Methodology: MEDDIC and MEDDPICC

Qualification that holds up in a sales review

The aim is not to book more meetings. It is to create opportunities your sales team can work, with enough context for a proper handover. How we qualify depends on your stage and on how complex the sale is.

The model follows the sale

Early stageDiscovery model
Growth stageMEDDIC
EnterpriseMEDDPICC

Why meeting counts mislead

A booked meeting tells you someone agreed to a call. It does not tell you whether they have the problem, whether anyone will pay to solve it, or who else needs to agree. When outbound is judged on meetings alone, those questions are left for the account executive to discover, usually weeks later.

Qualification brings them forward. Each conversation gets a clear status, the gaps are visible, and your team can decide early where to spend time. It also makes forecasting more reliable, because opportunities are described in the same way each time.

Qualification by company stage

Early stage

Discovery model

Used while the product, ICP or message is still being tested. The aim is evidence, not forecast accuracy.

Pain: is the problem real and specific?
Urgency: is there a reason to act this year?
Affected workflow: who does the work today, and how?
Desired outcome: what would better look like?
Buyer access: can we reach the person who would own the decision?
Willingness to test, pilot or pay

Growth stage

MEDDIC

Used once there is a repeatable sales process and a team that needs consistent opportunity data.

Metrics
Economic Buyer
Decision Criteria
Decision Process
Identify Pain
Champion

Enterprise

MEDDPICC

Used for complex, multi-stakeholder deals where procurement, security review and competing options decide the outcome.

Everything in MEDDIC
Paper Process
Competition

MEDDIC in plain language

MEDDIC is a checklist for understanding whether an opportunity is real. Each element has a plain meaning and a question we use in conversation. The questions are asked naturally over several calls, not read out as a form.

Metrics: The measurable outcome the buyer expects. In security this might be less time spent triaging alerts, fewer audit findings, or faster security reviews for new customers.; How would you know, six months from now, that this had worked?
Economic Buyer: The person who can approve the spend. Often not the person who feels the problem most.; Who signs off a purchase like this, and what do they need to see?
Decision Criteria: The technical, commercial and risk criteria the buyer will use to compare options.; What would a solution have to do, or avoid, to be taken seriously?
Decision Process: The steps, people and timing between first interest and a signed decision.; When you last bought a security tool, what happened between the first call and the contract?
Identify Pain: The specific problem, what it costs, and the consequence of leaving it alone.; What happens if this stays as it is for another year?
Champion: Someone inside the buying organisation who wants the change and has the standing to argue for it.; Who else cares about this enough to push for it internally?

What MEDDPICC adds for enterprise deals

In large security purchases, deals rarely stall because the buyer lost interest. They stall in procurement, in security review, or because another option looked safer. MEDDPICC adds two elements to account for that.

Paper Process

The legal, procurement and security steps needed before anyone can sign. In enterprise security this often includes vendor risk questionnaires, data protection agreements, evidence of your own security testing, insurance checks and approved supplier or framework requirements. These steps can add months. They are much easier to plan for when they are known early.

Competition

Every option the buyer is weighing, including incumbent tools, a platform they already own, an internal build, and doing nothing. Knowing what you are being compared with shapes the message, the proof you need and the timing of the conversation.

What a qualified handover contains

When an opportunity meets the agreed standard, it is passed to your sales team with a written note. The note records what is known, what is not, and a suggested next step, so the first sales call starts from the right place.

Opportunity handover note

Qualified to: MEDDPICC

Account: Mid-sized UK financial services firm
Contact: Head of Security Operations
Trigger: New CISO appointed. Review of security operations tooling announced.
Pain: Analysts spend much of each shift closing low-value alerts. Two senior analysts have left this year.
Metrics discussed: Time to triage, analyst retention
Economic buyer: CISO, confirmed as owner of the tooling budget
Decision process: Tooling review to finish before the next financial year. Procurement and vendor risk assessment required.
Competition: Add-on module from the existing SIEM vendor. An internal automation project.
Champion: Head of Security Operations, willing to introduce the CISO
Still unknown: Decision criteria not confirmed. Timing of the paper process not known.
Suggested next step: Discovery call with the Head of Security Operations and the CISO's chief of staff

Illustrative example. This is not a real client, contact or opportunity.

[Client proof / case study placeholder]

[An anonymised example of how stage-appropriate qualification changed opportunity quality or the handover to sales. Add only with the client's approval.]

See the case study format

Start with a pipeline review

A 45-minute call about your ICP, your current outbound and how opportunities are qualified. You should leave with a clearer view of where to focus, whether or not we work together.

Book a pipeline review Engagement models