In most B2B SaaS companies, pipeline forecasts tell you what’s possible. MEDDPICC tells you what’s real.
At Kalungi, we’ve operationalized MEDDPICC directly inside HubSpot—so account executives don’t just check boxes; they quantify judgment. Each letter becomes a measurable variable that shapes deal value, forecast confidence, and sales coaching in real time.
The result isn’t just a cleaner CRM. It’s a forecasting engine that reflects reality, not optimism.
Each deal in HubSpot includes a MEDDPICC scoring section, where AEs assign a value (for example, 0–4) for each of the eight elements:
Metrics
Economic Buyer
Decision Criteria
Decision Process
Paper Process
Identify Pain
Champion
Competition
HubSpot automatically calculates the weighted average across these eight values. The result is the MEDDPICC Handicap—a percentage between 0% and 100% that expresses how “qualified” or “coachable” the deal truly is.
We multiply this percentage by the deal’s total amount to produce a MEDDPICC-adjusted deal value—our signal-corrected number. Finally, that figure is multiplied again by a set of six measurable variables that track deal health in real time. Together, those two multipliers yield the most realistic forecast possible.
Deal Value × MEDDPICC Handicap × Deal Health Multipliers = Forecasted $ Value
This keeps every forecast grounded in both rep judgment and data reality.
Sales frameworks usually live in notebooks or workshops. By embedding them at the deal level, reps use them continuously rather than conceptually. Each field becomes a micro-coaching moment:
A missing Economic Buyer is no longer an abstract red flag—it’s a visible gap that halves your forecasted value.
A weak Champion score lowers confidence even if pipeline volume looks good.
A strong Metrics score raises the tide, signaling tangible ROI evidence to leadership.
Over time, the team learns to think like investors—allocating attention where the risk-adjusted return is highest.
Each letter represents a lever. Raising any one of them increases both deal quality and forecast accuracy.
Ask: What is the measurable business outcome the customer expects?
Best practices:
Validate numbers directly with the buyer. “You mentioned reducing support tickets—by how much?”
Capture before/after metrics in your notes.
Align metrics to the customer’s OKRs, not your product features.
Ask: Who owns the budget and the pain?
Best practices:
Confirm the EB’s name in HubSpot before any proposal is sent.
Schedule at least one direct meeting with them before stage 4.
Capture a quote from the EB about success criteria—then use it in your proposal summary.
Ask: What will make them say yes—or no?
Best practices:
Document explicit criteria in the deal description.
Ask what other vendors they’ve used as benchmarks.
Rate yourself against those criteria honestly.
Ask: What sequence of approvals must occur?
Best practices:
Draw the decision path on the whiteboard with your buyer.
Mark each checkpoint as a HubSpot task.
Validate who signs first, and who signs last.
Ask: What happens after verbal approval?
Best practices:
Clarify contract redlines early.
Track legal turnaround times.
Store standard MSA or DPA templates inside HubSpot for speed.
Ask: What specific friction does this solve—and what happens if it’s not solved?
Best practices:
Ask “Why now?” until you hear emotion.
Record the customer’s exact phrasing of pain in HubSpot notes.
Score low if pain is generic (“We want to improve efficiency”) and high if it’s visceral (“We’re losing $50K/month to manual billing errors”).
Ask: Who will sell this internally when you’re not in the room?
Best practices:
Identify someone with both influence and personal gain.
Arm them with short decks or ROI visuals they can forward internally.
Log “Champion Actions” in HubSpot—forwarded decks, internal meetings, or exec intros.
Ask: Who else are they evaluating, and how are we different?
Best practices:
Confirm the shortlist explicitly.
Score yourself relative to each—don’t assume.
Document competitive traps and responses in HubSpot.
When AEs update these eight scores, HubSpot recalculates the MEDDPICC Handicap. Deals with missing elements drop in weight automatically—reducing the noise of overconfident projections.
That handicap percentage becomes your truth serum. A $100K deal with a 45% handicap and a 30% close rate forecasts to $13,500. Suddenly, the pipeline looks smaller but more honest—and the next quarter looks more predictable.
Leadership can now see, at a glance:
Which deals are inflating pipeline value.
Which reps overestimate strength.
Which accounts deserve enablement or coaching investment.
Instead of “commit vs. best case,” you get a quantified signal-to-noise ratio.
Each MEDDPICC element isn’t a checkbox — it’s a calibrated signal.
At Kalungi, we use a 1-4 scale for every letter. The simplicity forces precision:
| Score | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 1 — Not Met | Missing or unclear information. Unknown or weak. Little evidence, mostly assumptions. |
| 2 — Partially Met | Some signals, but not validated. Partially known. Some evidence, gaps remain, not sponsor-validated. |
| 3 — Strongly Met | Clear and confirmed evidence. Strong. Well evidenced, buyer-validated, supports a path to win. |
| 4 — Outstanding | Proven and reinforced internally. CFO- or GC-grade proof, mutually agreed, execution-ready. |
By using this 1–4 range instead of yes/no checkboxes, reps eliminate false certainty.
You can’t mark “done” — you quantify how well it’s done.
Over time, your team’s collective judgment becomes measurable data — turning intuition into a forecastable scorecard.
Here is a practical, stage-ready cheat sheet to score each MEDDPICC letter from 1 to 4:
No quantified value, no baseline, no hypothesis of impact.
