Andy Whyte - MEDDICC: The ultimate guide to staying one step ahead in the complex sale

Copyright 2020 MEDDICC LTD

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https://www.meddicc.com

Print: 978-1-8382397-0-1

Ebook: 978-1-8382397-1-8

DEDICATION

To my wife, Katie, and my sons Charlie and Hugo. You are my world and Inspiration for everything I do.

To my brother, James. Your courage, bravery, and above all positivity in life is my inspiration to be a
better person.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T o say this book is by Andy Whyte overstates the case. Without the ingenuity of Dick Dunkel to leverage the expertise of PTC leaders like John McMahon and encapsulate it into MEDDIC. For Dick and Jack Napoli to then have the gumption and confidence to go on a global tour, which ultimately resulted in the proliferation of MEDDIC to every corner of the globe - then there would be no book because there would be no MEDDIC.

Therefore, it is Dick Dunkel, Jack Napoli, and John McMahon, for whom I owe the most prominent acknowledgment.

Further still, Dick, Jack, and Steve Ammanns warmth, guidance, and expertise towards me from our earliest conversations gave me courage, confidence, and a renewed inspiration to work towards completing this book.

To Cliff Payne, my first sales manager, you gave me my start in sales, and while many may not credit door-to-door double-glazing sales, I learned more about the art and science of sales and, above all else, the importance of work ethic from you than I have anybody else since.

To Paola White, the first person to overlook my lack of B2B sales experience by giving me a shot as an SDR while also giving me the flexibility to grow into an Account Executive.

To Patrick Donnelly, who was the first entrepreneur I got to work for (he will hate me for calling him that). I learned so much about what it is to have nous (Greek: nous, meaning intellect, or common sense) from you. The hustle from our early days of building ES Tech Group showed me that anything is possible with drive, creativity, and commitment.

Without Ragy Thomas, Carlos Dominguez, and Mike Logan, I wouldnt have had the opportunity to learn all of what I did at Sprinklr and benefit from the career projection altering effects of Force Management training delivered by John Kaplan and his team.

Without my sales peers and those that drove me to become a better individual contributor and sales leader - your coachability, curiosity, creativity, and the respect you show to the craft of sales inspired me to aim higher.

Finally, without the customers whose complex businesses and even more complex sales cycles kept me in a constant state of unease, and, therefore, always searching for answers, thank you! I never felt gratitude for you at the time, but with every uncertain engagement, I strived towards achieving more certainty in future engagements, which powered my enthusiasm to embrace MEDDICC.

All of this is to say that I see myself as merely a vessel of a combination of wonderful opportunities. I take it as a great honor that I get to bestow my experiences to you, the reader, so it is you who I would like to pass on my final acknowledgment thank you for your trust in me by purchasing this book.

FOREWORD

Dick Dunkel
The Creator of MEDDIC:

D espite the incredible evolution of enterprise technology and the business world on the whole, it is perhaps surprising that a methodology born over 25 years ago could still be enthusiastically implemented with such momentum as MEDDICC is today.

On the other hand, when you consider the circumstances formed as the nucleus for its creation, maybe its not surprising at all.

The story of MEDDICC has many beginnings.

For me, it started with a college experience that reflected a restless sense of (or perhaps lack of) direction involving rugby, two summers selling books door to door, and an Engineering degree. Graduation was followed by a short stint as a design engineer, but I quickly grew restless for competition and self-determination. As the offspring of 2 self-made salespeople, dad sold advertising space for Sports Illustrated and Time Inc. (think Mad Men), and mom wore a hard hat and sold site remediation services (think hazardous waste), I felt it was inevitable.

I made the quantum leap into what would be the first step in a long sales career and spent the next six years selling for Xerox Corporation and Xerox Engineering Systems. Xerox deservedly had an excellent reputation for training and development. Neil Rackhams SPIN Selling was central to helping Xerox sellers understand and develop customer needs. Learning to apply this simple framework was foundational to my success and would influence how I organized my own ideas about the key to sales success.

Following those productive years at Xerox, I felt ready for a new challenge and became aware of PTC while exploring new opportunities. I secured the interview, and during the process, I remember having the distinct feeling that I was graduating to the big leagues of competitive enterprise selling. Grittier, faster moving, high accountability, powerful, highly differentiated offering, strong leadership top to bottom. I did not see a weak link, and if it existed, it was identified and either fixed or removed quickly. PTC was an organization on a mission and required total commitment. It was an intense experience to be a part of. I spent two years as a sales representative selling Pro-Engineer to manufacturers, suppliers, and fabricators in Eastern PA.

In early 1996, I received an unexpected call from PTCs head of sales development, Anne Gary. Anne reported to John McMahon, who was the SVP of Sales. I was invited to go to PTC HQ in Waltham, MA, to do a stint on the Sales Development team. (PTC leveraged the Sales Development program to develop future leaders.) John and Anne were looking for someone to develop a new Intermediate Sales Training class that would be part of their 5 Touches Plan. The plan was to institute five development touches during the first year to accelerate learning, increase sales performance, and reduce turnover.

I accepted the position, and in the Spring of 1996, our small family (wife Carolyn, who was seven months pregnant, and two-year-old son Timothy) moved to Mass. where we rented a small house in Needham.

Under John and Annes direction, and with support from teammates Dale Monnin and Jack Napoli, the new Intermediate Sales Training course was developed. This new course was designed for PTC sellers who had already completed New Hire training and had several months of in-field experiences that they were expected to share during this new class.

During this class, we conducted an exercise (that I still do today with various sales teams) called:

Why Do We Win? Why Do We Lose? Why Do Deals Slip?

During this exercise, the class would list all their answers, and then those answers would be bundled based on common themes.

After running the exercise several times, the recurring themes were emerging, with some regional differences. Different teams were highlighting different priorities based on the direction their regional sales leaders had given them. I remember thinking at the time that this was something worth standardizing on.