If you’re in the business of sales, you’ve likely heard of MEDDIC. But maybe you’re unsure of the finer details or want to brush up on your knowledge.
In this guide, we’ll explain what the MEDDIC sales methodology is (including its two successors, MEDDICC and MEDDPICC), the pros and cons of the method, and how you can implement it into your team’s sales process.
The MEDDIC sales methodology is a process used by sales reps to qualify prospects and decide whether or not a lead is worth pursuing. The acronym MEDDIC stands for:
Metrics
Economic Buyer
Decision Criteria
Decision Process
Identify Pain
Champion
MEDDIC was created in the 90s by Jack Napoli and Dick Dunkel, who were both working at Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC) at the time. The methodology played a crucial role in PTC’s growth and set a new standard for sales qualification that has since been adopted by organizations worldwide.
It’s a time-tested process prevalent in the B2B space that provides a framework for new sales representatives to accurately qualify new leads.
In the years following its creation, the MEDDIC process has seen two upgraded formulas, namely the MEDDICC and MEDDPICC, which we’ll cover in more detail later in this post.
Key components of the MEDDIC sales methodology
The MEDDIC process includes six major components for sales qualification. You can treat these as a mental checklist for questions to filter your prospects. Knowing the answers to these questions allows you to form a tailor-made pitch for qualified potential buyers.
The six core components of MEDDIC are Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, and Champion. Definitions and examples of each follow in the table below.
The MEDDIC methodology
Component
Doel
Example Questions
Metric
Find out—in quantifiable terms—what your customer hopes to achieve from your solution. This will help you describe the tangible economic benefits of your product or service.
What is your current business goal? Which key performance indicators (KPIs) are you using to measure this goal?
Economic Buyer
Learn who makes the buying decisions in the company. Do your best to talk to this person directly. If that’s not possible, try to find out from your contact about this person’s expectations, personal metrics, and decision-making process.
Who makes the buying decisions in your company? How can we best engage [the Economic Buyer] to address their priorities?
Decision Criteria
Find out what criteria the company and buyer use when making decisions. Use their answer to tailor your messaging.
What are the most important factors you consider when making a purchasing decision? Do you have the budget for this type of product/service?
Decision Process
Discover the company’s decision-making process, including how decisions are made and typical timelines. This lets you know exactly what to expect in the sales process, and you’re less likely to lose a sale due to stagnation.
Could you walk me through your decision-making process?What’s your typical timeline for making a purchase decision like this?
Identify Pain
Find out how the prospect is suffering without your solution. Try to get as specific as possible when identifying how they’re experiencing their pain.
Could you provide examples of how this problem has affected your operations?What would happen if you were unable to solve this problem?
Champion
Identify an influential individual from within the prospect’s company who supports your solution. This person will champion your solution to help persuade your prospect.
Who will benefit most from our solution? Can this person influence the buying process?
The pros and cons of using the MEDDIC sales methodology
While the MEDDIC method is a time-tested sales qualification framework, it has both advantages as well as disadvantages. It helps to examine both to decide if it’s a methodology you want to use in your business.
The upsides of using the MEDDIC sales process include:
Ease-of-use: This process is simple to understand and simple enough for entry-level sales reps to use.
Collect valuable customer data: If you’re using a CRM in your sales process (which we recommend), then the MEDDIC methodology will help reps collect data they can enter into your CRM. The data you gather will be valuable for reporting and sales forecasts.
Boosts revenue: The framework filters for better quality prospects, which means you will likely get a higher sales rate.
A few reasons why some sales teams may hesitate about using the MEDDIC process include:
Time-consuming: The number of qualification questions required in this process means that your reps will spend more time talking to prospects, some of which may not lead to a sale.
Requires extensive note-taking: Since this method requires reps to ask many detailed questions and log the answers they receive, you need to make sure that you have a reliable platform, like a CRM, to keep track of your prospect notes and documentation.
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How does the MEDDIC method compare to its successors?
Since its inception, MEDDIC has seen two prominent modified methods—namely MEDDPIC and MEDDIPIC.
Here’s how these two stack up against the original sales recipe.
MEDDIC vs MEDDICC
MEDDICC uses the same components as the original MEDDIC method but adds one more ingredient: “competition,” represented by the extra C at the end of the acronym.
Competition as a component requires reps to research competing products to formulate a competitive edge that makes your solution stand out from the crowd.
Therefore, the components of MEDDICC are: Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, Champion, and Competition.
You may favor this method over MEDDIC in cases where your competitors have a similar solution or product on the market.
MEDDIC vs MEDDPICC
MEDDPICC builds on the framework of MEDDICC, which builds on the original MEDDIC. The extra ingredient in MEDDPICC is “Paper Process” (represented by the letter P).
