When a senior finalist withdraws late or turns down an offer, the reason is rarely new. A partner who doesn’t want to move, a bonus that pays out in March, a counter-offer the candidate half expected: each of these could have come up in the first conversation, if someone had asked.
Enterprise sales teams have a method for exactly this problem. MEDDIC is a way of qualifying a deal by understanding how the buyer will decide, who else is involved and what they are comparing you with. It was developed at the software company PTC in 1996, by Dick Dunkel, John McMahon and Jack Napoli according to one account, and later versions add a second C, for Competition. A senior candidate weighing an offer is making a large decision with other people and to a timeline, the kind of decision MEDDIC(C) was built to understand.
Treat the finalist’s decision as something to understand
The method doesn’t make a candidate say yes. It tells you, earlier, whether they are likely to, and what would change their mind. Each letter has a direct equivalent in a search.
| Letter | In a sale | In a senior search |
|---|---|---|
| Metrics | The measurable gain the buyer expects | What the move must give the candidate: scope, pay, title or a step towards a goal |
| Economic buyer | The person who signs off the spend | Who else shapes the decision: a partner, a mentor, a current boss |
| Decision criteria | How the buyer compares the options | How the candidate will compare this role with staying put or with another offer |
| Decision process | The steps and dates to a signature | Notice period, bonus dates, other processes and when they will decide |
| Identify pain | The problem the purchase solves | Why someone doing well would leave their current job |
| Champion | An insider who argues for you | Someone on the hiring side the candidate trusts, usually the hiring manager |
| Competition | Other vendors, or doing nothing | Other offers, a counter-offer, or deciding to stay |
The point of the table is the right-hand column. If you can’t fill it in for a finalist, you don’t yet know enough to make them an offer.
Keep one page per finalist with the seven rows, and update it after every conversation.
Find out why they would move
Metrics and pain are two sides of the same question. Pain is why someone who is doing well would leave: a role that has stopped growing, a new CEO they don’t trust, a function they have built and now only maintain. Metrics are what the next role has to give them: a bigger remit, a seat on the leadership team, a move into a new sector, or pay.
Ask about the past, not the ideal. “What would your ideal role look like?” invites a speech. “When did you last think about leaving, and what stopped you?” tells you what matters and what holds them in place.
Write down the candidate’s reasons in their words, and check them against what your role actually offers before the final interview.
Ask who else shapes the decision
In a sale, the economic buyer signs off the spend. In a senior search there is rarely one person who signs off, but there are almost always people who shape the decision: a partner, a mentor, a former boss they still call, and sometimes a current boss preparing a counter-offer.
Ask openly, and let the candidate decide what to share. “Who will you talk this through with?” is a fair question. Questions about marriage, children or plans to have them are not. If the move involves relocation, offer information the candidate can share at home: schools, the cost of living, help for a partner looking for work.
Ask early who the candidate will talk the decision through with, and what those people will want to know.
Map how and when they will decide
Decision criteria are how the candidate will compare your role with the alternatives, including staying where they are. Decision process is the timeline: notice period, bonus and share-vesting dates, other processes they are in, and when they expect to decide.
Senior candidates often have notice periods of three or six months, and bonuses that reward staying until a set date. A strong offer made a month before a bonus payout may still lose to the timing. Knowing this early lets you plan the offer date, or address the bonus in the offer, rather than finding out when they decline.
Write each finalist’s timeline on one line, and agree the offer date with the hiring manager around it.
Give them a champion and name the competition
A champion in a sale is an insider who argues for you. In a search, it is someone on the hiring side the candidate trusts enough to ask the questions they won’t ask a recruiter: what the CEO is really like, why the last person left, whether the budget is real. Usually that is the hiring manager. Sometimes it is a peer they will work with.
Competition is the letter most often skipped, because it is uncomfortable to ask about. Other offers are one form. A counter-offer is another, and so is the simple decision to stay. Ask directly before the offer: “If your employer offered to match this, what would you do?” The answer tells you whether you are competing on pay or on something pay won’t fix.
Before the offer, make sure the candidate has had a real conversation with their champion, and that you know what the offer is competing with.
A checklist, not a script
Most of this is ordinary good recruiting. MEDDIC(C) is useful because it gives you seven questions to answer for every finalist, in writing, before the offer goes out. The gaps on the page show you where the risk is.
If you have a senior offer coming up and want to test it against these questions, discuss a search with us.
Sources
- MEDDICC, “Who Created MEDDIC? The History Behind the Framework”, 15 October 2026, published by a company that sells MEDDICC training: https://meddicc.com/resources/who-created-meddic