MEDDIC for Presales - Decision Criteria
Aside from the Champion, Decision Criteria resonate most with us presellers. The Decision Criteria are the set of requirements that guide your customer's decision on your solution. Some presellers may even simply refer to them as evaluation criteria. Either way, they are requirements that must be met to secure the technical win.
However, it is important for us to recognize that Decision Criteria are not just technical requirements. There are a number of non-technical and holistic requirements customers seek.
Technical/Capabilities: How effective is your solution at meeting the needs of the customer, often about capabilities. Does your solution include the features and functions we require in an effective and easy-to-use manner?
Support/Services: The post-sale support and services provided, as well the robustness of your community. Will your organization be there to help them be successful?
Business/Commercial/Economic: This consists of all the cost and resource, both direct and indirect, considerations of your platform. What’s it going to take to leverage your solution to deliver the outcomes we seek?
Vendor/Partner: Is your organization and solution aligned with the direction of the customer’s organization and needs? Are we mutually invested in the success of the other?
Gathering technical requirements starts at that first discovery call and continues right up through evaluation, whether demo, workshop, PoC or some combination. Assuming your customer is able to express those requirements clearly, be sure to unpack them and test them. Make sure you understand why each requirement is important. You should be able to connect them to the Metric and Identified Pain. Prioritize them. Know which are would-like-to-have versus show stoppers. Compare their requirements to what customers normally seek. And, if the requirements are not the result of experience, find out the source. Maybe there is an analyst, influential stakeholder or, worse yet, a competitor. Knowing, not just the requirement but, why it is a requirement will help you position your solution to your Champion and beyond.
That said, often customers simply do not have a clearly defined set of criteria or requirements. Be cautious but lean in. This is an opportunity for you to help the customer find that clarity. You may even be able to influence that criteria to benefit your solution. You can be certain your competitor would. And, don’t forget. You are the expert. Be that thought leader and technical consultant to your customer. Here’s a quick list of things you can do:
Value engineering workshop to map out initial outcomes to critical capabilities
Share customer stories and use cases; demonstrate the capabilities that were important to prior customers
Connect your Champion to advocate peers that can speak on behalf of your solution and tell their own success story
Armed with a set of technical requirements, it is now time to turn them into solid robust Decision Criteria. You will need to lock-down technical Decision Criteria before you start the evaluation stage. You and your customer will be spending considerable time and effort. Make sure you have solid agreement on precisely what needs to be demonstrated. Ensure each Decision Criteria links back to the Metric and Identified Pain. Document them. Be specific about the what, how and why. Executing the evaluation with documented, detailed and agreed Decision Criteria makes earning the technical win and setting-up the commercial inevitability that much easier.
Here’s where we turn to the most important responsibility of the technical preseller. Qualifying Out. You are the arbitrator between your solution and the customer’s technical requirements. You must approach every customer objectively. If you don’t feel you can demonstrate that your solution is uniquely qualified to provide the capabilities required to deliver the outcomes the customer seeks, you must consider qualifying out. Don’t wait. Consult with your account executive. Express your concerns, identify the gaps and agree on a path. Do it early. Save yourself, your AE and your customer. They all will appreciate it.
MEDDIC offers a structured approach to identifying and addressing technical and business pain points. Understanding the difference and connecting these pains empowers presales professionals to offer compelling solutions and drive successful sales engagements.
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