Today’s sales teams face longer deal cycles, more stakeholders, and tighter budget scrutiny than ever before. That means that the sales qualification process — the ability to identify which opportunities are worth pursuing — is critical to business operations.

Fortunately, sales teams don’t need to invent a decision criteria that aligns with an established buying process or an ideal customer profile. Many established systems and frameworks already exist.

MEDDIC is one such framework. Established in the early 90s, the MEDDIC sales process has become one of the most respected systems for qualifying complex, high-value deals. It offers a structured way to dig into buyer pain points and decision-making processes so that the deal qualifications are faster, easier, and more reliable.

In this guide, we’ll talk about how MEDDIC works, who uses it, and how it compares with other sales methodologies.

Let’s hop in.

What is MEDDIC and why does it matter?

MEDDIC is a sales qualification framework designed to help sales professionals identify high-quality opportunities and navigate complex buying processes.

The acronym breaks down as follows:

  • Metrics. What measurable result does the buyer expect?
  • Economic Buyer. Who has the final approval and controls the budget?
  • Decision Criteria. What factors will influence the buyer’s choice?
  • Decision Process. How does the organization make purchasing decisions?
  • Identify Pain. What critical problems or needs is the buyer trying to solve?
  • Champion. Who inside the organization is advocating for your solution?

Unlike some lighter-weight frameworks (covered in greater detail below), MEDDIC is designed specifically for enterprise and high-value B2B sales, where buying decisions are rarely made by a single person. These processes almost always involve longer sales cycles, multiple decision-makers, and final approvals from multiple departments.

In these scenarios, the MEDDIC framework becomes a powerful solution because it focuses on understanding the buyer’s internal world. By answering the questions posed by this methodology, sales reps can zero in on the metrics, internal influencers, and buying process to better determine which deals have legs and which are unlikely to finalize without a considerable investment in time and effort.

How MEDDIC works

MEDDIC serves as a checklist for uncovering the key elements of any potential deal. Rather than relying on guesswork or surface-level interests, this framework pushes sales professionals to dig deeper and build a complete picture of each opportunity.

Here’s a closer look at how sales reps can utilize the MEDDIC framework to flesh out an opportunity.

Metrics

The MEDDIC process begins with understanding the metrics that define success for the buyer.

Early in the conversation, sales reps focus on a client’s measurable goals. This could be something tangible like increasing year-over-year utilization or saving on cost. It might also be something tied to a specific business goal or milestone (of which your solution is only one part).

Regardless of the end goal, the buyer’s metrics will provide a measuring stick for reps to understand what aligns with the customer’s determination of value and whether or not the company’s solution is a good fit.

Economic buyer

After the metrics are established, sellers need to identify the economic buyer. This is the individual with the final authority to approve budgets and greenlight ideas.

As is commonly the case in B2B sales, the economic buyer may be different from other project stakeholders. This individual may belong to a different department (finance), or may operate at a senior level within the organization.

When possible, engaging with the true decision-maker can shorten the buying cycle and minimize the risk of late-stage surprises. While these individuals aren’t always available, it’s still important for reps to isolate who they are. That way, pitches and messaging can be further refined to align with their unique business perspective.

Decision criteria

Especially for multi-faceted solutions like SaaS software or custom components, a prospect’s needs can quickly become overshadowed by the number of features that are available.

As part of lead qualification, reps need to isolate customer pain points and create a structured approach to present the company solution. Done correctly, this aligns product functionality with customer pain points so that it’s easier for stakeholders to visualize the direct impact of your product or solution.

This stage is critical, because it represents a narrowing of the sales pitch to only the product features and benefits that are most likely to serve the prospective buyer. Factors like price, specific functionality, ROI, ease of implementation, and other factors can play a role here.

Decision process

Equally important in MEDDIC is understanding the decision process itself.

Reps should know how the customer’s organization makes purchasing decisions, who else is involved, and what steps are required for final approval. Using this information, reps can plan ahead, anticipate obstacles, and try to push deals forward in a more strategic way.

