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When organisations in the energy sector have important decisions to make, Wood Mackenzie is often their first destination.
Over 100 years ago, Wood Mackenzie (also known as WoodMac) opened its doors in Edinburgh as a stockbroker. Today, it combines unparalleled proprietary data, deep domain expertise, and cutting-edge AI to deliver clear, interconnected views of the entire energy landscape that help clients understand where they want to go with their organisation.
At WoodMac’s core are two complementary capabilities: consulting and research.
WoodMac’s consulting practice brings together a global team of analysts, strategic advisors and industry veterans who blend its proprietary data with deep domain expertise.
Its research arm delivers the ongoing intelligence enabling a truly interconnected view and analytical depth to turn strategy into action.
By fusing these capabilities, WoodMac’s clients get both the guidance and intelligence needed to make confident decisions, whether they’re navigating near-term volatility or long-term transformation.
Now, the company’s ready for its next phase.
WoodMac’s combination of experts and data gave the business a distinct advantage over the competition, but early-stage pipeline wasn’t building at the pace leadership wanted. Although they were all undisputed subject matter experts in their field, they had never received formal sales training; there was no common qualification framework or shared sales language, making it much harder to scale their collective expertise across the business.
When Thijs van Koppen (Executive VP and Head of Consulting) joined the company in 2024, he made it his mission to drive growth in the business. He proposed investing more into the consulting team, helping them to become more connected with the sales and research teams and more effective in their own sales ability.
For example, Jack Wilson (Director of Sales Enablement and Commercial Operations) wanted the consultant team trained on sales discovery and scoping, so they could be more effective on those first calls with potential clients. “It’s not about being a pushy salesman,” he says. “Our consultants needed to know that it was all right to just be themselves, but to do so with a sense of purpose.”
WoodMac’s team also needed to become more effective at expanding relationships within existing client organisations. They had plenty of repeat customers, but often worked with only one or two people inside those businesses. Many of those clients were large organisations, some with tens of thousands of employees, meaning there were far more opportunities to uncover across different teams and divisions.
“We needed everyone to be confident as sellers,” says Jack. “They’re all incredibly intelligent, but being commercially effective is a completely different ball game.”
To help the consultants become more effective salespeople, Thijs wanted to bring in external expertise to provide tailored sales enablement training.
While the broader WoodMac business had already looked into Flow State, Aaron and Raff stood out to Jack, particularly with their real-world experience in consultative selling. “We wanted someone who does this day in, day out, so they could recontextualise their own information. They’ve been in the field. They can relate.”
Working together with Thijs and Jack, Flow State designed a six-month program tailored for WoodMac’s consulting model, delivered across time zones from APAC through to the US West Coast.
The training modules were built around the realities of a consulting sales cycle, specifically looking at how MEDDPICC could be used within consulting services to improve both revenue and deal control. “There are a lot of things that sales training can cover, but it’s not all relevant,” explains Jack. “For example, we don’t need to learn how to do a demo because we don’t demo anything. Instead, Flow State delivered a program that was truly personalised to us.”
Each session included breakout exercises where, instead of running through made-up scenarios, participants would go into their pipeline and apply what they’d learnt to a relevant opportunity. Then, the week after every training session, Flow State carried out a dedicated coaching session to help the team further embed what they’d learnt and see how it was being applied in the field.
Outside scheduled sessions, Flow State made themselves available for tactical deal support. That partnership also extended into advisory conversations with Jack, where Aaron and Raff acted as sounding boards on other strategic enablement initiatives, messaging work and internal rollout plans.
“They offered so much support outside of the program to individual VPs and directors,” says Jack. “If anyone was struggling with a deal, Aaron and Raff would just hop on a call and help get to the bottom of it. They were incredibly generous with their time.”
Throughout the sessions, Flow State ensured everyone was involved and engaged, from the senior consultants to juniors who were just starting in a sales role. “You can get trainers who are a little bit monotone and flat,” says Jack, “but Aaron and Raff were just so natural. They joked. They didn’t take themselves too seriously unless it was important in that moment to really land the message. I think that put everyone else at ease.”
