With the digital transformation and changes in the profile of B2B consumers, more and more companies are looking for innovative methods to not only optimize their sales processes, but also make lead qualification more assertive, as is the case with the MEDDIC methodology.
Developed in the 1990s, this method has the main objective of supporting commercial flows and, consequently, facilitating the identification of leads with greater potential for companies, as well as decision-makers, the purchase journey and other strategic information to optimize negotiations.
In this scenario, organizations are able to develop strategies and sales approaches that are totally targeted at the public that has the famous “fit” with their solutions.
This, in turn, generates significant returns not only in the short term, with the increase in closed deals, but also in the long term, with the reduction of churn (customer cancellations) and better quality in deliveries.
Check below all the characteristics of the MEDDIC methodology, how it can help your company and some good practices to implement it.
After all, what is the MEDDIC methodology?
As mentioned, the MEDDIC method emerged in the mid-1990s and was designed and implemented by John McMahon, sales leader at the time, within the Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC).
No wonder they say that “crises create opportunities”, because that’s exactly what happened at PTC. The company was going through a very delicate period, with the massive loss of good sales representatives and the effects of high turnover on low negotiations and lead qualification.
In all this chaos, McMahon saw an opportunity to change the way the sales team identified and related to leads. Basically, John defended that by recognizing who his most qualified partners are, the greater the chances of sales and, consequently, better commercial performance.
This method worked so well for PTC that the company was able to reach more than US$ 10 billion in revenue and surpass a series of internal goals. With such success, the methodology began to be replicated and adopted in several companies around the world.
What are the qualification criteria for the MEDDIC method?
As seen, the core of MEDDIC is precisely the qualification of leads in commercial processes. In turn, each letter of the acronym brings us the criteria used for this:
M – Metrics (metrics)
Any self-respecting sales presentation has information about the results that the solution or service can generate for the prospect, right?
However, in this methodology, these data cannot be standardized. This means that the company in question must find out what the lead wants to achieve by joining this solution.
It is important, however, that this return is quantifiable (metrics) and describes the benefits that your prospect can have with your business.
E – Economic Buyer
This criterion aims to identify who is the main decision maker for closing a sale. That is, he is the one who has the authority to authorize a certain expense, implement a new project and make decisions related to negotiations.
By recognizing who your company is talking to, you can target your sales efforts the right way.
It is possible to understand who this person is both through deeper research about the business and through relationships with other influencers, who can pass on the negotiation.
D – Decision Criteria (decision criteria)
Next, it is necessary to understand how a company makes decisions and what are the criteria involved. Believe me, an organization never receives just one commercial proposal and it may be that your lead, in this case, is also evaluating its competitors.
Therefore, understand what can really make a difference for your prospect and create proposals in this direction. Many companies, for example, consider the simplicity of a solution, ROI, or even the technologies involved and integrations.
D – Decision Process (decision process)
The next step is to understand what the decision process is within the company in question. That is, from the moment you initiate contact with the lead and present the proposal, how many people it passes through, who are the other influencers and which are the departments involved in this approval.
This information helps you understand not only the timing of a purchase decision, but also prevent which “decision makers” the process may “get stuck” and, if that happens, your organization also knows what to do;
I – Identify Pain (identify the pain)
The next criterion of this methodology is to understand what your lead’s pain is. Here, we need to be more specific in this analysis and link it precisely to the decision-making criteria.
For example, let’s imagine that a company is not able to qualify its leads very well and, therefore, invests much more resources in acquiring new customers and is unable to take advantage of as much of the sales pipeline as it could.
This scenario must be quantifiable in terms of the amounts that an organization no longer receives and the financial losses in the commercial area. By understanding these numbers, the commercial argument becomes more personalized and makes more sense to the company’s reality.
C – Champion (champion)
Finally, remember I talked about influencers? Well, here, you need to understand who your “champion” is. That is, a person from within the company who understands the benefits of your solution and supports the closing of the contract with your business.
It is important to point out that, not always, the champion is the economic buyer or someone who has a management position. It is often a person from the operation with good performance or many years of experience in the company or an expert. However, regardless of who it is, that person must be respected and heard by the real decision-makers.
Discover the two branches of this methodology: MEDDPIC and MEDDPICC
With the implementation of this methodology in companies, two branches have emerged that are also quite interesting, see what they are:
- MEDDPIC: In addition to the criteria explained in the previous topic, this first branch considers what we call the Paper Process. Literally, it refers to the bureaucratic flows that a company has to arrive at the purchase decision, such as legal processes, signing of contracts, legislative adaptations and others;
- MEDDPICC: Here we consider the Paper Process with the addition of Competition, that is, if the lead is already analyzing a competitor’s proposal.
Who is the MEDDIC methodology aimed at?
In a practical way, the MEDDIC methodology is aimed at companies with complex sales processes and that offer high average ticket products and services.
The more hermetic the closing of a contract is, the better this method will adapt to your business routine. This is because it helps solve problems such as:
- Lack of information about commercial flows or profile of leads;
- Lack of predictability;
- Returns not aligned with the stipulated goals;
- High churn and migration of contracts to competing companies;
- Skills gap in the sales team.
