DECISION CRITERIA
Decision Criteria are the standards a buyer uses to judge your solution and compare it against the alternatives, including doing nothing. In MEDDPICC, they fall into three types: Technical, Economic, and Relationship. The seller who uncovers and shapes these criteria early becomes the benchmark every other vendor is measured against.
The three types of Decision Criteria
How much weight each type carries depends on the organization you’re selling to and the stakeholder you’re speaking with. A CTO will care far more about Technical criteria than a CFO, who is more likely to focus on the Economic side. Value is stakeholder-specific, so the criteria are too.
TECHNICAL
Does your solution meet the requirements to make it feasible? Typical criteria:
• Integration with existing systems• Security and compliance standards
• Scalability and performance
• Data residency
ECONOMIC
How viable is your solution from a finance, risk, and efficiency perspective? Typical criteria:
• Payback period and return on investment
• Total cost of ownership
• Implementation time and cost
• Contract terms and flexibility
RELATIONSHIP
How well do the values and direction of the two organizations fit together? Typical criteria:
• Product roadmap and long-term viability
• Reference customers in their industry
• Support and partnership model
• How you showed up during the sales process
Why Decision Criteria matter
Decision Criteria are where the value you’ve uncovered gets written down. Your customer’s Pain and the Metrics you’ve quantified only influence the outcome if they show up in the criteria used to make the decision.
Selling without clearly defined Decision Criteria is like selling in the dark. It won’t feel much different for your customer either, because without criteria they fall back on gut feel, or on price.
How to influence Decision Criteria
Your customer may have an idea of what they want, but it’s your job to educate them on what they should be looking for. Connect each criterion to a Pain they’ve told you about and a Metric they care about. That way, the criteria reflect what the buyer actually needs, which happens to be what you do best.
By showing your customer what your solution does better than anyone else, and why it matters, you set traps for competitors who can’t do what you can. Keep revisiting the criteria too. They shift as new stakeholders join and priorities change.
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WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT DECISION CRITERIA?
In this episode of MEDMEN, Andy and Pim tell the stories of two solutions they were looking at buying, and how the final decision was influenced by the way the vendors chose to engage with them (or not engage with them).
Andy and Pim explore common errors people make when approaching the Decision Criteria, such as assuming that customers will always possess them and that once identified, these criteria remain set in stone.
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In this episode of MEDMEN, Andy and Pim explain why using Decision Criteria across all three dimensions is how you differentiate. Moving beyond the technical shows senior decision makers why your solution matters to their goals.
Decision Criteria FAQs
Decision Criteria are the standards a buyer uses to evaluate your solution against the alternatives. They’re the second D in MEDDPICC and fall into three types: Technical, Economic, and Relationship.
Technical criteria cover whether your solution meets the requirements. Economic criteria cover financial viability, risk, and efficiency. Relationship criteria cover how well your organizations fit, including values, direction, and support.
Decision Criteria are what the buyer judges you on. The Decision Process is how they make the decision, including the steps, the people, and the timeline.
Yes. Most buyers don’t start with defined criteria. By connecting criteria to the buyer’s Pain and Metrics, you can shape them toward the areas where your solution is strongest.
Without criteria, buyers decide on gut feel or price. That’s your opportunity to help define them early, before a competitor does.