

• projects that involve different stakeholders  

• products that are carriers of great change  

• B2B sales  

Advantages of the MEDDIC Method

MEDDIC is a qualification approach like the BANT method; however, it is much more complete than the latter. MEDDIC allows for much more than simply qualifying your prospect; it is also the perfect approach in an account-based marketing strategy.

In long sales, which involve numerous stakeholders and many months of exchanges, you can very quickly lose track of the sale.

By using the MEDDIC method and answering each of the questions, you will have all the keys in hand to maintain perfect control of your sales cycle.

Marketing teams will be able to create adapted materials and content to convince all stakeholders, and sales teams will be able to keep in touch with champions and buyers more easily.

Ultimately, this mastery guarantees you a higher "close rate" and therefore ensures you better revenue!  

How to Apply the MEDDIC Approach?

Metrics: The Indicators

The first line of thought for MEDDIC is economic indicators. You can describe all the features of your product. Only numbers can truly make an impact in your speech! For this, you must identify the benefits and gains of your solution for your prospect... and quantify and/or measure them. This will be reflected in your discourse as follows:  

• "You will save X hours of work thanks to our solution."  

• "Increase your monthly visitors by X."  

• "X more products sold after using our solution!"  

Focus on figures relevant to your clients. In short, know how to understand the ROI (return on investment) expected by your prospects.

Economic Buyers: The Buyers

Now, you need to identify who, within your prospect's company, will give the validation to purchase your solution.

Indeed, if you are communicating with someone who does not have the adequate strategic position, you risk losing time.

Don't hesitate to use social networks like LinkedIn to write directly to the decision-maker or presumed buyer.

If their job title doesn't give you enough information about their decision-making power, don't hesitate to propose a phone meeting and ask them who to invite that will be involved in the project.

To learn more: everything about LinkedIn prospecting and LinkedIn search.

Decision Criteria: The Decision Criteria

To qualify your leads, you also need to know what their decisive criteria are. Often, clients will meet with several salespeople before making a purchase, so what criteria will make the difference? Be sure to investigate:  

• Technical criteria: Do you know if your tool integrates well into your prospect's infrastructure? Is your tool easy to get started with given your prospect's current organization?  

• Financial criteria: What is the annual budget dedicated by your prospect for an additional investment? Can you provide a higher ROI than a solution already used by the company?  

• Product criteria: Is your product better than another? Prove it!  

• Consulting criteria: How can you guide your prospect so that they feel better supported by your Sales team than by another?  

Decision Process: The Decision Process

Let's now move on to studying the decision process before purchase. This involves looking at who makes the decisions, what the deadlines are, and the processes in place for deciding:  

• Are purchasing decisions made after a common reflection between different departments of the company? If so, which departments?  

• How long will the decision take in each department?  

• Who is involved during this decision process?  

• Does the company need to complete legal/technical documents? If so, can you help them with this process?  

Identify Pain: Identified Problems/Obstacles

No sale without a solution, and therefore, without a problem!

Make sure to list the organization's problems and explain why and how you can help them solve them.

Also, question yourself about the consequences of inaction in the face of their problem. In this sense, you can fuel your discussions with testimonials from companies that remained inactive and are now paying the consequences.

Remember to remain concrete with quantified information: consequences on revenue, brand image, or production delays caused.

Finally, be sure to verify that the prospect knows your solutions and that they are convinced by your ability to help them.

Champion: The Prescriber

The "Champion," or prescriber in English, is your ally. This is a key figure for your sale.

They have the ability to "evangelize" your product or service within the company.

Often, the champion is the individual most affected by the problem you are going to solve. This explains their strong involvement. Note: they are not necessarily a decision-making buyer, but they are respected in their area of expertise.

The champion believes in you to help them modify their company or introduce a new tool. They are generally very transparent about the company's organization and will potentially put you in contact with the right people.

So, go find them! Observe their interests but also the questions they ask themselves. You can provide them with documents to feed their curiosity or call a meeting to clarify a point.

So, are you able to fill out this analysis grid for each of your leads? No? In that case, you know what you have left to do!  

MEDDPICC: An Evolution of MEDDIC

MEDDPICC: What Exactly Changes?

