--- name: qualifying-with-meddpicc description: >- Scores an enterprise opportunity Red/Yellow/Green against all eight MEDDPICC elements (Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Paper Process, Implicate the Pain, Champion, Competition), cites the evidence behind each rating, and produces a dated gap-closure plan. Use when the user says MEDDPICC, MEDDIC, MEDDICC, qualify this deal, deal inspection, deal review, pipeline review, "is this deal real", forecast hygiene, "score my opportunity", champion test, economic buyer, or pastes call notes and asks what is missing. Do NOT use for running the discovery conversation itself (see running-discovery-calls), for diagnosing no-decision and stalled-buyer risk (see handling-buyer-indecision), or for sequencing signature milestones (see building-deal-close-plans). metadata: version: "1.0" --- # Qualifying with MEDDPICC Score one named opportunity against the eight MEDDPICC elements, attach buyer-sourced evidence to every score, and output a gap-closure plan that turns Reds into Yellows and Yellows into Greens. Out of scope: conducting discovery calls, writing the mutual action plan, forecasting the whole territory, and any rating asserted without a quoted buyer source. ## Inputs you need before scoring Ask for whatever is missing; do not score from assumption, because a fabricated Green is worse than an honest Red — it hides the risk from the forecast. - Opportunity name, amount, stage, current close date, and how many times that date has moved. - Raw evidence: call notes, transcripts, email threads, CRM opportunity fields, the buyer's own documents (RFP, scoring matrix, security questionnaire). - Named contacts with titles and reporting lines. ## The eight elements MEDDPICC extends MEDDIC (created inside PTC in 1996 by Dick Dunkel, with Jack Napoli) by adding Competition and Paper Process and by replacing "Identify Pain" with "Implicate the Pain" ([MEDDICC](https://meddicc.com/meddpicc-sales-methodology-and-process)). Use these definitions verbatim when deciding a rating. | Element | Definition to test against | Score Green only when | |---|---|---| | **M**etrics | "The quantifiable measures of value that your solution can provide" ([MEDDICC](https://meddicc.com/meddpicc-sales-methodology-and-process)) | The buyer stated a number in their own units, and you can repeat it back | | **E**conomic Buyer | "The person with the overall authority in the buying decision" ([MEDDICC](https://meddicc.com/meddpicc-sales-methodology-and-process)) — operationally, discretionary budget authority to approve or kill, usually one or two levels above the daily contact ([Weflow](https://www.weflow.ai/blog/meddpicc)) | Named, and you have met them or have a booked meeting | | **D**ecision Criteria | "Principles, guidelines and requirements that an organization uses to make a decision about your solution" ([MEDDICC](https://meddicc.com/meddpicc-sales-methodology-and-process)) | You have the must-have vs nice-to-have split and know who authored it | | **D**ecision Process | "The steps that the buyer will take to decide whether they will buy" ([MEDDICC](https://meddicc.com/meddpicc-sales-methodology-and-process)) | You can name each step, its owner, and its date | | **P**aper Process | "The series of steps that follow the Decision Process in how you will go from Decision to signature" ([MEDDICC](https://meddicc.com/meddpicc-sales-methodology-and-process)) | Legal, security, and procurement steps each have an owner and a duration the buyer quoted | | **I**mplicate the Pain | Pain "Identified, Indicated, and Implicated" ([MEDDICC](https://meddicc.com/meddpicc-sales-methodology-and-process)) | The buyer has said what the pain costs and what happens if it is not fixed | | **C**hampion | "A person who has power, influence, and credibility within the customer's organization" ([MEDDICC](https://meddicc.com/meddpicc-sales-methodology-and-process)) with a personal stake in your winning; without that stake they are "a coach at best, not a champion" ([Weflow](https://www.weflow.ai/blog/meddpicc)) | They have sold for you when you were not in the room | | **C**ompetition | "Other vendors, internal solutions, or staying with the status quo" ([Weflow](https://www.weflow.ai/blog/meddpicc)) | You know the shortlist and where you rank on the buyer's criteria | ## Rating scale Apply exactly these definitions; do not invent intermediate ratings, because the whole point of the scorecard is that a Green means the same thing on every deal and every team ([Weflow](https://www.weflow.ai/blog/meddpicc)). - **Green** — "Fully validated: you have confirmed, specific information from the buyer." Maintain and update. - **Yellow** — "Partially known: you have some information but gaps remain." Fill the gap in the next interaction. - **Red** — "Unknown or unconfirmed: you're guessing or haven't asked yet." Deal risk; fix before advancing the stage. Evidence rule: a rating is Green only if you can paste a buyer quote, a buyer document, or a calendar invite as proof. Rep opinion, internal speculation, and inference from a job title are Yellow at best, because MEDDPICC exists to test whether the deal is real rather than to record what the rep hopes ([PitchMonster](https://www.pitchmonster.io/blog/challenger-sale-methodology)). ## Workflow Copy this checklist into your reply and tick items as you complete them: ``` - [ ] 1. Assemble evidence and list named contacts - [ ] 2. Score all 8 elements R/Y/G with a quoted evidence line each - [ ] 3. Run the evidence audit; downgrade any unproven rating; repeat until clean - [ ] 4. Apply the forecast-category test - [ ] 5. Write the gap-closure plan (owner + date + question per Red and Yellow) - [ ] 6. Emit the scorecard in the output template ``` **1. Assemble evidence.** Pull every artifact into one place and tag each with its date. Discount any evidence older than the last stage change, because org changes and re-prioritisation invalidate stakeholder claims faster than anything else in the record. **2. Score all eight.