Why MEDDPICC Needs a Facelift
When I first started at Ascend, one of the first tasks I took on was to revamp the sales process. Considering my extensive experience and training around the MEDDPICC methodology, my default was to, of course, implement a Customer Engagement Process based on this tried and true practice. However, I realized I had the opportunity to improve on this process based on the gaps I’ve noticed over the years, and as such, I rolled out MEDDPICCerr. The “e” stands for entertainment, the first “r” stands for rapport, and the last “r” stands for risk. Let’s break down each…shall we?
Entertainment:
Have you ever had the pleasure of treating your Champion to floor seats for opening night at a New York Knicks game? Have you ever spent more on dinner with your Economic Buyer than your mortgage? As embarrassing as it is to say, I have! Well, maybe not that embarrassing.
Why do salespeople engage in these kinds of activities? Well maybe for obvious reasons. But do we do it every time? Do we make it part of our playbook or only reserved for our “top” prospects? It’s been my experience that these types of lavishes are generally reserved for our most valuable prospects. But what if we treated every prospect this way? How would that improve your success rate?
Does it have to be super expensive or an outrageous indulgence? No, it doesn’t. Lunch, golf, a baseball game, etc. all will do. The goal is not to spend other people’s money to impress someone, it’s to develop a relationship and experience that will stick with all the parties involved. Another goal is to create memories and moments that are special and that are integral to developing a strong and long-lasting partnership. It’s about developing that human connection and letting the guard down to just be. We all care and value those experiences so why not invest in that with all your prospects?
Rapport:
Similar to entertainment, this is the ability of the sales rep to develop a strong and personal relationship with the prospect. The ability to truly understand not only the professional context of the relationship but also to create the fabricate needed to get on a personal level. To learn and understand who they are as a person, not just a prospect.
Does the rep know anything personal about the contact? What are their hobbies? What is their favorite thing to do outside of work? Do they have a family? Have they ever traveled the world or do they have this on their bucket list? Asking and understanding the personal context not only shows empathy on a human level but also shows you care about them as a person and they are willing to allow you to get personal as well.
There is one bio-product of this exercise that can also be extremely helpful in your sales process….you can truly learn what’s in it for them. If you can understand the personal motivations of your prospect as to why they want to get a deal done with you, you can align to those motivates to help get the deal over the line for both of you.
As a sales leader, some of the questions I ask the rep to challenge the status of their rapport are listed above. But there is one sure-fire way to know if the rep has developed a strong rapport with their prospect. That question is: “are you in a text message relationship with your contact”? The answer to that one question will tell you everything you need to know.
Risk:
I can’t tell you how many weekly, monthly, and quarterly deal reviews I’ve been in as both a rep and sales leader where the evitable question was asked “what’s the risk of this deal not closing.” So, why isn’t that built into the traditional MEDDPICC process?
All deals carry risk. Risk migration is part of the life you’ve chosen as a sales rep and the best thing you can do for yourself, and your company, is to identify what those risks are and get ahead of them. Most risks are in your control to address and if you can control it, you should control it. The earlier you start to reduce risk the more likely you are to be successful.
Your risk radar should be up from the very first call. Often you can uncover competition within that first call which is certainly a risk factor. However, as you move through the sales process, risk is constantly poking its head out. The further you progress a deal through the process, the more complex the risk generally gets.
It’s important to be intellectually honest about what those risks are, share with your leadership, internally with additional stakeholders, etc. so that you can proactively address potential risk factors and defuse them as quickly as possible. Ask for help, that’s why it’s a risk; if it was easy for you to overcome, then it wouldn’t be a risk….it would be an objection/concern that you as a trained sales rep should be able to handle on your own. To be clear, risk is a deal killer. You are responsible for the deal and the risks that come with it.