There's an English idiom that goes, "The devil is in the details." I'm sure you've all heard it. It implies that the small things in plans or schemes are often the things that take the most time in the long term. Well, in criteria elicitation, we need to dig a little deeper than just the surface act and get a little dirty with the details.
Criteria is the cornerstone of all sales. It is, to use a sports metaphor, like getting the ball down the alley each and every time. When we further define the criteria, it's a strike dead on every time.
This is how definitions work.
I've done a lot of trainings and had many students in my coaching club. Everyone has their own specific reason for coming, yet many of them have very similar sounding criteria. If I have two students who tell me that the reason they're at the training is because what's being taught is very important to them in their sales, well, that's the surface criteria.
If you ask them, "Is this important to you? Do you really want to learn this?" Both of them will say yes. Yet each one has different definitions for their criteria when you elicit it.
The first student might say that the training is important because they want to learn new skills and grow in their business. Your follow up is to ask what that means. They might say that they want to see a list of skills and they want to participate in exercises using the skills so they can learn them.
When you ask the second person what's important to them about being at the training, they might say, well, it's important to me to be recognized for the hard work that I bring to the table. Now that's an entirely different criteria. Asking what that means, they may say that they want their classmates and the instructor to recognize that they are skilled and quick to learn.
These two students are both willing to come to the training, both willing to pay for the training, but if you think about it, despite the similarities in their criteria, they've got wildly different definitions of what a successful training looks like for them.
If you've ever taught in front of a group, you'll know what I'm talking about. In any group you're teaching, there will be a section of people that probably know your material and maybe reasonably well, or at least think they do. There will be a group of people that are thinking, wow, I'm really in the presence of a master who I've studied for years.
Another subsection and also a majority of the students are there for knowledge for its own sake and will gain their value simply from what you're saying.
It is very important that you begin to understand that every time you think you know what someone wants, unless you ask the questions, you don't know what they want. You're not on target or on track and until you elicit both the criteria, the meaning, and the definition, you are missing the boat.
Knowing criteria is a good start. If you want to bowl strike after strike, the key is to learn how to define their criteria.
Criteria is the cornerstone of all sales. It is, to use a sports metaphor, like getting the ball down the alley each and every time. When we further define the criteria, it's a strike dead on every time.
This is how definitions work.
I've done a lot of trainings and had many students in my coaching club. Everyone has their own specific reason for coming, yet many of them have very similar sounding criteria. If I have two students who tell me that the reason they're at the training is because what's being taught is very important to them in their sales, well, that's the surface criteria.
If you ask them, "Is this important to you? Do you really want to learn this?" Both of them will say yes. Yet each one has different definitions for their criteria when you elicit it.
The first student might say that the training is important because they want to learn new skills and grow in their business. Your follow up is to ask what that means. They might say that they want to see a list of skills and they want to participate in exercises using the skills so they can learn them.
When you ask the second person what's important to them about being at the training, they might say, well, it's important to me to be recognized for the hard work that I bring to the table. Now that's an entirely different criteria. Asking what that means, they may say that they want their classmates and the instructor to recognize that they are skilled and quick to learn.
These two students are both willing to come to the training, both willing to pay for the training, but if you think about it, despite the similarities in their criteria, they've got wildly different definitions of what a successful training looks like for them.
If you've ever taught in front of a group, you'll know what I'm talking about. In any group you're teaching, there will be a section of people that probably know your material and maybe reasonably well, or at least think they do. There will be a group of people that are thinking, wow, I'm really in the presence of a master who I've studied for years.
Another subsection and also a majority of the students are there for knowledge for its own sake and will gain their value simply from what you're saying.
It is very important that you begin to understand that every time you think you know what someone wants, unless you ask the questions, you don't know what they want. You're not on target or on track and until you elicit both the criteria, the meaning, and the definition, you are missing the boat.
Knowing criteria is a good start. If you want to bowl strike after strike, the key is to learn how to define their criteria.
About the Author:
Kenrick Cleveland teaches techniques to earn the business of affluent clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion techniques.
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