Navigating the Decision Process in Sales

decision process vs decision criteria

Who are the people involved and the processes that those people will go through in order to evaluate, select, and purchase your solution?

The Decision Criteria is what the decision will be based on and the Decision Process is how the decision will be made.

Whereas the Decision Criteria is what will decide whether you become the customers' vendor of choice it is the Decision Process that will decide whether your deal closes on time or slips.

It is the sellers' job to uncover the Decision Process as soon as they possibly can and then to consistently work with trying to advance their deal against each stage of it.

The Decision Process rarely stays the same as it started and different stakeholders will reveal different perspectives and requirements within the Decision Process. Therefore, the most elite sellers will constantly be on their toes checking for progress and updates against the Decision Process with every stakeholder they encounter.

THERE ARE TWO PARTS; VALIDATION AND APPROVAL

The Decision Process breaks into two parts; Technical Validation and Business Approval.

Both parts are linked but usually run independently of each other with the Technical Validation coming first.

What about the Paper Process?

The Paper Process forms the P in MEDDPICC, but as you will no doubt have noticed some organizations implement MEDDICC.

In this scenario, it is most common that the organization is simply rolling the Paper Process into the Decision Process. It’s not that they do any less on the Paper Process, just that they don’t call it out as its own section.

You can Influence the Decision Process

While the majority of the Decision Process will remain pretty rigid as they will tie to compliance matters with your customer, there will be some opportunities for you to influence the Decision Process.

These include being able to influence the timing based on a commercial offer or resource allocation through to adding additional steps that may favor you over your Competition.

Engagement and Effort ≠ Progress

Sellers often make the mistake of thinking that they are making progress against the Decision Process based on the amount of engagement they are having with the customer. This is a rookie error to make. Unless you are visibly advancing through the stages of the Decision Process you are not making progress regardless of how many extra demos, reference calls and reports you deliver to your customer.

MEDDPICC is the framework that can help sellers stay focused on the efforts that matter – the ones that get you closer to winning your deal.

Decision Process and your Sales Process

Early: How does the customer make a decision?
Mid: I fully understand how the decision in my deal is going to be made and I am tracking my progress against each step
Late: Everything is on track against the Decision Process and I am managing the final steps

Summary of Decision Process

Staying close to the Decision Criteria and Decision Process in your deal is the best way for a seller to stay on top of where they stand on their deal. Not only this but it is a foolproof way of aligning your selling process to the customers' buying process.

This page is a super-condensed and re-written adaptation of the full insight given into the Decision Process and how to use them in your MEDDPICC / MEDDICC / MEDDIC Framework that is detailed within MEDDICC – The Book and as part of our MEDDPICC Masterclass.