Whether you're a seasoned sales veteran or just starting your career in sales, understanding the nuances of both MEDDIC and MEDPICC can provide you with a strategic edge in achieving your sales targets and fostering lasting customer relationships. In this blog post, we'll delve into a comparative analysis of MEDDIC and MEDDPICC, exploring their key principles and how they can be effectively applied in different sales scenarios.
Key Takeaways
- MEDDIC and MEDPICC are frameworks to help sellers qualify prospects and gather information to move deals forward.
- MEDDPICC is an evolution of MEDDIC designed to address additional challenges in modern sales.
- Which methodology you will use will depend on the type of sales you do and the environment you sell in.
What Are MEDDIC and MEDDPIC?
MEDDIC and MEDDPICC are both sales methodologies designed to guide sales professionals through the process of qualifying prospects, understanding customer needs, and ultimately closing deals. While they share similarities in structure and objectives, they also have distinct differences in approach and focus.
MEDDIC
The framework lies in the acronym, which stands for:
- Metrics: Understanding the metrics that matter most to the prospect's business goals and how your product or service can impact them.
- Economic Buyer: Identifying the individual with the authority to make purchasing decisions and understanding their motivations.
- Decision Criteria: Determining the specific criteria that the prospect will use to evaluate potential solutions.
- Decision Process: Understanding the steps and timeline involved in the prospect's decision-making process.
- Identify Pain: Identifying the prospect's challenges, pain points, or areas where they seek improvement.
- Champion: Cultivating relationships with internal advocates or champions who can support your sales efforts and influence the decision-making process within the prospect's organization.
MEDDPICC
MEDDPICC expands upon the original MEDDIC framework by incorporating elements that address the complexities of modern sales environments, such as legal considerations, a deeper exploration of pain points, and a thorough analysis of competitors.
- Paper Process: Understanding the paperwork, contracts, or legal processes involved in completing the sale.
- Implicate Pain: Going beyond identifying surface-level pain points to uncovering the deeper implications and consequences of the prospect's challenges.
- Competition: Analyzing the competitive landscape and understanding how your offering compares to alternative solutions. Note that some people add a third, "C" (making the framework MEDDPICC) which is a Compelling event. This compelling event may be what is leading the prospect to the sales conversation or open to changing from the status quo.
What’s the difference between MEDDIC and MEDDPIC?
There isn't really a difference per se. MEDDPICC is an evolution of MEDDIC designed to address some of the more modern complexities of selling. As we are all well aware, with technological advances, increased competition, and changes in business norms, sales are more complex than ever. Adding specific steps in the framework to understand the paper process, competition, and any compelling events helps ensure sellers properly qualify their leads.
MEDDIC Vs. MEDDPIC: How do you decide?
While both methodologies share common elements such as understanding customer metrics, identifying decision-makers, understanding decision criteria, recognizing pain points, and cultivating internal champions, MEDDPIC expands on MEDDIC by incorporating a focus on understanding the paperwork and formal processes involved in closing the sale.
So, if you sell a product or service that has a complex contract process and you need to manage things like a specific number of licenses and monthly, quarterly, or annual renewals and price adjustments, the paper process (and how you as the seller interact with the buyer's procurement team) become critical - so the "P" in MEDDPICC is a high priority.
Conversely, if your sales process is simpler or more of a one-and-done, you might use MEDDIC to get to your close quickly and efficiently. That said, you may use elements of both frameworks when working with prospects. Regardless of your methodology, the goal is to gather the information you need to close deals.
Complex B2B SaaS Sales
When it comes to B2B SaaS sales, you're best bet is going to be MEDDPICC. A good example of this is selling CRM systems. This is because a number of people will need to weigh in on the decision - the sales leaders, the CTO and possibly someone from finance or procurement at a minimum. The metrics will be easy to set and measure, but the paper process will be critical as you will need to manage contracts, price increases and monitoring the number of seats each client needs over the life of the relationship.
Furthermore, keeping an eye on the relationship and any compelling events (like a sale or merger) that could impact the relationships and the needs of the business will be a requirement to ensure your organization isn't blindsided.
Enterprise Sales
When it comes to enterprise sales with their long sales cycles, detailed requirements and large buying committees, a qualification framework like MEDDIC or MEDDPICC is more critical than ever. With big buying committees, seeking out the economic buyer quickly and efficiently and determining the decision process and criteria will help you map out a game plan. And when it comes to identifying the pain points, the more specific you can be about the pain points and who they impact, the easier it will be to have the right sales conversations and craft a proposal that wins every time.
