How to Weaken the Grip of the Status Quo

Astute marketing and sales professionals have long understood that their toughest competitor is usually the status quo. In most cases, no sale can be made unless prospects are first willing to consider changing their current methods and practices. Given the importance of the issue, it shouldn't be surprising that many marketing and sales experts have proposed several techniques for "breaking the grip of the status quo."

Recent research by several firms has shown that what business buyers are really looking for is fresh insights about the issues or challenges they are facing and about how to improve their business. Therefore, compelling insights can be an effective mechanism for loosening the grip of the status quo and creating a willingness to consider change.

So, what qualifies as insight, and what distinguishes it from other kinds of information that is used in marketing and sales messaging? CEB defines insight as information that disrupts a prospect's level of comfort with the status quo. Like thought leadership, compelling insights are credible and relevant, and they teach prospects something new. But in addition, insights simultaneously reveal - either directly or implicitly - the disadvantages and/or shortcomings of the prospect's status quo. The objective is to cause the prospect to feel a sense of urgency to act.

Developing insights that will resonate with potential buyers is not an easy task. It requires an in-depth understanding of your prospect's business and of the important developments or trends that are affecting or will impact his or her business.

But what makes developing insights really difficult is the need to bring a unique perspective to these underlying facts and circumstances. If your marketing messages and sales conversations make the same points that your competitors are making, you aren't really providing the kinds of insights that will prompt your prospects to act or differentiate your company from the competition.

One fertile source of effective insights is what Corporate Visions calls unconsidered needs. Corporate Visions identifies three basic types of unconsidered needs:

1. Unknown needs exist when there is a problem, challenge, or opportunity that a potential buyer is unaware of.
2. Unmet needs exist when a potential buyer is aware of a problem or challenge, but believes that there's no way to effectively address the problem or challenge. In other words, the buyer believes that the problem is just a "fact of life" that he or she must live with.
3. Under-valued needs exist when a potential buyer is aware of a problem, challenge, or opportunity, but doesn't understand or appreciate its importance or how quickly its impact will be felt.

Insights can be developed around unconsidered needs in several ways:

• They can describe the causes and effects of a previously unrecognized problem.
• They can describe a new or innovative solution for a "fact of life" problem or challenge.
• They can make the full ramifications and timing of a known issue or problem visible.

The status quo is a powerful competitor, and no technique will win with every potential buyer. But providing insights that disrupt a prospect's comfort with the status quo will give you the best chance to trigger a willingness to consider change.

Illustration courtesy of R/DV/RS via Flickr CC.