MEDDICC decision criteria: examples written by buyers

01

What are decision criteria in MEDDICC?

Decision criteria are the standards the buyer uses to judge your solution against the alternatives, doing nothing included.

For the element to count as qualified, establish the buyer's criteria, their relative importance and who will assess whether you meet them.

02

What do decision criteria look like when a buyer writes them?

A formal evaluation can specify pass or fail requirements, weights and scoring rules.

In a private deal, ask the buyer for its own criteria and how it will apply them: a company buying for itself may never publish those details, while for procurements covered by the UK's Procurement Act 2023, section 23 requires contracting authorities to state how tenders will be assessed, whether a failed criterion disqualifies a tender and the criteria's relative importance.

03

What must you pass before you are scored?

A pass or fail requirement can rule your offer out before weighted scoring begins.

Shared Services Canada rates its mandatory criteria pass or fail, gives no points for meeting them and lets only compliant proposals into the next phase. In Wiltshire and Oxfordshire's tender, any failed mandatory requirement leads to rejection.

A buyer can also set a floor for the scored part. Shared Services Canada requires at least 50% on one group of its written criteria, 60% on the others and 50% on the demonstration. Only proposals that reach every minimum go on to the next phase.

Find out which requirements would exclude your offer and check whether you meet them. Where failure means rejection, strengths elsewhere cannot compensate. Then establish whether the scored parts have their own minimums.

04

How much does each criterion weigh?

The weights determine how much each criterion contributes to the score.

The Town of Cottesloe gave 50% to "Demonstrated capacity of software to meet specifications" and 30% to price. At shortlisting, Access gave 30% to functional fit against its requirements and 20% to price. Cascade County gave 10 of its 125 points to an interface with the e-discovery system its attorney's office already uses, as many as it gave to total cost of ownership.

For your own opportunity, identify the system the buyer needs to connect to and how that requirement affects the evaluation. Ask for the weights, or at least the order of importance, and note who confirmed them.

05

How is the demonstration scored?

A scored demonstration needs criteria for what counts as a good result.

Wiltshire and Oxfordshire's procedure has each tenderer perform four scenarios in a live system, with an outline of each scenario sent seven days before the interview. The demonstration score makes up 40% of the quality score. What emerges in the demonstration can also move the scores for the written answers up or down where the councils consider it necessary. The demonstration therefore tests the claims in the written proposal as well as the performance on the day.

Shared Services Canada gives its usability demonstration 15 of 100 points and invites at most the four highest-ranked bidders within 15 points of the leader. Bidders may be asked to work with a dataset the buyer provides.

Before you prepare a demonstration, ask whether it is scored, on whose scenarios and data, and who will score it. A tour of your product can miss the scenarios the panel scores.

06

How much does price count?

A lower price can outweigh a better quality score.

In the Wiltshire part of the councils' illustrative worked example, the final score is 70% quality and 30% price. Tender D scores 100% on quality and 67.6% on price, giving 90.28% overall. Tender C scores 95.23% on quality and 100% on price, giving 96.66% overall and winning the example.

The Town of Cottesloe's tender says it in words: "although price is considered, the Tender containing the lowest price will not necessarily be accepted, nor will the Tender ranked the highest on the qualitative criteria."

Ask how the buyer will compare costs and whether price is scored. For a scored evaluation, establish its weight and formula. When the comparison rests on expected business value, examine the assumptions in the business case for the purchase.

07

When are decision criteria qualified?

Decision criteria are qualified when the buyer has confirmed how offers will be judged and you can explain where yours falls short.

For a live deal, write down five parts:

1. Pass or fail: which requirements would rule you out, and whether you meet them.

2. Weights: each criterion's weight, or the buyer's order of importance where there are no numerical weights.

3. Minimum scores: whether any apply, and to which part of the evaluation.

4. Demonstration: whether it is scored, what must be shown, and who will assess it.

5. Price: how cost affects the comparison, including its weight and scoring formula if the buyer uses them.

Next to each part, note how you know it and who at the buyer confirmed it. Every qualification element is an evidence claim. When using MEDDICC, a widely used third-party framework, keep any unsupported answer marked as an assumption. Use the decision criteria question and what counts as its answer to decide what to clarify with the buyer.

If the buyer has no written criteria, use these five checks to make its priorities and trade-offs explicit. A confirmed answer that there is no minimum score or separately scored demonstration is still evidence. Where there are no numerical weights, establish the order of importance and how the buyer will choose when offers differ. Where a confirmed requirement excludes your offer, record the exclusion.