Framework

MEDDPICC

Eight questions that tell you whether a deal is real, where it is weak and what to do next.

Use it when: Use it on every opportunity you are working or forecasting, from the first discovery call to signature.

The steps

Write the eight letters down for the deal and answer each one in the customer's words, not yours.
Mark every answer as proven by the customer or assumed by the seller, and treat assumptions as gaps.
Find the weakest letter and agree the single next action that would change it.
Test the Champion and the Economic Buyer access before the deal goes anywhere near commit.
Repeat every week on the deals that matter, and qualify out when a gap will not close.

MEDDPICC is a common language for qualification, methodology and value selling. Eight letters, each one a question you ask about a deal: Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Paper Process, Implicate the Pain, Champion, Competition. Answer all eight with evidence from the customer and you know whether the deal is real, where it is strong, where it is weak and what to do about it. Leave any of them blank and you are forecasting a guess.

It exists because complex deals fail in predictable places. The original six letters came out of PTC in the 1990s, where Dick Dunkel and Jack Napoli worked out what the won deals had in common that the lost ones did not. The seventh, Competition, was added because sellers kept losing to rivals and to “do nothing” without seeing either coming. The eighth, Paper Process, was added because the stretch between a verbal yes and a signed contract was killing deals on the last day of the quarter. Every letter is a scar.

How to run it

Start with the deal in front of you and write the eight letters down. Against each one, record what the customer has actually said or done, not what you believe. “The CFO is the Economic Buyer” is an assumption until the CFO has engaged. “They want to save money” is not a Metric until there is a number, a baseline and an agreement. Then score honestly. Which letters are proven, which are assumed, which are blank?

The weakest letter tells you the next action. A deal with no Champion needs a Champion built or tested before it needs another demo. A deal with no Paper Process mapped needs that conversation before anyone talks about dates. Do this every week on the deals that count, and let the gaps drive the agenda.

It boils down to four questions. Do we belong in this deal? Where is it strong for us? Where is it weak, and why? What actions will move it forward?

Where it breaks

It breaks the moment it becomes admin. Eight mandatory CRM fields filled in from memory on a Friday afternoon are a form, and a form never closed anything. It breaks when the letters are answered by the seller instead of the customer. It breaks when leaders ask whether the fields are complete instead of asking how we know. And it breaks when teams half-adopt it, running it on big deals only, or in forecast week only, and then conclude it does not work.

MEDDPICC is binary. You use it on everything or you do not use it. Go all in and it pays you back in a forecast you can stand behind. Do it by halves and you get the paperwork without the insight.