Decision Criteria
The explicit and implicit standards a buyer will use to choose between options.
Explicit and implicit
Explicit criteria appear in an RFP or requirements list. Implicit criteria — risk aversion, an existing vendor relationship, a preference nobody will write down — frequently decide the outcome. Only asking about the explicit ones leaves you competing on a scorecard you did not help write.
Shape them early
How to surface and shape them
Ask what would make this a clear yes, and what would make it a clear no. The second question produces far more information than the first.
Separate stated criteria from operative ones. A requirements list describes what is defensible to write down, not always what decides.
Find the implicit criteria: risk tolerance, incumbent relationships, internal politics, who gets blamed if it fails. These decide more deals than feature lists.
Help define criteria before an RFP exists. The most valuable position is having shaped the standard, not meeting a standard someone else set.
Check which criteria you do not meet and address them explicitly. Discovering a disqualifying requirement at procurement is the expensive version.
Where it misleads
Stated criteria are frequently reverse-engineered to justify a preference already formed, so meeting all of them does not guarantee a win.
Criteria change during long evaluations as buyers learn, and a list captured at discovery may not be the one used at decision.
Different stakeholders hold different criteria and rarely reconcile them, so there is no single list to meet.
Shaping criteria too obviously reads as manipulation and damages exactly the trust the tactic depends on.
RELATED TERMS
MEDDIC
An enterprise qualification framework covering Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Identify pain and Champion — a checklist of what must be known before a deal is credible.
MEDDPICC
MEDDIC extended with Paper process and Competition — acknowledging that deals are lost to procurement and to rivals as often as to unclear value.
Competitive Intelligence
Structured knowledge of the alternatives a buyer is considering, and how to position against them honestly.
Discovery Call
The conversation in which a seller establishes whether a real problem exists, who owns it, and what solving it is worth.
Bottom of Funnel (BOFU)
The decision stage, where a prospect is comparing specific options and evaluating fit, price and risk.
Decision Process
The sequence of steps, approvals and reviews a buyer must complete before a purchase can be executed.
Economic Buyer
The person who can authorise the spend — not who recommends it, and not who signs the paperwork, but who controls the budget decision.
COMMON QUESTIONS
- What are decision criteria?
- The explicit and implicit standards a buyer will use to choose between options. The explicit ones appear in requirements lists and RFPs; the implicit ones — risk tolerance, existing relationships, who is accountable if it fails — are rarely written and frequently decisive.
- How do you find a buyer's decision criteria?
- Ask what would make this a clear yes and, more usefully, what would make it a clear no. The second question surfaces disqualifiers that a requirements conversation never reaches, and disqualifiers are what actually end deals.
- Can you influence decision criteria?
- Yes, and it is the highest-leverage position available — helping define the standard before an RFP exists rather than competing against one someone else set. It has to be done by genuinely clarifying the problem, because obvious criteria-shaping reads as manipulation.
- Why do deals lose despite meeting all criteria?
- Because stated criteria are frequently reverse-engineered to justify a preference already formed, and because implicit criteria never appeared on the list. A buyer can score you highest on every published requirement and still choose the option that feels least risky to be responsible for.
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