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Methodology

The original six

MEDDIC is the qualification framework that started the discipline. Caty coaches it live, every deal, every week, and tells you which of the six criteria is actually missing before the forecast call finds out the hard way.

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Six criteria

MEDDIC, line by line.

MEDDIC is a qualification discipline: six things a deal must contain to be real. Here is what each one means, and what separates a filled slot from a hopeful one.

  1. 01

    Metrics

    The quantified business outcome the buyer expects, in their numbers. Not "improve efficiency". "Cut 14 hours a week off month-end close." If you can't put a figure on the win, you can't prove ROI and you can't hold a price.

  2. 02

    Economic Buyer

    The single person with the authority and budget to say yes without asking anyone else. MEDDIC is blunt here: if you have not met them, named them, and heard their priorities first-hand, the deal is not qualified, no matter how warm your contact is.

  3. 03

    Decision Criteria

    The specific, often unwritten standards the buyer will use to choose. Technical, commercial, and relational. Get them documented in the buyer's words, then influence them before the criteria harden against you.

  4. 04

    Decision Process

    The literal sequence from verbal yes to signed contract: every approval, demo, reference call, and gate, with owners and dates. A vague process is the single most common reason "committed" deals slip a quarter.

  5. 05

    Identify Pain

    The named business pain that justifies action now. Not a wish. A cost the buyer can articulate and feels personally. No compelling pain, no urgency; no urgency, no deal that closes this quarter.

  6. 06

    Champion

    A person inside the account with influence and a personal stake in your win, who sells for you when you are not in the room. Test the difference between a friend and a champion: ask them to do something: set up the EB meeting, send a draft business case. A champion delivers.

MEDDIC on a live deal

Qualified, or just optimistic?

The framework is six letters. The skill is being honest about which letters you have actually earned.

  1. What good looks like

    Every letter is filled in with evidence, not assumption.

    A genuinely qualified MEDDIC deal reads like a short case file. Metrics are written down and agreed by the buyer. The Economic Buyer has been met and their words are quoted in the CRM. Decision Criteria are captured verbatim. The Decision Process is a dated sequence, not "they said end of quarter." Pain is named in the buyer's language. The Champion has already done something hard for you. When all six hold, the forecast is a statement of fact, not a hope.

  2. Common mistakes

    Where MEDDIC deals quietly fall apart.

    Mistaking a coach for a Champion: someone who likes you but cannot or will not move the deal. Treating "I'll take it to my boss" as Economic Buyer access. Inventing Metrics from your own ROI deck instead of the buyer's numbers. Letting Decision Criteria stay in your head rather than documented and confirmed. And the classic: a Decision Process that is really just a close date with no steps behind it. Each gap is invisible on a happy call and fatal on the forecast call.

  3. How Caty reinforces it

    A weekly read on which of the six is actually empty.

    Caty scores your live deals against all six criteria, every week, and is honest about which slots are filled with evidence versus filled with optimism. She does not let "Champion: VP of Ops" sit unchallenged. She asks what that person has done for the deal. She turns "Decision Process: Q3" into the missing question you need to ask on the next call. The point is not the scorecard; it is the next action that closes the gap before it costs you the quarter.

The coach

Methodology-flexible. MEDDIC-fluent.

Caty knows the original six. If your team runs MEDDIC, she scores every deal against it, surfaces the gaps, and tells you which call needs to happen next.

Meet Caty

Looking for MEDDPICC instead? Read the MEDDPICC page

FAQ

Quick answers.

  1. What is MEDDIC?
    The original B2B sales qualification framework: Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, Champion. Developed at PTC in the 1990s, where it helped grow revenue from $300M to $1B. It is a qualification discipline: a way of pressure-testing whether a deal is real, not a question script. Most teams have since evolved to MEDDPICC, which adds Paper Process and Competition.
  2. Is MEDDIC a discovery method or a qualification method?
    Qualification. MEDDIC does not tell you what to ask on a discovery call the way SPIN or Gap Selling do. It tells you what a deal must contain to be considered real, and it surfaces what is missing. The best teams pair it with a discovery method: discovery uncovers the information, MEDDIC checks that you actually have it.
  3. How do I tell a Champion from a friend?
    A friend gives you information and good wishes. A Champion has a personal stake in your win and acts on it. The test MEDDIC teaches: ask them to do something that costs them effort or political capital: arrange the Economic Buyer meeting, co-author the business case, push the legal review. A Champion delivers. A friend explains why it is hard. If nobody passes that test, you do not have a Champion yet, and the deal carries risk you cannot see.
  4. Why does the Economic Buyer matter so much?
    Because deals stall, shrink, or die in the gap between the people who like your product and the one person who controls the budget. MEDDIC treats "have you met the EB" as a binary qualifier on purpose. Working through their team is a relay race, and information, urgency, and your value story all degrade with every handoff. Caty will keep asking for that meeting until it happens.
  5. Should I use MEDDIC or MEDDPICC?
    MEDDIC if your sales cycle is short and legal/procurement is not a bottleneck. MEDDPICC if your enterprise deals die in paper process or you keep losing on competitive feel. The two extra letters (Paper Process and Competition) exist because those are the things that kill more enterprise Q4 deals than discovery does.
  6. Who coaches MEDDIC?
    Caty. She is methodology-flexible: she knows MEDDIC, MEDDPICC, MEDDPICCC, and the variants. Pick MEDDIC and she runs your discovery and deals through all six criteria.
  7. Do I need to upload anything?
    No. Vanilla MEDDIC works out of the box. Upload your playbook and qualification bar later when you want her tuned to your team's specific standard for what "qualified" means.
  8. How do I get Caty for my team?
    Speak to us. Caty is delivered through Replicate Labs partners who configure her against MEDDIC and your team's qualification bar. Want to try the platform first? Keenan is free and can coach against MEDDIC alongside Gap Selling. Start there.

Run a deal through the six

Working session with a Replicate Labs partner. See which of the six slots is actually empty in your top deal.

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