We recently looked at the challenge salespeople face when opportunities initially progress but then lose momentum. It’s not always the big competitor or scrappy new upstart on the block that’s getting in the way. Instead, you’re competing against the customer’s instinct to do nothing at all, to stick with the status quo as the safest option or path of least resistance. As we discussed in that post, the battle against the status quo can be easier to win once you understand why your customers buy.
There’s another side to this dynamic that’s just as valuable for the salesperson to understand, and that’s why your customers don’t buy.
Especially in a volatile market with lots of change and disruption, fear can keep people from making purchase decisions even when they want what you’re selling. This might explain why sales leaders in a recent webinar told us that the top causes of pipeline stagnation