Medic is not a compliance tool. It's not screaming at the scoreboard tool.
It's a confidence and conviction tool. You're listening to the Audible Ready Podcast,
the show that helps you and your teams sell more faster. We'll feature sales
leaders sharing their best insights on how to create a sales engine that helps you
fuel repeatable revenue growth. Presented by the team at Force Management, a leader
in B to B sales effectiveness. Let's get started. Hello, I'm Rachel
Kldmiller with the Audible Ready Sales podcast. John Kaplan is joining me today to
talk one of our favorite topics, medic. Hi. John, Hey Rachel,
and I'm just going to give people a little chuckle. We just ripped
each other's face off for about ten minutes and we forgot to hit record,
So they're going to get a double dose of emotion and confidence and conviction right
now. That's right. We had a warm up session before we're actually now
recording this episode. So John, I know we talk talk a lot about
MEDIC I write a lot about it, we talk a lot about it on
Revenue Builders. There's a lot of chatter about it on LinkedIn, people saying
what it is, and what it isn't. You could have a posted recently
on LinkedIn and I wanted to expand upon in a podcast episode. So that's
going to be what we're going to use today. But I want to start
first with talking about the origins of medic. Let's level set people with where
it came from. It's a great story, Rachel, you know, I
love it. So medic was developed at PTC. It was spearheaded by the
cro the great cro, the legendary John McMahon, and so the value of
the market value of PTC was all about its predictability. Because of medic and
because of Medica, PTC we went forty three straight quarters, that's over ten
years without missing our number to Wall Street. We were and still probably are
the record holders of the most predictable and accountable salesforce in the history of software.
So, you know, Rachel, I'm an abundance guy, meaning you
know, there's enough of the pie to go around for everybody. But I
do get a little frustrated, it a little worked up about other firms out
there who are kind of making up their own versions of the qualification process.
And if I'm a company out there, if you're listening to this, then
you're evaluating medic from you know, us or from somebody else you know,
fire with you. I'd want to know if the people that are talking to
you about qualification actually use it themselves or used it in real life outside of
academia. Not just used it, but they had their organizations thrive in it,
so it's in their blood. It's not something that is on slides,
right. They know how to use it and make it work for their organization
as a qualification tool. So John, I know when we tell the origin
story, that's when some people may roll their eyes. So here we go
back in time talking about the history, like medics to old school. It
doesn't apply to the new SaaS environments. It ignores the renewals, et cetera.
And that really could be farther from the truth. And I know we
get very passionate when we hear those arguments because I know that our position is
if you think that it's just proof you're not using medic correctly, Yeah,
you know, I do get it. I get it because there's a lot
of people out there that are living in the past. I mean, I
think Bruce Springsteen has an awesome song out there called glory days. And there's
a lot of people, especially some of my partners from you know, back
in the day at that great company at PTC. There's some people that you
know just I mean, I understand they were glory days, but if you're
not making it relevant to people around you today, then you're doing people of
disservice. Nobody likes to hear about the good old days, but I will
tell you I think those good old days still exist. That company, Rachel
went from zero to a billion dollars in less than ten years, the stock
split five times in seven years. The family tree of PTC, like what
happened after PTC that extends out over several hundred billion, several hundred billion dollars
of market cap that was created by PTC alumni. So sorry, but I
think that's pretty unique and awesome. And what we use back then is just
as relevant today and even more so because I think there's a lot more competition
today. People are facing a lot more competition. Heck, we had a
dominant product that was highly differentiated, and we still held ourselves to a high
accountability standard. So basically, back in the day, if you didn't make
your number, you did not keep your job, and you know what,
that was fair enough for me. It was very clear, It was very
clear what the expectations were. So, you know, I think we need
more of that today and not the threat of losing your job, you know,
being an ogre out there as a boss or leader. Those days are
gone. But the confidence and conviction that you would have when qualification matters what
you do and how you qualify, it matters. How many were organizations out
there right now, rachel are missing their numbers quarter after quarter. I just
don't get it. Stop the bleeding. Let's go all right, so let's
go. Now. We know the history, we know the value of it.
I'd like to start with talking about how people go wrong with MEDIC.
Where are they getting it wrong? I think that a lot of people try
to use it as a compliance tool. MEDIC is not a compliance tool.
It's not screaming at the scoreboard tool. It's a confidence and conviction tool.
So you should use it to increase your confidence and conviction on an opportunity.
