What they will judge on, and the steps between now and signature. Skipping these is why deals slip a quarter without anyone deciding anything.
Criteria are what they will judge on. Process is how and when they will do it. Both are usually knowable by asking, and both are usually not asked.
The list of things that will decide this, in their words and in their order. Three things to establish:
The list. "What will you be comparing us on?"
The order. A list without priority is not useful. "If you had to rank those, which one actually decides it?"
The origin. Criteria come from somewhere. If a competitor helped write them, you will be able to tell: the list will contain something oddly specific that only one vendor does well. Ask "how did you arrive at that list?" and listen for whose language it is in.
If you are early enough to influence the criteria, that is the highest-leverage moment in the entire deal. A criterion you helped write is a criterion you meet.
The sequence of steps between now and signature, with names and dates.
Not "sometime in Q3". Something you could put in a calendar:
> Technical evaluation with the platform team in the last week of the month, a written > recommendation to the VP, a security review that takes about two weeks, then legal.
The most effective question is a hypothetical that costs the prospect nothing to answer:
> "Say we do everything right and you decide we are the best fit. Walk me through what happens > between that moment and a signature — who gets involved, and what does each step take?"
It works because it is not asking them to commit. It is asking them to describe their own organisation, which people are usually happy to do and which frequently reveals two steps the rep had no idea existed.
A deal with no mapped process gets a close date invented by the rep. It slips, and nobody can say why, because there was never a sequence to slip against. A deal with a mapped process either moves through the steps or visibly stops at one, and both are information you can act on.
Answers are shown as soon as you open each one. The explanation is the point, not the score.
Criteria come from somewhere. If they are in a competitor’s language, you are being measured on a scorecard designed for someone else.
A process has steps, owners and durations. Anything less is a date the rep invented, and it will slip without anyone being able to say why.
It costs them nothing to answer, and it routinely surfaces steps the rep did not know existed.
Repwing listens to your discovery calls and puts the next question on your phone while you are still in the conversation. Fourteen days free, no card.
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