Sales Operating System
A sales process for enterprise deals in which each stage has to be earned by something the buyer did. I designed it for Coherence, a fictional company, so the deals and names are made up. The method comes from my enterprise selling, enablement, and RevOps work.
Four questions for the person you call your champion
A contact who loves the product and takes every meeting is a product champion. MEDDPICC’s Champion is someone who can get the deal funded and moves it when you’re not in the room. These questions tell the two apart. Expect them to make a deal feel less certain.
Commercial champion test
Who will you bring into the next conversation, and why do they matter?
How would you explain the business case to your executive sponsor without us in the room?
What happens internally if this slips a quarter?
What will you do before our next meeting that moves the decision forward?
What counts as evidence
MEDDPICC is most useful early in a deal, when it changes what the seller does next. Filled in the week before close, it’s paperwork. This is the bar for each signal.
| Signal | Strong evidence | Weak evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial champion | Creates access, explains internal politics, tests the message, knows the funding path, and moves work when the seller is absent. | Likes the product, takes meetings, and helps with requirements but keeps access contained. |
| Economic buyer | Has confirmed the problem matters enough to fund and has engaged on value, risk, or timing. | A name in CRM with no direct interaction. |
| Compelling event | A dated business consequence exists and the customer is acting against it. | A seller-created close date or vague urgency. |
| Multi-threading | Users, executives, technical stakeholders, procurement, and skeptics are represented where relevant. | Several contacts from the same team who all depend on one sponsor. |
| Decision process | Customer has named the people, criteria, sequence, and commercial path. | “Legal next” with no owner, date, or approval logic. |
Each stage answers a customer question
A deal moves forward when the buyer has answered the question. Forecast category is tracked separately from stage.
Qualified
Customer question: is this problem worth examining?
Gate: material problem, plausible fit, and a real reason to spend discovery time.
Discovery
Customer question: what is happening now and what does it cost us?
Gate: current state, impact, priority, stakeholders, and the beginning of measurable value.
Solution alignment
Customer question: does this approach solve the right problem?
Gate: buying group aligns on problem, proof, success measures, and required participation.
Business decision
Customer question: should we invest?
Gate: economic buyer and buying group evaluate value, risk, scope, funding, and timing.
Contracting
Customer question: can we execute the decision?
Gate: commercial, security, legal, procurement, and implementation dependencies have named owners and dates.
Closed
Customer question: what happens now?
Gate: delivery launches, or loss/recycle reason is recorded with learning intact.
Who did what
- My work
- The stage definitions and exit criteria, the evidence standard, how MEDDPICC fits into the stages, the product-versus-commercial champion distinction and its tests, the economic-buyer approach, and how RevOps inspects all of it.
- AI helped with
- Research synthesis, alternative structures, drafting, critique, and turning the design into this page.
- Still to prove
- Which gates best predict conversion in each segment, where evidence tracking helps sellers and where it just adds admin, and how the process should change for product-led and mid-market sales.