MEDDPICC by Sales Stage: What Should Be Green When

So the real question in a deal review isn't "is this green?" It's "is this as green as it should be by now?"

Below, for every stage: its job, the letters you work, the target color for all eight letters on the way out, the pulse-check question, and the plays to run. New to the framework? Start with the complete MEDDPICC guide.

Get the one-page Stage Cheat Sheet → · Grade every letter with the MEDDPICC Scorecard → · See the full red, yellow, green rubric →

Why does the stage change what green means?

Green doesn't mean the same thing in Discovery that it means in Negotiation.

Early in a deal, you're building a foundation. Late in a deal, you're confirming it held.

Red on Paper Process on your second call is completely appropriate. Red on Paper Process in commit is a problem. Same color, different stage, totally different conversation.

It's also why covering every letter on call one backfires. You get a little of everything and depth on nothing. MEDDPICC has an order of operations: Pain, Metrics, Decision Criteria, Competition, Champion, Economic Buyer, Decision Process, Paper Process. The stages follow that order. Each one clears a level and unlocks the next.

MEDDPICC is the blind spot detector. Your sales process is the car. The stage tells you where you are on the road. The colors tell you what you can't see yet.

What sales stages does this use?

The stages come from the sales process in my book, Deal Management:

1. Discovery (circular)
2. Demo (circular)
3. Solution Alignment: do we all agree on what we're buying?
4. Business Alignment: do we all agree on why we're buying, and why now?
5. Go / No Go: the decision itself
6. Proposal to Close: proposal, negotiation and close, combined

Yours probably reads Discovery, Demo, Proposal, Negotiation, Close. Map your stages to the closest column. But notice the gap: most processes jump from "demo went well" straight to "send proposal," and that jump is where most winnable deals quietly die. More in The Two Sales Process Stages Nobody Builds.

Video · Sales Tips

The 2 sales stages nobody builds · David Weiss on YouTube

How do the eight letters map to the six Deal Management criteria?

The original stage targets are set on the six Deal Management criteria. The eight MEDDPICC letters roll up into them:

Deal Management criterion	MEDDPICC letters
Current State	Metrics (the baseline), Identify Pain
Desired Future State	Decision Criteria
Change Justification	Metrics (the business case), Identify Pain (the implication)
Stakeholders	Economic Buyer, Champion
Buying Process	Decision Process (business lane), Paper Process (legal lane)
Competition	Competition

Metrics and Identify Pain live in two criteria. The baseline gets locked early; the business case and the implication harden later. That's why both sit at yellow for a while even when the current state is solid.

What should each MEDDPICC letter be when a deal leaves each stage?

Here's the full grid. Read across a row to see what a deal should look like on its way out of that stage.

Leaving…	M	E	Dc	Dp	P	I	Ch	Co
Discovery	Yellow (baseline green)	Red	Yellow	Red	Red	Yellow (current state green)	Red, moving to Yellow	Red or Yellow
Demo	Yellow	Yellow	Yellow	Yellow	Red	Yellow	Yellow	Yellow
Solution Alignment	Yellow	Yellow	Green	Yellow	Red or Yellow	Yellow	Yellow	Green
Business Alignment	Green	Yellow	Green	Yellow	Yellow	Green	Green	Green
Go / No Go	Green	Green	Green	Green	Yellow	Green	Green	Green
Proposal to Close	Green	Green	Green	Green	Green	Green	Green	Green

M = Metrics, E = Economic Buyer, Dc = Decision Criteria, Dp = Decision Process, P = Paper Process, I = Identify Pain, Ch = Champion, Co = Competition. Bold marks the stage where a letter is expected to turn green.

A few notes on how to read it:

• Champion turns green a stage before the Economic Buyer. Business Alignment only works if your champion can carry the business case into a room without you. The Economic Buyer's sign-off usually comes at Go / No Go. Same line I draw for Upside in sales forecast categories.
• Decision Process goes green before Paper Process. If you understand how the business decides but haven't mapped legal, your buying process is still yellow. That's what the P is for.
• Paper Process is red early on purpose. Scout it as history. But the legal lane doesn't really move until there's a business decision to paper.

