Manager's Guide to Running MEDDIC Deal Reviews

Why most deal reviews fail

A deal review that asks "what's the latest?" gets an activity report: calls made, emails sent, a demo scheduled. None of that tells you whether the deal is real. The fix isn't a longer meeting — it's a different question set. This guide gives you the pre-work, the agenda, and the exact questions that force a rep to produce evidence, not narrative.

Pre-work (due 24 hours before the review, not read live)

Rep submits, per deal under review, one paragraph maximum per MEDDIC element — five sentences total. If a rep can't fill in a line, that's the finding; don't let them use the live meeting to improvise an answer they haven't actually got.

Deal Review Snapshot Template

• Metrics: ______________________________
• Economic Buyer: ______________________________
• Decision Criteria: ______________________________
• Decision Process: ______________________________
• Identify Pain: ______________________________
• Champion: ______________________________
• Competition: ______________________________
• Risk / what could kill this deal: ______________________________

The 30-minute structure

Question bank (use these verbatim — they're built to resist "happy ears" answers)

Metrics

1. "What's the number, in the buyer's own words, and who told you that?"
2. "Has this number been validated with anyone above your champion?"
3. "What happens to that number if this project doesn't happen?"
4. "Is that a hard number or a rep estimate dressed up as their number?"
5. "What did they say when you read that number back to them?"

Economic Buyer

1. "Have you personally spoken with the economic buyer, or is this secondhand from your champion?"
2. "What did the economic buyer say, in their own words, about priority or budget?"
3. "If your champion left tomorrow, do you have another path to the economic buyer?"
4. "What does the economic buyer care about that's different from what your champion cares about?"
5. "When's the next time you're scheduled to be in front of them?"

Decision Criteria & Decision Process

1. "What are the criteria, ranked — not listed, ranked?"
2. "Who set those criteria, and has anyone tried to change them since?"
3. "Walk me through every step between today and a signed contract, with names attached to each step."
4. "What does legal/security/procurement review look like here, and has it started?"
5. "Where does this stall if it stalls — which step, and why?"

Identify Pain & Champion

1. "What did the champion do this week that only a real champion would do?"
2. "Has the champion introduced you to anyone else in the organization unprompted?"
3. "What's the cost of this pain in dollars, not adjectives?"
4. "If the champion disappeared tomorrow, does this deal survive?"
5. "What's the one thing you're afraid to ask this buyer? Why haven't you asked it?"

Red flags — stop the meeting when you hear these

• Rep answers with an activity ("I sent them the proposal") when asked a qualification question ("what are their decision criteria")
• Rep quotes their own assumption back as if the buyer said it ("they're definitely going with us")
• "Champion" has never taken an action the rep didn't ask for
• Close date has moved and the stated reason is vague ("just some internal stuff")
• Same rep, same phrasing, across multiple deals — a sign the language is memorized, not real

Manager redirect phrases

• "Stop — that's an activity update. Tell me what the economic buyer actually said about budget."
• "Whose number is that — yours or theirs?"
• "You've told me what you did. Tell me what they did."
• "If I called your champion right now, what would they say if I asked them who else needs to sign off?"

Post-review actions template

Cadence

• Deals in current-quarter forecast, above your team's average deal size: weekly.
• Earlier-stage deals: biweekly.
• Any deal moved into Commit or Best Case for the first time: reviewed within 48 hours, off-cycle if needed — new forecast claims get tested immediately, not on the regular calendar.