Some quantitative hints, baseline or target unclear, impact speculative.
Clear baseline and target for 1 to 2 metrics tied to value, preliminary business case.
CFO-grade business case with quantified impact, success criteria, and tracking plan.
Diagnostic questions: Which business metrics will move if we win. What is the baseline and target by when. Who owns the metric. How will impact be verified.
Unknown or unreachable. No evidence of authority.
Identified by title or hearsay. No direct engagement.
Direct access achieved. EB acknowledges interest and success criteria at a high level.
EB actively sponsors, sets success criteria, and influences process. Recurring access.
Diagnostic questions: Who owns budget and P&L. What are they solving for. What alternatives are they considering. What political forces surround the EB.
Criteria unknown or vague, skewed to technical-only.
Partial criteria collected, not prioritized or value-linked.
Documented, weighted criteria mapped to business value and our differentiators.
Mutually agreed, prioritized criteria validated with EB that favor us.
Diagnostic questions: How will you decide. What matters most and why. How do criteria tie to the business case. What must be true for a yes.
Process unknown. No firm timeline or owners.
Rough sequence known. Approvers missing. Timing loose.
End-to-end steps, approvers, and artifacts known, with target dates and risks.
Exact steps, owners, and dates documented and confirmed by the buyer. Internal procurement plan built.
Diagnostic questions: Who signs what and when. What could slow this. Required artifacts. Prerequisites to PO. Escalation path if stalled.
Contracting approach unknown. No legal contacts.
General understanding. Templates requested but unreconciled.
Redlines known. Legal engaged. Security and procurement artifacts exchanged.
Pre-negotiated language. Approvals lined up. Execution-ready with an agreed close date.
Diagnostic questions: Which documents are required. Legal and procurement contacts. Standard redlines. InfoSec or ESG checks. Typical lead times.
Surface symptoms only. No cost-of-inaction.
Clear user pains, but no executive framing or urgency.
Explicit pains linked to measurable business impact and an accountable owner. Emerging compelling event.
Urgent, executive-validated pain with quantified cost-of-inaction and a dated compelling event.
Diagnostic questions: What breaks today. Who owns the problem. What is it costing per week or quarter. What happens if nothing changes by date X.
None, or passive contact only.
Helpful contact without influence or will.
Active internal seller with influence who shapes criteria and gives access.
Powerful insider mobilizing resources, coaching your strategy, and defending you when you are not in the room.
Diagnostic questions: Who wins if we win. Why do they care personally. Can they walk us to the EB. Will they verify our plan internally.
Competitors unknown or ignored. No differentiation story.
Competitors known by name. Basic strengths and weaknesses listed.
Compare-and-contrast tied to criteria. Landmines placed. Flanks identified.
Political and technical strategy to neutralize each rival. Mutual action plan exploits our unique edge.
Diagnostic questions: Who else is in. What is their wedge. Where are they setting traps. Where can we create an asymmetry.
Score each letter 1 to 4, record brief evidence in notes.
Average score and stage gates. Use gates to move deals with discipline.
Qualify exit: M, E, D1, P all at least 3, average at least 2.5.
Validate exit: add D2 and I at least 3, average at least 3.0.
Commit entry: all eight at least 3, average at least 3.5.
Not every letter carries the same weight in every company — and that’s the point.
The MEDDPICC Weighted Factor system lets you emphasize what drives conversion in your specific sales motion.
For example:
In analytical or product-led orgs, Metrics and Identify Pain might carry 30–40% of total weight.
In relationship-driven sales, Economic Buyer and Champion may dominate.
In enterprise environments, Paper Process and Decision Process often matter most.
Each factor acts like a dial. Adjusting these weights reshapes the entire forecast model — not to game the numbers, but to reflect the physics of how your deals really move.
When the weighting mirrors your historical close data, your MEDDPICC handicap stops being theoretical. It becomes your operating truth: a living formula tuned to how your buyers decide.
We added a final Execution Layer in HubSpot—a multiplier that accounts for six measurable variables that track deal health in real time:
| Variable | High Confidence | Moderate | Low Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deal Value | <$25K | $25–50K | >$100K |
| Stage Velocity (days in stage) | <7 days | 8–30 days | >30 days |
| Deal Age vs. Median Cycle | <1.2× median | 1.2–2× median | >2× median |
| Sales Activities (30 days) | ≥4 | 2–3 | ≤1 |
| Last Activity Recency | <7 days | 8–14 days | >21 days |
| Next Meeting Scheduled | within 7 days | 8–14 days | none |
Each factor contributes a small positive or negative “nudge” (around 1.0) rather than a heavy penalty. This keeps the model realistic—enhancing accuracy without crushing confidence.
Final forecast = MEDDPICC Handicap × Execution Multiplier
In addition, we recommend you also track the Deal Funnel stage-based close rate, derived from six months (or more) of historical conversion data, and compare both forecast numbers.
Pipeline entropy is inevitable. Human optimism, missing fields, and inconsistent qualification all degrade forecast quality. MEDDPICC inside HubSpot restores order by quantifying what used to be subjective. It transforms gut feel into measurable probability—without stripping away human context.
In the end, your CRM becomes more than a database. It becomes a reflection of your team’s collective judgment—and a training ground where every deal conversation compounds clarity instead of chaos.
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