How to Run a MEDDPICC Deal Review (Free Template)

Most deal reviews go like this.

The seller shows up and shares so many details that the leader can’t see where help is actually needed.

The leader latches onto one line and tosses out generic advice. “Multi-thread more.” “Get higher.” “Find the economic buyer.”

Then the clock runs out.

The seller leaves thinking, that wasn’t helpful. The leader leaves thinking, that seller isn’t crisp. And nobody walks away with a plan.

Or it goes the other way. The leader goes letter by letter through MEDDPICC like a quiz, the seller defends, and the room plays politics.

Neither changes the outcome of the deal. This post shows you how to run one that does.

What a Deal Review Is (and Isn’t)

A deal review is not a pipeline meeting.

It’s not a forecast call.

And it’s definitely not political pageantry.

A deal review is a leverage meeting. It exists for one reason: to swarm the deals that matter most with the people who can actually move them.

It’s a focused, cross-functional working session on one deal. Ideally, one deal per week. Not every deal. Not the whole pipeline. A top-quartile deal, one of the needle movers:

• Top logos
• Strategic wins
• Big expansions
• The ones that change the quarter

These deals deserve attention before they become quarter-ending emergencies. And when trust is high, sellers raise their hand for them, because they see the session as an accelerator, not a trial.

Keep the other meetings clean, too: 1:1s are for inspection and coaching, forecast calls are for the number, and deal reviews are for swarming one deal deeply. When one meeting tries to do all three, it does none of them.

Step 1: Color Code Every MEDDPICC Letter

Here’s the single biggest upgrade you can make.

Instead of talking through the deal, color code each letter red, yellow or green with a shared definition:

• Red: we don’t know.
• Yellow: we think. An assumption, not validated.
• Green: we know. Evidence, facts, client validated.

Now when you talk about the deal, you’re looking at the colors together, and you can see in seconds where help is needed.

The catch is that “green” has to mean the same thing to everyone. A number in the Metrics field isn’t green. Clicking “Pain Identified” doesn’t mean you know pain. Grade the depth of what you know, against what “done” looks like for each letter:

Letter	What “done” (green) looks like
Metrics	The business case for change, built on the buyer’s own metrics, has been agreed to by the Executive Sponsor and Economic Buyer.
Economic Buyer	The person who controls funding, together with the Executive Sponsor who controls priority, is willing to use their influence to secure both funding and priority for your initiative.
Decision Criteria	You’ve shaped them, the buyer agrees with them, and they clearly favor your solution.
Decision Process	You know the steps, stages, stakeholders, activities and timelines of the business decision, you’re tracking them, and they’re moving in the agreed direction.
Paper Process	The same standard for the legal and commercial lane (security, legal, procurement, redlines, PO and signature authority): known, tracked in a mutual plan, and moving in the agreed direction.
Identify (Implicate) Pain	You can connect problem > solution > value > justification for change > downstream business impact.
Champion	Enough stakeholders, at multiple levels, are actively driving the change and spending political capital to make it happen.
Competition	The forces working against the change (status quo, named competitors, build vs. buy, competing priorities) are identified and neutralized.

Stage matters. Red on Paper Process on your second call is completely appropriate. Red on Paper Process in commit is a problem. Look at the stage you’re in, look at what should be yellow or green by that stage, and the gap is your risk.

If you run Deal Management’s six criteria instead of MEDDPICC, swap the rows. The meeting works exactly the same way.

Step 2: Build the Right Room

The power of a deal review comes from a capable, engaged bench. Beyond the sales team:

• Marketing: account-specific assets, proof points, targeted campaigns, gifting
• Finance: discount guidance, deal structure, approval readiness, negotiation prep
• SE and SE leadership: technical plan, custom demo, POV design, competitive posture
• Your boss: air cover, executive outreach strategy, escalation path, internal alignment

Sometimes product. Sometimes legal. It depends on the deal and the stage.

Step 3: The Seller Preps and Sends It Ahead

The seller runs this meeting, and it starts before anyone joins:

• The seller selects the deal, ideally from their top quartile.
• They color code every MEDDPICC letter.
• They name the risks they currently see.
• They write potential asks for the room to think about.
• They send the summary ahead of time so the room can prepare.

Skip this and people show up cold. The “review” becomes a live internal discovery call, and you burn half the hour on context.

Step 4: Run the 60-Minute Deal Review

Time	Who	What happens
5 min	Leader	Introductions and context: why this deal matters, the agenda, and the standard for how we run this.
10 min	Seller	Sets the stage: deal overview, stage, colors, risks and goals.
35 min	The room	Open discussion and swarm: targeted questions, risk discovery, strategy options, play selection, cross-functional alignment, bias towards action.
10 min	Everyone	Agree the cross-functional actions: owners, dates, and what “done” means. Write it down.

