How I close more deals by using MEDDPICC with Outreach

AEs have entered a new era in sales. We have to contend with longer deal cycles, more stakeholders, invisible threats from competitors, and decisions that have to go through finance and procurement teams. It's never been a more challenging and complex time to be in this field. 

Without the right tools and data, I've seen too many AEs waste time on inefficient, manual processes and run their deals based on gut feel. These highly manual processes decrease productivity and hurt win rates when sellers make avoidable mistakes that kill deals or waste time on unwinnable leads. 

And when we make deal-crushing mistakes, it can cost us our job. 

To predictably close more deals, sales teams need to be more productive, efficient, and consistent in selling. This is where MEDDPICC comes in.

MEDDPICC Definition

MEDDPICC is a sales methodology that helps reps qualify every deal in an efficient, consistent way. The acronym stands for Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Paper Process, Implicate the Pain, Champions, and Competition. 

Not only does MEDDPICC help my team ask better discovery questions, it also makes it easier to replicate our most successful strategies. Because we consistently follow the plan, were able to win more deals.

MEDDPICC is an effective sales methodology for 4 key reasons:

• It’s easy to use. When I follow the framework, it serves as a checklist that helps me get the right information, identify gaps early, and efficiently execute every next step.
• It’s focused on qualification. We don’t have time to waste on deals that won’t close. MEDDPICC ensures that we’re qualifying the deal throughout the sales process by getting the information we need from the right people at the right time. This helps me avoid chasing down details at the end of the deal cycle that could slow down my deal or — even worse — stall it entirely.
• It’s an action-oriented framework. MEDDPICC not only tells me what I need to know about my buyer, but it also requires me to gather critical information from the buyer early on and identify and engage a champion. Many of the checklist items require mutual accountability from both me and the buyer, which moves things along and increases my win rate.
• It provides a common language. MEDDPICC gives a name to everything I need to properly close a deal, removing ambiguity and confusion along the way. It provides a framework in which all stakeholders are aligned on common goals, timelines, and success criteria.

Outreach makes it easy to take full advantage of MEDDPICC and is the only sales execution platform that allows sellers and sales managers to follow each MEDDPICC principle in every deal to increase deal velocity and win rates. 

Let's take a look at how using MEDDPICC in Outreach helps me efficiently and predictably close more deals. 

Metrics

Every opportunity starts with figuring out the quantifiable ways that your solution can provide value. In my case, I'm looking for metrics related to increasing revenue, decreasing costs, and mitigating risk. For example, my champion might mention they are looking to increase rep efficiency by a certain percentage. Good metrics should have the following: 

• Measurable: The outcome of your product on the prospect’s business should be measurable.
• Everyday language: The language describing the metrics should be simple. 
• Tells a story: The metrics should explain how it can help a business.
• Result: The metrics should be able to compare before the solution was integrated and after. 
• Impact economics: How the metrics impact the economy of the business (increases revenue or decreases cost).
• Champion support: The champion should agree that the metrics support their business priorities. 

How Outreach helps you identify metrics 

I use Kaia, Outreach's conversation intelligence capability, during discovery calls to nail down the metrics a buyer hopes to achieve. Outreach's conversation intelligence automatically transcribes entire meetings while capturing key moments, action items, and behaviors. This way, I can focus on the buyer while also ensuring I'm tracking their paint points and what they hope to achieve with a new platform. 

Some of the metrics questions I ask during discovery include: 

• How do you currently measure your success? 
• What goals are you looking to achieve? 
• What does a successful outcome of these goals look like to you? 
• How much are you currently spending to address this issue? 

From there, I use mutual action plans (aka Success Plans) in Outreach to build a project plan where sellers, buyers, and internal stakeholders can align and collaborate to drive a smooth, repeatable purchase process. I use mutual action plans to capture the metrics the buyer discussed and make sure we stay on the same page throughout the buying process. 

Economic buyer 

The economic buyer is the person who can spend money, approve and create a budget, and ultimately sign the contract. In other words, it's the person who can make or break the deal. This might be the CEO, CFO, CTO, CIO or VP. 

I try to identify the economic buyer early on in the sales process. It's also crucial to understand the economic buyer's vision and pain points so that I can make sure to highlight how our product can help address these issues. 

