Categories: Sales Leadership | Company Alignment | Sales Qualification | MEDDICC
How do you help your organization to evolve and grow? Economic indicators suggest that the sluggish economy is taking a positive turn. Now may be the time to shift your strategy from hold-the-line to a focus on growth and transformation. The organizations that come out on top will be the ones who embrace this new era with a strategic plan to hit the ground running.
Three Critical Areas for Alignment:
To align your organization for success, focus your team on three critical areas:
• A consistent sales message
• A strong approach to deal qualification
• A sales process that is aligned with how your customers buy
Consider how you'll structure your goals and alignment based on three organizational growth stages: Start-up, Foundational and Expansion. Within each area, determine what each competency looks like through stages of growth and consider how your organization may change as it matures. What enterprise-level firms expect of their revenue teams may be notably different from what should be expected in a start-up.
Growth and evolution are the results of iterative processes; the competitive landscape and market dynamics exist in a constant state of flux. Buyer organizations have different priorities than they did just twelve and eighteen months ago. It’s critical to achieve alignment on what matters most to your clients today, and build alignment to the new reality across your organization.Think of alignment as the forcing function for all other aspects of your business. When organizations fall out of alignment, the ripple effects become visible obstacles.
It’s important to identify the challenges that exist without a rock-solid qualification approach and what leaders might expect through each growth stage.
Challenges Companies Face Without a Sound Qualification Strategy
When organizations lack a sound approach to qualifying deals, they are likely to experience challenges like:
• Inaccurate forecasting
• Low visibility into the true health of deals
• Poor understanding of what needs to happen next with deal progression
• Unhealthy pipeline with stalled deals and not enough new logos
To combat those challenges, your team needs a clear understanding of who your ideal customer is and what a great deal looks like for the company. A consistent approach to qualifying deals means forecasts are more accurate and predictable. As your company matures, the priorities for leaders and the nuts and bolts of your qualification system is framed by each growth stage.
Qualification through Stages of Evolution
Start-Up / Hypergrowth Phase: Start-ups often function in survival mode, where qualifying a deal is limited. You are finding your niche and learning which deals are best for the organization and worth pursuing.
Foundational / Maturity Phase: Your ideal customer profile and product-market fit are more defined and shape how qualifying should work. Knowing what makes a good deal for the organization shapes your qualification approach and who to target.
Expansion / Grow-and-Scale Phase: Forecasting accuracy and predictability are more relevant as your business deals with bigger numbers and larger budgets. Experience has defined which deals are worth the time and how qualification data informs and enacts selling activities.
A sound qualification approach can be transformative. Leaders know the called number is real, and customer-facing teams become empowered by selling efficiently and effectively.
The MEDDICC Qualification Approach
Organizations of every size and stage can adapt, customize, and install the MEDDICC qualification approach. The method helps teams prioritize deals, identify potential gaps in each deal, inform actions with data, and forecast with reliability.
Implementing MEDDICC starts at the top; leaders must be able to explain the “Why” and show the willingness to coach the team. Support middle managers in becoming masters of the “How” – expert qualifiers themselves and capable coaches on the desired execution method. Drive consistency with reinforcement from integrated technology incorporating MEDDICC data in Salesforce and generating coachable metrics.
Examine qualification through the lens of today’s market and company growth stages. Force Management helps companies refine these methods, modify them as needed, and adopt variations to fit within different selling motions. Check out our library of MEDDICC resources designed to help leaders design a strategy that drives results.
Create Your Action Plan
Creating alignment across your revenue teams on the optimal qualification strategy can be transformative – a surefire way to improve and progress the revenue-driving arms of the business. But what about the rest of your selling motion?
Dig into Command What’s Next: A Guide to Sales Evolution and define the strategy that ushers in an era of growth. Create a customized plan to turn your organization’s top obstacles into areas of strength and competitive advantage. Take charge of mapping out a system for driving repeatable, consistent revenue.
