Force Management - worth it?

G'day folks,

I'm considering a few new opportunities and the hiring manager at one of the companies said they're investing in Force Management training this year. I've yet to confirm exactly when this is to take place, but, I wanted to know from the community - have you been through the training and do you believe it helped you sell more?

For context, I've about 3 years closing experience and like the idea of getting some formal sales training but want to ensure I'm not just buying into the hype.

Additionally, the OTE (with the training) is lower than other options (£30-40k) so want to know whether the trade off is worth the training.

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25 comments

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braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Force management is excellent! I've been through their training at 2 separate companies. Best sales training I've ever been a part of.

***However***, it's not worth that big an OTE cut.

Just listen to the "Audible Ready" podcast and read "The Qualified Sales Leader". They'll cover the 2 biggest tenants of Force Management: Command of the Message & MEDDICC

dadasaurus

Opinionated

Enterprise Account Executive

MEDDIC is now MEDDPICC. Just thought I'd throw that in.

EQSales

Opinionated

VP of Sales

depends on what company you go to. John McMahon introduced the "P" for partner during his time at BMC software. some of the leaders in his coaching tree took that with them, others have removed the "partner" esp at companies with low channel presence

EQSales

Opinionated

VP of Sales

what braintank said

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

I've never taken this training myself, but can assure you that no sales training is worth 30-40k. If you have comparable offers on the table with a higher OTE and the only reason you're considering this one is the included sales training, take one of the other offers.

dadasaurus

Opinionated

Enterprise Account Executive

I don't think I'd pay for the training myself, but it is solid stuff (especially with the MEDDPICC stuff now). The Force Management stuff isn't' all about MEDDPICC though. Its really two distinct pieces:
1. Command of the Message (CoM) - about questioning and positioning and getting the information you need to qualify a prospect/opportunity
2. Command of the Sale (CoS) - once you understand the customers required capabilitiies, current state and future state they are trying to get to (that's CoM), then its GAME ON. Closing will be a matter of executing on Command of the Sale (Cos) and MEDDPICC (or MEDDIC as it used to be) is merely a way of understanding where your risks are or how much risk there is in that opportunity closing. Each letter stands for something, the transactional sale includes just a few of them that need to be known, ie. E for Economic Buyer, the person who can move around resources to dedicate them to your sale/project whatever, I is for identified pain (you need to know the problem/pain that you solve), etc.
Bottom line here: the more gaps you have in the MEDDPICC the more your deal is at risk, which totally makes sense. By the time you know all of the info for each letter, there should be little to no risk in closing.... in fact it should already be closed when you have it all. I would use it when coaching my AE's because it would help them understand if it was truly closable when they believe it is. If they have a lot of gaps, I know its highly at risk -- again, understanding that transactional deals you will only need to know EiC for the most part (C being the competition and keep in mind that your competition CAN often be for the customer to "do nothing". )

So it drives me a little nuts when I hear people talk about MEDDIC or MEDDPICC like its as a sales methodology. It isn't. Hope this helps anyone who was wondering what the hell this MEDDIC thing is... FM teaches it as MEDDPICC now (which I think makes much more sense, because the P for paper process is SUPER important.... who has to sign and where are they? Do you know if they're on holiday, work in the country? Do they need a nod from someone to sign? )

techsales

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Agreed with your last paragraph. MEDDIC or MEDDPICC I consider a deal qualification framework, not a sales methodology.

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Agreed, very well said!

techsales

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

I worked at a company who actually hired someone from Force and then used their training during our kick off. Did it help me sell more? No. You can learn just as much reading Gap Selling.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

This made me LOL 🤣

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

(1) Never heard of Force Management sales training till today
(2) That's a very large trade off on OTE compared to just reading a book about it
(3) Most sales training is VERY similar - different shades of the same color. A lot of sales training is driven by charismatic trainers calling on desperate sales leaders. You can do quite well reading a few books, listen to a few podcasts, and putting your own thing together.

Jewcan_Sam81

Politicker

Account Executive

So I'd never heard of this until now, and i just looked up Force Management. This is like those DARE presentations when i was in high school. Has anyone taken one of these courses and ACTUALLY come out the other side a better rep and not just bored/behind on emails & prospecting?

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Yes. They do a lot of work to customize it specifically to your business. It definitely helped the orgs I was part of.

Blackwargreymon

Politicker

MDR

I've never taken this training myself, but can assure you that no sales training is worth 30-40k.

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

Force Management offers strong training, however there was a great article about how MEDDIC isn't truly the most viable solution, decisions aren't made up a tree anymore they're made as a group and MEDDIC needs to be updated to support that. I wouldn't say the training is worth a £30k cut especially since you can get a lot of the force management training through their website for free...

pumpkin19

Opinionated

I'd think of Force Management more as executive sales consultants than training. It's a good signal that the company wants to create a system/framework for HOW to sell the product. In contrast, some companies preach sales process/training, but they ultimately can't repeatedly explain WHY deals close. FM helps you map this out in customer terminology so that it's easier to learn the HOW for that specific/product company. Overall, I would take a company using it as a great signal that they are looking to scale and create a repeatable sales process that sellers can execute on.

E_Money

Big Shot

💰

Unless this is some sort of dream job I wouldn't take an OTE cut. Just a general rule of thumb for me. If they aren't willing to invest in you and meet you where you are then there are probably more red/yellow flags that will pop up once you're their employee

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