Status Quo Bias

In more abundant times, people are willing to take more risk because they feel like if it doesn’t work out, well we can just go and buy something else, however in an economic downturn people have an Endowment Effect, where they start to place more value on what they already have, and the fear of losing it makes it difficult for sales people to engage them into a new sales cycle.

In sales psychology, there is a something called Status Quo Bias. It’s is the reason why people choose the same things in the restaurant, tend to stick to the same manufacturers, brands and supermarkets.

In B2B sales, status quo bias hits different types of stakeholders economic buyers, technical buyers, user buyers will all have some form of inertia. Top performers challenge the status quo at all these levels and need to invest time and effort to build the WHY CHANGE, not just features and benefits of what the new solution could look like.

• They spend time helping the customer to understand the limitations and shortcomings of the current situation and the cost of maintaining the status quo. This creates more urgency and a willingness to look at potential solutions.
  
  
• his won’t be enough, you also need to provide compelling evidence, that this fixes the problem with case studies and testimonials
  
  
• Expect people to want to try before they buy, so free trials or pilots will become more effective during this time.

Yes in an economic downturn things do slow down, but people still buy and top performers know they need a little more patience, more persistence and take more time to get a deeper understanding of the customer to build the motivation to change.