Not all Decision criteria are created equally

Everyone has criteria for buying something. When it’s an individual purchase, these are relatively simple. When it’s an organisational purchase, more people will be involved across different departments.

When I buy a pair of trainers, for example, my criteria would be the size of my feet, whether they are for sport or fashion and the colour I would prefer. 

As you can see here, the above criteria (shoe size, occasion and colour), as apparent as they are, are not all equal in weight when it comes to buying the shoes. A shoe in the wrong size won’t work, even if everything else is perfect. The colour, however, is more subjective and has multiple acceptable outcomes that would result in a purchase.

The same is true for the decision criteria within the organisation you are selling to; they will not all be created equal. So, how do you uncover which is more important? Where do you focus your energy?

Whose criteria matter the most?

While you will have identified all the different criteria from all relevant departments, it is well worth your time to consider these in line with the organisation chart and who your Champion and Economic buyer are. 

• What are their top criteria? 
• What features, functions or pay-offs are their top priority?
• Can they exert greater power and influence than other departments to get these criteria to the top of the list?

If the answer to the last point is yes, you must identify these criteria and weave them into your sales strategy. 

For example, you discover that return on investment (ROI) will be the absolute deal breaker when signing off the deal. When running the Metrics, you know that your solution delivers an ROI several months earlier than your competitors. Conveying this information is critical. It is one of your differentiators versus your competitors.

How do you achieve ROI in this timeframe compared to your competitors? Whatever the reason, the answer is another differentiator.

Ensure your Champion is entirely on board with this knowledge and pushes your differentiators in internal meetings for you throughout the sales process, especially when dealing with the Economic buyer.

Biased beings: making the MEDDIC sales process work for you

Unfortunately, you can’t get by on one criterion alone, regardless of whether it is at the top of the list; the others are still important and in play. 

But bias can help here. 

People are naturally biased towards specific solutions and outcomes. Bias is often unconscious, but it’s there. 

Whenever a problem has been identified, the owner of that pain will automatically start thinking of a solution, and it will probably be a solution that they are familiar with. You or your competitors might have influenced their thinking via marketing messaging or previous discussions. It would be a rare day that someone thinks up, out of the blue, a solution that has never been encountered before. 

So, your customer will already have some preconceived idea as to what the solution to their pain will likely be. Now, you must find out what that is. When you find out the customer bias in each decision-making area, you can start influencing them.

Let’s look at the areas:

1. Technical Decision criteria: functions and capabilities required to solve the issue

Technical bias might be influenced by a known solution that the customer has been exposed to through marketing or might have used in a previous business. If you know that a customer has used specific software for something similar in the past, this is likely what they have in mind when thinking of a solution to their problem. Ask yourself:

• If the bias is not towards your solution, how is your solution better than that? 
• What can your solution do that the preconceived solution can’t?
• How does your solution align with their technology preferences?  

2. Economic Decision criteria: payback required to justify the expense

Economic bias might centre around a preconceived idea of how long it will take to see ROI and how big this might be. This bias is likely held by the Economic buyer and influenced by the team creating the customer’s business case. 

 In addition to the ROI, time to value can have a critical impact on bias. For example, the Economic buyer might have a goal to realise the return within a fiscal period, for financial reporting or even bonus timing.

3. Relationship Decision criteria: the sorts of companies that your customer wants to deal with

Relationship decision criteria are the most subjective and harder to pin down. However, your customer might be used to working with a software provider that can provide 24/7 availability and is biased towards solutions with a very strong customer support set-up. They may also prefer to work with companies that have active user groups that they can participate in and use for industry networking. 

These biases may not make it into a formal decision-making criteria list but will, consciously or unconsciously, influence the priorities on the list. 

Understand the shopping list

Decision criteria are like a shopping list for your customer. You’re just guessing if you are a good fit without identifying the criteria customers will use to compare your solution. To take the guesswork out, you need to:

• Get to the heart of everyone’s shopping list.
• Find the bias hidden within.
• Tailor your communication to deliver your key differentiators against the list to those whose priorities outrank others. 

Once you uncover these areas, your sale will be much easier.

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