MEDDPICC Examples: Weak vs Strong for Every Letter (Plus a Full Deal Walkthrough)

Definitions don't help much when you're trying to decide whether your Metrics are yellow or green. Examples do.

The difference between yellow and green is usually the difference between something you heard and something the buyer agreed to.

This post has two parts. Part 1 shows what weak and strong sound like for each of the eight letters. Part 2 walks one deal through three checkpoints, letter by letter, with the color, the evidence and the next move at each one.

If you need the definitions first, start with the complete MEDDPICC guide. The grading standard here is the same one used there:

• Red: we don't know.
• Yellow: we think. An assumption the buyer hasn't validated, or misalignment.
• Green: we know. Names, dates, numbers and documents the buyer has confirmed.

Part 1: Weak vs strong, letter by letter

The letters below follow the order you work them in a deal, not the order of the acronym.

Identify Pain

Weak	Strong
"They have a pipeline problem."	"We need more pipeline because we're missing our targets. If we don't close the gap, we'll lay people off, and that slows our growth even more."
"They're struggling with payroll."	"We can't pay lower-cost global labor, so we can't tap talent that would cut our burn rate, so we can't hit our growth target."
"Forecast is messy." "We need visibility."	"This is happening in this workflow, to these teams, it's costing this amount, and leadership agrees it must be solved in this timeframe."

If the weak version sounds like your product pitch, you don't know their problem. The strong version is a chain: their metrics, their goals, and what happens if nothing changes. Keep asking "And then what happens?" until it's their story with their numbers. More in the Identify Pain guide.

Metrics

Weak	Strong
"We need $2M more pipeline."	"We have a 20 percent pipeline shortfall, which means we're missing our bottom-line number by $2M a month, which means we'll miss our annual plan, won't secure our next round of funding, and may need layoffs."
"We'll save your team hours every week."	"We save time, which eliminates two planned hires, saving $420K fully loaded."
"Customers are complaining and we can't service cars fast enough."	"Each open technician role costs about $100K a month, and there are over a hundred open. This is a $120 million annual problem."

The weak versions aren't wrong. They're just unusable.

That last row is from a recruitment process outsourcing deal with an auto body chain. I kept asking "Why does that matter?" until the CFO stopped me. Then I asked what one open role costs them per month. Their own internal estimate, times their open roles. In their math, not mine. We closed in under two months.

Even the strong versions above are only yellow on their own. Metrics go green when the business case built on them is agreed by the Executive Sponsor and the Economic Buyer. More in the Metrics guide.

Decision Criteria

Weak	Strong
"We want a modern platform." "We want better reporting." "We want to use AI."	"These are the criteria we're deciding on, and these are the outcomes we're driving toward," with must-haves and nice-to-haves locked in writing.
"They said faster is the goal."	Each must-have tied to an outcome, and each outcome a line item in the business case.
"We need X capability."	"What outcome does that drive, and what happens if you get the capability but not the outcome?" asked, answered and documented.

Red is a wish list. Yellow is sound bites nobody wrote down. Green is a scorecard the buying team built with you, with your differentiators agreed as must-haves. See the Decision Criteria guide.

Competition

Weak	Strong
"We're not really competing." "They seem to like us."	"Here's what we're being compared against, and here's why each option is being considered."
"I heard they're looking at Vendor X." "I think we're the front runner."	"Here's the criteria we agreed matters most, here's the proof that shows why we'll win, and they agree with our differentiators."
"They hate their current provider." "I don't think they could do this themselves."	Status quo, build vs. buy and competing priorities each named and addressed, and Vendor of Choice stated or strongly implied.

Notice how many weak answers are feelings: they like us, I think, I don't think. More in the Competition guide.

Champion

Weak	Strong
"They love me."	They set up internal meetings you're not in and come back with outcomes.
"They said, 'I want to make this happen.'"	They socialized the business case before the big meeting and defended it when finance challenged the ROI.
"They give me great information."	You asked, "Based on what you've seen, do you believe our solution is the best option for the business?" and they explained your differentiators back to you in their own words.

The weak column describes a coach. A champion spends political capital when someone says no. See the Champion guide.

Economic Buyer

Weak	Strong
"We met the VP once."	Direct engagement with the Economic Buyer and an agreement to sponsor the business case.
"My contact says the VP has budget." "I know who signs."	A verified path: who signs, the approval tiers and the discretionary thresholds at this deal size.
"Who is the economic buyer?" asked out loud.	"Does your business already have budget allocated for a solution like ours? If not, who can create new budget for this, and what would they need to do that?"

The Economic Buyer moves with the number, so re-check this letter every time the price, scope or budget source changes. More in the Economic Buyer guide.