The leader’s opening

Set the tone in the first five minutes:

• This is not a performance review.
• This is a working session.
• We’re here to help.
• We’ll focus on risks, actions and commitments.

Then hand it to the seller.

What the seller presents

The seller shares their screen and walks a simple sequence:

1. Executive summary. What the deal is. Why it matters. Where it sits in the sales process. The target outcome and timeline.

2. MEDDPICC, color coded. Every letter, its color, and the evidence behind it. What we know, what we think, what we don’t know.

3. Risks and help needed. What’s red? What’s yellow? Why is it that color? What’s the plan? And what the seller needs from the room.

How the room engages

The room asks targeted questions. It doesn’t wander.

• Pressure-test green. What did we see, hear and validate that makes this green? Who confirmed it, and when? What would make it yellow again?
• Turn red into a plan. Red isn’t a moral failure. It’s a signal. What are we doing to move it to yellow, and by when?
• Turn assumptions into reality. “I think” isn’t wrong. It’s a flag. How do we confirm it?
• Convert “we should” into actions. Marketing leaves with clear tasks. Finance leaves with deal structure and modeling actions. SE leaves with technical acceleration actions. Leadership leaves with air-cover plays and executive outreach moves.

The goal isn’t more talk. It’s more leverage.

Step 5: End With Commitments

A deal review only counts if it produces commitments. The meeting ends with:

• Actions
• Owners
• Dates
• A follow-up check

If it isn’t documented, it didn’t happen. A great brainstorm with no owners, dates or follow-up doesn’t create leverage. It just burns time.

The Leader’s Job: Advisor, Not Dictator

When I first learned MEDDPICC, I hated it. It felt like more boxes, more things to track, more questions I didn’t want to answer. I was already winning, so I pushed back. “We’ll get that later.” “I have a good feel for this deal.”

My leader, Gregory Donovan, didn’t hit me with the MEDDstick. He didn’t shame me for not knowing. He showed up week after week and asked the same questions:

Do we have a business case? Do we have an executive sponsor? Who are we really competing against, and why should we win? What’s your plan to progress this deal? What are the risks, and what are we doing about them?

No drama. No ego. Just standards and consistency.

So I started showing up with evidence instead of vibes.

That’s the stance a deal review needs:

• The seller leads the strategy. The seller comes first with their plan. The leader asks questions, challenges the thinking, helps shape the strategy, and gives direction when needed.
• Ask for their plan before giving yours. What’s your plan? What are the risks in it? What help do you need from me?
• Throw away the MEDDSTICK. The second you beat people up for what they don’t know, they protect themselves. They fudge what’s happening. They tell you what they think you want to hear. By the time you find out what’s really going on, it’s too late.
• Coach to patterns. If the same gap shows up across deals (no executive sponsor, no decision process, no quantified impact, no real champion), call out the pattern, not just this deal.

The test after every review: did the seller leave with your answer, or with a better way to think?

Where Deal Reviews Go Wrong

• Too many deals. Try to cover five and you solve none.
• Nobody prepared. The review turns into internal discovery.
• It becomes a quiz. Leaders interrogate, sellers defend, the room stops helping. If reps feel like they’re walking into a firing squad, you’ve already lost. The moment fear enters the room, truth leaves.
• No commitments. Good ideas, no owners, no dates, nothing changes.

Free MEDDPICC Deal Review Template

Copy this into a doc and have the seller send it ahead of time so the room can prepare.

Deal review: [Account name]

1. Executive summary

• What the deal is:
• Why it matters:
• Stage, target close date and value:
• Target outcome for the buyer:

2. MEDDPICC color code (Red = we don’t know, Yellow = we think, Green = we know)

Letter	Color	Evidence (what we know, who confirmed it, when)	Gap
Metrics
Economic Buyer
Decision Criteria
Decision Process
Paper Process
Identify Pain
Champion
Competition

3. Risks, plan and asks

• Top three risks:
• My plan to close the gaps:
• Asks for Marketing, Finance, SE and Leadership:

4. Commitments (filled in at the end)

Action	Owner	Date	Done means

For the grading standard, grab the free MEDDPICC Scorecard or the one-page Color Coding Cheat Sheet, and use 75 MEDDPICC Discovery Questions to turn yellow into green.

The Bottom Line

The purpose of a deal review isn’t to talk about the deal. It’s to change the outcome of the deal.

Pick one deal. Show up prepared. Pressure-test the colors. Swarm the risks. Leave with actions.

Deal reviews, 1:1s, forecast calls and QBRs each get their own playbook in Section 3 of the book. If your MEDDPICC rollout isn’t sticking, start with the leadership problem behind it.