Let’s face it, sales cycles are complex, fast-paced, and constantly evolving. Most teams turn to sales frameworks to keep sellers on track but even the best methodologies can fall short when reps fail to follow through. It’s not that sellers don’t believe in the process—it’s that they don’t have time to keep up with it.
SPICED, the structured framework from Winning by Design, is a popular choice for teams focused on driving consistent, value-based selling. And thanks to our partnership, People.ai makes it easier than ever to put SPICED into action—automatically. We capture the signals reps are already generating and map them to SPICED, helping teams adopt the methodology without adding friction.
The bonus? Consistent deal qualification helps reps spend more time on high-quality pipeline, driving higher conversion rates, more revenue and yes—even more accurate forecasts.
Let’s break down what SPICED is and how it helps teams qualify deals more consistently.
What Is SPICED?
SPICED is a modern, diagnostic sales framework designed for recurring revenue businesses. Rather than qualifying a lead based on static criteria like budget or authority, SPICED helps sales teams understand what’s truly driving a customer’s need for change.
Here’s what it stands for:
- S – Situation: What is the customer’s current environment?
- P – Pain: What’s broken or holding them back?
- I – Impact: What’s the consequence of that pain?
- C – Critical Event: What’s driving the urgency to solve it now?
- E – Economic Buyer: Who owns the decision and budget?
- D – Decision Criteria & Process: How will they choose a solution?
Rather than jumping to a pitch, SPICED encourages reps to diagnose first, prescribe second. That shift fosters high-quality conversations, strong buyer alignment, and more predictable deal progression.
How People.ai Brings SPICED to Life for Sellers
Implementing a methodology like SPICED is one thing—getting your team to use it consistently is another. That’s where People.ai comes in.
Our platform is built to capture the data sellers generate every day—emails, meetings, contacts, and activities—and map those insights directly to the SPICED framework. That means instead of relying on manual updates or expecting reps to fill out qualification fields after every call, People.ai automates the process behind the scenes.
Here’s how that helps sellers:
- Consistent, standardized framework across every deal to strengthen opportunity qualification.
- Methodology adoption at scale with AI-powered, CRM-native Opportunity Scorecards.
- Automated data entry that gives reps more time to focus on what matters—closing deals.
- Early risk signals with tactical suggestions to keep opportunities moving and maximize revenue.
- Improved forecast accuracy with predictions grounded in real engagement data, not guesswork.
- Deepened customer relationships with sharper insights into account activity and execution.
By taking the administrative burden off the rep and embedding SPICED into the tools they already use, People.ai helps teams adopt methodology the way it was meant to be used, as a guide for smarter, more consistent selling. As Dave Boyce, EVP at Winning by Design puts it:
"Together, Winning by Design and People.ai bring structure, consistency, and scale to revenue execution. By embedding proven sales frameworks with AI-driven insights into daily workflows, we empower revenue teams to drive predictable, scalable growth across the organization."
Better Adoption Means Better Forecasts
When sellers consistently follow a qualification framework like SPICED—and the data behind it is automatically captured and visible—forecasting becomes more reliable.
Instead of relying on gut feel or incomplete data, revenue leaders can see which deals are truly qualified, where they’re getting stuck, and what’s missing. SPICED gives teams a common language for deal health. People.ai fills in the gaps that make that language usable at scale with real data.
Here’s how that impacts forecasting:
- No more blind spots: You know whether key SPICED elements (like Pain, Critical Event, or Economic Buyer) are present—so you can spot risk early.
- Proactive coaching: Managers can focus on the deals that need help and course-correct before it’s too late.
- Full pipeline visibility: With more consistent qualification data across your pipeline, your forecast is based on facts, not feelings.
Adopting a sales methodology like SPICED doesn’t have to mean more work for your reps or more guesswork in your forecast. With People.ai, teams can put SPICED into action seamlessly—turning a proven framework into a daily habit, backed by data you can trust.
Want to see how it works in practice? Visit our Winning by Design partner page to view a quick demo and learn how we help sales teams operationalize SPICED at scale.