MEDDIC Sales Courses – MEDDPICC Sales Training

MEDDIC Academy & MEDDPICC® by Darius Lahoutifard

What is MEDDIC and what does it stand for?

MEDDIC by MEDDIC Academy is the most renowned Sales Qualification Methodology, applicable to any Enterprise Sales Process which is rather complex. The definition of MEDDIC is the acronym it represents, composed of six elements. They represent the MEDDIC checklist as described below:

• METRICS: Measurable gain that leads to economic benefit.
• ECONOMIC BUYER: The person with discretionary access to funds.
• DECISION PROCESS: The process defined by the client to make a purchase decision.
• DECISION CRITERIA: The criteria defined by the client to make a purchase decision.
• IDENTIFY PAIN: The pains which require your solution to be remedied.
• CHAMPION: Your Internal Seller.
• MEDDIC tells you that if you execute the above in any complex B-to-B sales campaign, you win the sale. When you don’t win, it’s because you missed at least of the above.

What is MEDDICC?

MEDDICC is meant to add “Competition”. Knowing your competition and strategizing your account plan based on who you are competing with is a must. You can, for instance, fine-tune and orient your metrics to the right KPIs. It helps assess the decision criteria and know how you should influence them. It helps considering the competitor’s champion in the account. Etc.

Definition of MEDDPICC®

MEDDPICC® by MEDDIC Academy emphasizes the “Paper process” in addition to the “Competition”. Sellers need to understand the process through which a purchase request has to go inside that company for such a deal and execute it accordingly. Anyone with experience in complex enterprise sales knows that interactions with the legal department or purchasing could be a nightmare if they are underestimated. Especially since these interactions are at the end of the sales cycle and the deadline for the PO may be compromised, whether it is the end of the quarter for the vendor or the implementation expectations for the client. These issues take time to resolve, often leading to a delay in the purchase order. The seller must understand the “paper process” and anticipate the issues. For instance, they may share the company’s standard contract or TOS, or terms of services, earlier in the process.

Some would say that the paper (purchasing and legal) process is part of the decision process, just like the technical approval process and business approval process. But it does make sense to add it to the checklist to make sure we understand it and that our champion understands it, and we adopt a proactive approach with the Legal & Procurement departments to avoid any delay in the PO.

MEDDPICC

• METRICS: Measurable gain that leads to economic benefit.
• ECONOMIC BUYER: The person with discretionary access to funds.
• DECISION PROCESS: The process defined by the client to make a purchase decision.
• DECISION CRITERIA: The criteria defined by the client to make a purchase decision.
• PAPER PROCESS: Customer’s legal and administrative process to sign a contract or place a purchase order
• IDENTIFY PAIN: The pains which require your solution to be remedied.
• COMPETITION: The client’s alternatives to remedy the pain, including no-decision or in-house solutions.
• CHAMPION: Your Internal Seller.
• MEDDIC tells you that if you execute the above in any complex B-to-B sales campaign, you win the sale. When you don’t win, it’s because you missed at least of the above.

How did all this start?

MEDDIC & MEDDPICC® by MEDDIC Academy are the results of the Sales and Qualification techniques developed at PTC (aka Parametric Technology Corp.). PTC is a software company known for having built one of the strongest sales cultures in the context of Enterprise Software (now SaaS). The company had over 40 quarters of continuous growth during the 90s. The initial Global Sales Management team at PTC developed different elements of MEDDIC in the field. That initial team of sales managers in the early 90s, composed of a dozen of trailblazers, are the true creators of MEDDIC. Later, PTC training managers at the headquarters in Boston were asked to put together the best practices in the field. They put them together in a formal practice course for new hires and gave it a name: MEDDIC. You can learn more here.

How did MEDDIC Academy start?

MEDDIC Academy™’s founder, Darius Lahoutifard, was a member of that initial international sales leadership team at PTC who created MEDDIC. He took PTC Southern Europe from $4M to $27M in 3 years, beating the main competitor (which was and still is Dassault Systemes) in their fiefdom (Dassault is a French company). As an anecdotal note, Darius’ team was able to beat Dassault in their home market, France. While Dassault, on the global level, is the only vendor that PTC never managed to beat. Not even today (in terms of revenue, market share, headcount, etc…).

Darius naturally contributed to the creation, articulation, and elaboration of MEDDIC. Most importantly, he successfully executed it in the most competitive and challenging region. He later practiced it in his career, including his sales leadership roles at THINK3 and Agile/Oracle, among other companies. Darius made the first publications regarding MEDDIC and MEDDPICC® later in his career.

How did MEDDIC Academy evolve?

In 2017 Darius founded MEDDIC Academy™, the first organization to offer online and blended learning programs on MEDDIC and MEDDPICC® for individuals, managers, trainers, and Enterprise clients. The following year, in 2018, MEDDIC Academy™ became the first organization to deliver test-based certifications and make it possible to become MEDDIC Certified™.

His leadership in democratizing MEDDIC & MEDDPICC was highlighted in June 2020, when he published the first book ever written on MEDDIC and MEDDPICC®. The book ranked first in 2 categories on Amazon for weeks, thus obtaining the “Best Seller” status. In January 2021, Gartner included MEDDIC Academy™ on its Sales Training Providers Magic Quadrant.

MEDDIC Academy offers on-demand online, instantly available courses, both virtual and in-person. Different curricula are available for individual contributors, managers, and trainers. The company also offers vILT programs (virtual Instructor-Led Training), live online workshops, as well as in-person training and workshops globally.