Clayton Christensen talks about the “overserved market” in his bestseller the The Innovators Dilemma. Basically the logic is that for some customers an 80% solution meets 100% of the need. The 80% solution may be doing things the way they are done today even if it’s manual, error prone, inconvenient, painful, inefficient, costly, etc. This is home territory for Mr. Do Nothing since the pain isn’t perceived as great enough to justify change and to buy a new solution. Competing against Mr. Do Nothing starts with a different sales approach from the outset.

Qualification: Ask qualifying questions of prospective customers with as many stakeholders as possible. And be sure to get the opinions of likely dissenters early on such as the CFO.

• Why not keep doing what you’re doing?


• Why is this a must-have priority versus nice-to-have?


• What was the impetus to launch this project?


• Why not wait another month, quarter, year?

The answers to these questions will uncover some of the reasons that the prospect may later choose to do nothing. Knowing this ahead of time can tell you whether it’s worth your time addressing these objections or better just to qualify out early on.

Advocacy: Every change represents both a threat and an opportunity. Identify the potential winners and losers when a new solution is adopted. The biggest resisters of change are those who feel they will lose out somehow. Find out who they are and create a win for them if at all possible. Then there are executives who might reject the purchase late in the cycle. Map out the organization from the perspective of doing nothing and see how you can make sure each player can be a winner and an advocate for change:

• Decision maker
• Economic Buyer (e.g. CFO)
• User
• Managers (e.g. IT organization that will manage/support the solution)
• Evaluator/Influencer
• Legal
• Purchasing

Business Case: Confirm that there is a budget for this solution purchase. How was it justified and what assumptions went into it? Build a business case relative to doing nothing. Help the prospect see all the hard costs, missed opportunities, and business consequences of business as usual. Quantify, quantify, quantify. Your solution ROI must be relative to doing nothing not relative to your competitors. Here are some ROI elements that you might explicitly define relative to doing nothing:

• Revenue expansion (e.g. incremental sales)
• Faster time to market
• Reduced capital and operating expenses (e.g. facility, equipment, personnel, etc.)
• Risk reduction (e.g. security threats, financial risk, compliance)
• Improved customer satisfaction (e.g. increased customer retention and upsells)
• Productivity gains

In conclusion, the key to beating Mr. Do Nothing is to do something very proactive which is to treat this option as the #1 competitor. And that means starting the sales process with smart qualification questions and criteria, building a ground swell of support as well as air cover from executive sponsors for the new solution, and to help craft a solid business case that makes doing nothing seem irresponsible...and the new solution seem irresistable.

Copyright © 2007

Sridhar,

Great information. You are right, effectively dealing with Mr. Do Nothing starts with asking smart qualification questions.

Many years ago, I sold Help Desk software and I often competed against "home grown" systems. I quickly realized that by asking the right questions, I was able to assess a company's need for a solution. This helped me determine my approach.

You made another great point; many decision-makers don't realize that there are costs associated with doing nothing. And, there are psychological costs, too. Losing face, stress, low morale, are also costs associated with doing nothing.

Again, great info.

Posted by: Wayne E. Pollard | January 2, 2006 4:35 PM

Sridhar,

Nice tips on dealing with those that lack the need - in their mind - to act. Dealing with Do Nothing people, as Wayne indicated is really a matter of learning why they're not acting. As you indicated being proactive is one key as is making their lack of action feel irresponsible, which of course it better be if that is a supplier's approach. Another way to entice action is to make it as easier as possible for them to act. Let's face it, at times we all put matters aside to focus on more important issues. We may not have our priorities right but does that really matter? Of course not. So make it as easy as possible for a customer to act and more people will do so.

Posted by: Sridhar | November 28, 2007 11:36 AM

Interesting points here. I worked for a company for two years that was in a unique space and didn't have any competitors to speak of. Nevertheless, many salespeople (often, myself included) struggled because the product was more often "nice to have" and rarely "need to have". I think this article would have served some of us struggling salespeople very well at that time, because it took quite a bit of trial and error (code for wasted time) to figure out how to build a case against Mr. Do Nothing. Once we did, the increase in success was extremely refreshing.

Posted by: Unsung Zero | December 17, 2007 8:05 AM

Sridhar,

I know this post is practically ancient by net standards, but it's even more relevant today than in 2005. If you just follow the advice in the qualification section alone you'll have a better handle on the competition.

These days, we're competing with Mr. Do Nothing more than ever before. You're better off knowing up front how strong a competitor he is.

Melissa

Posted by: Melissa Paulik | September 30, 2009 12:18 PM