Definition
What is a stop criterion?
A stop criterion is the quantified, dated threshold that, if not reached, ends the acquisition investment in a market. The criterion is written before any spending is committed, bears on a commercial result rather than a measure of activity, and is known to everyone involved. Its role is to strip the decision to withdraw of the emotional weight it carries when it has to be made midstream.
The three conditions of a criterion that holds
- The criterion bears on a result: closed sales, delivered orders, collected revenue. Requests received, meetings held or quotes sent measure effort, not the market's response.
- The criterion is known to the team, not just to management. Announced at the start, it becomes a shared reference point rather than a disavowal.
- The criterion provides a single extension condition, written in advance. Without it, the criterion is likely to be sidestepped at the first promising file.
Why write it before you start
A market that does not take rarely collapses. Every quarter, it produces an encouraging sign (a meeting, a request, a pending quote) that justifies carrying on. Each decision to extend is defensible on its own: it is their sum that costs a lot. Written when enthusiasm is at its highest, the stop criterion does that sum in advance.
Stopping does not mean shutting everything down
The stop criterion ends the advertising budget, new content production and the selling time assigned to the territory. The adapted pages, the vocabulary gathered, the cost-per-lead data and the contacts made all stay in place. Put on standby, a market can reopen faster than it first opened.
A company opening a new territory writes, before the first expense: "If we have not closed three sales in this territory after six quarters, we stop the acquisition investment. We extend by two quarters, once only, if one sale is closed and two others are in advanced negotiation." The person who will read the figure is named and did not lead the project. The decision meeting is booked in the calendar from launch.
We see the stop criterion as what makes it possible to open a market wholeheartedly: with the exit planned, no painful decision has to be improvised. The real cost of a market that drags on is not limited to the budget spent. It also includes the market you did not open in the meantime.
We advise giving the reading of the figure to someone who did not lead the project. Leaving the stop decision to the person responsible for the market means leaving it to the person with the most to lose by making it.
Not to be confused with
- Floor budget of a market test
- The floor budget sets the amount below which a market test produces no usable conclusion. The stop criterion sets the result and the date that decide whether the investment continues.
- Transposed sales cycle
- The transposed sales cycle estimates the time before the first sale in a new market. It is used to choose the horizon of the stop criterion, which should not be shorter than that time.
Related concepts
- Floor budget of a market test
- Transposed sales cycle
- Market entry cost
- First market signal
- Capacity ceiling
- Executive dashboard
Further reading
- Recognizing a market that will not take, before it costs you two years
- How long before the first sale in a new market?
- The budget threshold below which a market test proves nothing
- Your export plan does not say where the customers will come from
- New market: the campaign that learns comes before the campaign that sells
Related services
Frequently asked questions
How long should a stop criterion run?
It depends on your sales cycle. Take your usual time between first request and sale, add a margin, then allow at least two full cycles before judging. The horizon is set before you start, never midstream.
Does a deal that is about to close justify extending?
Only if the extension condition provided for it in advance. In every market, at any moment, there is a deal that could close: that is exactly what makes this signal useless as a criterion.