Decision Process

Weak	Strong
"They asked for a proposal."	The business decision documented with steps, owners and dates, agreed with the buyer.
"They said decisions are fast."	A backward timeline from the buyer's go-live date, tied to a compelling event they recognize.
A close date the seller picked.	A mutual action plan tracked by completed actions, not stage changes.

The question that moves this letter isn't "When will you decide?" It's "When do you want to be live?" See the Decision Process guide.

Paper Process

Weak	Strong
"We should get this done in a few weeks."	"Here are the steps, here are the people, here are the dates, here's what could delay us, and we're managing it together."
"They said the buying process is quick, we just sent a proposal."	Security, legal, procurement, vendor onboarding and signature authority mapped, with owners and dates.
"We're in legal review, and they said we should get redlines soon."	You asked which terms other vendors have pushed back on, and the redlines are known and doable.

Red here on your second call is completely normal. Red in commit is a problem. See the Paper Process guide.

Part 2: A full deal walkthrough

This is an illustrative deal, built from patterns I see constantly, not a specific customer. The company, people and numbers are made up. The patterns aren't.

The buyer is a mid-market regional logistics company running a few hundred trucks out of three terminals. Dispatchers build routes by hand every night in spreadsheets. The seller is selling a route-planning platform.

At each of three checkpoints, the question isn't "Is this green?" It's "Is this as green as it should be by now?" Here are the targets from the stage exit criteria, mapped to the letters:

Leaving…	Pain + Metrics baseline	Decision Criteria	Business case	Champion + EB	Decision + Paper Process	Competition
Discovery	Green	Yellow	Yellow	Red, moving to Yellow	Red	Red or Yellow
Solution Alignment	Green	Green	Yellow	Yellow	Yellow	Green
Go / No Go	Green	Green	Green	Green	Yellow	Green

Checkpoint 1: Leaving Discovery

Three calls in, with the VP of Operations, the dispatch manager and the customer service lead.

Letter	Color	Evidence	Next move
Identify Pain	Green	Late deliveries, dispatcher overtime and chargebacks from their two largest retail customers, confirmed by Ops, Dispatch and Customer Service. Tied to a priority: the largest retail account reviews on-time performance at renewal.	Document it and share it back for edits.
Metrics	Yellow (behind target)	Overtime baseline confirmed from a payroll report. Fuel waste and chargeback cost are a Metric Hypothesis: a back-of-the-napkin number the VP said "sounds about right." Finance hasn't seen it.	"Who would know?" The VP names the controller. Book 30 minutes to validate the baseline before moving on.
Decision Criteria	Yellow	Directional: "routes built automatically," "works with our TMS." Nothing written.	Draft a Reverse RFP scorecard to bring to the demo.
Competition	Yellow	Status quo is spreadsheets plus dispatcher experience. VP mentioned their TMS vendor sells a routing add-on. Build vs. buy not discussed.	Prepare Options to Solve for Solution Alignment.
Champion	Red	Dispatch manager is enthusiastic and shares a lot. Hasn't done anything for us yet. That's a coach.	Label honestly. Invite them to co-own the scorecard draft.
Economic Buyer	Red	"The VP says she has budget." No idea of approval tiers.	Ask as history: "Are there different approval paths for different levels of spend?"
Decision Process	Red	"We want it before peak season." No steps, no owners.	Fine for now. Ask how their last system purchase got made.
Paper Process	Red	Not discussed.	Fine for now. Scout one history question in a later call.

What this checkpoint shows: Four reds, and the deal is on track. The only letter behind target is Metrics, because the current-state baseline should be green before you leave Discovery. So the honest call is one more meeting, with the controller, before the demo.

Checkpoint 2: Leaving Solution Alignment

Five weeks later. The controller validated the baseline. The demo ran as short scenes tied to the scorecard. And a new stakeholder showed up: the Director of IT.