Some of the questions I ask during discovery to find this out include: 

• Who makes the final decision when it comes to purchasing at your company? 
• What do you/they need to see to sign off on a product? 
• What economic metrics do you/they measure success with?

How Outreach helps you engage the economic buyer

To make sure I have the right stakeholders involved in the deal, I look at my deal health score within the opportunity dashboard in Outreach. The deal health score lets me know if Im staying on top of my opportunities and is calculated based on signals such as:

• Number of stakeholders involved in the deal
• Frequency and volume of engagement over the past 12 months
• Number of outstanding tasks that I need to address
• Any recent conversations
• How recently the mutual action plan was updated 

Additionally, Outreachs mutual action plans include action items for the buyer. I can see if the economic buyer has opened the plan, or any other resources I share with them. If the economic buyer has gone dark, I can identify that early on and add the economic buyer to a sequence to re-engage them.

Decision criteria

This stage is all about understanding why the buyer is evaluating vendors and how closely my solution aligns with the requirements that make or break their decision to buy. Usually decision criteria is divided into technical, business, and cultural/legal decision criteria. 

Here are some of the questions I ask related to decision criteria during discovery: 

• What information or paperwork would you or your stakeholders need to see to make a decision?
• Why are these criteria important?
• What are the most important criteria to meet?
• Who will be evaluating our services to see if they meet the criteria?

How Outreach helps you track decision criteria

Kaia is an invaluable tool at this stage. I can use it to capture all decision criteria, both during discovery and throughout the sales cycle.

Kaia gives me real-time support on calls via Content Cards, which are keyword-based, quick summaries on competitors, product features, pricing, and more. Content Cards pop up during virtual calls so I can address the buyer's concerns and questions immediately in the moment. 

Let's say the buyer asks about a specific competitor. Content Cards allow me to address exactly how were better and why, with messaging my team has written and approved. 

Additionally, I can record and save all decision criteria in my mutual action plan to keep them accessible and top-of-mind for all parties. If and when decision criteria change throughout the sales cycle, stakeholders on either side can come back to the Success Plan to realign. 

Decision process

The decision process is a series of steps the buyer follows to go from making an evaluation to making a decision. To figure out what those steps are, I ask the following during discovery: 

• Who and/or which committees must recommend our product?
• How are decisions usually made when buying software? 
• Who is required to sign off at each stage?
• Does the total amount of the deal change who signs?
• How long does it take to execute your internal signoff process?

How Outreach helps you identify the decision process

The decision process step gives me permission to hold both myself and the buyer accountable for the agreed-upon journey. I'm able to outline all of the decision steps necessary in our mutual action plan timeline so there's no confusion on which steps need to be completed before the deal is done. Overall, this stage not only ensures that I have a deal but also that I know how to win it. 

Frontline managers can also look at an opportunity's deal health to determine if a step in the decision process needs attention (deal health will automatically flag if a deal is off track due to a lack of engagement or an irregularity in the company's typical sale cycle). 

From there, Outreach gives me suggested actions to get the deal back on track to close. 

Paper process

The paper process is the series of steps that follow the decision process of how to move from decision to signature. A buyer's business process is different from its legal process, and if the seller doesn't understand the nuanced differences early on in the deal cycle, they'll be surprised when the buyer's legal team rewrites an entire agreement at the 11th hour. 

To avoid this, I make sure to ask the following questions during discovery: 

• Can you tell me what exactly has to happen for your organization to place the purchase order?
• Can you help me understand the contracting and administrative approval process at your company? Who will be involved and what does it typically entail?
• Who is the main contact for this process? 
• Is there anything I can share ahead of time that would make the legal process simpler?
• Are there any new people I should be introduced to that would help us get this signature done faster?
• How much time does the legal process typically take?
• When could I get introduced to your procurement team to start the process?

How Outreach helps you keep the paper process moving 

I can again use a mutual action plan timeline to hold all the right people accountable. Sharing the plan with the buyer's legal counsel allows them to get up to speed on the deal without having to schedule additional time to meet to catch them up on the details. 

Implicate the pain

Do you know why your buyer might take the leap to buy your product? Do you know why they'd be willing to do that now? Can you name the negative business or personal impact of the status quo that motivates your buyer's potential purchase? 

