👑 One to Rule Them All

Economic Buyer

The Economic Buyer is the person who has final authority on the use of funds, the person who owns the money or the rights to decide whether that money gets spent. Another way to look at this is this is the person that when everyone says yes, they are the one person that can kill the deal by saying no. You can also view this in the reverse perspective; if they say "Yes," no one else can say "No." Economic Buyers always have a clear line of sight to the business benefits, return on investment (ROI), have an ultimate say in the decision criteria, and understand what has to take place to secure the contract.

We conducted a study at one of my previous companies that analyzed MEDDIC across all of our deals that were above our ACV (Average Contract Value) and found something interesting regarding the Economic Buyer. We looked at all of our deals that we both won and lost and looked for patterns related to MEDDIC. Guess what one of the biggest factors was to winning a deal! Opportunities where we had direct communication and engagement with the Economic Buyer resulted in a 90% higher chance of closing than ones that did not have access to them.

If you want to increase your win rate across all your deals, make a promise to yourself that you WILL NOT pursue any opportunities where you don't have access to the Economic Buyer. This is a difficult promise, especially when your pipeline might be light. However, energy spent working on opportunities to which you do not have access almost always results in the big "L." Spend your time and resources on higher value targets!

Since the Economic Buyer is unquestionably the most important relationship you will need to invest in, it is critical that you are prepared before meeting them; these items are:

1. Understand the real business Pain they are facing.

2. Understand the real business value your solution can deliver.

3. Understand the Metrics that your solution will provide.

4. Understand the Decision Criteria.

If your Economic Buyer has not validated the four items above, then those items are simply conjectured. The Economic Buyer must validate them for them to be defendable. Meeting the Economic Buyer before having this information will result in them feeling as if you are unprepared and wasting their time.

🎬 ​Action

Today's MEDDIC Monday's action is to list out all of your deals and ask yourself the following questions:

1. Do I know who the Economic Buyer is?

2. Do I fully understand and can clearly articulate their business pain?

3. Do I fully understand and can clearly articulate the business value my solution provides?

4. Do I have at least two to three Metrics that my solution will deliver, along with how those Metrics are calculated, and can I articulate that?

5. Do I understand and can clearly articulate the Decision Criteria?

You have additional homework if you say "No" to any of the questions above. Remember, doing this right will increase your odds of winning by 90%.