Mini-Commitments Are The Key To Not Wasting Time with Challenging Accounts

As I've been having more and more conversations with accounts about our new way of looking at the New Chasm and the new research we created (link for clients), something keep running around in a corner of my brain like an earworm.

Then I remembered what it was. Several years ago, Anthony Iannarino wrote a book that stuck with me. The book was "The Lost of Art of Closing." The title may inspire you or turn you off a little (if you associate closing with being pushy). But the sub-title is the key, "Winning the Ten Commitments That Drive Sales." Anthony doesn't advocate the "constantly ask for the deal" model; he advocates asking for a series of commitments along the way.

I won't spoil the whole book, but Anthony talks about the importance of gaining some specific commitments from prospective clients to win business. He talks about approaches for those commitments. One of those is a commitment to gain consensus. All of our research shows that the biggest deal delayer and (logically) no-decision driver is buying teams that don't agree on what they want to accomplish. Fundamentally these commitments are getting to the heart of the what it takes to make a decision AND get value from that decision.

Now, lets think about where the bulk of the market sits in using our Enterprise Technology Adoption profiles and the latest New Chasm interpretation.

We have a set of companies that have low risk tolerance and are the most likely to demonstrate very immature decision practices (they don't get the right people involved, they don't work for consensus--see above, they don't plan for value, etc.). This group is most likely to take much longer to reach a decision, if they decide at all.

But they are the bulk of the market.

Something has to give.

First, you don't focus on these companies with an early stage, disruptive technology (these are the folks that will likely be stuck in GenAI pilot mode for a few, or several, more years).

But when your product is proven and you've done the right things to reduce risk (think whole product strategy from the original "Crossing the Chasm"), then they are your targets out of necessity.

This is when Anthony's insights become critical. You can use his commitment model (and likely add in a few additional mini-commitments (e.g. "Commitment to get the right people involved") as your fundamental approach with this group. They hate big change, so these mini-commitments break change and decisions down into pieces that are consumable for them.

For you, its about signals. If the client won't execute on a commitment, its a strong signal that they won't be buying. Don't waste time with them until they step up to the mini-commitments. Find the ones in this group that will.

Anthony's ideas are always strong, but in the context of the most challenging quadrant of the New Chasm, they are essential.

The articles in this newsletter do not follow Gartner's standard editorial review. All comments or opinions expressed here are mine and do not represent the views of Gartner, Inc. or its management.