If you are stuck at sales, don’t beat yourself up. Enter the MEDDIC sales process, it is a solid sales formula to filter out bad leads so you can make sales to those who actually need to buy something, and this is how it works. Meddic stands for metrics, economic buyer, decision criteria, decision process, identify pain, and champion.
MEDDIC is a methodology for B2B sales lead qualification. MEDDIC is designed to increase sales from the sales pipeline and convert leads into customers with the highest possible numbers. Let’s break down the MEDDIC sales qualification process in the discussion below.
What is the Meddic Sales Process?
In easy words, MEDDIC is a six step sales process to weed out shitty prospects and encounter hot leads for better success rate, just like those you will find in our detailed lead generation glossary. Jack Napoli nad Dick Dunkel at PTC first used MEDDIC methods in 1990s which revolutionized the B2B sales industry.
Did you know? The MEDDIC method made them increase sales from 300 million USD to 1 billion USD in only four years. This powerful approach not only demonstrates its effectiveness but also serves as an inspiring blueprint for sustainable sales growth. Let’s go through those steps in a nutshell.
- Metrics
- Economic Buyer
- Decision Criteria
- Decision Process
- Identify Pain
- Champion
Low sales do not raise a question about your salesmanship or your pitch; maybe it’s where you are trying to sell that is wrong with people. The MEDDIC sales process or the above criteria give you the right prospects in the right way, making it easier to make sales.
Key Components of the MEDDIC Sales Methodology
There are six key components in MEDDIC sales methodology, but some people add an extra C(competitor ) and some people add an extra P(paper process) to make it work more efficiently and make it stand MEDDICC and MEDDPICC. Let’s take out every meaning and its workflow of the MEDDIC sales qualification process.
Metrics
Metric is a solid gain that customers can expect from your business. The first letter of MEDDIC represents metric. At the beginning, what a customer desires to gain from your solution is. Does your solution have a better return on investment, and are you providing something better at a lower price?
Let’s take an example, a company wants to launch their product with a 10% cost reduction and saving 20% time, then if they invest in you, are they getting through the clear thought of getting ROI? This is the main concept of metric.
Economic Buyer
At this stage, if your prospect has no power to make a decision on making a purchase, then try to find out who the decision maker is. Is it the boss of whom you are talking, the boss of the bosses? Find out about this issue and talk to the decision maker who can flex the budget or has the authority to change the budget. Now find as much information as possible, because the more you know about the decision maker, the easier it is to tie in the economic benefits of your solution.
Decision Criteria
Buying decision criteria can be compared with a checklist for your potential customers. There are some needs or specific matters that should be met with your service or products. In easy words, whether the customer is looking for a solution that matches your service features, compatibility, assistance, pricing, etc., those are the criteria that help customers to make a decision whether they are going to buy something from you or not. Let’s break down those decision criteria in a list below.
- Features
- Compatibility
- Quality
- Pricing
- Return on investment
- After-sales service
Decision criteria are the thoughts of a buyer, what they think about before taking the final decision to buy or make a purchase from you.
Decision Process
The decision process determines the steps the economic buyer takes to approve the buying decision of your offering service solution or product. It takes approval from multiple stakeholders, including the legal procurement team. Let’s look at a sample overview of how you can increase engagement during the decision process.
If your prospect says I need to talk with my sales team to check the sales cycle or some other department as well, then don’t just let them. You can say, âGreat, how do you schedule your meeting or email them for approval? What does the process look like? How long does it take, like 3 days or a week?â Keep the prospect talking to move them to your sales funnel.
Identify Pain
Identifying pain points of your potential customers is a smart move that can keep you ahead in the race. Analyse what problems running on your prospect’s business is, what kind of problems they are facing, or what kind of solution they are seeking. Those are the pain points that open the gate for your entry and offer them a solution.
While in the conversation, you can probe your prospect (Example: What are the main problems or bottlenecks you are experiencing? How is this affecting the business?â) to make them tell and push your solution into their mind, which makes them take a decision to buy your service.
Champion
Someone from your prospect’s company who played a vital role in making the purchase is the champion. Your champion is not someone who has to be from the managerial department or someone who has a high-ranking post in the respective company. It can be a simple, lazy employee who silently pushes the company and creates a need for the solution you sold.
You identify your champion by asking: Do you have someone in your organization who believes in our solution and has the ability to advocate for it? We would love to hear any feedback about how we can improve our business case as well.
Competitor (Component of MEDDICC & MEDDPICC)
Competitor is a component of the MEDDIC and MEDDPICC sales qualification framework, which increases the efficiency of sales qualification. While having a conversation with a prospect, you can highlight their competitors and how they are generating more revenue, and what left your prospect behind. Comparison shows some distinctions that influence your potential customer effectively and increase their interest in knowing more about your solution.
Paperwork (Component of MEDDPICC)
Paperwork involves understanding the administrative and legal steps needed to complete a purchase, such as contract reviews, approvals, and other essential documentation. Paperwork ensures the sales team is aware of proactiveness and the required steps to take, and avoids the last-minute surprise.
How to Implement the MEDDIC Sales Process?
If you have a customer-centric approach to sales, then MEDDIC can be a better option for adopting a sales framework. Vince Lombardi (He is known as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers during the 1960s) said, âPractice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.â
This statement hits differently for those who want to master the sales art. Let’s walk through the implementation of the MEDDIC sales process, which can enhance your sales process of the MEDDIC strategy if you add some extra ketchup to it, which is given below in brief points.
- Get to know your buyer personas better!
- Customize the MEDDIC approach to fit your unique sales process.
- Address any objections early on to create a smoother experience.
- Take a moment to evaluate and make adjustments as needed!
If you implement your MEDDIC sales qualification process according to the above discussion, there is a maximum possibility of getting a better result in the short term.
The Benefits of Integrating MEDDIC Into Your Sales Processes
MEDDIC is a powerful tool for a longer sales cycle for your business to adopt. It has a lot of examples that benefited from adopting the MEDDIC sales strategy into their sales funnel.
Aims for high-quality leads: MEDDIC sales qualification strategy lets you put zero effort to close a deal successfully, if it fits the criteria. MEDDIC processes weeds out all shitty leads and hands you over high-quality leads.
Customize solutions based on customer requirements: MEDDIC leads filtering methods help you understand the customer’s pain points and what kind of solution they want, which allows you to personalize your solution for potential prospects that fits them for the best result.
Align with the buyerâs journey: Grasping the buyerâs decision-making process is essential to MEDDIC. Recognizing this from the start facilitates a more streamlined buying experience and reduces miscommunications.
Conclusion
If your potential customer has a big business, an enormous amount of leads, and a smooth sales process, then MEDDIC will consume extra time and labor. It may not be suitable for high-velocity sales or simpler sales processes because of its complexity and time-intensive infestation. It may sometimes make you feel inflexible, and it requires creativity and subtle customer handling knowledge.
So before you make a decision, analyze your business, and if it fits, then it can be most effective for smoothing your sales. Even if you need more qualified leads that have a maximum chance of closing deals, you can take a lead generation service from CallingAgency, which has vast industry knowledge and expertise.