MEDDIC

What does each MEDDIC letter mean?

Each letter is one fact about the deal. The wording below follows meddicc.com and meddpicc.net, read on 20 October 2026. For a scorecard with an evidence column, see our MEDDPICC guide.

• Metrics: the measurable value the buyer expects. meddicc.com calls them the quantifiable measures of value your solution can provide.
• Economic buyer: the person who controls the money. meddicc.com says the person with overall authority in the buying decision; meddpicc.net the person with decision control over the funds.
• Decision criteria: what the buyer judges the options on. meddicc.com describes a set of principles, guidelines and requirements an organization uses to make a decision.
• Decision process: how the buyer gets to a decision. meddicc.com calls it the steps the buyer will take to decide whether to buy.
• Identify pain: the problem that makes the buyer act. meddpicc.net describes actual pains at the company that your product would relieve.
• Champion: a person inside the buyer who wants you to win. meddicc.com says someone with power, influence and credibility within the customer’s organization.

MEDDICC adds Competition, and MEDDPICC adds Paper process and Competition. If you need those letters, see our MEDDPICC guide.

When does MEDDIC fit?

MEDDIC fits long B2B deals with a buying committee. For choosing among qualification frameworks, see lead qualification.

How does MEDDIC look in a CRM?

Each letter becomes a field or a short note on the opportunity. The table shows what to record and when you can usually expect to know it. The timing column is our judgement from how deals tend to unfold, not a rule from either site.

Is MEDDIC a methodology or a checklist?

This section is our view, not something either site says. MEDDIC is a checklist. It tells you what to find out, not how to run the conversation that finds it, and that is where it goes wrong.

• Fields get filled in to satisfy a manager. A deal review asks for an economic buyer, so a name goes in, even if nobody has spoken to that person.
• A champion turns out to be friendly. They reply quickly and like the product, but they have not shared inside information or opened a door.
• Pain is guessed. The seller writes the problem that companies like this usually have, instead of what this buyer said.

What keeps a MEDDIC record honest is that every field says who said it and when. If the answer is “nobody”, write “unknown”. An unknown tells you what to ask next. A guess hides it.

Which MEDDIC questions do you ask on which call?

Ask by call, not by letter. These are suggestions to adapt, not a script. Each one names the letter it answers.

First call

• What made you look at this now? (Identify pain)
• What would need to be true in six months for this to count as a success? (Metrics)
• Have you bought something like this before, and how did it go? (Decision process)

Follow-up with more stakeholders

• What does your team need that nothing today does? (Decision criteria)
• Who feels this problem most day to day? (Identify pain)
• Who usually gets something like this agreed here? (Champion)
• Who will want to see this before it goes ahead? (Economic buyer)

Before the proposal

• If two options meet your list, what breaks the tie? (Decision criteria)
• What figure will you show finance to justify this? (Metrics)
• Who approves the spend, and have they seen this? (Economic buyer)
• Is anything on your side likely to stop this going ahead? (Decision process)

Where did MEDDIC come from?

The two training companies that publish MEDDIC tell the story differently, but they agree on where it started: the software company PTC, with Dick Dunkel and Jack Napoli among the people involved.

• meddicc.com says MEDDIC was created in 1996 inside PTC by Dick Dunkel, working under SVP John McMahon alongside teammate Jack Napoli.
• meddpicc.net (MEDDIC Academy) says MEDDIC has its roots at PTC and lists Napoli, Dunkel and Darius Lahoutifard among the people there. It says MEDDIC was an internal concept for over a decade, because PTC was not a sales training company.

We do not say which company owns the method. The dispute over the MEDDPICC name is covered in our MEDDPICC guide.

Is there a MEDDIC book?

There are at least two, and they come from the two sides above.

• “MEDDICC” by Andy Whyte. Bookshop.org lists Dick Dunkel and Jack Napoli as co-authors, and meddicc.com sells it as “MEDDICC The Book”.
• “Always Be Qualifying: M.E.D.D.I.C.” by Darius Lahoutifard, published in 2020 according to meddpicc.net.

We have not read either, so this page gives no rating.

What can a LinkedIn conversation show?

Some letters, not all, and PortifyLead does not fill in MEDDIC. After a conversation, the AI Sales Brief has fields that line up with a few of the six letters:

• Decision process: stakeholders, authority, budget and decision process.
• Identify pain: needs, desired outcomes and pain points.
• Economic buyer: partly, through stakeholders and authority.

Metrics, decision criteria and champion have no matching field and usually need a call. A field appears when the conversation supports it and your plan includes it. One the conversation did not show stays “Not detected”. A Brief needs a conversation; saving the contact does not. The Brief saves next to the contact in your CRM, which is where the table above lives.

Questions