With an economy as fluid and dynamic as today’s, sales teams around the world are feeling the crunch to upskill their sales reps and grow revenue. Countless frameworks and strategies exist alongside hundreds of books, PDFs, and webinars. But if there is a Goldilocks B2B framework out there that can actually deliver results, the MEDDPICC sales method may be it.
Table of Contents:
What is MEDDPICC?
More than just a string of random letters, MEDDPICC is a B2B sales methodology that standardizes how sales reps should approach each stage of a sales cycle. MEDDPICC stands for ‘Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Paper process, Implications of pain, Champion, and Competition‘.
Obviously a complicated concept to grasp at first, but one which we’ll break down further in a moment.
Originating from the MEDDIC process created in the 90’s by venerated sales leaders Jack Napoli, John McMahon, and Dave Dunkel, MEDDPICC is a further refinement of its predecessor.
There’s plenty of alternatives to MEDDPICC, such as MEDPICC, MEDPIC, and the aforementioned MEDDIC, but today we’re focusing on what we feel is most effective for guiding B2B prospects through a sales funnel and converting them. As you’ll see, MEDDPICC is the most comprehensive out of every alternative.
MEDDPICC is best understood as a series of questions you need answered about a B2B prospect. Let’s dive right into what those questions are:
To put it more simply, MEDDPICC outlines how sales reps should think about guiding a B2B prospect to closing a deal. It addresses three fundamental aspects of sales discovery towards what makes deals happen.
- What do you need to know about a B2B prospect?
- What are the relationships you need to cultivate?
- What actionable tasks do you need to carry out?
With a system as comprehensive as this, it’s no wonder why MEDDPICC is so popular. Let’s dive deeper into what exactly MEDDPICC accomplishes that makes it such a powerful framework.
Why Use MEDDPICC?
It’s simple: using a sales framework to handle all the contingencies that arise during an inbound or outbound sales cycle maximizes opportunities to convert and minimizes objections that cause churn. Implementing a sales strategy like MEDDPICC ensures that leads are being qualified correctly and that every stage they enter in a funnel is accounted for and handled gracefully. Here’s how:
- MEDDPICC helps you collect valuable data. It outlines hard, actionable numbers that you need to get from prospects in order to move them along the sales pipeline.
- That data helps you better identify and qualify leads. You can use your data to assess potential buyers from potential sinkers. This saves SDRs or BDRs and other sales reps hundreds of hours over the course of a fiscal year.
- MEDDPICC establishes accountability. After implementing MEDDPICC, it won’t be long before you ascertain the underperformers in your sales process. Using MEDDPICC will help iron out kinks in the chain by standardizing the process and assigning accountability. This also minimizes micromanagement, much to many sales rep’s delight.
- MEDDPICC helps you spot strengths and weaknesses in your sales funnel. You may find that some stages work more smoothly than others. You might receive feedback from a prospect that they enjoyed speaking with X sales rep over Y. Using MEDDPICC allows for maximum system auditing to ensure you and your sales team are operating at full potential.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Using MEDDPICC
1. Metrics - Finding out why they should purchase
Lesser sales reps will rattle off generic bullet points about what makes their product great. A MEDDPICC trained sales rep finds out a prospect's goals and has hard numbers to show the economic benefits of making a purchase.
Specificity is key here. Ask many questions in discovery and offer lots of raw, bold numbers that support your pitch. Rehearse and refine pitching these numbers to make sure they’re digestible and understandable.
2. Economic Buyer - Finding the key decision makers
There may be no worse response to receive from an outbound prospect other than, “I need to talk to my supervisor to okay this.” This stage is all about pinpointing the key decision makers at a company that you need to ultimately sell to.
Put on your sleuthing hat and do a little digging on LinkedIn or a website that shows a company’s firmographic data. Reach out to your prospect and ask questions about the internal structure of the company. This is critical as to avoid setbacks later on in the process.
3. Decision Criteria - Finding out what drives decisions
Now that you’ve found the key decision maker, interrogate what they are going to base their decision on. This is crucial for lead qualification. If there are potential roadblocks to finalizing a purchase, this is time to investigate.
Ask about other purchases made in the past. Ask about what was successful about those purchases and how they could be improved upon.
4. Decision Process - Finding out how decisions are made
You now have to dive even deeper into the nitty gritty. With B2B sales, a purchase decision has financial, technical, and legal ramifications. Your product needs to satisfy all three and then some. Find out what those are and only proceed after you’re certain there will be no issues.
5. Paper Process - Finding out how long it takes for decisions to become formalized
You’ve cleared a lot of formality hurdles, but there’s a big one left: “How long do purchases usually take at your company?” Knowing this info is imperative for managing your sales funnel effectively.
Find out what paperwork needs to get completed and what level of priority your deal is ranked as. As a sales rep, you don’t want to miss windows of opportunity to close a deal, so make sure you and your prospect are aligned on timeline.
6. Implications of Pain - Find out what pain points you are trying to solve
Now that many of the formalities have been handled, you can ramp up your selling prowess. This is the stage where you tackle a prospect’s pain points that your product is trying to solve.
Figure out what problems a prospect is facing. Is it slow production, poor headcount, revenue loss? How does your product address these? Have real, tangible solutions to these problems at the ready. The more specific, the better.
7. Champion - Finding a person of influence in an org that will recommend you
This is the stage where you find an internal liaison that will champion your product. The goal of this stage is to not only find somebody that will advocate for you and your product, it's to get you in the room with the right people.
Sort contacts within an org by department and rank the employees by hierarchy. Don’t reach out to the top most contact just yet. Instead, search for who would be most directly impacted by this purchase, send out a friendly invite to discuss their perspective, and, if the champion is on board, ask if they would be willing to assist in getting this deal done.
8. Competition - Find out what separates you from the competition
You’re not the only game in town. There are others doing what you do, maybe for cheaper, or with other proprietary features. So, what makes yours stand out?
A great tactic to navigate this stage is to really zero in on what is best for the company. Let’s say a competitor is cheaper. Demonstrate how saving money in the short run will cost more in the long run. Maybe another product in the space offers more features. Are those features necessary to accomplish the prospect’s goals? Will those additional features upend a prospect’s current tech stack?
This stage really ties everything together in a nice bow. It demonstrates to the prospect that you’ve assessed all the raw numbers, understand their goals, and the pain points. This is the stage to bring it home and score a win.
Not all sales methods are created equally. Many over promise and under deliver. MEDDPICC, on the other hand, has shown real, tangible results, sometimes equating to 25% or even higher increases in conversion rates. If you can upskill your team and have resources at the ready, MEDDPICC is a fantastic tool to supercharge your sales funnel.
