I’ve lost more prospective customers to “business as usual” than any other competitor.

Inertia is a literal force of nature. 

Queue Sir Isaac Newton’s First Law of Motion: “an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.”

In the case of enterprise sales, the prospective customer’s status quo is their “object in motion”. 

That makes you (the salesperson) and your company the “unbalanced force”.

Affecting change on an organization is a real challenge. Change is hard. Even when the change will bring about real economic benefit to the organization. People still resist change. It’s in our nature.

So what needs to be true in order for a company to make a change?

The pain of change needs to be less painful than the pain of staying the same.

Read that again.

In order for a company to make a change, their current status quo must be more painful than the pain of switching to a new version of their status quo.

These are the forces that we are up against when we are trying to get a prospect to buy our product.

This is made more complicated when you are working with a dysfunctional buying group who isn’t aligned on what the company needs to change.

So how do you overcome inertia and get the company to move from business as usual?

You must make your company the obvious choice.

‍How to change things when change is hard

Chip Heath was one of our investors and advisors at Levelset. Chip and his brother Dan co-authored many books on organizational behavior (like Made to Stick and Power of Moments, among others).

My favorite book of Chip’s is Switch. It’s all about affecting change in an organization.

The book asks a simple, but powerful question: Why is it so hard for us to make changes?

The answer is simple, that all change follows a similar pattern.

Imagine your brain is an elephant and a rider. The rider is your rational brain and the elephant is your emotional brain.

The rider can want to go wherever they want, but the elephant isn’t going to move unless it wants to move.

So how do you move an immovable object?

Switch suggests we take three steps to make change:

1. Direct the rider (the rational mind) by giving clear direction
2. Motivate the elephant (the emotional mind) by finding the emotional connection
3. Shape the path (the situation or environment) by reducing obstacles

Now compare these steps to your sales process.

Every stage must lead the customer toward a new version of the future. 

We can use the ideas from Switch to help the customer make changes in their organization.

‍Introducing the Executive Summary

The time to align with your customer begins as soon as you have identified an opportunity. 

The customer has expressed interest in buying your product. They are considering making a switch.

Think about what questions are on their mind during this evaluation…

• What do we really need?
• Will this product actually do what they say it does?
• Is this company the right company to deliver this product?
• How can I get other people to help me implement this product?
• Who do I need to ask for budget approval?
• How much is it going to cost?
• What happens after we buy it?
• How long is it going to take to implement?
• When will we see a return on our investment?
• Am I going to look smart by leading this initiative?

And so on.

Customers are overwhelmed with indecision at the start of a buying process. Paralysis by analysis.

All of these questions in their brain are painful.

This leads them to retreat right back to “business as usual”. This is the inertia that we were talking about earlier.

So how do we overcome this inertia?

Let’s get on the same side of the table as our champion. We can use the principles from Switch to guide them through the buying process.

My favorite tool to align with customers is the Executive Summary.

This document is simple, it’s an outline of the partnership that you are proposing.

It is not a formal proposal. There’s a big difference.

The Executive Summary is less formal. It’s best to write the executive summary with the help of your champion if you can.

This document will get circulated throughout your prospect’s organization as they go through the buying process.

It allows you to take part in conversations that you aren’t allowed to be in.

The contents are simple:

• Overview of the partnership
• Key stakeholders involved in the evaluation
• Current challenges
• Desired outcomes
• Why your company is the right partner
• Commercial terms
• Expected ROI

I recommend you introduce this document as early as you can in the sales process. Even if you can't fill out every single detail.

If you can't fill it out, your champion certainly won't be able to fill it out. So do it together!

You will see your champion’s shoulders relax knowing they are in the hands of a partner. Someone who is going to make their job easier by answering all of those questions rolling around in their brain.

It’s your job as the salesperson to reduce the anxiety associated with switching from “business as usual” to the new version of the future.

‍Why does an Executive Summary work so well?

Most salespeople leave it to their customer to figure out how to buy the product. 

They assume the customer has a strong process for buying and implementing new products. 

They let the customer lead the way.

This is like letting an elephant navigate their way through a jungle.

The elephant (the emotional brain) wants to do what is easy and comfortable. They are scared. They aren’t sure which way to go.

When you craft an executive summary with your champion, you are giving your champion the tools they need to sell the initiative to their colleagues or to their boss.

A carefully prepared executive summary:

• directs the rider by showing the rational reason why the prospect should choose your company as a partner
• motivates the elephant by making the champion look professional and well-prepared
• shapes the path by showing exactly how the partnership will work and what steps need to be taken to implement

This is how you make your company the “obvious choice” for your customer.

If you aren’t already using an Executive Summary in your sales process, today is a great day to start. You can download my free Executive Summary Template here. Use this as a guide to build your own template for your sales conversations.