Selling against the status quo

You’re probably all too well aware of the statistic that the majority of apparently well-qualified complex B2B buying journeys end with the potential customer either deciding to do nothing or to change nothing.
For most salespeople, their most powerful competitor is actually not another vendor, but the status quo. In an increasingly risk-averse environment, if your prospective customer is not absolutely convinced of the need to change, they are likely to decide to stick with what they already have.
Unless and until they perceive that the risk of failing to act significantly outweighs the risk of change, they are likely to conclude that they can afford to stay as they are – at least for a while…
This tendency to avoid risk is compounded by the increasing number of stakeholders who find themselves involved in the customer’s decision-making process. Research by the CEB, Gartner and the Challenger group has shown