And the rule that matters most: a deal isn't commit until every letter is green. Commit means the timeline is nailed down and milestones are tracked with mutual owners and dates in a mutual action plan, with paperwork moving.

Discovery: what should be green before you leave?

The job: verify the current state. Not "they have a problem." The specific problem, who it affects, how it cascades, and what it costs, in numbers the buyer can defend. Discovery builds the baseline so Demo can create contrast.

The letters you work: Identify Pain and the Metrics baseline first. Then directional Decision Criteria, an early read on Competition (what exists today, including the status quo), and a first sketch of the stakeholders. Scout budget as history.

Leaving Discovery: the current state is green, so Identify Pain and Metrics sit at yellow with a solid baseline underneath. The implication and the business case harden later. Decision Criteria is yellow: directional, so you can start shaping early. Competition is red or yellow. Champion is red, moving to yellow, because you're still at the contact or coach level. Red on Economic Buyer, Decision Process and Paper Process is fine.

The exception: a fast-moving inbound deal with budget already justified. There, go heavier on fit, criteria, timeline and Why You, and bring the buying process into focus sooner. Everywhere else, buying process questions asked too early sound like you're closing a deal that doesn't exist yet. If the buyer won't continue without seeing something, run a combined discovery and demo, then a reverse demo. But don't skip the baseline.

Pulse check: "Is what I described actually the problem, or are there layers underneath we haven't gotten to yet?"

Plays to run:

• Account Planning. Map every department you impact, the people in each and their behavior. One person's version of reality isn't the business's.
• Persona Pain Mapping and Face of Discovery. Prep what each persona cares about, then put your hypothesis on a slide and invite them to correct you.
• Peel the Onion. When they name a problem, don't move on. Peel until a number appears.
• Back of the Napkin. When they can't quantify it, offer an anchor and get agreement or pushback.
• Good Questions, Wrong People. At the ceiling of your contact's knowledge, ask the strategic question anyway, then ask who would know.

Ask about money as history: "Is there budget for this, or will it be new?" Budgeted and unbudgeted deals have different economic buyers. And book the next meeting before you leave. Full question set: 75 MEDDPICC discovery questions.

Demo: what should be green before you leave?

The job: create contrast between the current state and a better future, one need and one outcome at a time, and start shaping how the buyer will judge every option. Demo is circular, like Discovery. You'll loop.

The letters you work: Decision Criteria above all. Metrics, by putting rough numbers on outcomes. Competition, because this is where "you all look alike" starts. Champion, by watching who leans in. Decision Process, scouted as history.

Leaving Demo: almost everything is yellow. Needs are confirmed and outcomes are being agreed, but nothing is locked. You know what you're up against, but your differentiators aren't agreed. You have a coach showing early champion behaviors, an Economic Buyer identified but not sponsoring, and a rough idea of how this gets bought. Paper Process can still be red.

Pulse check: "Based on what you've seen, does the solution justify changing now that everyone would support?"

Plays to run:

• Cinematic Demo. Short mini movies, each tied to one need and one outcome. Tell, show, tell. Pause and ask what it would change for them.
• Reverse RFP Scorecard. Hand them a scorecard with need-to-haves and nice-to-haves before someone else locks the criteria.
• Criteria Disruption. When criteria arrive pre-baked in an RFP, expand the definitions.
• Expedition Synchronization. Show a simple buying journey as guidance, not pressure.

The warning sign is a vague wish ("better reporting") or a secondhand goal ("they said faster is the goal"). More in Why Your Demo Isn't Closing Deals.

Solution Alignment: what should be green before you leave?

The job: get the buying group to agree on what they're buying: scope, success, and must-haves versus nice-to-haves. A demo shows capability. Solution Alignment creates agreement.

The letters you work: Decision Criteria and Competition to green. Champion, built for real. Metrics, attached to each locked criterion. Decision Process, with a mutual action plan starting to take shape.

