The elements
- Metrics — the measurable outcome the customer wants to achieve.
- Economic buyer — who has the final say on budget.
- Decision criteria — what the offers will be compared on.
- Decision process — who decides, in what order, on what timeline.
- Pain — the problem that makes the purchase necessary, and what it costs.
- Champion — the internal person who wants your solution and has the influence to back it.
- Paper process (MEDDPICC) — contracts, legal, procurement, signatures: what it takes to get to the order.
- Competition (MEDDPICC) — who you’re up against, including “do nothing.”
How to use it
For each element ask yourself: what do I know for certain, what am I assuming, what do I not know. The gaps aren’t a failure: they’re the questions to ask, and whom to ask. A deal with many gaps isn’t lost, but it isn’t qualified yet: investing a lot of time in it is a risk.
An example. A component manufacturer wants to get in as a second supplier to a distributor. It knows the pain (defects in the private-label products), assumes the metrics (returns and complaints), and doesn’t know who the economic buyer is or what the approval process looks like. The honest verdict: keep qualifying before preparing an offer.
The most common mistakes
- Filling it in to pad the pipeline. An optimistic MEDDIC is worse than no MEDDIC.
- Mistaking an enthusiastic contact for a champion. A champion has influence, not just goodwill.
- Ignoring the paper process. Many “closed” deals stall in procurement or legal.
- Forgetting the status quo among the competitors.
