The formal and informal standards a buyer uses to compare options and choose a solution; the test you are being marked against.
Also known as:
Evaluation criteria, Vendor selection criteria
Decision Criteria are the standards, technical, commercial and personal, that a buying group uses to judge the options in front of them. They are the first D in MEDDPICC. Shape them early and you influence the test; discover them late and you end up sitting an exam someone else wrote.
Capture the criteria in writing, map them to your real differentiators, and meet each one with evidence: proof, references, security attestations. Confirm them with more than one stakeholder, because criteria evolve and rarely match across a committee. Re-check after every senior meeting rather than assuming they hold.
We treat undocumented criteria as a risk, not a detail. In coaching we test whether the rep has the criteria in writing, whether they helped shape them, and whether they match the economic buyer's actual priorities, which often differ from the evaluation committee's.
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