Letter	Color	Evidence	Next move
Identify Pain	Green	Faces of Impact deck from interviews with dispatchers and drivers at all three terminals. The VP repeats the problem back in her own people's words.	Keep adding faces. It becomes the Why Change story.
Metrics	Yellow (on target)	Baseline green: controller confirmed fuel spend and chargeback totals. Draft business case built and corrected by the dispatch manager and the VP. CFO hasn't seen it.	Run the buying team business validation review, then the executive review.
Decision Criteria	Green	Scorecard agreed by Ops, Dispatch and IT. IT added "native TMS integration" as a must-have in the demo; it went into the scorecard and was shown working. Pressure-test question asked: nobody would push back.	Lock the scorecard and send the final version to the buying team.
Competition	Green	Options to Solve run. IT ruled out building it themselves on maintenance cost. The TMS add-on was put in a box: handles dispatch, not optimization. A competing warehouse project is confirmed for next fiscal year. VP: "You're the one we want to take forward."	Watch for the add-on resurfacing in procurement as a price anchor.
Champion	Yellow	Dispatch manager corrected our Why Us document (the Why Us play) and presented it to the VP without us. That's champion behavior. The VP hasn't yet carried the case upward.	Test the VP: "What would you need to see to feel comfortable fighting for this?" Arm her with a one-page case.
Economic Buyer	Yellow	Approval tiers confirmed: the VP's discretionary limit is below the deal size, so the CFO is the Economic Buyer. The VP is now the Executive Sponsor. CFO not engaged.	VP offers the CFO a pre-read of the business case. Never let the first exposure be the final exposure.
Decision Process	Yellow	Backward timeline drafted from a go-live date ahead of peak season, in a shared mutual action plan. VP agreed. IT hasn't confirmed the security review date.	Weekly check-in on plan progress. Get IT's date in the plan.
Paper Process	Yellow	Scouted as history: security questionnaire, MSA reviewed by outside counsel, POs above a threshold need CFO signature. Nothing in motion.	Add security, legal and PO steps to the plan with owners.

What this checkpoint shows: Two things that sink a lot of deals happened here. The Economic Buyer changed because the deal size crossed the VP's limit, and a new stakeholder arrived late with a new criterion. Neither became a surprise, because the seller asked about approval tiers and folded IT's requirement into the scorecard.

Checkpoint 3: Go / No Go

Four weeks later. The VP presented the business case to the CFO with the seller in the room for the second half.

Letter	Color	Evidence	Next move
Identify Pain	Green	Documented.	None.
Metrics	Green	CFO challenged the fuel-savings assumption. The team de-risked it to a lower percentage, and the case still cleared the bar. Agreed by the VP and CFO in writing, with a daily cost of delay: agreed value divided by 250 working days.	Hand the baseline to customer success to measure Value Realized.
Decision Criteria	Green	Final scorecard signed off by Ops, Dispatch and IT.	None.
Competition	Green	Vendor of Choice stated. TMS add-on still in the background.	If procurement raises it, confirm quietly with the champion, then show the side-by-side. No price war.
Champion	Green	Championing at three levels: the dispatch manager, the IT director and the VP, who carried the case to the CFO and defended it.	Keep testing. Behavior can change.
Economic Buyer	Green	CFO agreed to fund it from this fiscal year's operating budget.	No-ask update when legal starts.
Decision Process	Green	Every business step in the mutual action plan has an owner and a date. Compelling event confirmed: peak season and the retail account's on-time review. Security review opened.	Track completed actions, not dates.
Paper Process	Yellow (on target)	MSA sent. The seller asked which terms other vendors pushed back on. Legal named two: limitation of liability and data retention. Signature authority confirmed. Redlines not back.	Send procurement a commercial brief. Ask for one consolidated list of changes. Run legal and security in parallel. Respond with one bundled proposal.

What this checkpoint shows: Seven greens and the right yellow. The business has decided. The paper hasn't. This deal earns commit when the legal lane is mapped, the redlines are known to be doable, and the timeline is tracked. Because the seller asked about unusual terms the moment paper went out, the likely dealbreakers are managed risks, not surprises.

The Bottom Line

Weak MEDDPICC answers aren't lies. They're the first answer, from one person, said out loud, and never written down. Strong answers are in the buyer's words and numbers, confirmed by more than one stakeholder, and documented.

The walkthrough shows the rest. Red early is honest, not bad. Yellow is the honest color for most mid-stage deals. Every green names a person, a document or a decision; none says "great meeting." And when something stalls, look left to the earliest letter that's behind. That's your next move.

Grade your own deals with the free MEDDPICC Scorecard and Color Coding Cheat Sheet, and see the 14 MEDDPICC mistakes that turn yellow into fake green.

MEDDPICC Examples FAQ

What is a good MEDDPICC Metrics example? "We eliminate two planned hires, saving $420K fully loaded" is strong. "We save your team hours every week" is weak. It goes green when the Executive Sponsor and Economic Buyer agree to the business case built on it.

How green should a deal be after Discovery? The current-state baseline, meaning the pain and the Metrics baseline, should be green. Decision Criteria and the business case should be directional (yellow). Red on Decision Process, Paper Process, Champion and Economic Buyer is normal.

Should every MEDDPICC letter be green at Go / No Go? Almost. Pain, Metrics, Decision Criteria, Competition, Champion and Economic Buyer should be green. Paper Process is usually still yellow, because legal and procurement are running. It needs to go green before the deal is in commit.

Is the walkthrough deal in this post real? No. It's an illustrative composite built from patterns that show up in deal after deal. The company, people and numbers are made up so the colors and moves are easy to follow.