Sales glossary

MEDDIC: the qualification framework explained for phone sellers

MEDDIC: A qualification framework for complex B2B deals: Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Identify pain and Champion. It shows which parts of a deal you still do not understand.

MEDDIC is a qualification framework for B2B deals where more than one person decides and the sale takes weeks or months. Each letter is a gap in what you know about the deal. The framework does not tell you what to say; it tells you what you still have not found out.

On the phone, MEDDIC is mostly a discovery tool. You will rarely fill in all six parts on the first call, and you should not try.

The six parts

Metrics: the measurable result the customer wants, in their words. "Fewer missed calls" is a start. "We lose most of a day each week rebooking no-shows" is a metric.
Economic buyer: the person who can release money for this even if everyone else says no. Often not the person you are speaking to.
Decision criteria: what they will compare options on, such as price, ease of setup, a security review or fit with tools they already use.
Decision process: the steps from "interested" to signed. Who sees it, in which order, and which approvals are needed.
Identify pain: the problem that makes acting worth the effort. Without it, the rest of the framework describes a deal that will not happen.
Champion: someone inside who wants this to succeed and will tell you what is really going on.

MEDDIC or BANT?

BANT asks whether a lead could buy. MEDDIC asks how this particular organisation will buy, which is why it suits deals with several stakeholders. Some teams add a P for the paper process (contracts and procurement) and a second C for competition, and call it MEDDPICC. The extra letters matter most when legal and procurement get involved late.

How it sounds on a call

Good MEDDIC questions are short and follow from what the customer just said. If they mention a missed target, ask how they measure it. If they say "my boss will want to see this", ask what their boss usually looks at first. A question that clearly comes from a checklist gets a checklist answer.

Lines you can say on the phone

How would you know, a few months from now, that this worked?
Who would need to approve the spend, and have they bought something like this before?
When your team picked the tool you use now, what did the decision come down to?
Walk me through what happens after you say yes. Who sees it next?

Common mistakes

Calling the person who likes you your champion. A champion has influence and will spend it for you; a friendly contact only listens.
Guessing the economic buyer from a job title instead of asking how spending gets approved.
Filling in the framework from memory after the call instead of from what the customer actually said.

Related terms

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