What to Do When the Buyer Wants the Status Quo

There's a good chance your typical B2B customer works in a state of constant overload: too many emails, too many meetings and too much buzzing in her ears. It doesn't matter if your product or service would instantly improve her business and lower her costs—she doesn't have the time or energy to consider replacing solutions that are doing an adequate job.

"Even if the seller makes a brilliant logical case for an offering," writes Michael Harris at MarketingProfs, "the buyer's counterarguments to protect the status quo will always win—because the final judge is in the buyer's head."

So how do you reach these potential buyers? Harris recommends mini-stories that illustrate how your solutions have worked for other customers. "When buyers can picture issues in a real-world scenario, they see how the results might apply also to them," he writes. "The issues start to make sense, and buyers gain insight."

In other words, when you talk about solving a problem the buyer doesn't particularly care to solve, she might become defensive of her status quo and critical of your proposed solution. If, however, you tell the story of a problem experienced by someone else—a narrative in which she doesn't have a personal stake—she can decide for herself that a similar solution might be just what she needs.

"The challenge is that to be insightful the stories need to be relevant to the buyer," notes Harris. "Creating relevant messaging is the heart of moving the buyer off of the status quo."

The Po!nt: A buyer who wants to protect the status quo will reject the most logical argument you can make—so disarm her ready objections with a mini-story to which she can relate.

Source: MarketingProfs.

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