This Paper Process helps you learn more about the company’s inner workings, including legalities and compliance or regulation requirements. Things that generally require extra paperwork in the decision-making and buying process.
The components of MEDDPICC: Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Paper Process, Identify Pain, Champion, and Competition.
The MEDDPICC process is a good option for qualifying prospects with more complex needs, including compliance, approved vendor lists, and bureaucratic contract processes.
Is the MEDDIC sales process right for you?
The MEDDIC process is an easy-to-understand qualification process that can be used in most industries. It most benefits companies in the B2B space.
However, this process doesn’t fit all sales scenarios. If you sell low-ticket items or have a high churn rate, this process may use too many resources to give you a high ROI on your sales rep budget.
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How to implement the MEDDIC framework for your team
The MEDDIC framework is simple to follow for your sales team. That’s the central selling point of the methodology – it’s easy to follow and use for your sales qualification process.
Some things to keep in mind before your sales team implements the process:
Be ready to make a significant time investment. MEDDIC is a time-consuming process, so you’ll talk to fewer prospects, but the ones that go through your pipeline will be better qualified and more likely to buy.
Choose the methodology that works for you. Evaluate whether you can generate a profit with the original MEDDIC method or if your business and sales model requires extra steps outlined in the MEDDICC or MEDDPICC methodologies.
Do extensive research to create a comprehensive buyer persona (or personas). MEDDIC requires a deeper understanding of your buyer so that you know which questions to ask during the MEDDIC process.
Here are five core steps to follow when implementing the MEDDIC sales methodology in your current sales process.
1. Learn more about your buyers
Before trying to implement the MEDDIC methodology in your sales process, you need to have a solid understanding of your ideal prospects—the buyer persona for your product.
The personas should be updated and refined during the MEDDIC training. Knowing your ideal client’s roles, challenges, and aspirations will help your team identify and engage effectively with the right prospects and economic buyers.
2. Understand common sales objections and how to respond
Understand that as your sales reps get deep and learn more about their prospects through the MEDDIC questions, the conversation won’t be all one-sided.
Your prospect will be curious about your solution, and the qualification process will be two-sided. As you assess whether they’re a qualified buyer, they will test to determine whether you’re the best solution.
Luckily, if you’ve sold your solution before, you have data on your most common objections (every buyer has objections before making a buying decision, after all). Interview your reps or customers to gather the objection types you most received.
Have this list ready—along with appropriate objection-handling responses—for your reps to use as they approach their prospect conversations using MEDDIC.
3. Refine your sales qualification criteria
Map your current sales qualification process against the MEDDIC framework to identify gaps and areas for improvement. This will help you formulate the right questions and listen for answers that correspond with your ideal customer persona.
Having a clear understanding of the criteria you want prospects to meet will help your sales reps understand the purpose of each question they ask in the MEDDIC framework and modify where necessary.
4. Create a standardized MEDDIC sales template
Map out your sales process using the MEDDIC framework to create a template your sales reps can follow when talking with prospects. Prepare for your initial template to go through many changes as you test it on real prospects. You’ll learn and refine as you go.
5. Use a CRM to make the MEDDIC process simpler
Implementing a new sales process can be overwhelming for your sales team, especially if they’re not used to all the data entry, call logging, and note-taking that the MEDDIC system requires to be effective. A good CRM can help you facilitate the adoption of the MEDDIC with useful features such as:
Sales automation: Design a customized sales process corresponding to the MEDDIC methodology and automate “non-selling” activities, such as lead scoring, lead advancement, and timely personalized follow-up emails.
Call recording and Zoom transcription summaries: MEDDIC requires plenty of calls and video meetings when done remotely. Call recording ensures you never miss a word. And with the power of AI, you could summarize lengthy Zoom recordings to quickly catch team members up on new data and prospect developments.
Hand-free voice notes: A tool like Notetaker simplifies the drudgery of taking all the notes MEDDIC requires. The accurate AI-powered transcription will allow them to save time adding notes on new MEDDIC findings they may discover.
The sales process your team follows is an essential ingredient in the success of your business. After all, every sale made and contract signed means you earn more revenue. That’s why it’s crucial to support your sales team with an effective, repeatable process – and a CRM to support it.
With Nutshell, you can maximize your MEDDIC sales process with intuitive sales automation, simplified contact management, and the power of artificial intelligence.
Discover how Nutshell can enhance your sales process – whether you go MEDDIC, MEDDICC, MEDDPICC, or otherwise – by signing up for a 14-day free trial today. Or contact our team to discuss your needs and learn more about how Nutshell can streamline your sales process.
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