The Silent Competitor; Status Quo.

Looking over my 20 years of sales experience, the #1 reason deals push is indecision, staying with the status quo. An organization's decision to continue with business as usual is one of the deadliest and most silent competitors you will face because it is in every deal. So many times, I have seen reps participate in a sales cycle, and when asked who they are competing with, they would say, "No one; we are the only ones in the deal; it is ours to lose." That is unlikely, definitely not true; we always have at least one competitor in every deal. This one competitor is in every deal no matter who else you are competing with, the competitor of no decision.

Now that we have established that staying with the Status Quo is a competitor in every single deal, how can you use MEDDIC to compete against the status quo? Follow these three steps:

1. FIND REAL PAIN. Dig deep into the pain. Why are they searching for a solution? What business challenges are causing the pain? Who is experiencing the pain? The bigger the pain, the more people it is exposed to, and the more visible it will be to the entire company at every level. If the pain is minor, this is a good indication that you will lose to indecision. If the pain is not visible to the higher levels of the organization, it will not be necessary to them. Think of it this way, do you make a doctor's appointment every time you feel pain or discomfort? Some people are known as hypochondriacs who go to the doctor for every little thing. Likewise, there are hypochondriacs in business. These people do a great job reaching out to vendors, scheduling demonstrations, and inflating other organizations' sales pipelines, but at the end of the day, real pain that requires a solution is not there. It is your job to find real pain.
   

2. FIND REAL COST. Once you have found the pain, what does it cost the company? What is the METRIC? There are different types of metrics:
   

   1. Save Time or Money - This is a relatively weak metric because if you save the company 100 hours of labor cost per week, those people are still on the payroll and need re-appropriation. The company will still be spending the money. It does help the company become more efficient and squeeze more productivity out of its resources; however, at the end of the day, those costs are still there, and your solution will result in additional costs. Saving time or money is not wrong; it is not strong enough to prevent indecision.
      

   2. Increase Revenue - This metric is much stronger as long as you can get consensus from the stakeholders on the amount and can defend it. We will cover ways to do so in future posts. Every company is in business to grow, especially those backed by PEs and VCs. Companies will often take a position of growth at all costs. With this metric, you can show your prospect that staying with the status quo will cost them money. For example, if your solution will provide them with an additional $250,000 of revenue per month, putting off a decision by a quarter will cost them $750,000, and a year would be $3 Million. The status quo now sounds too expensive to choose.
      

   3. Reduce Risk - In today's world, risk is around every corner. Risk could be represented as technology risk, such as a security failure resulting from a data breach. Not only would such an event damage their brand, but it could also result in additional fines from governments worldwide. With stricter government regulations such as GDPR, CPRA, HIPAA, and many other requirements, the cost of doing nothing is not an option, especially if it is required by law. Having a metric around risk will help you fight the status quo decision.
      

3. ECONOMIC BUYER BUY-IN. Once you understand, document, and can clearly and concisely communicate the pain and the real cost, it is critical to get the buy-in of the Economic Buyer. Knowing the total emotional and economic effect this issue solves will give them the ammunition to prevent a no-decision. This should have the opposite and increase the urgency to get it done.

So remember, combat no decision by knowing the real pain, building a strong metric, and having the Economic buyer buy into the metric. This will prevent you from losing your deal to the Status Quo. Weak pain and metric will likely cause a no-decision and a deal that pushes month to month, quarter to quarter.

🎬 Take Action

1. Look through your opportunities where you do not have a competitor.

2. Inspect your Pain and Metric. Are they strong enough?

3. Review with your Economic Buyer and see if they are bought in.