** Score every element, including the ones that look obvious. Use these questions, verbatim, to test whether you actually have the answer ([Weflow](https://www.weflow.ai/blog/meddpicc)): - Metrics: "What's the cost of this problem on a monthly or quarterly basis?" / "Have you built a business case yet, and what numbers are in it?" - Economic Buyer: "Who has final sign-off on the budget for this initiative?" / "Has this person approved similar purchases in the past 12 months?" / "Can we get 15 minutes with them before the proposal stage?" - Decision Criteria: "What are the must-have requirements versus nice-to-haves?" / "Who defined the evaluation criteria, and are they final?" / "Have you built a scoring matrix, and can we see the categories?" - Decision Process: "Can you walk me through the steps between now and a signed contract?" / "Is there a formal vendor selection committee, and who sits on it?" - Paper Process: "How long does legal review typically take for new vendor agreements?" / "Who in procurement should I contact early?" / "Are there any fiscal year deadlines that affect when the PO needs to be issued?" - Implicate the Pain: "How long has this problem existed, and what's changed to make it urgent now?" / "What happens if you don't solve this in the next 6 months?" - Champion: "Does this person have a personal stake in solving this problem (promotion, performance review, project ownership)?" / "Have they gone to bat for a vendor before?" - Competition: "Who else is on the shortlist?" / "What would need to be true for you to decide not to make a change at all?" **3. Evidence audit — validate, fix, re-validate.** For each element you scored Green or Yellow, state the single artifact that proves it. If you cannot name one, downgrade the rating one level and re-run this audit over the changed rows. Only proceed to step 4 when every Green and Yellow has a named artifact. This loop is non-negotiable, because unaudited scorecards drift Green over the life of a deal and stop discriminating between deals. **4. Forecast-category test.** A deal belongs in the commit forecast only with "zero reds and no more than two yellows" ([Weflow](https://www.weflow.ai/blog/meddpicc)). If the deal is currently committed and fails this test, say so in one sentence and name the specific element that disqualifies it. Do not soften it; the scorecard's only function in a forecast call is to overrule optimism. **5. Gap-closure plan.** For every Red and Yellow, write one row: element, the specific question or artifact needed, the named person who can supply it, the owner on your side, and a date inside the next seven days. Use judgment on sequencing — you have freedom here, and the sequencing rule is dependency, not alphabet: chase Economic Buyer access and Paper Process first because both have long external lead times, and leave Metrics refinement until you have someone senior to validate the number with. **6. Emit the scorecard** using the output template below. ## Output format Use this exact structure and section order; downstream deal-review agendas parse the heading names. Wording inside the cells is yours. ```markdown ## MEDDPICC scorecard — / / / Close Overall: Green / Yellow / Red — Commit-eligible: | Element | Rating | Evidence (source + date) | Gap | |---|---|---|---| | Metrics | Green | "" — , | — | | Economic Buyer | Red | No named EB in any call record | Never asked | | ... | | | | ### Gap-closure plan | # | Element | Action / question to ask | Ask whom | Owner | By | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | Economic Buyer | "Can we get 15 minutes with them before the proposal stage?" | | | | ### Call it ``` ## Gotchas - A contact who is generous with time, responsive, and enthusiastic is frequently a Talker, not a Champion — "receptive, generous with their time... but often unable to drive a purchase internally," and a talker "fails the MEDDPICC test of whether the contact is a champion" ([PitchMonster](https://www.pitchmonster.io/blog/challenger-sale-methodology)). Score Champion on internal mobilisation evidence only. A Sceptic who challenges every claim on the first call is a better bet than a contact who agrees with everything. - Decision Process and Paper Process are different objects and reps routinely merge them. Decision Process ends at "we choose you"; Paper Process is everything from that decision to signature ([MEDDICC](https://meddicc.com/meddpicc-sales-methodology-and-process)). A deal with Green Decision Process and Red Paper Process is the classic quarter-end slip, and it scores as one Red, not as "mostly fine." - Do not read a team-wide pattern as an individual's failure. If roughly 60% of the team is Red on Paper Process, treat it as a training gap rather than a rep performance issue ([Weflow](https://www.weflow.ai/blog/meddpicc)). - Competition includes the status quo and internal build. A deal recorded as "no competition" is almost always Red rather than Green, because the buyer's default of doing nothing is always on the shortlist ([Weflow](https://www.weflow.ai/blog/meddpicc)). - Treat MEDDPICC's published outcome numbers as vendor marketing, not research. Claims of forecast accuracy "within 10% of actual" versus "25-40% variance," win rates up "15-30% within two quarters," and quarter-end slippage cut "20-35%" are published without an underlying study ([Weflow](https://www.weflow.ai/blog/meddpicc)). Quote them only when explicitly labelled as vendor claims. - MEDDPICC does not tell you how to run the conversation. It is a qualification checklist directed rep-to-manager and it "does not say" how to conduct the call ([PitchMonster](https://www.pitchmonster.io/blog/challenger-sale-methodology)). When the gap is discovery depth rather than record-keeping, hand off to running-discovery-calls. - Metrics scored from your own ROI calculator is a Yellow, not a Green. The definition requires quantifiable value the buyer confirms; a number the buyer has never repeated back will not survive the CFO. - Behaviour change on a new MEDDPICC rollout takes "two to three quarters" ([Weflow](https://www.weflow.ai/blog/meddpicc)). If asked to assess adoption after a few weeks, report scorecard completeness rather than win-rate movement, because win rate cannot yet have responded. ## Coaching mode When the user asks for a pipeline review rather than a single deal, score their top three to five deals and run the standing question against each Red: "What's your plan to turn this red into a yellow this week?" ([Weflow](https://www.weflow.ai/blog/meddpicc)). Report the distribution of Reds by element across the set, because the element that is Red most often is the coaching topic, and one weak deal is not a pattern.