Assessing Decision Criteria

Decision criteria are the criteria that are important to the customer when they are making a buying decision. On the Assessment tab, decision criteria are automatically displayed next to the following questions:

  • Formal Decision Criteria in the section Can we compete?
  • Informal Decision Criteria in the section Can we win?

Note: Decision criteria functionality can be disabled by an administrator.

In the example displayed below, three formal decision criteria are created on the opportunity.

  • The Mandatory column indicates the decision criteria that are of particular importance to the customer. If set to Yes, the deal can only progress if the criterion is met by your organization’s solution.
  • A Milestone is a stage in the customer's buying process to which the criterion is particularly relevant.
  • The Contacts column displays the contacts who attach importance to a decision criterion. Hover over a contact's image to view their details from the associated relationship map.

  • Under Position from the customer's point of view, you can compare your solution, and competitors' solutions, with each criterion. Is it better than what the customer has specified, the same, or worse?

    Tip: As far as possible, this comparison should be from the customer's point of view. Your opinion on whether or not a competitor is 'Better' might be different, but that is not what you are attempting to capture here. Knowing where you stand in the customer's perception informs your competitive strategy.

    You can capture these values with Assessing Decision Criteria.

To edit any of the above, or view any insight map obstacles that the criterion is associated with, click the name of the criterion. For more information, see Assessing Decision Criteria.

Note: Formal and informal decision criteria are displayed in order of their importance. Mandatory criteria are listed first. Thereafter, criteria are ranked according the number of contacts that are linked to them. The ranking is automatically updated as you make changes to decision criteria such as setting a criterion to mandatory, or adding more contacts.

More About Assessments and Decision Criteria