A good example of this would be selling accounting software to a fortune 100 company. Having a good understanding of why they are looking to make a change (is there a compelling event?), what the pain points are, and who is making the final decision, even though you might have 12 people who represent hundreds of users involved will help make a complicated process much more straightforward. And finally, in this scenario, we'd be remiss to understate the importance of finding and engaging a champion. This person can help you navigate the organization and set you up for a long and successful business relationship.
High Ticket Sales
When it comes to high ticket sales, you don't want to be caught unprepared. Hours have gone into crafting the perfect product or service, and it comes with the steep price tag to boot. So, taking the time to really qualify your buyer with MEDDIC or MEDDPICC is a crucial step in starting your sales process right.
Ensuring that you know exactly who can green light your deal and how that decision will be made will help you get over the finish line more smoothly. But, before you even get to all of that, seeking out a champion who can help you understand if your target is really ready to buy and who can guide you through the process is critical. Knowing how to get that yes, allows you to sail through the sales process and close the deal. You never want to get caught off guard because you didn't understand the metrics or the pain point correctly.
For example, if you're selling high-end video conferencing equipment to large office buildings, you want to ensure you understand why your prospect is considering all the bells and whistles. Do they have customers in the office regularly and they want to impress them? Or is it because they work internationally a lot and having the best picture and sound allows them to work more efficiently? Once you understand their pain points, and have the opportunity to learn more about the decision process and criteria, you will be able to craft a more effective narrative to compel your prospects to make the investment in your premium products.
Competitive Sales Environments
Like the examples above, a competitive sales environment is an obvious choice for leveraging MEDDPIC. In this case, you really want to hone in on the decision criteria and decision process. Assuming there are many players who can meet the customer's needs, getting disqualified because you didn't follow the process and submit all of the required documents would really sting.
The reason you'd choose MEDDPICC here over MEDDIC is that this sales qualification method puts more of an emphasis on identifying and understanding your competition. For example, software sales, in general, have been getting more and more competitive. So, when it comes to selling things like CRMs, sales enablement tools, and video conferencing software, buyers may have anywhere from a handful to a dozen choices. So, knowing who you might be up against, and how to beat them becomes table stakes.
Final Thoughts
Your preferred variation of the methodology will depend on a number of factors and may evolve over time. That said, both MEDDIC and MEDPICC can be used as a qualification methodology to help sellers understand who is most likely to buy, when and how.
Once you've qualified your prospect, you'll need to engage with them throughout the sales process, which might include personalized collateral or a custom proposal. Qwilr is ready to help you create all of the materials you need. Our easy-to-customize templates save you time and make you look great, showing off your hard work to get the right details into your documents. Want to see this in action? Book a demo or sign up for a free trial and start creating!
About the author
Marissa Taffer|Founder & President of M. Taffer Consulting
Marissa Taffer is the Founder & President of M. Taffer Consulting. She brings over 15 years of sales and marketing experience across various industries to a broad range of clients.
Frequently asked questions
MEDDIC and MEDDPIC are sales methodologies designed to guide sales professionals through the process of qualifying prospects, understanding customer needs, and closing deals. They share similarities but also have distinct differences in approach and focus.
MEDDPIC is an evolution of MEDDIC designed to address modern complexities of selling. It includes understanding the paper process, competition, and any compelling events to ensure sellers properly qualify their leads.
The choice depends on your sales environment. If you have a complex contract process, MEDDPIC is beneficial. If your sales process is simpler, MEDDIC might be more suitable. You may use elements of both frameworks when working with prospects.
In B2B SaaS sales, multiple people weigh in on the decision. The paper process becomes critical as you manage contracts, price increases, and monitor the number of seats each client needs over the life of the relationship.
In high ticket sales, qualifying your buyer with MEDDIC or MEDDPIC is crucial. It helps you understand who can green light your deal, how the decision will be made, and understand the metrics or the pain point correctly.
The MEDDIC sales methodology was invented by John McMahon, Richard Dunkel, and Jack Napoli to train their new sales hires at PTC. It rose to popularity in the 1990s but is still used today.
The answer to this question will depend on a lot of factors, including your product or service, customer, and sales cycle. The more complex your sale is (especially if it involves managing contracts), the more likely it is that you will need to use MEDDPICC and follow a few additional steps.