As the training progressed, MEDDPICC quickly became part of daily decision-making. “I’d never been exposed to MEDDPICC before,” Jack admits. “Now everyone speaks in terms of each letter.”
Flow State trained regional line managers and empowered localised teams to foster a peer-to-peer coaching culture. Deal reviews started happening informally. Conversations that once centred on proposed solutions began with qualification. Who is the economic buyer? Have we identified the real pain? What is the compelling event?
Teams began running MEDDPICC reviews without needing to be prompted. “Every week you see people having these conversations, whether it’s formalised or not,” says Jack. “It’s been such a good behavioural change.”
Consultants have also become more deliberate about which opportunities justify the resources required to win them. Whereas revenue at any cost might have previously been the guiding principle, now qualification is integral to the process.
For example, the team requested extra time from Aaron and Raff to review a multimillion-pound opportunity against MEDDPICC criteria. While it looked like an amazing opportunity at first, further scrutiny revealed fundamental issues and gaps in knowledge and viability. Rather than commit significant resources to a low-probability bid, the team walked away, confident they had made the right decision.
What began as sales enablement training was now part of WoodMac’s operational DNA.
Those changes made a meaningful difference to WoodMac’s commercial performance. The company closed the year with double-digit growth – its most successful year in recent memory. Market conditions, leadership focus and internal changes all played a role, but the behavioural and structural shifts driven by Flow State’s MEDDPICC training were clearly influential.
Average deal size increased. Consultants began qualifying opportunities more rigorously and scoping engagements more strategically. Rather than accepting smaller, reactive briefs, teams reframed conversations around broader business impact. Low-probability bids were filtered out earlier, allowing resources to focus on opportunities with genuine commercial merit.
MEDDPICC also changed the way consultants engaged with clients. Better discovery meant deeper conversations about commercial priorities and business pain points, allowing the team to understand their clients better and engage with them more effectively.
Pipeline quality improved. New opportunities entering the pipeline were better defined and aligned with real client urgency, while stagnant deals were removed. Forecasting became more reliable as a result. “Previously, we’d have opportunities sitting in the pipeline for years,” remembers Jack. “Now everyone reviews their pipeline weekly.”
Equally important was the cultural shift. Leadership and delivery teams now share a common commercial language, and conversations around MEDDPICC and qualification have become routine.
WoodMac’s global consulting teams now have the sales acumen to back up their industry expertise.
Looking ahead, WoodMac is exploring more ways to integrate MEDDPICC and make it a central part of the consulting process. “Everyone’s learnt the framework now,” explains Jack. “But now it’s about making it sticky, and making it the natural way that we operate.”
Flow State shared further recommendations on how companies can continue to scale MEDDPICC’s impact. One priority is earlier enablement. Directors and VPs are now fluent in the framework, so attention has shifted to more junior team members and new hires. Consultants joining from industry or competitor firms often arrive with no formal qualification framework or with a different one entirely. To keep everyone on the same page, the sales enablement team is updating the onboarding so that MEDDPICC becomes the default lens for evaluating opportunities.
Additionally, Jack is looking for ways to integrate MEDDPICC into the company’s systems, such as embedding the framework into their CRM and other tools. The team is also looking into AI-assisted qualification prompts to support their human-led sales process.
For anyone considering tailored sales enablement training, Jack absolutely recommends Flow State. “They’re so knowledgeable, and they’re so accommodating with their time and expertise. But they’re also flexible, and were able to adjust their training to the situation at hand with a bespoke consulting firm.”
Thijs adds, “Flowstate has been instrumental in giving our sellers a consistent toolbox combined with practical training to get their sales effectiveness to a more mature level.”
As Jack reflects, the change has already been tangible, and it’s still compounding. “What we’ve learnt has really set the foundation for this year. It’s given us something solid that we can continue to build on for years to come.
Average deal size increased
Improved pipeline quality
Improved forecasting accuracy
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