Why adopt this methodology in your company?
Among the main reasons that make the adoption of MEDDIC something positive are:
Makes it easy to identify the best leads for your business
Let’s imagine a situation: one of your salespeople schedules two meetings with a certain lead. At each meeting, your company information, solutions, cases and quantitative metrics are presented in a completely personalized commercial proposal.
Beautiful is not it? However, at the time of decision, you discover that the lead in question is not as fit as your business, either due to the lack of necessary infrastructure, budget or operation. This means that your organization has wasted time and money on a prospect who, even if they closed a contract, would likely ask for cancellation in the future.
In this scenario, methodologies such as MEDDIC make this identification clearer and more transparent, ensuring that your company can easily recognize who are the leads in the pipeline that best adhere to the solution and services offered.
Allows better targeting of resources and efforts
Listing the previous topic, by understanding with whom your company can build a successful partnership, your team has parameters to better direct resources and commercial efforts.
In this way, your organization achieves not only more efficiency in sales flows, but also better performance and measurable results, with increased revenues and reduced costs.
Helps in better monitoring of a trade
With MEDDIC, your company needs all the information about the lead, which involves decision makers, influencers, organization size, pain points and all the other criteria mentioned above.
In this scenario, the sales process becomes more strategic and its managers are able to effectively monitor the progress of the negotiation.
In addition, here it is also possible to understand the qualification level of the lead and better direct between marketing and sales those prospects who are really ready to be commercially impacted by your business.
Clarifies the individual assessment of each seller
Do you know how long your sellers take to close a sale? Or even how many meetings are held? How often does the team talk to a lead? How often are leads impacted?
From the implementation of MEDDIC, as well as the use of other flows, it is possible to more clearly monitor the individual performance of each sales representative. This is crucial to understand who are the employees with the highest and lowest performance, as well as to better direct bonuses and even the demands themselves.
Increases predictability
Finally, through innovative methodologies, your organization manages to have sales and revenue predictability for the coming months. In cases of lower than expected results, your organization has the time and resources to implement corrective measures and reduce the impacts.
4 simple steps to start a MEDDIC approach?
If you followed all the explanation about the methodology and the benefits until here, you must be wondering how to apply this approach in your company. Although it seems complex, the MEDDIC method can be easily linked to your commercial flows, here are some tips:
Keep in mind that MEDDIC is not a sales process.
Now I’ve got you, haven’t I? But MEDDIC cannot be confused with the sales process itself, because, in fact, it is a methodology that works in parallel with your commercial flow.
It is possible to combine MEDDIC, for example, with processes such as Sales Performance itself, which is a homogeneous management strategy that addresses all commercial stages, from receiving the lead to closing.
In this scenario, the MEDDIC can be used as a complementary tool to make prospect qualification even more effective and, consequently, increase the quality of the results generated.
Make a flowchart aligning the MEDDIC techniques to the reality of your business
Considering everything mentioned so far, the next step is to create a flowchart to align MEDDIC with your own sales strategies.
In this scenario, this methodology must be implemented from the moment the commercial team receives the leads.
In turn, the idea is to develop a plan so that the qualification of these prospects is validated and sales representatives have enough information to proceed with the approaches.
Prepare your reps to document every lead interaction
According to a survey by Ovation Sales Group, in 2007, only 4 contact attempts were enough to be able to talk to the prospect. These days, teams need twice as much effort.
Often, contacts are still not effective, probably your team will not be able to speak with the decision-makers at first, some meetings may not generate the expected result or the leads themselves may present questions that need to be clarified at some point.
As a result, your sales representatives should always document all these interactions, otherwise it will not be possible to monitor the progress of the negotiation.
Have adequate technologies
Finally, this whole structure can only be implemented if there are adequate technologies. In this sense, have tools that are integrable, allow centralized management, simplified visualization of your team’s performance and, mainly, regarding the leads themselves.
Count with ASB Marketing to increase your sales
If you want to implement demand generation strategies in your business, it is of paramount importance to start with planning.
In this scenario, understand your audience, online behavior, preferences and, especially, make an analysis of your competitors and current demands of the market.
Then understand how your sales process works and what characteristics need to be changed to meet your ideal customer profile.
In addition, it is essential to keep in mind that demand generation does not only occur by paid media, on the contrary, inbound marketing actions (attraction marketing) and demand generation generate very advantageous results for organizations when well employed.
Finally, you can count on an experienced marketing and sales company to support the implementation of these strategies, such as ASB Marketing.
With the best innovative methodologies and tools, ASB Marketing finds its ideal customer and qualifies them through fully automated and personalized email cadence.
When the lead arrives at the purchase decision phase, we only passed on to your commercial team to close the negotiation. With this, we guarantee increased sales, reduction of trade cycle, cost optimization and support in long -term business expansion.
Do you want to know more? Go now and see how ASB Marketing can help your business!