However, because this step highlights a process rather than a specific piece of information, it can take some time to fully understand how the organization works. This process can also vary wildly based on the size and scope of the organization. For example, a startup may still need enterprise level software, but the final decision may be made by the CEO or a small board rather than a VP or executive.

While many companies will follow a more traditional structure (especially at scale), reps need to keep a lookout for major changes in how a company operates during the procurement process. Knowing this information can impact deal viability and impact how a deal looks in the sales pipeline.

Identify pain

Pain points are the underlying problems that create urgency for a solution. By digging deeper into the business challenges that the buyer faces, sales teams can position their products and services as must-haves that align closely with company objectives.

This is about more than return on investment or economic benefits. When salespeople have customers that align with ideal buyer personas and have taken the time to fully assess customer needs, building a sales approach that shows customers how to eliminate painful, operational problems is simple and straightforward.

Because pain points can vary between brands, sales organizations can also increase close rates with collateral specialized to address common trouble spots like operational inefficiencies, lost revenue, or competitive threats. In this scenario, using pre-built proposal templates that address those problems and creating sales playbooks to guide reps through those talking points can make it easier to qualify leads and prepare a strong value proposition.

Champion

Separate from the key stakeholders and decision-makers, champions are internal advocates within your organization that believe in your approach or solution. They’re internal promoters that can help to sway minds, even though they won’t make the final decisions on their own.

By building strong relationships with these individuals, it’s possible to influence the decision-making process. Champions can be essential to navigating objections, gathering internal support, and accelerating the deal.

When qualifying leads, isolating potential champions and providing them with the essential information they need can enable them to better advocate for your solution within their own team.

Who should use the MEDDIC sales process?

The MEDDIC sales methodology is a great fit in scenarios where deals don’t hinge on a combination of product features, business alignments, and measurable outcomes.

In these scenarios, reps need to work closely with potential customers in order to build lasting solutions and long-term relationships. Elongated deals are common, with sales cycles that may last for months before the contracts are finally signed.

The problem? This is often a time-consuming exercise.

MEDDIC can help during the qualification process, but it’s not for everyone. Here are a few specific teams and scenarios where MEDDIC is most likely to succeed:

  • Enterprise and mid-market sales teams. Often, reps attached to these teams end up selling into larger organizations that have a formalized buying process. The MEDDIC framework can help sales leaders better understand how the organization functions and qualify potential deals with those details in mind.
  • Multi-stakeholder B2B deals. These deals usually involve voices from multiple departments, including legal, finance, and IT. MEDDIC excels in these scenarios by helping teams map key decision-makers, potential champions, and the final buyer who will ultimately greenlight the final solution.
  • High-cost contracts and long sales cycles. As a deal becomes more strategic and expensive, it faces increasing levels of scrutiny. With MEDDIC, reps can stay aligned with buyers over extended timelines and through complex evaluations. As the deal evolves, reps using this framework will have all the information they need to continue pushing toward a final close.

While MEDDIC can be adapted to other types of sales, it’s not necessary for simple, transactional, and fast-moving deals. Single-buyer transactions and deals with a quick procurement process won’t require the level of complexity and detail that MEDDIC provides.

In those cases, lighter-weight frameworks like BANT may offer a faster, more efficient way to qualify leads — and that’s assuming you need a methodology at all. If your sales team is armed with a strong CPQ solution and strong templates, closing deals may only require a few quick questions and a follow-up.

However, when deals involve multiple stakeholders or require teams to build internal consensus over a longer period of time, MEDDIC will provide the structure to navigate those deals in an effective and consistent way.

Best practices for implementing MEDDIC

While MEDDIC is a relatively straightforward framework, applying it consistently across a sales team takes effort and intent.

Success will depend on how well the framework is embedded into daily workflows, coaching, and company culture. Getting everyone on board will require sales managers to reinforce the approach and continually tweak it in order to maintain a higher close rate.

Here are some of the best practices for implementing MEDDIC in your organization.

Train the team

Start by introducing the six elements of the MEDDIC sales qualification process via a workshop or formal training session, but be sure to go beyond the basic theory offered in this guide.

Use examples from your actual sales pipeline or closed deals to show how each MEDDIC element plays out in real conversations.

If you’re switching to MEDDIC from another framework, you may need to reverse-engineer the MEDDIC details from past deals, but it’s likely that all of the information is present for the deals that closed.

Keep in mind: The goal during training isn’t to memorize the acronym. Reps will need to change how they think about and qualify leads, which will ultimately generate changes in the sales strategy and deals process.

Build CRM-friendly workflows

Any sales qualification methodology is much easier to implement when it aligns with the tools that reps use in their day-to-day workflow. MEDDIC is no exception.

If your team is using a CRM like Salesforce, you can make it easier to apply the qualification process by adding custom fields or checklists inside the CRM. Each of these fields can be tied to a specific MEDDIC element, so reps can track progress as they qualify opportunities.

If MEDDIC elements are tied to critical aspects of an opportunity, reps won’t even be able to send quotes or move the deal forward until they’ve collected all the necessary information required to build the quote.

Other tools and platforms like PandaDoc can also help to streamline that implementation. For example, if MEDDIC details are tied to conditional fields inside Salesforce, those fields can also be linked to custom variables inside PandaDoc. As the details for the opportunity are filled in, reps can instantly generate and send quotes for products and services that meet the customer’s requested specifications.

Reinforce with deal reviews and coaching

MEDDIC works best when it’s a regular part of your ongoing coaching cadence. Use the framework as a lens during pipeline reviews and one-on-ones.

Rather than asking if a deal will close, review the framework for obvious gaps. Is there an internal champion that the rep can connect with? What is the prospective customer’s decision criteria?

Especially for teams and reps unfamiliar with the MEDDIC framework, some of these concepts may seem unnecessary or nonessential. That may be true, especially if your organization offers both simple and complex sales solutions. If so, take the time to ensure that MEDDIC not only makes sense for your sales process but that it’s being applied correctly in appropriate situations.

Find gaps in MEDDIC elements before moving deals forward

One of MEDDIC’s greatest strengths is in helping reps identify what they don’t know. Before moving a deal to the next stage of the sales funnel or pipeline, encourage reps to take a step back and ask themselves if they’ve identified all key information.

Is an economic buyer present? Do they understand the decision process? How well do the prospect’s pain points align with a company-branded product or solution?

Catching these gaps before qualifying deals and beginning the sales process can prevent late-stage surprises and help reps focus their time on deals with real potential.

Using MEDDIC with PandaDoc

As with other sales frameworks, implementing MEDDIC is only one part of the process. Making it actionable within your sales stack is another.

To do that, you’ll need to marry your qualification process and sales pipeline with digital tools like PandaDoc. Doing so eliminates paper processes and introduces automation that can help reps utilize MEDDIC principles to their fullest extent.

Custom templates

One of the key elements of MEDDIC is understanding a buyer’s specific metrics and decision criteria.

Using built-in document creation tools within PandaDoc, sales teams can create dynamic proposal templates that reflect buyer priorities. Once the templates are built, they can be placed in the content library and generated as sales reps prepare relevant collateral.

However, PandaDoc templates can also go beyond sales enablement. Using PandaDoc CPQ, teams can generate custom-designed quotes using customer-selected items in real time. This greatly accelerates the deals process, expedites new rep training, and helps ensure every conversation aligns with the sales framework.

Deal rooms and collaboration tools

When you’re trying to manage multiple stakeholders, email threads and siloed attachments quickly become problematic. It’s too difficult to figure out who received what file, whether new revisions have already taken place, and what documents still need to be reviewed.

PandaDoc’s collaborative tools are designed specifically to overcome these problems. Using virtual deal rooms, reps and stakeholders can participate in a shared meeting space to negotiate, handle documents, and close deals. This methodology also extends to document collaboration, where live commenting and editing tools help teams work together to overcome common sales objections.

A collaborative approach also makes it easier for champions to involve legal, finance, IT, and executive teams. Internally, reps can see who’s interacting with a document and respond to questions or concerns before they turn into deal blockers.

Document tracking

MEDDIC encourages reps to validate their assumptions around champions and economic buyers. Incorrect information won’t help to push a sale forward, and having systems in place to verify essential details can make or break a deal.

PandaDoc offers those insights directly to the sales team through document tracking, analytics, and notifications. Reps can see exactly who has opened a document, how long they spent on each section, when it was accessed, and more. This data offers valuable insights into which stakeholders are engaged and whether your internal champions are actively advocating for your solution.

Beyond that, tracking can also signal potential risks earlier. If engagements are beginning to stall, using document activity as an opportunity to re-engage with decision-makers and stakeholders and help reps reactivate languishing deals before they collapse.

Automation

The larger the team, the more difficult it will be to implement and maintain sales frameworks like MEDDIC.

Especially when transitioning from another sales approach, teams are likely to encounter friction as reps try to adapt the framework and make it work for them. Some reps may even be resistant when switching from a different system.

In every case, automation can play a critical role in keeping MEDDIC principles consistent across the entire team. Using PandaDoc, using pre-built proposal templates is one way to automate. However, you can go much deeper.

By integrating PandaDoc with your CRM solution, you can integrate proposal workflows directly into your customer database or sales process to ensure that MEDDIC criteria are met before moving forward. For example, you could set up required fields that prompt reps to confirm the economic buyer or specify known pain points before generating a proposal.

An approach like this supports better documentation while also helping to prevent unqualified deals from slipping through the cracks. By aligning your automation with MEDDIC, you can turn a theoretical framework into part of your everyday sales motion.

MEDDIC alternatives

While MEDDIC is a powerful qualification framework, it’s not the only approach that sales teams can use to assess deal quality or navigate the sales process.

Depending on internal factors like sales intervals, team size, and product complexity, other methodologies might be a better fit or serve as complementary systems alongside MEDDIC (e.g. using MEDDIC for complex sales and a simplified process like BANT for basic quotes).

Here’s a look at how MEDDIC compares to a few of the most common alternatives.

  • BANT. A straightforward qualification method focused on Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline. This framework is ideal for quick sales cycles and high-volume pipelines but doesn’t offer the depth required for complex, multi-stakeholder deals.
  • Challenger. This methodology is centered on teaching, tailoring, and taking control of the sales conversation. Challenger is designed to help reps shift buyer thinking and deliver insight, but it’s less focused on internal qualification or deal structure.
  • Value selling. A consultative approach that connects your product directly to the buyer’s desired outcomes. Value selling focuses on communicating value and ROI, but doesn’t offer a structured way to navigate the buying process.
  • SPIN selling. Built around asking Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need-Payoff questions during the discovery process. SPIN is great for identifying buyer needs but doesn’t cover decision-making dynamics or stakeholder alignment.
  • MEDDICC. A common variation of MEDDIC that adds “Competition” as a seventh element. This approach encourages reps to evaluate competitive threats and position their solution more effectively. This version is especially useful in crowded markets or high-stakes deals where differentiation is key.
  • MEDDPICC. Another extended version of MEDDIC, this time adding “Paper Process” and “Competition” to the framework. This approach is built for enterprise sales teams managing complex deals with legal reviews, vendor risk assessments, and procurement workflows.

You can also find a ton of additional frameworks on the market that have been developed over the years.

Because of the variety available to most teams, it’s worth considering whether MEDDIC is the right fit or if other alternatives are easier to integrate with your long term sales goals.

Regardless of what process you choose, PandaDoc can help.

Close more qualified deals with PandaDoc

While MEDDIC gives your team the structure to qualify deals faster and with greater efficiency, PandaDoc gives you the tools you need to automate and scale those guiding principles across your entire sales process.

Featuring customizable templates, collaborative deal rooms, and real-time document tracking, PandaDoc makes it easy to create proposals that resonate with buyer needs, decision processes, and internal champions. Plus, every step you take along the way is measured and trackable, which helps internal reps keep eyes on the deal throughout its lifecycle.

Want to see how it works? Get in touch with a dedicated product expert and learn how PandaDoc can elevate your entire sales process.