MEDDICC? + sales process= $

MEDDICC is not a sales process or even a sales method. MEDDICC is basically 7 questions that sellers must have answers to in order to decide whether the deal is worth investing in or not.

When the sellers have qualified the deal, they can start influencing the customer's decision criteria and decision process, they can engage the economic buyer and match Metrics with an ROI.

In order for MEDDICC to become part of the sales culture, MEDDICC? must be implemented the CRM system.

Then you will need to decide where the various MEDDICC questions must be answered, because in the first phase of the sales process it may be too early to get answers to everything, the customer may have just started to investigate what solutions are available. We want to match the customer's buying journey with the customer's buying process - then a step in the customer's buying process becomes a step in our sales process. The customer's purchase process consists of 4 steps:

- Strategy phase

The customer examines what solutions are available, how other similar companies have solved the challenges they are facing. The customer searches for information on the internet, social media and contacts sellers.

- Need phase

The customer tries to get a handle on which needs are solved, which problems or ideas should be prioritized. If the problems are large, many people are involved in the customer's organization, from different departments. They have different needs and priorities. This can lead to drawing up a requirement specification that is sent out to selected suppliers. But it can also result in informal talks with a supplier, together to find a reasonable solution. In this phase, the customer asks many questions about costs and complexity - in order to make an early decision whether it is worth solving the problems. Most often, there is no budget set aside for the project. Many deals stop in this phase.

- Solution phase

Now the customer has found a number of different alternative solutions. Management gets involved and the organization is getting ready to make a decision. Now the customer wants quotes from their selected suppliers in order to choose a partner to finalize negotiations with. The customer is focused on the solution. Sometimes the customer's experts can become so involved that they want to make the solution bigger, more comprehensive and valuable.

- Risk and decision phase

The customer has received one or more quotations. A decision document is drawn up and presented to the management team. Since the customer must make a final decision about which solution, supplier and contract terms, they must weigh the pros and cons of the various options. The customer wants to minimize the risks, they are afraid of making the wrong decision. They can take in more quotes at short notice, give their established suppliers inside information and a chance to modify their offer. The customer's decision-making group does not want to talk to the sellers who have submitted quotes, but calmly make their decision.

Our sales process matches the customer's buying journey with the corresponding phases:

- Strategy phase – Demand generation

In this phase, the marketing department and business development are engaged to get the customer's attention and commitment to learn more about the problems that can be solved, the solution and the effect of solving the problems. It can be advertisements, campaigns on social media, webinars and customer meetings. The sellers must focus MEDDICC? on finding the customer's metrics, identifying the economic buyer, and identifying the customer's pains.

- Need phase – Qualification

In this phase, salespeople meet with the customer to develop and understand the needs and get the customer to commit resources. The sellers must focus MEDDICC? on verifying the customer's metrics, meeting the economic buyer, understanding the decision criteria, understanding what the decision process might look like, verifying the customer's pains and the value of solving them, finding a Champion who will sell when the sellers are not there and doing a competitor analysis

- Solution phase – Value proposition

The sellers must focus MEDDICC? on creating an ROI get the Economic buyer to give a verbal OK if all decision criteria are met, to create a GO-LIVE Plan, to implement the GO-LIVE Plan, to be able to verify that the solution removes the customer's pains to develop the collaboration with with Champion and to Select and implement the most effective competitive strategy

- Risk and decision phase - Contract phase

The sellers must focus MEDDICC? on verifying the ROI analysis and that the most important Metrics can be reached, getting the economic buyer to sign the contract that all decision criteria are met, that the GO-LIVE Plan is implemented, to celebrate your Champion and beat out the competitors.

Summary

The purpose of a sales process is to be able to invest sales resources on the right deals, when they do the most good. Being able to use MEDDICC? throughout the sales process increases the chance that we will get the answers we need. You can ask all the MEDDICC? questions already at the first meeting, but the answers will probably come later as you develop the relationship with the customer and the sales process progresses. Before submitting the final quote, you need to be able to answer all MEDDICC?

Jens Edgren, Master MEDDICC Instructor, CEO

[email protected] www.meddicc.se