Simply put, if you don't find enough pain, your deal is on the fast track to lose. Either to your competition or to inertia. The higher the pain level, the higher the value, the higher the priority.

The goal during this step is to figure out pain points your customer has and how your product might be able to solve them. In my case, there are three types of pain I look at: 

• Financial pain 
• Efficiency pain 
• People pain 

During discovery, I make sure to ask the following: 

• How are your goals tied to the broader company goals? 
• What happens if you meet/exceed your goals? 
• What is holding you back the most right now? 
• What frustrates you most in your current situation? 
• What do you fear most about the next year in your role? 
• What would need to happen for you if you could “blue-sky” a great year?

How Outreach helps you track pain points

I capture these pain points in a mutual action plan so that if the champion leaves, I can pick up where I left off and demonstrate the business case to a new stakeholder. Since Outreach's conversation intelligence capability creates a live transcript during the call, I can also highlight when the buyer names a pain point and add their own notes to that part of the conversation transcript, ensuring it gets the emphasis it deserves.

Champions 

A champion is a person who has power, influence, and credibility within the buyer's organization. If you don't have a champion, you don't have a deal. 

Your champion is the person inside the buyer's company who is rooting for you to win. They are the ones who would benefit most from your solution and can be an essential voice around the table when the decision is made. Although most often the champion and decision-maker are different people, your champion is your best advocate back to the decision-maker. While it's helpful to hear from a salesperson about all the value their product can provide, it's even more important to hear it from an employee at the company who is aligned with you. 

Helping the champion understand your product's value to them and the broader organization and arming them to articulate that internally is an integral part of the sales process.

Here are some of the questions I ask to identify the champion: 

• Will you introduce me to the most important people in the buying process? 
• Are you willing to go to bat for us against any detractors? 
• Have there been examples where you could successfully sell in a solution like this? 
• Does your boss generally have faith in your recommendations? 
• What are the key objections you know we need to overcome? 
• What is the best way to sell this solution to the most senior folks in the room? 

How Outreach helps you work with your champion 

Mutual action plans provide champions with the resources they need to sell on your behalf at any time. Rather than needing to schedule another demo, mutual action plans give your champion access to all sales assets that you've shared with them. This way, they can invite their colleagues to the plan and sell on your behalf.

Competition

Who does the buyer see as your main competition, and what differentiates you from them? You don't want to get all the way to the end of the deal cycle only to learn that the buyer chose another vendor. 

Here are some of the questions I ask to identify competition: 

• What other companies besides us are you thinking about? 
• Are there things you wish we did differently? 
• Why would we not win this deal? 
• What do you think of our competition? 
• Would you let me know if we were running behind a competitor in this evaluation?

How Outreach helps you handle the competition 

Content Cards in Outreach can help me address competitive questions on the spot. If the buyer asks about a competitor, I have instant access to the talking points I need at the moment I need them. I can also add competitor-specific case studies and customer stories to the 'Resources' section of mutual action plans to equip the prospect with the right reading materials. 

I can also use Saved Search Alerts in Outreach to automatically flag when a competitor gets mentioned in virtual calls during the later stages of the deal. This gives me an opportunity to work with my manager on navigating through tricky competitive moats during strategic deal review meetings. 

Finally, Outreachs Post Call Summary helps my manager understand how Im handling objections and competitors. These moments can also be shared with the rest of the team so everyone can learn best practices for how to handle objections, questions, or competitive threats. 

Close more deals

By using MEDDPICC in Outreach, I always know what to do, what to say, and who to say it to in order to close a deal. But more importantly, I know when to walk away from a bad opportunity that has no chance of closing. 

If you're interested in learning more about mutual action plans in Outreach, check out this webinar for a deeper dive into how Outreach sales managers and AEs use Success Plans to shorten deal cycles and boost win rates.

Together, they'll demo the platform and show you:

• How sales leaders use Outreach to operationalize qualification methodologies like MEDDPICC, MEDDIC, BANT, or SPIN — ensuring sellers consistently and continuously qualify deals

• How top-performing AEs use mutual action plans to align with all stakeholders all the way to close

• How to use mutual action plans to avoid potential deal-killing scenarios, such as a departing champion or new stakeholders entering the deal