Think of it as an X ray. I often talk about this that you
know that you use it to identify broken bones. The X ray does not
tell you how to fix the broken bone, but it tells you that there's
a problem. MEDIC tells you your gaps in the deal. So also,
Rachel, I think we're going to talk about this, but MEDIC is not
a sales process. It's not a sales process. It's qualification criteria. We're
going to talk about that in just a second. Right, your gaps and
your deal? What is the X ray showing on your deal? You use
the word compliance tool, John, what do you mean by people using MEDIC
as a compliance tool? Is that just checking the boxes? What do you
mean by complete? Yeah, that's a good question. So when I run
into companies that are saying they use MEDIC, I'm always eager to find out
how how do you use it? Many organizations are proud of all the fields
they've created in Salesforce dot com. And I don't want to be a hater.
I mean, you do need fields in Salesforce dot com. Heck,
we got to. We have a great product at Force Management that plugs right
into Salesforce dot com. So, don't get me wrong, that's a good
thing. But if it's a check in the box, then forget about it.
You have to live it, You got to breathe it. It has
to be part of your bones. So reps should aspire to be voracious qualifiers,
and managers should look to coach and develop reps by helping them get unstuck
again. You know a lot of firms out there are selling medic, but
many of them don't know how to get it into the culture, into the
bloodstream. So telling your people's stories about the good old days is a complete
waste of time. You've got to bring it to modern life. That's why
I'm always so proud of what we do at Forest Management. Simply we get
it in the blood. Right. If the goal is to be a voracious
qualifier as a REP, if you want your organization to be filled with voracious
qualifiers, medic is the tool you can use to embed great qualification into your
organization. So given that John in the blood, how do I think of
this as a REP as a manager? Well, the first thing I think
about is visibility. Helps both of you REP and manager get visibility in your
deals. So if I'm a manager, it helps me understand how many of
those gaps there are and if this deal is qualified enough to move to the
next stage. It also helps me assess where and how to help my reps.
That's your job. If you're a manager listening to this, your job
is to help people. Your job is to help them with the how.
It's not to scream at the scoreboard and tell them they don't have the right
numbers from the MEDIC worksheet that you give them. But you also have to
provide you know, you've got to provide the how. Let me give you
a quick example. So in MEDIC maybe you'll see that your rep hasn't gotten
to the economic buyer or needs help with a certain PERSONA. You need the
ability to coach your rep on how to get to the economic buyer or how
to have that conversation. That's why I love what we do it force management.
So we're not only finding the break in the bone, we're helping people
heal the bone with what we call having command of the message and how you
articulate how you do something based upon the problem that you solve. Check that
out on our website, Rachel, give some plugs in there, right exactly
exactly. Really, MEDIC is a qualification tool, as you said, not
a methodology. To your point, John, you need to surround it with
great value messaging and great sales process and it also helps you. I think
another point a lot of people miss if I was just to survey LinkedIn messages
about medic is it helps you qualify it all points of the customer engagement process,
not on that initial I'm going to sign this person up. It helps
throughout the whole shebang, the renewals implementation, all of that. It can
be just as effective at renewals as it is when you think about it earlier
in this initial sales process. This is such a great point, Rachel.
It's one of my pet peeves is people tell me, oh, we use
medic for our sales process. No, you don't. You might think you
do. But is that aligned to how the customer buys? Is that aligned
by stage? Who does what? When? Where? Does it have customer
verified outcomes which talks about what's the edge criteria and what's the customer supposed to
be doing in the sales process? No, no, no, and no.
So it is a qualification criteria. But it's very very powerful to be
used, like you know, at the renewal process. Let's say the economic
buyer might be different than in the original deal. The decision criteria might have
changed, the metrics may have evolved, but if you aren't qualifying at the
renewal process, you're doing it wrong. So at the same time, you
need to make sure that you have a way in your organization where you are
communicating this important information at critical handoffs. So one common language, Rachel,
I'm shocked to learn that companies have different qualification criteria in different organizations. So,
for example, I know that many people out there the insight seller level
that BDRs and the SDRs those organizations that use a criteria a lot called BAND
BA NT so bans you know pretty good, it was developed by IBM back
in the day. Nothing against it. But how can you have one organization
qualify with BAND and then hand it off to another organization using medic or something
else. If you're hearing me now and you have that fix it, pick
one. Remember most of aes today where SDRs are bds in your organization,
Why make them learn two different languages? And I guarantee you that this mess
is going to show up in a three foot conversation with a customer. So,
Rachel, you know that funny meme out there that says they're never going
to know, They're never going to know? You know that one? Yes,
yes, I guarantee you people they are going to know. Have you
ever called let me give you an example. Have you ever called a cable
company that has multiple silos that you're involved with, maybe you got the cable
on the internet, what have you? Do you really feel like they understand
your problem in a holistic way? Do you really feel like they listen to
you if you send me an email and let me know who the provider is,
because I'll give them a call. But I shut down cable company a
long time ago. You know, I'm one of those cord cutters. Rachel,
I'm like, I'm total streamer now right because of the experience that you
get a lot of times when things go wrong. And you know, John,
you're talking about the internal language you have as a revenue driving organization.
