MEDDIC sales methodology

How long does it take you to qualify potential customers? Have you ever wondered how many more prospects you could get if you didn’t waste time on unqualified leads and tire kickers? The MEDDIC sales process is what you need to identify quality leads and close more deals.

MEDDIC definition 

MEDDIC is an effective lead qualification methodology broadly used by sales teams to drive sales growth. 

It was developed by Jack Napoli and Dick Dunkel at the technology company PTC in the 1990s. With this methodology, their sales more than tripled, from $300 million to $1 billion in just 4 years. Nowadays, MEDDIC is one of the most effective sales qualification methodologies used by startups and major enterprises such as EMC, RSA, BMC, and others.

The MEDDIC sales process aims to collect information about prospects to determine the likelihood that they will become paying customers. 

This allows sales reps to focus on prospective customers most likely to convert, avoid ending up with dead-end leads and develop customized solutions.

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

Let’s take a closer look and define the 6 elements to qualify customers in the MEDDIC sales process:

• Metrics: quantifiable benefits your product/service can provide.
• Economic Buyer: the person responsible for making the buying decision.
• Decision Criteria: the criteria the prospect’s company uses to make the buying decision and choose your product/service over others.
• Decision Process: the series of steps defined by the prospect’s company that lead to the approval of your product/service purchase.
• Identify Pain: prospect’s needs or pain points that your product/service can solve. 
• Champion: an influential person who has credibility within the buying organization and can advocate for your solution.

MEDDIC sales process questions

Here are the questions to ask when using MEDDIC sales methodology:

Metrics

It’s crucial to define how the prospect will measure the success of your product/service implementation. Understanding the prospects’ goals will help you determine the possible ROI of working with you and offer customized solutions to their problems. 

• What goals do you need to achieve?
• Which metrics do you expect to accomplish?
• How will you measure success?
• What is your average order value?
• What is your growth target?

Economic Buyer

It’s important to understand who you are talking to — an economic buyer or their representative who does not decide on the deal. Your task here is to find the person who controls the company budget. 

If possible, speak directly with them about their expectations, metrics, and decision-making process. Otherwise, get the info about the economic buyer from your contact. 

The answers to these questions will let you know if you are connected with the right person and what their attitude to closing sales is. 

• Are you funding this project?
• What is your role in the decision-making process?
• Who else is involved in making the final buying decision? What are they likely to say?

Decision Criteria

You should be aware of the criteria the business uses when making decisions. Usually, companies consider a variety of solutions and then choose the best fit by weighing and comparing all the existing options. 

The decision-making criteria can vary for each company, but usually, there are a few key factors to consider, such as pricing, ease of use, integration opportunities, features, customer support quality, industry reputation, onboarding assistance, and much much more.

This step allows you to demonstrate that you can comply with all the criteria, adjust the offer, and prove there’s no reason to refuse the sale.

• What are the most critical factors to consider when making a decision?
• How do you calculate the ROI for this project to justify the investment?
• How might you justify this purchase?

Decision Process

Once you know the decision criteria, it’s time to explore the decision-making process of your prospects to tailor the sales process to their expectations.

Learn the process steps, who is involved in it, what paperwork is needed, and what approval procedures will be necessary to get closer to the goal. If you understand the decision-making process, you can fulfill those requirements and complete the deal.

As the average B2B sales process can take several months, your objective is to suggest the following steps to speed it up.

• What steps does the company take to make a final decision? 
• Who is involved in this process? 
• What is the process of making a financial decision?
• How does the process change based on the amount of money at stake? 
• What can we do to make everything go smoothly?

Identify Pain

You may have heard the phrase “No pain, no sale,” which can’t be untrue. If there’s no pain prospects are facing, you’re just killing your time trying to sell to them. 

Potential customers often don’t understand their pain points until you start diving deeper into their challenges. Your task here is to ask questions that will trigger prospects to start identifying their struggles themselves so that you can use them to position your product/service in the best place.

• Could you share with me your company’s current challenges?
• How does a problem affect your business and profits?
• What solution do you have now, and what do you like about it?
• If you could change only one thing in your current solution, what would it be? 
• What will happen if you do nothing? How will it impact your business?

Champion

The last element of the MEDDIC sales process presupposes finding a respected person at your buying company who will benefit the most from your solution and advocate for you to the economic buyer and other decision-makers.

• Who can help me sell my product/service within your company? 
• What is this person’s interest in our product/service?
• What does this person have to gain?
• Can this person influence decision-makers?
• Can they explain your solution’s benefits to the company?

Check our blog article for more sales qualifying questions to ask prospects.

Follow the above-mentioned questions to add some structure to your sales process and move prospects who aren’t interested in your product/service to the point they are willing to buy the solution you provide.

Learn more about how to qualify leads in our step-by-step Snov.io guide. 

Wrapping it up

MEDDIC is one of the sales qualification methodologies that include particular sales qualifying questions that make it easier to decide if the prospects will become your customers. By analyzing every stage of the sales process, MEDDIC helps predict sales more accurately and close more deals.