In today's continuously more competitive market, being able to sell effectively is paramount for the success of any business. The sales industry has been constantly evolving to keep up with the demands of the dynamic sales landscape, and sales teams now pursue more systematic approaches in order to maximize the efficiency of their efforts.

MEDDIC is among those methods that have garnered significant traction across many industries for its effectiveness, especially in B2B sales.

Today, we'll dive into the MEDDIC sales methodology, its main principles, the companies that utilize it, and how you can determine whether it's the right fit for your business.

What is MEDDIC based sales methodology?

The MEDDIC sales methodology is an exhaustive approach that helps salespeople qualify leads effectively, understand the needs of their potential customers, and navigate the complicated process of closing deals.

First, let's start off with what MEDDIC actually means.

MEDDIC is an acronym for:

• Metrics
• Economic Buyer
• Decision Criteria
• Decision Process
• Identify Pain
• Champion

It is essentially a framework that provides a comprehensive approach to managing the sales process end-to-end, from the very early stages of qualifying a lead to all the way to closing.

The sales qualification methodology introduces a scientific approach to sales, in which every single prospect, lead, and customer is viewed as an individual experiment that should be analyzed in great detail.

The purpose of MEDDIC is increasing your team's success rates by creating a very clear, concise, and data-driven sales journey & process that minimizes deal slippage by covering all bases.

MEDDIC sales 101

As mentioned earlier, the MEDDIC sales methodology is made up of six steps that sales teams should follow one-by-one in order to qualify a prospect and move them down the sales funnel.

These six steps will ensure that the sales team has all the necessary information about a prospect's unique situation to be able to make informed decisions, and have greater chances of closing the deal.

Now let's explore them one by one.

Metrics

Metrics involves understanding the quantifiable measures that are important for your client's business.

These metrics can vary depending on industry and solution but a few examples are:

• ROI
• Cost savings
• Revenue growth
• Profit margins
• Customer retention rates
• Operational efficiency

Understanding the strategic priorities of your clients, and aligning your solution with the metrics that matter to them the most can help you establish yourself as a true partner who is genuinely dedicated to their success.

This level of insight not only helps you demonstrate the value of your offering, but it also builds trust and credibility in your clients in your ability to truly be able to help them.

Economic buyer

Ever had a deal that seemed to go smoothly, then someone you weren't aware of came along and tanked your sales process?

They were probably the Economic Buyer.

The Economic Buyer is the person or group responsible for the purchase decision, and has the authority to approve the purchase.

Nowadays in B2B sales, an average deal requires sign-off from 8 stakeholders to close, which means being aware of every single one of your economic buyers, and multithreading with each of them early on during the process is crucial for sales success.

💡 Pro tip: Flowla's insights can help you track all the stakeholders involved in the process, even the ones that weren't introduced to you yet, so you can stay on top of all the decision makers early on!

Decision criteria

The Decision Criteria are the key factors that will affect your prospects' decision making when choosing a solution.

Which features, capabilities, or outcomes are the most important for them?

Where do their top priorities lie?

What is their most urgent need?

Having a good understanding of the purchasing decision criteria will help you tailor your solution to their specific situation, and present them a more appealing offer that feels like a perfect fit.

Decision process

The Decision Process is the series of steps that your buyers make leading up to a purchase decision.

Knowing and understanding this process very well, being in your buyers' shoes, and supporting them with materials and resources every step throughout the sales funnel can make the difference between a closed won and a closed lost deal.

💡 Pro tip: Flows allow you to neatly unite all the documents, media, and links that you'd like to present to your customers in a single space. That way you can craft the perfect narrative, and nurture them with ease throughout their buying journey without sending them on a million different tabs!

Identify pain

Identify Pain is the step where you need to be aware of the problems that your buyer personas want to solve, and make strong connections between how your solution solves them.

Every client, business, and deal is unique, and each has their unique needs. Your goal should be to be acutely aware of the biggest pain points of your client, and have a good understanding of how your product or service can alleviate that pain.

Champion

Champion is a person within your target organization that advocates for you and your solution. While they don't necessarily have the power to make buying decisions, this still helps advance the sales process.

Your champion can be one of your most important assets during a sales journey. The goal of your sales qualification process is to:

• Recognize that person,
• Ensure that they are circulating the correct information within the target organization,
• Empower them with helpful materials and sales collateral to help them drive the buying process forward.

These are extremely important steps that can significantly accelerate your sales cycle.

💡 Pro tip: With Flowla, you can arm your champions with a perfectly crafted, easy to digest narrative supported by rich materials, and ensure that the correct sales resources is circulating in the target organization, even when you're not in the room.

Which companies use MEDDIC?

The MEDDIC sales methodology is especially popular within the technology industry, and its proven effectiveness led to many companies adopting it as their go-to strategy.

Many Fortune 500 companies, such as IBM, Oracle, EMC, Salesforce and HubSpot, as well as smaller startups like Outreach, Clearbit, and Hootsuite are known to use different aspects of the MEDDIC methodology in their sales processes to improve their metrics and achieve their sales goals.

What companies should use MEDDIC?

The MEDDIC sales methodology is known to be particularly effective in the technology sector, where there are high levels of competition and complexity, and it is being used heavily by sales organizations in B2B companies.

However, the sales qualification framework has also been adopted by industries like pharmaceuticals, construction, finance, and many others with remarkable success.

MEDDIC sales methodology is best suited for businesses who have:

• Complex enterpise deals
• High-value, high-ticket size products
• Consultative sales processes
• Approval process that involves multiple decision-makers
• Sales processes that require a deep understanding of customer needs
• Lengthy sales cycles with multiple sales stages

If your sales team is not organized, or if you feel like your sales reps are missing critical information when going into deals, MEDDIC can help provide the necessary structure to decrease deal slippage and improve your closing rates.

Is MEDDIC the right sales methodology?

Like every other B2B sales methodology, MEDDIC has its pros and cons. Before adopting it, it is important to review your business and sales team's unique needs and dynamics to decide whether it's a good fit - this sales framework may not be appropriate for every organization or use case.

Since the MEDDIC methodology enables sales reps to define clear objectives and track the sales process in an almost scientific manner, it is highly effective for high-value deals.

If you have:

• a collaborative, team-driven sales environment at your organization
• a complex solution that requires a great deal of buy-in from the prospects
• processes that require multiple customer interactions and collaboration across various departments

it is safe to say that MEDDIC would work exceptionally well for your sales organization.

One potential drawback could be that MEDDIC slows down your sales process in exchange for greater accuracy. However, it is worth noting that overall benefits will outweigh the drawbacks, making MEDDIC an ideal approach if you wish to build a data-driven sales strategy.

MEDDIC with Flowla

The MEDDIC sales methodology encourages a client-centric approach, which is what we're all about at Flowla.

With over 80% of B2B buyers finding their last purchase quite difficult, it is essential for businesses to provide a seamless and pleasant buying experience to their customers, which could give them a competitive advantage.

With Flowla, you can create easy to follow, step-by-step journeys for your clients for a frictionless buying experience that they will love.

Then collaborate towards closing with them with no confusion, no crossed wires, and zero overwhelm on anyone's part.

You can manage the entire process, from first touch to sales pitch and even onboarding on a single flow, which makes it easier to do multithreading in the target organization, and collaborate across different teams and departments.

And all the detailed insights we provide can help sales leaders have a deeper understanding of what works in the current process, and what doesn't, so they can improve their team's approach.

The clarity, transparency, structure, and data that Flowla provides can help you implement the MEDDIC framework easily, and it's proven to increase win rates by 35%!

Eager to test out the MEDDIC sales methodology for your organization with flows?

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