Leaving Solution Alignment: Decision Criteria and Competition turn green. Criteria are agreed, documented and influenced, with your differentiators explicitly agreed on. Competition means strong mutual fit, differentiators believed, Vendor of Choice stated or strongly implied. Champion stays yellow, but this is where real champion behavior gets built: a buyer can't champion you until they've seen alternatives and believe yours is right, and locked criteria give them a defensible reason to stick their neck out. Decision Process is yellow with a mutual action plan being drafted. Paper Process is red or yellow, depending on whether you've scouted the legal lane.

Pulse check: "If we locked the solution requirements today, is there anyone who'd push back on what we've agreed to?"

The readiness test: can the buying group explain what they're buying, why your solution is differentiated, and what outcomes they expect, without you in the room? If yes, move to Business Alignment. If not, you're still here.

Plays to run:

• Why Us. Write down the problem, the must-haves and the outcomes you uniquely deliver, in their language. Have your champion correct it, then share it for consensus.
• High Contrast and Side by Side. Show only the must-haves, and give them a comparison matrix built on their criteria.
• Intentional Champion Builder. Build the person through working sessions, meeting prep and shared deliverables.
• Backward Timeline. Start from the go-live date or compelling event and work back. It becomes your mutual action plan.

Business Alignment: what should be green before you leave?

The job: turn a locked solution into a locked business case. Align the business justification and the final Why Change and Why Now narrative, and package it into documents your champion can carry and defend without you.

One rule matters more than the rest: never let the first executive exposure to the business case be the final exposure.

The letters you work: Metrics and Identify Pain to green. Champion, tested. Economic Buyer, through your executive sponsor. Decision Process, tracked in the plan.

Leaving Business Alignment: Metrics and Identify Pain turn green: an outcome-driven business case built on the buyer's baseline, with the pain implicated for every relevant persona and tied to a business priority. The Economic Buyer's final sign-off on that case lands at Go / No Go. Champion turns green: validated, enabled with collateral, actively selling for you. Economic Buyer, Decision Process and Paper Process stay yellow.

Pulse check: "When the economic buyer or executive sponsor looks at this, what's the first question they're going to ask?"

Plays to run:

• Business Case One-Pager. Baseline, outcomes, cost of inaction and the decision required, on one page. Share it and ask them to edit it. That's how the case becomes theirs. Start from the free Business Case Template.
• Faces of Impact and Value Pyramid. Show executives the problem through their own people's eyes, and connect it up to what leadership funds.
• Cost of Delay. "If we do nothing for 90 days, what gets worse?" Quantify it and tie it to a real event.
• Fast Track to the Executive Sponsor. Offer the likely sponsor a review of the directional business case. More in How to Earn an Executive Sponsor.

Go / No Go: what should be green before you leave?

The job: get a clear decision with executive sponsorship confirmed. This is the moment leadership decides whether the change is worth the cost, risk and distraction. Most of the time, your problem owner arms the executive sponsor, the sponsor has the conversation with the Economic Buyer, and you're not in the room.

If you don't design the decision, you don't get a decision. You get a discussion. Full chapter version: Go / No Go Decision in Sales.

The letters you work: Economic Buyer to green. Champion, confirmed at the executive level. Decision Process to green. Paper Process, opened.

Leaving Go / No Go: everything but Paper Process is green. Economic Buyer goes green on direct engagement and agreement to sponsor. A meeting isn't green. Agreement to fund is. Decision Process goes green: documented, dates agreed, milestones tracked. Paper Process stays yellow until you're in procurement and aligned on that path.

Pulse check: "At this point, is there any reason this doesn't move forward?" Then: "If it's a go, what happens immediately after, and who owns each next step?"

Plays to run:

• Business Case One-Pager, in its final form: current state pain, desired outcomes, justification, cost of delay, who benefits and the decision required.
• PRFAQ. Write the internal announcement as if the change already worked, and give it to your executive sponsor as an artifact for the Economic Buyer. Free PRFAQ template.
• Fast Track to Procurement. When final pricing comes up: "Happy to discuss. That normally happens when people are ready to move forward and buy. Is that where we are?" If yes, get procurement involved before you give anything away.

Proposal to Close: what should be green before you leave?

The job: turn a business yes into a paper yes. Business yes is intent. Paper yes is execution.

