TL;DR
MEDDIC is an enterprise sales qualification framework: Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, Champion. It helps sales teams qualify deals rigorously and focus effort on opportunities that can actually close, rather than opportunities that just seem interested.
MEDDIC was developed at PTC in the 1990s and has become the gold standard for complex B2B sales qualification. Here's what each element means in practice:
M — Metrics: What's the quantified business impact of the problem you're solving? Not "we help them save time" but "they save 15 hours/week per SDR × 12 SDRs = 180 hours/week at $50/hour = $9K/week savings." The Metrics element forces you to speak the CFO's language.
E — Economic Buyer: Who controls the budget and has authority to approve the purchase? Not just who's enthusiastic, but who can sign the PO. Often a CFO, COO, or divisional VP. If you've never spoken to the economic buyer, the deal is at risk.
D — Decision Criteria: What factors will they use to evaluate and select a vendor? Technical requirements, price, implementation time, references, compliance? Knowing the decision criteria lets you tailor your positioning and demo to what actually matters.
D — Decision Process: What steps happen between now and a signed contract? Who needs to be involved? Is there a procurement review? A security audit? A pilot requirement? Understanding the process prevents surprise delays and lets you map a realistic close date.
I — Identify Pain: What's the specific, urgent problem your product solves for this account? Not a general trend — a specific, named pain with business consequences if unresolved. "Our SDRs have a 90-day ramp and we're missing $2M/year in lost pipeline during that window" is pain. "We'd like to improve our sales process" is not.
C — Champion: Who is your internal advocate — someone who wants your product to win and will actively sell it internally when you're not in the room? Finding and developing a champion is often more important than finding the economic buyer.
How to use MEDDIC: Integrate these as discovery questions in your sales process. Update your CRM with MEDDIC data for each opportunity. Any deal missing critical MEDDIC elements should be flagged for attention before forecasting it in the pipeline.
From Cactus: Cactus trains client sales teams on MEDDIC discovery questions as part of our sales enablement work — it dramatically improves forecast accuracy and deal prioritization.
Cactus Marketing embeds with B2B tech startups to turn strategy into pipeline. We've worked with 60+ companies, supported 12 exits, and contributed to $7B+ in client valuations.
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Book a free strategy call →How do I hire my first SDR?
Hire your first SDR only after you've personally closed 5–10 customers and can articulate exactly what messaging, ICP, and objection handling worked. An SDR hired before the founder has figured out the sales motion will fail — they need a playbook to follow, not to build one from scratch.
What should an SDR quota be?
A typical SDR quota in B2B SaaS is 8–15 qualified meetings booked per month, or $150–300K in pipeline generated per quarter. The right number depends on your ACV, lead source, and market. Set quota based on what's achievable from proven activity metrics, not what would be convenient for the business.
How do I onboard an SDR?
Build a structured 30-60-90 day plan with clear milestones: product mastery in week 1, ICP and messaging training in week 2, supervised calling in week 3, and independent ramping with quota from day 31. Document everything — the SDR should have a playbook on day one, not six weeks later.
What is a good SDR conversion rate?
A good SDR conversion rate is 2–5% of outbound contacts to qualified meeting, and 25–40% of qualified meetings to SQL (sales accepted opportunity). Below these benchmarks suggests targeting, messaging, or qualification issues — not necessarily SDR execution.