Whether your company is the market leader or a new entrant, sometimes your biggest competition isn’t the 800-pound gorilla or the new kid on the block. It’s a prospect’s decision to do nothing – to maintain the status quo.
Signs of the status quo can surface at any time in the sales process. In the initial stages of engaging a prospect, the status quo is often expressed as “Thanks, we’re all set.” Those repeated requests for more information, long after you thought the prospect was purchase-ready? Your foe, the status quo again.
The reason that the status quo is such a fierce competitor is the same reason that change management is so challenging for both individuals and organizations. It’s fear of the unknown. Your product or service represents change. And people don’t have an emotional connection to change in the same way that they have an emotional connection to what they know.
“We’re all set” can mean “I know what I have, even if I don’t always like it or it doesn’t work the way I wish it would.” Repeated requests for more information can mean, “I’m not the (only) decision-maker, and I don’t know what will happen if I risk addressing this with the decision-maker.”
When the status quo is your competitor, it’s up to you to think like a change manager and replace fear with trust. Here are a few questions to challenge the status quo.
Replacement, complement, option or upgrade?
When a prospect says, “We’re all set,” it’s an opportunity to manage change by adding to the status quo. Think beyond replacing what is currently in play. Consider positioning your product or service as a complement to the status quo, an option for contingencies and overcapacity, or an enhancement for a specific functional area or department.
What’s in it for your prospect?
If you are running into repeated requests for information or justification for your product or service, it’s often a sign that the resistance is emotional and personal, not factual. The logical, dollarized benefits of using your product or service may be clear, but chances are your prospect isn’t clear on the impact your product or service will have on him or her personally. Explore the positive outcomes that your product or service can have on your prospect’s role, job satisfaction and relationships with peers, employees and boss.
Why don’t we do it together?
A version of this question can be one of the most effective ways to dislodge the status quo. When your prospect repeatedly drops the ball on a task required to take the next step toward a purchase decision, asking this question will build trust or reveal an underlying objection to moving forward—or both.
You can’t reason a prospect out of resistance to changing the status quo. You can think like a change manager by building trust and creating an emotional connection to the positive outcomes of change.
