Michael Rodriguez, associate professor of marketing for the Lundy-Fetterman School of Business, recently returned from the National Conference of Sales Management in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he presented “Application of MEDDICC Methodology for Internal Selling.”
Rodriguez has been an attendant at the NCSM since his early days as a doctoral student, winning his first award for Best Paper in 2008.
“This is has been such a valuable experience in where I not only collaborate with those passionate about sales education but get to connect with long time colleagues,” Rodriguez said of his experience.
NCSM is the premier international gathering of scholars, instructors, and practitioners interested in professional selling and sales management research and teaching. The conference consists of double-blind review competitive paper sessions, research roundtable sessions, sales education sessions, and special sessions devoted to connecting academia and practice. Cash prizes are awarded for best competitive paper, doctoral student paper and teaching innovation presentation.
“NCSM is a great opportunity to share best practices in sales education and sales research,” Rodriguez said.
His presentation on the “Application of MEDDICC Methodology for Internal Selling” grabbed the attention of educators and practitioners in the room.
This teaching innovation provides an opportunity for students to apply MEDDIC methodology to enhance their ability to “internal sell” to obtain resources that support their sales opportunities. Internal selling is deemed a part of a professional’s sales role in order to gain internal resources (i.e. engineering, product specialists, executive support) to support a current sales opportunity. This teaching innovation allows advanced sales students to qualify a sales opportunity internally, while also creating common language within sales and the operating ecosystem.
In return, this production of better qualified sales students presents the industry with an improved accuracy of sales forecasts and pipeline management, increases revenue through sales efficiency due to better lead qualification, and reduces costs and time due to early disqualifications of the deals that are not winnable or realistic.
“The modern-day selling process is becoming more and more complex both externally and internally. MEDDIC methodology not only helps sales professionals monitor the level of qualification/progress of a deal but qualify deals internally to obtain resources.”
Rodriguez closed his presentation with this final pitch to the audience.