Here's the thing: if the earlier stages did their work, the proposal confirms decisions already made. And by the time a deal reaches formal negotiation, you've likely already won. Procurement's job is to get the solution the business already chose on the best possible terms.

The letters you work: Paper Process to green. Keep the Economic Buyer and champion close. Defend Competition and Metrics, because procurement will try to reopen both.

Leaving Proposal to Close: all eight green. Paper Process turns green when the legal and commercial path is mapped: who signs, in what order, required documents confirmed, redlines doable, and a defined timeline being tracked.

Pulse check: "Before we start the redline process, are there any terms in your standard agreement that other vendors have pushed back on or found unusual?"

Plays to run:

• Legal and Procurement Alignment. Map the path to signature and run legal, security and procurement in parallel.
• Expedited Procurement. Before redlines, walk procurement through a commercial brief: what the business agreed to, why you were chosen, the timeline and the cost of delay.
• Holistic Terms and Give to Get. Get every ask in writing, answer with one bundled proposal, and trade, don't give.
• Executive Pressure. When procurement stalls or overreaches, go to your executive sponsor.
• Daily Lost Revenue. Agreed annual value divided by 250 working days, so every day of delay has a price.

When procurement mentions a competitor late, it's usually a stalking horse. Confirm with your champion, stay on value and don't start a price war. More in MEDDPICC and procurement.

What do you do when a deal stalls? Look left.

When a deal stalls, mark where you are on the grid. Then look left, at the stage you just came from, and ask: did the letters that should have been resolved by now actually get resolved? Or did we move forward on assumption?

Most stalled deals show a yellow or red that was visible two stages ago and ignored. A red Champion in Proposal to Close isn't a champion problem. It's a Solution Alignment problem you carried forward. A red Metrics at Go / No Go isn't a Go / No Go problem. It's a Discovery problem.

Then walk the order of operations, not the acronym. Pain, Metrics, Decision Criteria, Competition, Champion, Economic Buyer, Decision Process, Paper Process. Look for the earliest red or yellow in that order. Early gaps cause the biggest problems later. Fix the foundation and the deal often unsticks itself.

What if the whole deal is yellow? An all-yellow deal feels safe. No reds, no alarms. But it means no part of your deal is solid. Go back to the start: implicate pain across enough stakeholders, realign on the solution, rebuild the metrics and business case on that, then develop the champion and work with them to reach the Economic Buyer. Slow down to speed up.

Video · Sales Leadership Rhythms

Your Deal Is All Yellow. Here's Where to Start Over · David Weiss on YouTube

A few patterns that tell you exactly where to look:

Symptom	Look left to
Deal stalls after a strong demo	Solution Alignment: criteria never locked
Proposal goes silent for weeks	Business Alignment: no portable business case
"You all look alike"	Demo: no scorecard, criteria not shaped
"Not a priority right now"	Business Alignment: Why Change without Why Now
"We don't have budget"	Discovery: you never found who creates budget at this deal size
Close date keeps slipping in procurement	Paper Process was never scouted as history

Should you build MEDDPICC exit criteria into your CRM?

I don't recommend strict exit criteria in the CRM.

I'm not a fan of bogging down the CRM with painful gates. It just teaches sellers to click boxes to move on, which hides the exact risk you built the gate to catch.

When the color-coding rhythm runs well, you don't need forced exit criteria at all. Here's what I'd do instead:

• Give every letter a definition and a color. No naked fields. Red, yellow, green, with the rubric where the seller can see it.
• Put the evidence in the notes. What do we know, who confirmed it, and when?
• Publish the stage targets. Sellers check their colors against the grid above before every call and every deal review.
• Coach it every week. In 1:1s and deal reviews, the leader checks the stage against the targets before challenging a color, then asks for the plan. A red in the right place is completely appropriate.

Stages are a filing system. They tell you where a deal should be. They don't tell you whether it's real. Keep your stages if your CRM is built on them. Run the deal on the colors.

How to set this up without turning it into admin: MEDDPICC in Salesforce and MEDDPICC in HubSpot.

Video · Sales Leadership Rhythms

Stageless Forecasting: Why Sales Stages Don't Predict Wins · David Weiss on YouTube