Frequently asked questions about the MEDDPICC® Sales Qualification Methodology.

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MEDDPICC FAQ #1 : Champion says “EB won’t meet with any vendor at the early stage of our buying process.” At the same time, we want to decide if we should invest in this sales campaign. Do we need to meet with the EB ourselves, or the Champion’s statement is good enough to check the EB box in MEDDPICC checkbox?

In most cases if the Champion refuses to take you to the EB, high chance they are not your champion. But sometimes it’s more complicated than this and you need to be smart about it or you may pull out of a great opportunity by applying MEDDPICC in a wrong way.

First, meeting with the Economic Buyer (aka EB) is absolutely a must to secure the deal, make it bigger and close it sooner. However, this frequently asked question here is specifically about meeting the EB early in the sales process:

In 90% of cases the Champion should take us to the EB, even in the early stage. In some rare cases, the EB just does not meet with vendors. For instance at the beginning of a purchasing process at a large enterprise that is talking to 6 competitors, the EB may want to avoid meeting every vendor and only meet with the 2 finalists at a later stage. Yet we still need to :

• Identify the EB
• Assess/Estimate his/her max $ authority
• Assess the champion’s relationship to the EB and make sure he/she has DIRECT access to the EB
• Gather information from partners, champions, coaches about the EB’s goals, pains, and previous decision making habits in similar cases.

Also the Champion’s reason for not taking us to the EB should make sense. Most importantly, the champion needs to have passed our “tests”. Refer to the section about “How to Test the Champion” in the MEDDIC Course. If the champion has already proven to be one, has changed some decision criteria in our favor or a few other tests proving that he/she is a solid champion, and he/she insists that there is no way we can meet the EB at this stage and promises a later meeting with EB, then based on our judgement we may decide that the EB box is checked at this stage and keep going and avoid pulling out of a great opportunity.

MEDDPICC FAQ #2: Sales Rep: “70% of my pipeline is composed of RFPs where the Decision Criteria is already written, and they are not written for us. I can’t just pull out of them or I lose 70% of my pipeline”

If they are not for you, and can’t be influenced/modified, not only you can pull out, but also YOU HAVE TO! You need to prospect more and get into the accounts before they start writing RFPs. You need to “help them” write those RFPs. Very often, if you are not involved in writing the RFP and you receive it by email (or even through the mail) as a first contact, then high chances you would be wasting your time with those RFPs. If this is frequent in a team (Government Sales for instance), it means that the sales and marketing is not efficient in influencing the market. It shows that you, as a rep, are not prospecting enough. My advice: stop working on that “bad RFP” and spend that time prospecting new deals.

MEDDIC ACADEMY FAQ #3: Is MEDDIC ACADEMY only offering online courses or we can get in-person trainings?

We offer both online, offline (in-person, face-to-face) trainings, as well as Coaching. More on our services here. And please contact us for a quote for your team at your location.

MEDDIC ACADEMY FAQ #4: Do we receive a certificate after completing the courses on MEDDIC Academy?

Yes, you receive a “Certificate of Completion” for attending the courses. You can also get MEDDIC Certified ™ by taking the certification program including the test and the interview. More details here.

MEDDIC ACADEMY FAQ #5: Why is the Top Selling Course (full MEDDIC bundle) a subscription and not a one time purchase? How do I avoid auto-renew?

First, you are not obliged to keep the subscription. You can subscribe, pay once and if you are absolutely sure not wanting to renew, you can actually cancel immediately and you won’t be charged next year, but you will be enjoying access to the content until the end of the period you already paid. You can also wait and see if there is value in keeping your subscription and cancel anytime later. Canceling automatic renewal is easy: Login to your dashboard. On the upper right corner, to the right of your name, under the little arrow choose “account”, then “billing” on the left menu, then cancel subscription.

Now, why is it a subscription? Because we believe the need for learning Enterprise Sales Techniques is an ongoing one, not a one time need. From time to time we add new courses in the bundle which will come free to existing subscribers As an example, in April 2019 we included the ROI course in the bundle. In some cases we will increase the price, especially when we add new content, but if you are on a subscription, your price won’t increase at the time of renewal. Also we will renew the videos some time in the future. If you are subscribed, you’ll get them for free. Finally, we all need to review the tips. Statistics show that we forget a training within a couple weeks if not practiced. By having permanent access to the courses, you can review a given module or the whole course as a reminder. So these are all the reasons why it’s a subscription. It’s up to you to purchase it as a one time course (by cancelling the subscription after purchase) or to keep it as a subscription.

MEDDPICC FAQ #6: Where is the best place to start – Metrics or Pain?

Pain for sure. Remember, there is no order in the 8 elements of MEDDPICC. It’s a checklist after all. However, any sales process starts with the discovery of the issues. So identifying the pain is where you start. Metrics may even be not pertinent if focused on the wrong pain.

MEDDPICC FAQ #7: When should you start questioning if a champion (you thought you had) is actually a coach?

The relationship with your champion is an on going relationship. It starts by identifying potential champions and grows crescendo through steps: test, create rapport, test, look for personal win, test, develop, … If you have constant regular contact with the champion, exchanging information and taking them through the line above, you will progressively build a solid relationship. If something goes wrong, you would be able to know, by correlation to other events, what went wrong and why. You will be able to correct it. If you check the champion against the characteristics described in the MEDDIC course, you will never take a coach for a champion.

MEDDPICC FAQ #8: Can the Champion be the EB?

Yes. This can happen in a SMB. When you are selling CRM to a mid size company, it’s not odd to have the CEO or the CFO being your EB and the Champion at the same time. The smaller the size of the company, the more this can happen. The larger the size of the company the more you’ll have the probability of needing several champions, and a complex decision process, but always one single EB.

MEDDPICC FAQ #9: Is it a risk if your champion is also the EB?

No. Actually when less people involved, decision process is obviously easier, you can enlarge the size and shorten the sales cycle easier.