Criteria refers to the values important to us that determine how we make decisions. Understanding the basis upon which others make decisions enables us to formulate irresistibly persuasive sales presentations. Have you ever considered what motivates your decision-making process? How much more effective would you be if you understood the driving force behind the choices your prospects make when considering to buy your products or retain your services?
The criteria or core values to which we refer whenever making decisions are deeply seated within us all. Criteria questioning allows us to bring our prospects’ values to the surface and attach them to the particular benefits and advantages offered by our products or services. By doing this, we are helping our potential customers to verbalise and understand their reasons for taking certain actions and, as it is their reasoning, they will recognise the criteria and be much more likely to follow through and engage your services or purchase your products.
Stage one
How to discover your prospect’s core values or criteria – method one
The process of identifying your prospect’s core values or criteria is much simpler than you may, at first, think and involves asking a couple of powerful questions. It is how and when you ask these questions that requires forethought and planning.
In stage one, the question you have to ask your prospect is, ‘What’s important to you about . . . ?’ When we ask this question, we are eliciting information about what our prospect needs to happen or to have before they can consider working with or buying from you. This type of question is also called a value or needs elicitation question.
Here are a few examples.
- What’s important to you about working with a company/agency like (agency/company name)?
- What’s important to you about the next house you want to buy?
- What’s important to you about your next car?
- What’s important to you about correctly investing your savings?
- What’s important to you about going to the gym?
- What’s important to you about the next hardware upgrade?
Once your prospect answers this style of question, you have the core criteria against which decisions are made. Make a mental note or write down the specific words they use; this is of particular significance because, later, you will repeat the identical phrase back to them.
If you are presenting to a multi-functional team, direct your value elicitation questions to the most influential members of the group. Each function, sales, engineering and finance, will have specific areas of critical importance that will impact in different ways on their decisions to proceed.
How to discover your prospect’s core values or criteria – method two
Once you have asked the ‘What’s important to you about X?’ question, in some circumstances, your prospect’s opening response, while important and in itself revealing, may not be their core criteria. Occasionally, at this first stage of questioning, the initial answer might be a sweeping generalisation. Should you sense this is the case, steer your prospect towards volunteering their deeper core values, by repeating the questioning process.
| Persuader | Before we go further, I wonder if I can ask, what’s important about working with a consultancy like Stephen St James & Associates? |
| Prospect | The main advantage is your firm has a track record in our industry. |
| Persuader | Yes, having market intelligence is crucial. What’s particularly important about this to your company? |
| Prospect | Your expertise enables us to specifically target people from our sector so they can start running from day one. |
| Persuader | Seems like there is some urgency. Every company has slightly different ways of going about things – what’s so important he has to start running from day one? |
| Prospect | These are troubled times. The incumbent couldn’t be leaving at a worse time; there’s a lot of pressure on HR to secure a high calibre candidate and move the business forwards. |
The value elicitation process above initially yielded the broadest response, ‘track record’, and further questioning produced the response, ‘secure high calibre people and move the business forwards’. Having posed three elicitation questions, it is appropriate to accept this answer. Imagine taking this questioning process a step further: ultimately, if ever you have an opportunity to do this, financial freedom and personal security surface quite frequently.
Relating personal security and financial freedom to the advantages of your product/service is very powerful.
Stage two
Combining core values to benefits
Now, using your prospect’s vocabulary, link the advantages and benefits of your product/service to their core values. These are the answers you received to your elicitation questions. Using their language like this is imperative because it makes your proposition irresistible; you are giving them, in their words, exactly what they have already indicated they want.
Returning to our example, the persuader, at some point during the meeting, might say:
| Persuader | That’s right. The main advantage we have compared to other recruiters is not only our current understanding of the market but also we know the whereabouts of high calibre candidates. Our insight enables us to take the pressure off you and ensure the human resources department performs well and secures the highest calibre candidate to help move the business forwards. |
| Response analysis | The prospect’s core criteria, that of reducing the pressure and stress in the human resources department, securing candidates and moving the business forwards, are intermingled with the inherent advantages provided by the consultancy they are about to appoint. |
Motivational direction
There is something quite subtle you have learnt, once you have elicited the final value response. You have identified the motivational direction of your prospect. In our example, the last response was:
| Prospect | These are troubled times. Pete couldn’t be leaving at a worse time; there’s a lot of pressure on HR to secure a high calibre candidate and move the business forwards. |
In the earlier dialogue the prospect used the words ‘enables’, ‘advantage’ and ‘secure’, which reveal a towards-linguistic preference. The persuader cleverly introduces the same vocabulary into his/her presentation.
The last words from the persuader were:
| Persuader | That’s right. The main advantage we have compared to other recruiters is not only our current understanding of the market but also we know the whereabouts of high calibre candidates. Our insight enables us to take the pressure off you and ensure the HR department performs well and secures the highest calibre candidate to help move the business forwards. |
This response subtly reflects both the motivational direction and core criteria of the prospect and will appeal to client, as the value of the external consultant is reinforced in their linguistic style.
Weasel phrases or openers
Asking questions repeatedly beginning with ‘what’ and ‘when’ can, at times, appear inquisitorial, so, to bypass the adverse effects posing such questions can occasionally have on others, we chose to soften their delivery by using weasel or opening phrases. Below, we have reproduced the persuader’s questions. Can you spot the weasel phrases?
| Persuader | Before we go further, I wonder if I can ask, what’s important about working with a consultancy like Stephen St James & Associates? |
| Persuader | Yes, having that market intelligence is crucial. What’s particularly important about this to your company? |
| Persuader | Seems like there is some urgency. Every company has slightly different ways of going about things – what’s so important he has to start running from day one? |
Some opening phrases are art forms in themselves; essentially, when you know you are about to ask repeated questions beginning with the words ‘what’ or ‘when’, plan to soften their delivery. The more you think about doing this, the more it will become second nature.
The weasel or opening phrases above are:
- Before we go further, I wonder if I can ask . . .
- Yes, having that market intelligence is crucial.
- Every company has slightly different ways of going about things.
Just about anything said before the word ‘what’ can be considered a weasel phrase.
Alternative questioning method
Many favour progressively dispersing criteria questions within the conversation, preferring not to ask them one after another, as in the above example. When the value elicitation process is interspersed throughout the discussion, the persuader makes a mental note of the core values expressed and picks their moment to feed them back to their prospect.
- When your prospect repeats the same answer, you have attained the highest core value you can achieve within the context of that conversation.
- Observe the speed of the responses you receive. Often, the quickest response reveals the highest core value. Should your prospect ponder over their answers, the most significant value has yet to be expressed.
- Ask a maximum of three or four elicitation questions.
- Ensure you have developed a sufficient level of rapport in advance of attempting this questioning technique.
- Ideally, raise the ‘What’s important to you?’ question during a conversation where many questions are being asked back and forth; this seemingly buries the question and its importance will appear diminished as your potential prospect responds in a relaxed manner.