KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Understanding and aligning with a customer's specific requirements, standards, and priorities enhances your ability to position your solution effectively and reduce competitive risks.
Conduct thorough research, actively listen, and tailor your value proposition to meet the unique needs and pain points of each customer, building trust and relevance.
Collaborate with internal experts, use data-driven insights, and create compelling messaging to communicate value effectively and address Decision Criteria directly.
Highlight potential risks of inaction, such as lost revenue or increased costs, to prioritize your solution and advance the decision-making process.
To find wins in sales today, applying a methodical, analytical, and repeatable process is crucial in your sales process. Thankfully for those sales professionals who find blockades and barriers to their success potential, there is a proven sales methodology that helps streamline the process, drive urgency, and create more value for your customers as you go through the sales cycle.
The MEDDPICC framework allows you to approach each customer with a personalizable strategy to give yourself the best possible chance to win deals and provide value for your customers.
MEDDPICC comprises elements that simplify Go-To-Market (GTM) and sales efforts through components of a sales cycle. These elements include Decision Criteria, and this can be one of the most vital elements of a sales process.
Why is Decision Criteria Important?
Decision Criteria is so crucial because it hones in on the specific requirements, needs, wants, and standards of a customer organization. If you zoom in more, you can use the Decision Criteria to fully understand how a customer assesses, compares, and decides on their potential solutions or vendors.
By becoming fully knowledgeable and familiar with the decision process, you immediately put yourself in a position of power - you can position your solution in the best possible way, lower the risk of customers going to your competitors and elevate success by knowing and preparing for any potential issues or questions the customer may have.
Best Practices for Implementing Decision Criteria in Your Organization
To become a master of the Decision Criteria and unlock repeatable success, you need first to understand your customer. This can be done by looking into their business priorities, any needs they have going forward in their growth, how they work from an operational perspective, and even Implicating Pain that they encounter on a regular basis.
Building this foundation at the start of your deals will help you align your product with their Decision Criteria and personalize and customize your approach for their organization.
Making sure you really listen and empathize with the customer during the call, asking questions, and showing yourself as a trusted partner is all key steps to building successful sales results.
A smart move, to begin with, is a deep dive into what your customer needs, wants, prioritizes and has pain with before you address the Decision Criteria. Build an extensive research study on your client’s industries and markets - this will allow you to personalize your solution to their specific needs and requirements.
Make sure you really listen during the sales meetings. This is done through active listening, which helps you dig deeper into important information about your customer’s decision criteria. Pay attention to what the customer is saying and ask questions that clear any confusion from your end. Summarize their biggest points to show that you comprehend what they’ve said for added bonus points!
Once you have a basis for your customer’s Decision Criteria, tailor your value proposition to meet their unique needs. This might include bolding and emphasizing specific product features, presenting relatable case studies, or even showing how your solution outperforms compared to competitors when it comes to ROI and other Metrics.
Work with your experts internally - this can mean going to your product team, technical specialists, or marketing executives to help position your solution to fit a customer’s Decision Criteria. These experts can help give you unique insights that you might not be able to find, or even pick out simple things that you missed.
It is crucial to communicate value to your customers. This can be done by addressing the Decision Criteria and showing your solution adds value to the customer, using visual aids, data-driven research, insights, and examples of previous clients to reinforce that belief.
Work with your customers to understand the potential downsides of deferring from your solution - they could lose a significant amount of revenue, maintain existing overheads or incur additional expenses in the future. Get comfortable with pushing and prioritizing your solution and move forward in the decision-making process by creating urgency within your sales cycles.
Putting in the best practices for creating Decision Criteria is crucial for boosting your sales performance within your organization. You can put yourself in the role of a trusted partner and elevate your chance of winning deals by knowing what the customer needs, how they make their decision, and how you can customize your solution in a way that brings them value.
Want to find out how you can enable your organization through the MEDDPICC framework, and instill the best possible Decision Criteria approach in your sales team? Get in touch with the team here!
FAQs
A sales methodology focusing on key aspects of the sales cycle to drive success, represented by Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, Champion, and Competition.
It helps sales professionals align offerings with customers' specific requirements, better position products/services, and increase chances of success.
Research and actively listen to understand customer needs.
Tailor solutions based on decision criteria.
Communicate solution value effectively.
How to create sales urgency?
Highlight potential consequences of delaying decisions (e.g., lost revenue, increased costs) and provide a compelling value proposition to motivate customers.