SPICED – the customer-centric sales framework for modern b2b teams
Why spiced is different
While most frameworks (like BANT or MEDDIC) focus on authority and budget, SPICED flips the script. It’s not about who decides first, but why they need to decide at all.
The method starts from empathy — mapping the customer’s situation, quantifying impact, and spotting critical events that turn interest into action.
SPICED isn’t just for discovery calls. It’s a way to build alignment throughout the sales cycle, helping teams tailor their narrative to the customer’s urgency and internal dynamics.
The five pillars of spiced
1. Situation (15 points)
Everything starts with understanding the current business context. Is the company in growth, pivot, or crisis mode? What’s their size, structure, and maturity?
Without this, even the best pitch misses the mark. The goal here is to grasp where the company stands — not only what they want.
2. Problem (20 points)
SPICED then zooms in on the customer’s pain — expressed in their own words. When a prospect says, “Our onboarding process takes too long,” that’s gold.
The framework also pushes reps to note how frequent the problem is. A pain that happens daily is a burning issue; a monthly one is likely lower priority.
3. Implication (25 points)
Great sellers don’t stop at identifying the problem — they quantify the consequences.
What’s the financial cost? What operational inefficiencies does it create? How does it affect people personally — their stress, their workload, even their career path?
This layer is what separates insight-driven selling from basic discovery.
4. Critical event (25 points)
This is the heartbeat of SPICED. Deals move when something external forces action — a major event, a compliance audit, a product launch, or a looming deadline.
Once that catalyst is identified, the rep’s job is to anchor urgency around it.
Knowing the date of the event gives you a clear decision window and helps prioritize which opportunities can realistically close.
5. Decision (15 points)
Finally, the framework closes the loop with the decision process.
Are the evaluation criteria clearly listed? Is there a timeline for the final decision?
Having these elements early keeps your forecast honest and your pipeline grounded in reality.
Applying spiced inside gravite
Within Gravite, SPICED can be embedded directly into your AI-powered sales analysis. Each pillar corresponds to detectable signals in your interactions: mentions of deadlines, quantified pain points, or references to business context.
The AI automatically scores each opportunity out of 100, giving sales leaders a real-time view of deal readiness and conversion probability.
Instead of relying on intuition, teams get structured, measurable intelligence from their customer conversations — turning every call or email into data-backed qualification.
In summary
SPICED transforms the way teams sell: from pushing features to decoding context.
It teaches sellers to listen, diagnose, and identify catalysts that drive urgency — not just authority.
In the world of modern SaaS, where timing is everything, SPICED is the difference between a deal that stalls and a deal that closes.
And with Gravite, this framework becomes fully operational — automated, scored, and visible across your entire pipeline.
Would you like me to add a Gravite automatic scoring template at the end of this article (like for CHAMP and MEDDIC)? It would make the article actionable and directly usable in-app.
