Detailed Criteria

'The devil is in the details.' It's an English idiom I'm sure you've experienced, or at least heard before. This implies that the small things that you weren't expecting or that seemed inconsequential, can sometimes hold up everything. The same goes for the elicitation of criteria. Sometimes we need to explore and delve into the details and definitions of their criteria in order to fully understand them.

I believe that the elicitation of criteria is at the cornerstone of all sales. When we do this, to use a sports metaphor, it's like getting the ball down the alley each time with no gutter balls. Further defining their criteria gives us a strike each and every time.

Here's 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.

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.

Whereas the second student, when asked why they believe the training to be important might say that they are doing it to be recognized by their peers, and maybe the teacher or other students.

So these two students are willing to pay for and participate in this training, but the similarities in their criteria re: the training being important to them, are backed up by radically different definitions.

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's important for you to begin to understand that every time you think you know what someone wants, unless you ask, you don't. You're not on target. You're not on track. And until you both elicit the criteria and elicit the meaning, the definition, you are completely missing the boat.

Knowing criteria is most definitely a good start. If you want to bowl strike after strike, the key is to learn how to define their criteria.

Kenrick Cleveland teaches techniques to sell to affluent clients using persuasion strategies. He runs unique public and private seminars and offers home study courses, audio/visual learning tools, and coaching programs in persuasion techniques. Find more free articles at www.MAXpersuasion.com/blog. Be sure to sign up for his free report entitled "Yes! Persuasion."