MEDDIC in practice: what to listen for on a real call

MEDDIC is six things to establish in a deal: Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Identify pain and Champion. On a real call you do not ask about them in that order; you listen for them. Each letter has telltale lines from the buyer, and questions a rep can ask to draw them out.

What is MEDDIC, in short?

MEDDIC is a qualification framework from enterprise software sales in the 1990s that checks whether a deal is real and winnable. It does not tell a rep what to say. It tells them what they need to know before they forecast a deal, and so it doubles as a checklist for listening. The glossary entry on MEDDIC has the short definition; this article is about what each letter sounds like in a conversation.

What do you listen for on Metrics?

A number the buyer cares about, in their own words. Metrics is the measurable result the buyer expects: hours saved, revenue gained, errors avoided. A rep gets there by asking how the buyer measures the problem today.

• Rep: “How do you measure that today, and what would good look like by the end of next year?”
• Buyer: “Our planners lose about two hours a day re-entering orders. If we got that to zero, we could take on a third shift without hiring.”

Listen for a number with a unit and a time frame. “It would be a lot more efficient” is a feeling, not a metric. If the buyer has no number, that is worth knowing too: it usually means nobody has built the business case yet.

How do you recognise the economic buyer?

The economic buyer is the person who can approve the spend, and can say no when everyone else says yes. Most contacts will not volunteer that they are not that person.

• Rep: “For a purchase of this size, who signs off? Who signed the last one?”
• Buyer: “Our CFO approves anything over a hundred thousand. She signed the warehouse system last year.”

A name and a role is a confirmed answer. “We decide as a team” is a cue to ask again later. See economic buyer for how it differs from the people who use or evaluate the product.

What counts as decision criteria?

The criteria the buyer will use to compare options, technical, financial and practical. A rep wants them explicit and, ideally, written down by the buyer.

• Rep: “When you compare options, what will make one the clear winner?”
• Buyer: “It has to run on our existing ERP, the data has to stay in the EU, and our IT team wants SSO.”

Listen for must-haves versus nice-to-haves. A criterion the buyer repeats twice is usually a must-have.

What do you need to hear about the decision process?

The steps from today to a signed contract: who is involved, in what order, and by when. It is the letter reps most often assume instead of ask.

• Rep: “Walk me through what happens after today, up to a signature. Who else gets involved?”
• Buyer: “IT runs a security review, then procurement, then it goes to the board in March.”

A process with dates is real. A process that ends with “and then we’ll see” means the deal has no deadline yet.

How do you identify pain?

Pain is the problem the buyer needs solved, with a cost attached to not solving it. A rep finds it by asking about consequences, not features.

• Rep: “What happens if nothing changes in the next six months?”
• Buyer: “We lose another senior planner. Two left this year because of the overtime.”

Listen for consequences that land on a person or a budget. The more specific the story, the stronger the pain.

How do you know you have a champion?

A champion is someone inside the buyer’s organisation who has power or influence, wants your solution to win and acts on it when you are not in the room. Friendliness alone is not enough.

• Rep: “If we take this to your CFO, how would you make the case? What would you need from us?”
• Buyer: “Give me the numbers from the pilot. I’ll put it on the agenda for our Monday meeting myself.”

A buyer who offers to sell internally, and gives you a date, is acting like a champion. The sales champion entry has the test in more detail.

What does a scored discovery call look like?

Like this. The call below is fictional: a 38-minute discovery call between a rep and the operations director of a mid-sized logistics company. Each criterion is scored 0 to 3: 0 is not covered, 1 is mentioned, 2 is explored, 3 is confirmed with evidence.

Criterion	Timestamp	What was said	Score 0–3
Metrics	04:12	“Planners lose about two hours a day re-entering orders.”	3
Economic buyer	21:47	“Finance will have to look at it at some point.”	1
Decision criteria	15:30	“It has to run on our ERP, and the data stays in the EU.”	2
Decision process	27:05	“IT does a security review first, after that I’m not sure.”	1
Identify pain	08:55	“Two senior planners left this year because of the overtime.”	3
Champion	33:20	“Send me a one-pager and I’ll share it with my team.”	1

The total is 11 out of 18. Pain and metrics are strong: the buyer has a real problem with a number on it. The weak spots are clear too, and each one has a timestamp a manager can play back in a coaching session. At 21:47 the rep heard “finance” and moved on instead of asking who in finance signs. At 33:20 a forwarded one-pager is a courtesy, not a commitment.

What should a rep do with a low score?

Turn each open letter into a question for the next call. In this example: ask for the name of the person who approves the budget, map the steps after the security review with dates, and test the champion by asking them to set up the meeting with finance themselves. A scorecard is most useful as the agenda for the next conversation, not as a grade for the last one.

How do you start scoring calls against MEDDIC?

Start with a shared scorecard so every manager scores the same way. Our MEDDIC scorecard template has the six criteria, a 0–3 rubric and the questions behind each letter, ready to copy. In Drummer, every recorded call is scored against that scorecard automatically, each criterion with its reasoning and the timestamp that proves it, and managers can comment on the exact moment in the call. The coaching page shows how it works.