Darius Lahoutifard - ALWAYS BE QUALIFYING: M.E.D.D.I.C.

PTC achieved success thanks to the combination of a remarkable product and a talented and productive sales organization. In order to scale our go-to-market capacity, we needed to institutionalize and codify the sales best practices developed by the early team, so that new hires could rapidly ramp to full productivity. Thats what led our sales leaders to develop the MEDDIC methodology. I am delighted to see the book on that methodology published. ALWAYS BE QUALIFYING is easy to read and to apply. Its sharp and to-the-point, just as MEDDIC itself. Its relevant now more than ever. I highly recommend it to any sales team in technology.

- Steven C. Walske

Steve is renowned for building one of the most impressive enterprise software sales-driven organizations in the world, PTC, where MEDDIC was born. As CEO, Walske took PTC from founding to over $1 billion in revenue. Under his leadership, PTC had 40 consecutive quarters of increasing revenues and profits as a public company. His disciplined, methodical practice is now emulated globally. He now serves on the board of several prominent Silicon Valley companies including Synopsys (NASDAQ: SNPS), Medallia and Platfora. He was previously Chairman at Bladelogic (acquired by BMC Software) and Endeca Technologies (acquired by Oracle). He advises VC-backed companies on sales processes and growth strategies for optimal revenue growth.

" Salesmanship is not an art. Its a structured process. MEDDIC is easy to understand and provides a common language for any company with the aim to build a professional sales organization. ALWAYS BE QUALIFYING is easy to read and provides a very good structure to the understanding of MEDDIC. The challenges of bringing a product to the market and delivering relevant forecasts are more relevant than ever. ALWAYS BE QUALIFYING will help you understand how to better qualify opportunities, drive sales to closure and reduce risk in your forecast. "

- Gran Malmberg

Gran is currently Group CEO/President of Mentice AB and Chairman /President of Mentice Inc. Mentice (STO: MNTC) is the world leader in software and hardware simulation solutions for endovascular therapies. Gran was one of the initial sales leaders at PTC who contributed to the early stage growth of the company as well as building the starting blocks of the organization, including MEDDIC sales methodology.

In the best of times, selling complex enterprise software is an all-in team-based effort; many a times, its even a 24/7/365 competitive engagement cycle with frequent changes across multiple key decision making constituents and parameters.

Faced with dynamics as such, its critical for sales teams to constantly and continuously gather both account and opportunity intelligence, analyze it and strategize to make updates and/or revisions to win playbooks. To do so, you need a proven, structured and easy-to-operationalize Sales Qualification Methodology.

MEDDIC delivers; the qualification workflow and critical gates are laid out enabling both in-the-field execution and coaching/mentoring. And, the MEDDIC workflow is logical and can easily be an overlay on most companies sales stages, entry & exit criteria. Lastly, MEDDIC is also a great qualification process for (big) deal reviews & inspections, and provides a great, factual learning experience for the expanded sales team.

This is an easy read, and if you are heeding the guidance and advice herein, you and your teams will reap the benefits.

Jump in!

- Kris Thyregod

Kris is currently Vice-President & General Manager EMEA at Silver Peak where the books author helped implementing MEDDIC globally. Kris has worked in technology for more than 20 years, previously serving in sales and marketing leadership positions at Riverbed, CA Technologies, Dell/EMC and IBM. Mr. Thyregod is a graduate of the Copenhagen Business School and Henley Management College with advanced degrees in organization, strategy and business administration.

" ALWAYS BE QUALIFYING is an easy read with no fluff. After reading this book, the sellers and their managers can surmount their challenges once they learn about successful and unsuccessful qualifications. I really enjoyed the WHY and the HOW of MEDDIC. By the end of this book, sellers and leaders learn how to close deals with no discounts in a timely manner. "

- Ramin Elahi

Sales Enablement training Manager, Infineon Technologies & Adjunct Faculty, University of California SC Extension

With the tremendous impact sales teams have on a companys top and bottom line, it is critical that the quota carrying professional can ramp up quickly, disqualify opportunities not likely to close, and relentlessly focus on qualifying the opportunities that will exceed their goals. Darius Lahoutifards Always Be Qualifying crystallizes the techniques and mindset a top enterprise seller needs to achieve these objectives. This book is not filled with academic theories, but rather, it arms the seller with the highly practical sales qualification methodology and techniques known as MEDDIC, which Mr. Lahoutifard helped shape while he was an early sales leader at PTC. He emphasizes the need for sellers to continuously qualify opportunities throughout the sales cycle, to stop wasting time on dead-end deals, and focus on those that deserve their attention. Its a methodology that shifts the urgency onto the buyer so the compelling event is not the sellers need to close a deal, but the buyers need to avoid missed revenue, missed cost savings, or reduction of risk. Always Be Qualifying also highlights the unexpected benefit MEDDIC has on improved team spirit and cohesiveness because the MEDDIC methodology not only improves sales performance, it creates a common language and understanding across the entire selling team .