MEDDPICC is a B2B sales qualification technique that consists of the same criteria as MEDDIC, namely:  

• M as Metrics  

• E as Economic Buyer  

• D as Decision Criteria  

• D as Decision Process  

• I as Identify Pain  

• C as Champion  

But the difference lies in the addition of two additional steps:  

• P as Paper Process (or Signing Process in English): This is a very important element for managing your sales process. Indeed, between the validation of the offer and the signing of the contract, a lot of time and complications can sometimes elapse.

• C as Competition: This involves identifying the company's competitors and the elements that make it a competitor in this market.

This checklist will allow you to know if you have all the necessary information, the actions you need to take, and to know the different stakeholders you need to work with.

MEDDPICC and the Paper Process Step

Between the moment your prospect says "the offer is validated" and the moment the contract is truly signed, there's a whole universe. The sales validation process can be very complex, especially if it involves complex products.

The signing process concerns all actions and elements put in place before the sale is officially concluded. This is important information to know and implement if you want to avoid problems related to legal and purchasing departments.

For example, you can discuss the terms and conditions regarding the overall price or the general terms of sale. Your goal is to secure the signing of your contracts by planning in advance how it will unfold.

You must take into account potential objections, the people involved in the signing act, the documents necessary for negotiation, the imposed conditions, etc. In short, everything that could harm the contractualization.

The Paper process is a sensitive element of the MEDDPICC method, especially in complex markets where the legal aspect is very important.

MEDDPICC and the Competition Step

Competition, or rather "concurrence" in good French, is one of the components of MEDDPICC that should never be neglected or underestimated when it comes to closing a sale. Even if your prospect guarantees you that they won't look elsewhere, nothing assures you that they won't compare your offer with other solutions.

In any case, you don't want to discover that you were in competition with other companies once the sale is lost. You must therefore consider all possibilities, know if your prospect intends to use another company, and determine how competing offers can surpass yours!

You must know your strengths and weaknesses compared to those of competitors, and know how to take advantage of them without putting down the competition – that's not fair play and it brings you nothing. The goal is to highlight your expertise, prove to your prospect that you are the expert they need!  

MEDDIC: The Limitations of This Method

MEDDIC, a Seller-Centric Method

MEDDIC is certainly an interesting method because it is simple to use. It allows for a well-defined list of necessary elements to retrieve for a successful sale. But it remains too seller-centric.

Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Paper Process, etc. – these are all qualification criteria that allow the seller to qualify their opportunities. The problem is that selling is not just about filling out criteria. It is much more than that, and there are so many elements to take into consideration.

MEDDIC, or MEDDPICC, are methods that will not help you effectively structure your sales process, choose your arguments, or even increase their impact. Furthermore, selling is not a one-way relationship; qualifying the prospect is good, but you must also know how to qualify yourself for the buyer.

MEDDIC, Too Far from the Reality on the Ground?

MEDDIC is a method that is popular for its ability to structure your CRM. Or rather, the reports in your CRM, with each meeting allowing you to fill in the different boxes.

But it is a technique that is too far from the field. Indeed, with MEDDIC, you know what information you need, what you need to collect to structure your sales process and achieve your objectives.

However, you don't really know how to obtain this information. You don't know what questions to ask to structure your process. For this, you would need information on the typology of your prospects, analyze your clients' behaviors, and understand how to capture their interest. Moreover, MEDDIC will not help you know what to do with this information either.

MEDDIC Does Not Allow for Structuring Your Sales Process

As mentioned previously, it is difficult to structure your sales process with MEDDPICC. Indeed, how are we supposed to know when to ask for the information requested by MEDDPICC? At the beginning, throughout the interview, at the end?

Can we talk about obstacles and problems before questioning the decision criteria? If the Paper Process step comes before the Decision Process step, do we take the opportunity to address the subject, or is it better to wait?

In short, you don't know how to proceed, and this can harm your process, even missing the final objective: selling. Because without structure, you will quickly get lost and lose your prospect at the same time.

That's why, although it is simple to understand, MEDDPICC must rely on other methods, such as SONCAS or Q2C selling.

And to accompany your reflection, do not hesitate to consult our MEDDPICC checklist: