Most sales organizations adopt a single named methodology and treat it as gospel. I've come to believe that each of the popular four is individually incomplete, and that their real power is in combination. AISDALS/L gives them a shared backbone to combine on.
MEDDPICC
A qualification and deal-inspection framework:
- Metrics - the customer's measurable KPIs that determine success
- Economic Buyer(s) - the person who holds the buying authority and/or budget ownership
- Decision Criteria - the customer's stated criteria that they will use to select their solution
- Decision Process - the steps the customer will follow from the Search stage to the award of the contract
- Paper Process - the steps and stakeholders the contract will proceed through from the customer's selection of a solution to the signed contract
- Identified Pain - the customer's measurement of the impact of the problem not being solved
- Champion - the person who has the credibility and influence on all key stakeholders who will contribute to the buying decision
- Competition - direct competitors for a vendor's solution, or viable indirect alternatives to a vendor's solution, or internal economic competitors for the budget that will be used for a vendor's solution
MEDDPICC tells you whether a deal is real and forecastable, but it is largely silent on how to create the conversation. In the model, its elements attach precisely where they're earned: Economic Buyer and Pain in Awareness, Metrics and Decision Criteria in Search, Decision Process and Competition in Desire, Paper Process in Action.
Challenger
Supplies what MEDDPICC lacks: the teaching and process control motion. Teach – Tailor – Take Control, delivered through a commercial-insight pitch:
- Warmer - Lead with understanding and knowledge so that the prospect immediately feels they aren’t wasting their time. This “warmer” builds your credibility by showing the prospect you’ve done your homework, and you understand their business.
- Reframe - Describe why and how the problem the prospect is experiencing is connected to a larger, more troublesome issue than they realized. It’s something they were unaware of until now. It’s something surprising. And it’s really, really painful for the business.
- Rational Drowning - Lay out the business case for why the “reframe” deserves a prospect's time and attention. It should make clear how much inaction will cost, using numbers and visuals that drive your point home. “Rational Drowning” increases fear, uncertainty, and doubt. By the end of this step, prospects should begin to feel the pain of staying with their status quo.
- Emotional Impact - Sharing a real-world story that is familiar in the prospect's context. It shows the prospect how companies similar to their own were suffering because of behaviours they recognize and because of a commitment to their status quo: and exactly what will happen if they don’t correct course.
- A New Way - Before show-and-tellling a solution, we sell the solution. The prospect should understand how much better their lives (both personal and professional) would be if they acted differently. When a prospect acknowledges that the solution itself makes sense, they’re ready for the final step.
- Our Solution - The goal of this final step is to lead the prospect to your unique differentiators, enabling the prospect to exceed both their expectations and the status quo.
Challenger reframes a prospect's worldview in Awareness through Desire, and how you re-teach an existing customer a new insight in Share. In my integration of Challenger, it is all additive to MEDDPICC - Challenger focuses on the emotional impact of the problem and solution where MEDDPICC focuses on information and data.
Sandler
Governs the discipline of the interaction: the Up-Front Contract on every meeting, and a deliberate path through Pain, Budget, and Decision, then Fulfillment and Post-Sell. It keeps mutual commitments accountable at every step, which is why the UFC recurs at nearly every stage of the map.
- Bonding and Rapport - Develop equal business stature and encourage open, honest communication. Supplemental to MEDDPICC.
- Setting an Up-Front Contract - Establish roles and ground rules to create a comfortable environment within which to do business.Supplemental to MEDDPICC.
- Identify Pain - Uncover the problems and their potential impact to identify reasons for doing business. This is already a part of MEDDPICC.
- Uncover the Budget - Discover if the prospect is willing and able to invest the time, money, and resources needed to fix the problem.This is already a part of MEDDPICC.
- Identify the Decision Making Process - Confirm with the prospect the who, when, what, where, why, and how of the prospect’s desired buying process.This is already a part of MEDDPICC.
- Present the Fulfillment of the Agreement - Propose your solution to the problem, within the budget, and consistent with the decision-making process. This is already a part of MEDDPICC.
- Confirm the Post-Sell Process - Establish next steps, discuss future business, and prevent the loss of the sale to the competition or buyer’s remorse. Supplemental to MEDDPICC.
In my integration of Sandler, I add in Bonding and Rapport, Up-Front Contract, and Confirming the Post-Sell Process to MEDDPICC + Challenger.
SPIN
Structures the questioning: Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-Payoff that surfaces and amplifies pain in the early and middle stages, and rediscovers it again when expanding the account.
- Situation - Gather background data to understand the buyer's current operations. Goal: Establish deeper context
- Problem - Uncover the prospect’s current frustrations, difficulties, and pain points. Goal: Get the buyer to articulate their specific struggles.
- Implication - Explore the consequences and ripple effects of those problems if left unresolved. Goal: Create urgency and confirm the problem is big enough to justify a buying decision.
- Need / Payoff - Ask questions that get the buyer to state the benefits of solving the problem. Goal: Guide the prospect into identifying your product as the solution to their needs.
In my integration of SPIN, it serves as a repeatable reinforcement of the "Why" in the sales process.
No single one of these is a complete sales process.
- MEDDPICC qualifies but doesn't persuade
- Challenger persuades but doesn't qualify
- Sandler enhances the emotional impact but doesn't fully track the opportunity qualification
- SPIN uncovers need and reinforces the materiality of the pain, but doesn't close
Layered onto AISDALS/L as a Process & Methodology lane, MEDDPICC, Challenger, Sandler, and SPIN cover each other's blind spots. The result is a complete whitespace/CLTV growth model: a way to find the conversation, run it with discipline, qualify it ruthlessly, and forecast it accurately.