When I've interviewed sales people, I see "MEDDICC" experience listed on CVs. But I've come to learn it's likely that they were given some training or exposure to it at some point, but either didn't grasp the content, or didn't actually put it into practice. So one of the pieces of the interview process with me is to have the candidate recount an opportunity, the "signature" deal of their career (most sales people have at least one). Usually during the story I can pick out pretty quickly if the acronym on the resume has weight.
One in particular stands out to me...the sales person was pursuing Apple, one of the toughest accounts to crack. He was able to get attention by prospecting Steve Jobs himself (the highest possible "Economic Buyer", if not that actual one). That landed his content and pitch on the desk of the head of world telesales. who rolled into the presumed Economic Buyer, the VP of WW Online Sales. The state of things was still pretty challenging. A competitor had just landed a mid eight figure deal, which included a version of the sales person's product. Let's take a look at how MEDDICC unfolded, letter by letter in the acronym. Starting with "M", for Metric:
- Metric: There were three iterations of the business case developed to support the decision to invest. The first was a preliminary "back of napkin" sketch, using benchmarks from the seller's company, applied to some data that was publicly available as inputs - to frame the potential for the business case. The second was developed using actual Apple customer data in lieu of the estimates that had been found online. The third, and the one that generated the investment decision, was co-developed by the sales person and their Champion, and then inspected by one of Apple's business analysts. There was one quote that stood out from the business analyst - "So let me make sure I understand...you are going to provide this much in value, but you are only going to charge us 'this much' (much lower amount) to do it?". That was an ironclad business case. Champion developed, inspected by the business for validity, and agreed upon by all as the basis to invest.
- Economic Buyer: This one was, as it usually is, tricky. The initial thought was that the WW WP of Online Sales, whose team the project fell to, would be the EB. The right title, responsibility, and presumed budget, right? The salesperson went the entire campaign under the assumption that she was the EB, right until the end. As it turned out, he hadn't asked enough qualifying questions, likely relying too much on an unusually strong Champion, to know that the real EB, based on the size, length of term and impact on Apple's business, was the COO at Apple. This was a learning - never assume you know who your Economic Buyer is, based on title or apparent power or responsibility, or "access to budget"...there is one thing that is nearly always true. Someone that "has budget" was likely "given" that budget by someone else. The true EB is the one that has discretionary authority to move and allocate budget.
- Decision Criteria: Decision Criteria for this deal was a little different than most. In a typical sales cycle, the Decision Criteria fall under three sub categories - Financial (Business Case), Technology (Product works) and Vendor (how does the customer feel about the vendor as a partner to work with). In this case, Financial and Vendor were addressed (the former via the business case developed, and the latter through a couple of reference calls with other large customers). But in lieu of "Technology", this opportunity was conducted entirely without a demo of the product and almost no involvement from IT (remember, they had just spent mid 8 figures on a solution including something similar...they were very vocal with their opinions). The value of a strong Champion emerging again. However, given Apple's ethos, they WERE very concerned with Customer Experience delivered to Apple's consumers. So work had to be put in to show the solution would not only meet consumers needs, but would anticipate and exceed their expectations.
- Decision Process: "Getting to Yes" was a weak spot during the progression of the deal. As much as MEDDICC prescribes that the salesperson influence the Decision Process as much as possible, this seller had very little if any influence, other than what the Champion would allow them to have. Turns out he had a much better grasp of how to get things done at Apple, and so for the most part, the account team would follow his cues, which included a lot of detours, some backtracking but ultimately a great outcome. Again, it demonstrated the value of a strong Champion (my personal opinion, one of the two most important pieces when using MEDDICC).
- Decision Process, Part II: What now stands in as a "P" in MEDDPICC, and probably rightfully so. The "Paper Process". From the salesperson's perspective this was the most challenging and frustrating part of the entire engagement. As strong as the Champion had been to that point, he completely disappeared when the process moved to procurement. Apparently that was the practice at Apple - business decision makers would step out for that portion to allow the procurement team to do their "work", without providing the vendor any leverage by working around procurement. In this case, to make things worse, the original procurement person assigned left after about six weeks, forcing the sales person to start all over again. One interesting point that was shared by the salesperson. To help get the new person up to speed, he offered a demo of his product, and walk him through the various Decision Criteria used to get to "yes". This ended up expediting the process from there, as the procurement person actually appreciated the time taken, saw the value of the product, and was really collaborative from there on.
- Identify Pain (or Opportunity): In this case, the driver was "opportunity" vs pain. While Apple's retail store experience was relatively innovative, their online/digital experience needed a refresh. As mentioned in the Decision Criteria outline, this solution gave them a way to improve and even surpass that retail store approach - which meant a lot to the Champion and his team. In fact, there were decisions made about the consumer experience online that undermined their business case - that's how much of a factor this was.
- Competition (we'll flip the C's in this case, as the Champion element of this opportunity was especially compelling): While there was a vendor competitor involved in the deal, the actual Competition was the internal IT group at Apple. As mentioned, they spent tens of millions of dollars on this other solution, which included something similar to this salesperson's product. But try as they might, they were not able to get an audience with the decision makers, largely due to the Champion's political influence and personal win. Turns out they were never really a threat, but the salesperson didn't know that until near the end.
- Champion: Easily my favorite part of this story. It's already been cited how the Champion exerted power and influence, and certainly sold on behalf of the sales person and their product internally....but it wasn't clear until after the contract was signed that the seller found out what the Personal WIn was. In fact, the product that the salesperson sold took away from the telesales business, essentially robbing the Champion of credit for sales through the whole process. When asked "why?" his response was that for hitting your numbers at Apple you got a bonus check and a pat on the back. But to be promoted, you had to innovate.
This story stuck with me, for a very long time, given it's comprehensive use of MEDDICC, and how it showed that while it's not possible to cover every aspect of MEDDICC, it does illustrate the two most important components of MEDDICC - Champion and Decision Criteria. Had the sales person not had a strong Champion to support and develop, and had Customer Experience not been a critical part of the Decision Criteria, this could have gone very differently.
This was a story that happened long before Challenger Sales/Customer had been released. But the salesperson involved executed a very "Challenger" like process in gaining the attention of the folks at Apple. Reframing how they were looking at their digital online business, showing a better way, an opporunity to improve, literally mocking up a current and target state, and leading the customer towards the solution. A great example of using both, one a strategy and one a framework for execution.
I've used this example in hundreds of MEDDICC trainings I've done, for every single person that I've ever hired (regardless of role - sales, CS, SE's, even Marketing). I hope the recounting resonates with you too.
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