Consulting services and MEDDIC
Selling using the MEDDIC sales methodology is not solely relevant to technology software sales. It is also equally applicable to consultancy services.
That said, there are some differences at certain sales cycle stages.
The sales process is similar, and MEDDIC is used throughout to qualify. However, some technical validation points slightly differ for services versus technology.
You must know how to implement these requirements to successfully sell your services.
Go to:
Solution demo – software sale vs services sale
Software sale:
At the solution demo stage of a product sale, you will have out-of-the-box technology demo environments that show how your solution meets the customer’s essential requirements.
Typically, you will focus on the solution areas that most align with the critical requirements you have identified when working through your customer’s Decision criteria (the first D in MEDDIC).
Services sale:
Service offerings are more capability-based than software.
It can be challenging to “show” how you will meet the requirements and complex to seed points of difference from your competitors.
Therefore, as a services business, we advise you to:
- Achieve clarity around your customer’s Identified pain (the I in MEDDIC).
- Use Metrics to demonstrate your understanding of this pain, plus the associated costs and benefits to the business (the M in MEDDIC), but specifically focus on your services’ advantage.
- Fully understand the Decision criteria of the business when presenting your offering (the first D in MEDDIC).
By doing this, the easier it’ll be for you to present your understanding of the current state of the challenges faced by your customer. And it will also show the difference you can make to the future state.
Tip – Stories Sell:
In the “solution demo” stage, storytelling is vital.
Weave Metrics into the stories you tell about your project references and the specific value you will bring to this project.
Focus on the quantitative value.
That’s the quantitative value you can bring to solve the pain you have identified for this specific scenario. Whether it’s expertise, implementation time, or post-sales support. You should have this in number form.
Business case and proof of value
As you move through the sales cycle to create a “business case” and “proof of value”, you need to think carefully about the Metrics that feed into the business case and how you map to the highest priorities in the Decision Criteria.
What can you do to pass the “why us” test?
These three essential meetings and events will give you the most significant chance of gaining services preferred vendor status:
- A meeting with some of your key experts/consultants. (Decision criteria and Champion.)
- Workshop(s) to better qualify and quantify the customer’s challenges. (Identified pain and Metrics.)
- Time spent with the customer to build confidence and trust in your delivery capability. (Champion.)
Preparation, preparation, preparation
Your success in spending time with the customer to build confidence relies on your preparation for such a meeting.
Success in winning a services project largely depends on the customer’s confidence in your ability to deliver the proposed outcome.
To build that confidence:
- Prepare for every interaction with your customer so they build and maintain that confidence in you.
- Demonstrate that you understand the reality of their current state so you don’t under or overprice a project.
Tips for success:
- Work with stakeholders to uncover the underlying issues and get a shared understanding of the challenges.
- Build and document workshop success criteria with your Champion. (Champion being the C in MEDDIC.)
- Spend time upfront to understand the attendees and what is important to the different stakeholders.
- If successful, confirm commitment to proceed to the next stage before you invest expensive resources up front.
Deal close and paperwork - Decision Process
So, you have been selected as the preferred bidder, and the customer plans to award you the contract and issue the order. It’s time to celebrate! Well, not just yet.
If it is a completely new customer, you will have a long way to go, but even for an existing customer with master terms in place, completing the paperwork for a services sale can take much longer than a product sale.
For any services contract, in addition to the core master terms, there will be some form of Statement of Work, Work Order, or Contract Schedule specific to the project or programme delivery.
Even for relatively small projects, this can take weeks and run to multiple pages. Where typically, the customer procurement, legal and finance teams will drive the negotiation on core terms and pricing, they will engage with internal operational stakeholders to ensure the delivery detail, milestones, commitments, risks, and so on, are captured accurately in the final contractual documentation.
Tip - it's never too early to start:
Start the process as early as possible to complete as much of the core content in parallel with winning over the decision makers. Seek an operational or project stakeholder to work with so your early drafts are as near-final as possible. Ensure you have a clear Mutual Success Plan with key milestones and owners on all sides to avoid paperwork delays and slippage.
MEDDIC is for services, too
Qualifying your deal using MEDDIC is not only applicable to software sales. As you’ve seen, with a few adjustments, it is equally relevant and valuable for any business, particularly a professional consulting or services business.
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