MEDDIC
By Federico Donatone · Updated October 15, 2026MEDDIC is a sales qualification framework for complex B2B deals. It checks six elements: Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Identify pain and Champion. Sellers use MEDDIC to judge whether a deal is real, who will actually sign it and what is still missing before they put it in the forecast.
What MEDDIC stands for
| Letter | What it means | Question to answer |
|---|---|---|
| Metrics | The measurable gain the buyer expects | What number will this move, and by how much? |
| Economic buyer | The person who controls the money | Who can say yes when others say no? |
| Decision criteria | How options will be judged | What must a vendor prove to win? |
| Decision process | The steps and people up to a signature | What happens between a yes and a signed contract? |
| Identify pain | The problem forcing a change | What does doing nothing cost them? |
| Champion | An insider who sells for you | Who will push this when you are not in the room? |
MEDDIC came out of enterprise software sales at PTC and is now common in SaaS sales teams. It is built for deals where several people decide, the price needs a business case and the path to a signature has many steps.
MEDDIC vs MEDDICC and MEDDPICC
Two common extensions add letters for parts of a deal that often go wrong late.
- MEDDICC adds Competition: who else the buyer is considering, including doing nothing or building it in-house.
- MEDDPICC also adds Paper process: legal review, security questionnaires, procurement and every step to a signed contract.
Each added letter is a question to answer before the deal reaches the forecast, not a box to tick at the end. Use the longer versions when deals involve procurement and legal teams. For a first sales call, a lighter framework such as BANT is often enough, and MEDDIC takes over once the opportunity is open.
How to use MEDDIC in a deal
MEDDIC is not a call script. It is a checklist for the whole deal, filled in across several conversations. After each call, mark every letter as confirmed, partly known or unknown. The unknowns are your plan for the next meeting.
- On the discovery call, focus on pain and metrics: what hurts and what fixing it is worth.
- Ask how the decision gets made and who signs. Try to meet the economic buyer early.
- Find a champion and test them: a real champion shares inside information and sets up meetings.
- Write the decision criteria in the buyer's words and show proof against each one.
- Review the checklist before the deal goes into the forecast.
Discovery starts with you. Our guide to sales discovery questions covers the six answers about your own offer to prepare before the call, so the conversation about pain and metrics has a spine.
When MEDDIC fits and when it does not
MEDDIC pays off when deals are large, several people decide and the sales cycle runs over several meetings. It slows down small, single-buyer sales, where a rep can qualify in one call. Growth Cab works with B2B tech companies selling deals of $50K or more, and in that range a missing economic buyer or a weak champion is what we most often see behind a promising deal that stalls. For founders still running every deal themselves, our founder-led sales playbook shows how to keep control of the call while you gather these answers.