MEDDPICC, explained with a free checklist.

MEDDPICC at a glance

Jump to the free MEDDPICC checklist template.

Where MEDDPICC comes from

MEDDIC was developed at PTC, the engineering software company, in the 1990s. It is usually credited to Dick Dunkel and Jack Napoli, and it spread with the sellers who learned it there. Over the years teams kept losing deals in two places MEDDIC did not cover, so they added letters: Competition, which gave MEDDICC, and Paper process, which gave MEDDPICC. Today it is one of the most common qualification frameworks in enterprise software. Tobias Ahlin qualified his own deals with it at Splunk and Snowflake.

MEDDPICC does not tell you how to sell. It tells you what you need to know before you can trust a deal. That is why it fits well with a conversational method like Tobias's method: it runs the meeting, MEDDPICC checks the result.

Each letter, in depth

M · Metrics

Metrics is the measurable gain the buyer expects: money saved, revenue won, hours freed, risk reduced. It is the number that makes your price look small. Without it, your proposal is compared to zero.

• “What does this problem cost you today, roughly?”
• “If this worked, what would you measure to know it did?”
• “What would that be worth over a year?”

Red flag: the number came from you, not from them. A metric you calculated is a guess. A metric the buyer said is a commitment.

E · Economic buyer

The economic buyer is the person who can say yes to the money, and who can find budget when there is none. In a small company that is often the founder or CFO. In a larger one it may be a director whose name you have not heard yet.

• “Who besides you needs to agree before money is spent on this?”
• “If you decided this had to happen this quarter, who would you need to convince?”
• “Could we bring them into the next meeting for twenty minutes?”

Red flag: you have only heard about the economic buyer. “Probably the CEO” is an empty line.

D · Decision criteria

Decision criteria are what the buyer will compare: price, experience, speed, references, risk. Some are written down in a request for proposal. The ones that matter most usually are not.

• “How will you choose between the options?”
• “If two offers are close, what tips it?”
• “What would make you say no to us?”

Red flag: the only criterion you know is price. Then you are in a comparison you will win only by being cheapest.

D · Decision process

The decision process is the sequence of steps, people and dates between now and a yes: a trial, a reference call, a partner review, a board meeting. Deals that “slip” usually had a decision process nobody mapped.

• “What happens between today and a decision?”
• “When is the board meeting, and is this on the agenda?”
• “Have you bought something like this before? How did it go?”

Red flag: no dates. A process without dates is a wish.

P · Paper process

The paper process is everything between a verbal yes and a signed contract: purchase orders, legal review, security questionnaires, new supplier forms. On small deals it is the most underestimated letter, because the seller assumes a small amount needs no paperwork. Purchasing does not care how small it is.

• “Once you say yes, what has to happen before we can start?”
• “Who signs contracts of this size?”
• “Do you need us set up as a new supplier? How long does that take?”

Red flag: you plan to ask after the yes. Ask in the second meeting.

I · Identify pain

Pain is the reason to act now rather than next year. Interest is not pain. A buyer who is curious will take every meeting and sign nothing. A buyer with pain has a cost and a deadline, and feels it personally.

• “Can you give me an example of when this went wrong recently?”
• “What happens if nothing changes for six months?”
• “What does this mean for you personally?”

These are pain questions. Move from example, to cost, to what it means to the person. SPIN implication questions do the same job.

Red flag: the pain belongs to someone else. “The sales team struggles” is weaker than “I lose two weekends a month to this”.

C · Champion

A champion is someone inside the buyer's company with influence, who gains personally if you win, and who sells for you when you are not in the room. A friendly contact is not a champion. The difference shows when you ask them to do something.

• “What would this change for you, if it worked?”
• “Could you help me get time with your CFO?”
• “How would you explain to your colleagues why we are the right choice?”

Red flag: your champion has never done anything for you. Test them with a small request: an introduction, a document, a meeting booked.

C · Competition

Competition is every alternative the buyer has: another firm, an internal team, a cheaper tool, or doing nothing at all. On small deals, doing nothing wins most often.

• “What else are you considering?”
• “What happens if you do nothing this year?”
• “Honestly, where do we stand compared to the others?”

Red flag: “we are not talking to anyone else”. Then you are competing with the status quo, which is the strongest competitor there is. See what to say when they are talking to several firms.

A worked example

A made up but typical example: a consultant is selling a $48,000 advisory project to a 40 person construction firm. After two meetings, the notes look like this:

Scored with two points per confirmed letter and one per partial, the deal has 11 of 16. The score is not the point. The point is the next meeting is now planned: four questions, one test of the champion, and no proposal until paper process is known.

Free MEDDPICC checklist template

Copy one checklist per deal. Fill it in after every meeting, one line per letter, and mark each line Confirmed, Partial or Missing. Two or more missing lines means the deal is not ready for a proposal.

The printable version fits one A4 or Letter page. Use your browser's print dialog to save it as a PDF. The CSV opens in Excel, Numbers and Google Sheets.

How to use MEDDPICC on a small deal

1. After every meeting, update the checklist. Five minutes, while you still remember what was said.
2. Only the buyer can confirm a line. If you inferred it, mark it Partial.
3. Turn every Missing or Partial line into a question for the next meeting. Ask them one at a time, in plain words, never as a form.
4. Hold the proposal until no more than one line is missing. A proposal sent early becomes a price in a spreadsheet.
5. Review your whole pipeline on Friday. A deal that has not moved a single line in two weeks is not a deal. Ask for a clear yes or no.

Common mistakes

• Filling it in from hope. Optimism is the most common reason deals look better on paper than in reality.
• Interrogating the buyer. The letters are for your notes. The conversation should sound like curiosity, not an audit.
• Skipping paper process. Small deals stall in purchasing more often than anywhere else, because nobody asked.
• Treating the score as a forecast. The score shows what you know. It cannot show whether the buyer will sign.
• Using it once. MEDDPICC is useful because it changes after every meeting. A checklist filled in once is a report, not a tool.

MEDDPICC compared with MEDDIC and BANT

How Allin uses MEDDPICC

Paste your notes from a call and Allin Sales Brain fills in the eight lines, marks each one Confirmed, Partial or Missing, and writes the questions for your next meeting. It pairs MEDDPICC with pain questions: the questions find the pain, MEDDPICC checks whether the deal can actually close. It is the same combination Tobias Ahlin used at Splunk and Snowflake, scaled to deals from $2,000 to $150,000.