One of the most crucial decisions in B2B sales revolves around whether to disrupt your buyer’s current status quo or reinforce their existing solution. The right approach depends on where the buyer is in their journey and their relationship with their current solution. This is particularly important when considering three key contexts: acquisition, renewal, and expansion. Let’s dive into the psychology behind messaging that converts.
What Is “Status Quo” in B2B Sales?
When we talk about “status quo” in B2B sales, we’re referring to the current state of a challenge for your buyer. This could mean:
- Their current solution provider: A competitor who’s already addressing the problem.
- In-house resources: Their own internal team attempting to solve the problem.
- Doing nothing: Ignoring or deprioritizing the issue altogether.
Disrupting the status quo means convincing the buyer to make a change in how they’re solving their problem. However, there are scenarios where disrupting the status quo can backfire. Understanding when to challenge the status quo and when to reinforce it is critical to closing the deal.
Selling to a New Customer: Disrupting the Status Quo
When selling to a new customer, disrupting their status quo is often essential because they are either working with a competitor or doing nothing to address the problem. Here’s how to approach each situation:
1. Disrupting a Competitor’s Status Quo
In this scenario, your goal is to highlight why the competitor’s solution falls short with the buyer’s needs. To do this:
- Identify market shifts or gaps: Highlight changes in the market or inefficiencies in other solutions where you have differentiation. These could be shifts in a specific industry, or recent feature innovations that address the newest need of your target audience.
- Uncover weak adoption: Start by asking the buyer what is working, then work your way to possible features or constraints that are preventing their team from fully embracing the current solution. Weak usage means low ROI, which is a lever you can pull to disrupt and differentiate.
- Provoke change without bashing: Lean into the buyer’s problem and focus on the challenges they are experiencing with their current solution. Direct criticism of the competitor often distracts and erodes trust, creating another barrier to entry.
2. Disrupting the “Do Nothing” Status Quo
If the buyer has been managing without a solution, your challenge is to overcome their sense of comfortability. Here’s how:
- Minimize perceived risk: Reassure the buyer that implementing your solution is easier and less disruptive than they might think. By conveying they are gaining a trusted partner along with the solution, you’ll help minimize any concerns about sunk costs.
- Appeal to personal benefit: Emphasize how solving the problem will positively impact not only their team, but their career as well. If the problem has existed systemically in their organization, it will be especially notable if they are able to drive a solution forward.
Warning: Avoid using scare tactics or “or else” messaging. Buyers who’ve survived without a solution so far may be skeptical of overly dramatic claims.
Selling to an Existing Customer: Protecting the Incumbent
When working with existing customers, the dynamic shifts. Disrupting the status quo in these situations often means advocating for a change away from you. Here’s how to navigate renewals and expansions:
1. Renewals: Reinforce Success
When renewing a solution, remind the customer of the value you’ve already delivered:
- Track and share success metrics: Customers rarely measure the success of your product themselves. It’s your job to document and present the impact you’ve had.
- Preempt competitor disruption: Competitors may try to disrupt your incumbent status. By consistently demonstrating success, you make it harder for competitors to gain traction.
2. Expansions: Balance Disruption and Reinforcement
Expanding a current customer’s relationship requires a blend of strategies:
- Leverage sunk costs: Remind the customer of their investment in your solution and how additional offerings build on that foundation. Instead of committing to additional sunk cost and using a different vendor for a solution you provide, they’ll simply be adding on to their existing tools and capabilities.
- Highlight ease of transition: Emphasize the existing integrations and quick time-to-value of expanding with your solutions. Without additional ramp-up time, their users will be able to take advantage of the additional features faster than any competitor solution could.
- Tailor your approach: If expanding into a space where the competitor is entrenched, take a disruption approach. If expanding into a “do nothing” space, reassure the customer of the low risk and high reward.
The Key to Messaging That Converts
Disrupting the status quo is part of every buying decision, but its role varies depending on the context. To craft effective messaging, you must:
- Understand how your prospect or customer is currently addressing their problem.
- Adapt your approach to the buyer’s stage in their journey (acquisition, renewal, or expansion).
Once you close the sale, remember it’s not your customer’s job to track the success of your product—that responsibility falls on you. By consistently proving your value, you’ll not only secure renewals and expansions but also make it easier to navigate the complexities of selling against the status quo.
For a deep dive into this topic, tune into our recent conversation with Tim Riesterer on Growth Driver.