1 min lesson
Stage 2 - Hiring manager: the deal walkthrough
Walk through "Stage 2 - Hiring manager: the deal walkthrough" in order, then name the proof that tells you it worked.
Step 1 of 2
The sales leader is testing whether you actually ran your deals or just rode them. The signal they want is rigor: a deal you can walk end-to-end, with the moves you made and the ones you'd redo.
Pick one complex, multi-threaded deal and be able to narrate the whole arc. Specifics win - names of stakeholders, the moment it nearly died, the number you forecast it at and whether you hit it.
- 1Sourced it. Where the deal came from - your outbound, a champion's referral or PLG signal you chased - and why you prioritized it.
- 2Qualified it. How you decided it was real: budget, the compelling event, the decision process and the metric the buyer cared about.
- 3Multi-threaded it. Who you reached beyond your first contact - economic buyer, Security, Procurement, Legal - and how you built a day-to-day champion.
- 4Drove the evaluation. How you scoped a POC or pilot, what it had to prove and how you kept momentum across stakeholders.
- 5Closed or lost it. The negotiation, the path to signature and an honest read on the outcome.
Bring methodology vocabulary and apply it to the story rather than name-dropping. Walk the deal through a framework so the leader sees structured thinking applied to a real deal.
Learn more
Advanced table
SPICED works too
- MEDDICC element
- Metrics
- What you should be able to point to in your deal
- The quantified outcome the buyer was buying - hours saved, PR throughput, faster onboarding.
- MEDDICC element
- Economic buyer
- What you should be able to point to in your deal
- Who controlled the budget and how you got access to them rather than stalling with a champion.
- MEDDICC element
- Decision criteria
- What you should be able to point to in your deal
- What the org said it would judge the tool on, including the security bar.
- MEDDICC element
- Decision process
- What you should be able to point to in your deal
- The actual steps to signature: who signs, in what order and the procurement and legal path.
- MEDDICC element
- Identify pain
- What you should be able to point to in your deal
- A genuinely expensive, specific problem, quantified with real numbers.
- MEDDICC element
- Champion
- What you should be able to point to in your deal
- The internal person who sold for you when you weren't in the room and how you armed them.
- MEDDICC element
- Competition
- What you should be able to point to in your deal
- Incumbents like Copilot or status-quo 'do nothing,' and how you positioned honestly against each.
| MEDDICC element | What you should be able to point to in your deal |
|---|---|
| Metrics | The quantified outcome the buyer was buying - hours saved, PR throughput, faster onboarding. |
| Economic buyer | Who controlled the budget and how you got access to them rather than stalling with a champion. |
| Decision criteria | What the org said it would judge the tool on, including the security bar. |
| Decision process | The actual steps to signature: who signs, in what order and the procurement and legal path. |
| Identify pain | A genuinely expensive, specific problem, quantified with real numbers. |
| Champion | The internal person who sold for you when you weren't in the room and how you armed them. |
| Competition | Incumbents like Copilot or status-quo 'do nothing,' and how you positioned honestly against each. |
MEDDICC (or MEDDPICC with Paper Process) is the most common AE vocabulary; SPICED works too. Apply one, don't recite all.