Sales patterns

Sales Patterns

Sales Methodologies

MEDDIC (Enterprise)

M — Metrics        What measurable outcomes does the buyer want?
E — Economic Buyer Who has budget authority and final sign-off?
D — Decision       What's the formal decision-making process + timeline?
D — Decision       What criteria will they use to evaluate solutions?
I — Identify Pain  What's the cost of doing nothing? What's the trigger?
C — Champion       Who internally is selling for you when you're not there?

MEDDPICC adds:

• P = Paper process (legal, procurement, security reviews)
• C = Competition (who else is in the deal?)

SPICED (Product-Led)

S — Situation      Current state, team size, stack, usage patterns
P — Pain           Specific friction points with evidence (quantified)
I — Impact         Business outcome if pain is solved (revenue, time, risk)
C — Critical Event Hard deadline (board meeting, renewal date, migration)
D — Decision       Who, how, when — explicit next steps agreed

Challenger Sale

1. Teach    Reframe the buyer's problem with insight they didn't have
2. Tailor   Customize the message to economic buyer's priorities
3. Take     Lead the conversation; don't just respond to requests

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Discovery Call Framework

Structure (45 min)

0:00–0:05  Agenda setting + confirm time
0:05–0:15  Situational questions (current state)
0:15–0:30  Problem exploration (pain + impact)
0:30–0:40  Qualification (MEDDIC)
0:40–0:45  Next steps (specific date + deliverable)

Discovery Questions

Situation:
  - "Walk me through how your team handles [X] today."
  - "How many people are affected by this process?"
  - "What tools are you using now?"

Pain:
  - "Where does the current process break down?"
  - "How often does [problem] happen?"
  - "What's the impact when it does?"

Impact (quantify):
  - "If you fixed this, what would that mean for your team?"
  - "Have you tried to calculate what this costs you annually?"
  - "What happens if nothing changes?"

Qualification:
  - "What does your evaluation process look like?"
  - "Who else needs to be part of this decision?"
  - "Do you have budget allocated, or would this require approval?"

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Demo Structure

Problem-Led Demo (not feature tour)

1. Recap pain (30 sec)   "You mentioned X costs you Y hours/week."
2. Reveal solution       "Let me show you exactly how we solve that."
3. Demo the fix          Show workflow end-to-end for their use case
4. Quantify              "Teams like yours save Z hours/week."
5. Handle questions      Address as they arise, not in batch
6. Next step             "Based on what you saw, does this solve X?"

Anti-pattern: Never do a feature tour. Always anchor to a specific pain from discovery.

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Objection Handling

Framework: Feel / Felt / Found

"I understand why you feel that way. Others felt the same at first.
What they found was [specific outcome with evidence]."

Common Objections

"Too expensive"
→ Reframe to ROI: "Compared to [current cost/pain], the payback is X months."
→ Unbundle: "What if we started with just [core module] at $Y?"

"We're happy with [competitor]"
→ "What would have to be true for you to consider a change?"
→ Find the wedge: where is competitor weakest for their use case?

"Not the right time"
→ Identify the critical event: "What's changing in [quarter] that makes timing matter?"
→ Cost of delay: "What does waiting another quarter cost you?"

"Need to talk to my team"
→ "Happy to help — what information would be most useful for them?"
→ Request multi-thread: ask to join the internal meeting

"We'll build it ourselves"
→ Total cost of build: "Typically takes X engineers Y months. What's your engineering cost?"
→ Opportunity cost: "What else could those engineers be building?"

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Proposal Writing

Structure

1. Executive Summary (1 page)
   - Situation (their words)
   - Desired outcome
   - Our recommendation
   - Investment and ROI

2. Current State & Pain
   - Documented problems from discovery
   - Quantified impact

3. Solution Overview
   - How it maps to their specific use case
   - Differentiators vs alternatives

4. Implementation Plan
   - Phases with milestones
   - Resources required (theirs + ours)
   - Timeline

5. Investment
   - Clear pricing (no surprises)
   - ROI calculation
   - Payment terms

6. Next Steps
   - Specific actions with owners and dates

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Pipeline Management

Stage Definitions

Stage 1: Qualified Lead     (BANT validated, meeting booked)         10%
Stage 2: Discovery          (Pain confirmed, champion identified)     25%
Stage 3: Technical Fit      (Demo done, technical win confirmed)      40%
Stage 4: Business Case      (Proposal sent, economic buyer engaged)   60%
Stage 5: Negotiation        (Legal/procurement, verbal commitment)     80%
Stage 6: Closed Won         (Signed contract)                        100%
Stage 7: Closed Lost        (Lost to competition or no decision)       0%

Pipeline Health Checks

Weekly: 
  - Review every Stage 4+ deal: next step + date + risk?
  - Aging: any deal stuck > 2× average sales cycle?
  - Coverage: pipeline > 3× quota?

Monthly:
  - Conversion rates stage-by-stage
  - Average deal size trend
  - Win/loss analysis (top 5 wins, top 5 losses)

Quarterly:
  - Cohort analysis: what quarter's deals closed and when?
  - Forecast accuracy: predicted vs actual

CRM Hygiene Rules

- Every opportunity must have: close date, amount, stage, next step date
- No stage advance without documented evidence of criteria met
- Discovery notes entered within 24 hours of call
- Forecast category: Commit / Best Case / Pipeline / Omit

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Closing Techniques

Assumptive Close

"Based on our conversations, it sounds like [Solution] is a good fit.
Let's get the paperwork started — what's the best way to get the
contract to your legal team?"

Summary Close

"We've confirmed that [A, B, C] are your top priorities, and you've
seen how we address each. The next step is to sign the MSA and kick
off implementation by [date]. Does that work?"

Creating Urgency (Legitimate)

- Implementation capacity: "Our next available onboarding slot is [date]."
- Pricing: "Current pricing holds until [end of quarter]."
- Their critical event: "You mentioned your board review is [date] — 
  that means we'd need to start by [date] to show results."

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Sales Metrics

Metric	Formula	Target
Win Rate	Won / (Won + Lost)	> 25% (enterprise)
Average Sales Cycle	Days from SQL to Close	Benchmark vs prior period
Average Contract Value	Total ARR / Deals Closed	Growing QoQ
Pipeline Coverage	Pipeline Value / Quota	> 3×
Forecast Accuracy		Predicted - Actual
Activity Ratio	Meetings Booked / Outreach Attempts	> 5%