Qualifying prospects is an integral step of every sales process. However, spending too much time on just this step might not be the most productive use of your reps' time. This is where a sales methodology like MEDDIC helps.
What is the MEDDIC Sales Process?
The MEDDIC sales process is based on a simple and universal concept -
“Your conversion will multiply if your reps target qualified prospects.”
MEDDIC takes care of the qualification part in the above formula. It stands for Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Identify pain, and Champion.
The MEDDIC process was devised by John McMahon, Richard Dunkel, and Jack Napoli in the 1990s at PTC (Parametric Technology Corporation). Using MEDDIC, the team was able to identify the right set of customers and boost their sales from $300 million to nearly $1 billion in a span of 4 years!
What sets it apart?
Unlike other sales methodologies(say Sandler Sales Methodology), MEDDIC is extremely easy to implement in your organization. The short acronym makes the framework simple to remember and easy to apply during the actual qualification process.
Also, it is unique in that it completely relies on attaining knowledge about the customer instead of relying on any sales hanky pankies. This makes it a worthwhile investment for your sales team, who gets better and better in qualifying prospects as time passes by.
By using the MEDDIC sales methodology, you also start getting a firm grasp of your ideal customer profile. You’ll instantly know whether a prospect is worth investing your time in or not. This will speed up the entire customer qualification process, and your reps will never hold a sales pipeline with unwinnable prospects anymore.
The six-step MEDDIC qualification process
#1 Metrics
The first step is all about understanding what your prospects expect to get by subscribing or purchasing your product. Importantly, the expectation should be a metric or, in other words, quantifiable. It shouldn’t be something like ‘increase sales’, ‘improve margins,’ or ‘reduce costs’. It should be more like -
Tripling the funnel of qualified leads within 6 months
Reducing the time of onboarding customers by 50% in the upcoming quarter
2X increase in revenue in the next 3 years
When you identify these ‘quantifiable expected results’, your sales reps can speak in a more convincing language(in terms of ROI) to the prospects. They can demonstrate the actual benefits of the product and show how it will genuinely solve a pain point.
#2 Economic Buyer
This is the person who holds the key to the coffers of your target organization. They are the ones who make the final decision whether to buy your product or not. In all probability, they will be someone who is at the top of the hierarchy in that organization.
This makes it very important for you to understand their needs and priorities. You must make sure that they see value in your product; otherwise, they will not go ahead with the sale. You must always try to speak to the economic buyer rather than the one you are presently talking to.
#3 Decision criteria
The next step is to understand how your target company makes decisions about purchasing similar products as yours. There are high chances that your prospect’s company is already comparing multiple vendors based on different parameters. These parameters are your decision criteria.
A myriad of factors fall under the decision criteria, including price, ease of use, integration options, ROI, etc. It is important to find out what those factors are as it will help you tailor your pitch accordingly.
#4 Decision process
This is simply a continuation of the previous step and applicable only if the prospect is evaluating your product for purchase. In this step, you try to understand everything about the company, timeline, and the onboarding process of the prospect to prevent any internal delays.
For instance, your prospect is comparing your solution with your competitors and wants information about possible integration with a third-party tool. You can immediately provide all the necessary information and speed up the decision-making process.
This is the stage where you have to ask the prospect - Is there anything I can do to help you finalize the deal?
#5 Identify Pain
In this step, you identify the actual pain points of the prospects and showcase how your product can solve them. Some of the common pain points include low revenue, too much marketing spending, etc.
While discussing these pain points with the prospect, it is important to be specific and not abstract. Also, talk to them about the consequences of not taking any action to address the pain point. Give them some popular case studies and testimonials from other companies who are suffering because they didn’t take any action.
#6 Champion
The last step is to bond with the champion in your prospect’s organization. The champion is an influencer. They might not be the decision-maker, the economic buyer, or even someone higher up in the hierarchy. Rather they are well-respected in that organization and can influence the decision-makers.
You need to bond with them in such a way that they will recommend your product to everyone in their organization. But take their help only if it is needed. Sometimes talking to too many people on the client’s side simultaneously can backfire. Talk to them only if your deal has become stagnant and you need a push.
Pros and Cons of MEDDIC Sales Process
How to adopt the MEDDIC sales process in your organization?
Implementing a new sales methodology in a workplace is always daunting. There will be definite resistance as everyone has to make that extra effort to learn and adapt to the new process. So make sure to walk through the benefits of this process to all the important stakeholders, including reps and sales managers.
While it may be the reps who identify opportunities, conduct discovery calls, and pitch, it is the managers who direct the entire show. Unless they believe that MEDDIC can be a useful addition to their team, they will not move out of the status quo.
While discussing the new framework with the team, compare and review your existing qualification process and show them how the existing bottlenecks can be addressed using MEDDIC.
Once you have gained support from all the stakeholders, train the reps on how to use MEDDIC in their qualification process. Give particular attention to handing sales objections. Objections like price conflicts, lack of trust, etc., might arise during the MEDDIC qualification process. The team must know how to handle them.
How can Rafiki help?
A key tool that can help in fine-tuning the MEDDIC process in your organization is Rafiki. It does this by -
Metrics - Rafiki can capture key metrics about your calls such as talk-to-listen ratio, interactivity, patience, number of host questions, etc.
Economic Buyer - Rafiki helps you track what topics your reps and decision-makers are talking about using the latest AI technology. It parses the conversations and offers you rich topical insights to help you frame the perfect pitch that can convince the economic buyer.
Decision Criteria - With Rafiki, you can train the reps to handle the decision criteria of your target organization by tracking the ‘Objection’ topic and comparing the metric.
Decision Process - Rafiki can positively impact the decision process and reduce customer churn by tracking and analyzing customer conversations.
Identify Pain - Sales conversation topics can be detected by Rafiki, and snippets can be generated for a quick overview. The pain points can be sent to prospects as a follow-up, and solutions proposed.
To know more about Rafiki and to get a peek into its wonderful AI engine in action, sign up for a free trial now.
