ACT PlaybookPlaybook: Create the Engine
Deal Qualification: Find the real deals and close their blind spots
MEDDPICCR shows for every deal where it stands, what is missing, and what to do next, so your time goes to the deals that can close.
Why It Matters
Your sales stages are the map, qualification is the GPS
Your sales stages show the route from the first meeting to a signed contract. Qualification checks each deal against that route and separates what the buyer has confirmed from what you have only assumed. The gaps it reveals become the agenda for your next customer conversation.
Key Benefits
What consistent qualification enables
Know where every deal stands
Nine dimensions show what is confirmed and what is still missing, deal by deal.
Stop chasing deals that cannot close
A missing pain, champion, or economic buyer shows up early, while you can still fix it or walk away.
Close on the date you forecast
You map the decision and paper process early, so legal and procurement do not surprise you at the end.
Forecast from evidence
Each forecast category requires a defined set of confirmed dimensions, which keeps your pipeline honest.
Coach your team on facts
Pipeline reviews focus on the gaps in each deal and the next action to close them.
MEDDPICCR
Nine dimensions of a qualified deal
When all nine are clear, you know which deal is real and what to work on next. Start with the three that carry every deal: a pain that someone needs to solve, quantified in metrics.
Start here
- I
Implicated Pain
What pain does your solution solve, and who feels it most?
The customer describes the pain in their own words and backs it with metrics, and the champion confirms it. Keep asking until you hear something like "this is killing us."
- M
Metrics
What measurable impact will your product deliver?
Metrics quantify the value as a before and after picture: time saved, revenue increased, or risk reduced. Without them, the deal rests on opinions.
- C
Champion
Who sells for you when you are not in the room?
Your champion has power, influence, and a personal stake in solving the pain. Test your champion regularly, for example by asking for an introduction to procurement.
Then complete the picture
- E
Economic Buyer
Who controls the budget and signs the deal?
The economic buyer is usually a VP or C-level executive, needs a business justification, and can always say no. Ask directly who needs to sign off.
- D
Decision Criteria
What does the buyer evaluate, and how do they score you?
The buyer weighs technical, non-functional, and financial requirements. Tie every capability to an economic benefit and shape the criteria early, ideally in the demo workshop.
- D
Decision Process
Which steps and people lead to a yes?
Map the evaluation timeline, the formal and informal decision makers, and the final sign-off. Ask what happens once the buyer decides.
- P
Paper Process
How does a decision become a signed contract?
The paper process covers master service agreements, vendor onboarding, tenders, and security approvals. Many deals die after the verbal yes, so start this early.
- C
Competition
Who else competes for the same budget?
Alternatives include other vendors, an internal build, budget spent elsewhere, or doing nothing. Ask early how the buyer will compare the options.
- R
Risks
What could derail the deal?
Typical risks are political shifts, budget cuts, new priorities, technical blockers, or a restructuring. Surface them early and plan the mitigation with your champion.
Put It to Work
Make qualification part of every deal
- 1
Add the nine dimensions to your CRM
Give each dimension its own field on the deal record, or use one text field that follows a fixed template.
- 2
Let AI update them after every call
Record your customer calls and let AI extract the qualification signals from the transcript into the fields. Manual updates rarely happen consistently, and when they do, the quality suffers.
- 3
Review the pipeline every week
A weekly overview of all deals and their nine dimensions shows at a glance where a deal drifts, while there is still time to act.
| Deal | Stage | Forecast | M | E | D | D | P | I | C | C | R |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deal A | Negotiate | Commit | |||||||||
| Deal B | Go / No-Go | Best Case | |||||||||
| Deal C | Scope | Pipeline | |||||||||
| Deal D | Discovery | Not forecasted |
- Confirmed
- Missing or at risk
Three questions for every deal, every week
- 1Does the close date still make sense? A deal that closes in two weeks should be almost entirely green.
- 2Where are the gaps, and what is the action that closes each one this week?
- 3Which deals should leave the forecast? Dead deals inflate the numbers and take your focus.
The dimensions also ground your forecast. A deal in Commit has nearly every dimension confirmed, a Best Case deal may have strong pain and a champion but an unclear paper process, and a Pipeline deal is still being qualified. AI can pull all open deals from your CRM, sort them by close date, and list the gaps per deal in a few minutes.
Keep Reading
Run qualification inside your sales rhythm
Qualification runs inside your sales stages, and the weekly pipeline review becomes a fixed part of your operating rhythm.
Find out which of your deals are real
Take the free Value Architecture & Sales Motion Assessment. It shows which parts are already in place and where to start.