But the key here, the link is the more consistent you are internally in
your language drives a more effective customer conversation because everybody has the information they need
to execute with the customer, no matter where that customer is in the engagement
process, no matter if it's a renewal, no matter if it's a fourth
renewal, no matter if they just came to your website for the very first
time that consistency is critical. And when we talk about MEDIC, we're talking
about it as a qualification tool. But as John said, the power of
it comes when you surround it with value messaging so your reps know how to
fill the gap and the sales process so everybody knows who's doing what. When
we have a great ebook, I want to make sure that I mentioned that
it is on the intersection of MEDIC and value messaging and your sales customer engagement
process. Check that out on the show notes. It talks about how it
all comes together. We use this x ray analogy in that ebook. It's
a great resource if you're a leader and you're trying to build this discipline in
your organization. Another short plug a sender oh right to plug plug. Yes,
our Sales Performance Accelerator platform online subscription. We have a great MEDIC certification
that anybody can log on and get and it comes with a great deal value
assessment that you can map your deals onto that figure out where you are with
any deal, and some great courses to make sure that you know how to
execute with MEDIC. So I want to get those in there. Check those
out in the show notes and as we wrap up John, leave us with
a great bottom line. Okay, So in my opinion, there is one
medic or medpick, and right there people jump all over this, Oh kaplan,
even you have multiple acronyms, No, I don't. Let's say we
add the P. Why did we add the P for some companies? Because
some companies fail miserably in the paper process. You know, it happens you
do everything that you're supposed to do and you don't get the deal because you
didn't have the right paperwork in place. So when that's the case, we
add the PE to medic. So give me a break. But these versions
of the acronym, the versions that are out there, Rachel, I don't
even recognize them anymore. For me, it's just companies and people trying to
be different. And what I say to that is, why don't you just
try to be the same before you're different? What do I mean by that?
Medic and medpick have been around a long long time. People had blood,
sweat and tears out in the marketplace to make that come to life.
Not creating PowerPoint slides, not yelling at the scoreboard, but having massive impact
for you and your customers. Remember, it's not a compliance tool, it's
a conviction tool. Managers, you need to help your reps get unstuck and
reps you can't just do, you know, a check in the box.
Or worse, don't tell your manager what you think they want to hear.
That's not doing anybody a favor. I see people doctor up medic worksheets and
you know they try to convince themselves, i mean, their boss that they
have a champion. Don't do that, you know, get thick skin,
check your ego at the door, and do a really, really good comprehensive
opportunity review. Take the feedback. Come on, people, be uncommon.
You got to remember that how you sell it can be just as important as
what you sell. And I'm going to put in a little plug here,
but if I'm out there listening to this, I'm going to Force Management right
now and joining the Ascender program. I'm going to get certified on medic It's
like property values going up. That certification for as sender from Force Management will
make your value go up. I'd have it on my LinkedIn, I'd have
it on my resume and watch what happens to your opportunities out in the marketplace.
So Rachel I know we got a little fired up today. I know
I'm kind of talking loud and you know, forcefully or what happen. I
don't want to be arrogant. I don't want to sound arrogant, and I'm
sorry if I did do that to anybody out there. I'm trying to give
you spirit. I'm trying to give you confidence and conviction. If you're going
to do it, do it right. Go crush it, Go crush it.
Thank you, John, You're welcome, all right, and thank you
to all of you for listening to the Audible Ready Sales Podcast. At Force
Management, we're focused on transforming sales organizations into elite teams. Our proven methodologies
deliver programs that build company alignment and fuel repeatable revenue growth. Give your teams
the ability to execute the growth strategy at the point of sale. Our strength
is our experience. The proof is in our results. Let's get started.
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