If you sell solutions you are the enemy of the status quo. Until this happens.

THAT MEANS YOUR CONVERSATIONS WITH MANY POTENTIAL BUYERS will trigger fear of losing the very things they have fought hard to create. The things they hold dear. What are those things? And can you deal with them?

They will fight you to keep things as they are. They will resist you. They will push back because you are talking about losing some basic needs they have. What are those needs? And while they may be doing things all wrong today, there may be things about how they are doing it that is making them feel good about themselves and their world. They will want to hold on to what they have because they have invested their time, money, energy, and have even created a story that honors how they got where they are.

And now, here you come marching in with your fancy-pants solution and a smile demonstrating how great your solution is and what's possible for them.

But they're not buying it.

YOU ARE THE ENEMY.

Why are YOU the enemy? After all you are just trying to help. What are they afraid of? Why can't they see that your solution is going to solve their problem and make their life so much better? Why can't they understand that the way they are doing things today is so much worse than the way they can be doing things tomorrow?

What's really standing in their way of realizing your true relationship to them?

Just because someone has a problem doesn't mean that they will change what they're doing and buy your solution. Research from gong.io proves that more than 65% of sales opportunities where customers have the exact problem that sellers solutions solve end in NO SALE TO ANY COMPETITOR, NO CHANGE. NOTHING. They remain doing what they've been doing.

According to Bree Groff with SYPartners, there are six types of loss that we can experience when looking at the possibility of change. These six types of loss are the basic needs we have as people.

• LOSS OF CONTROL - "I need to feel in control."
• LOSS OF PRIDE - "I need to feel valuable."
• LOSS OF NARRATIVE - "I need to own my own destiny."
• LOSS OF TIME - "I've invested so much of my time already."
• LOSS OF COMPETENCE - "I'm good at what I do - and maybe now I won't be."
• LOSS OF FAMILIARITY - "I like the routine. This means I need to change."

It's likely that if your customers buy your solution they will be losing one of these things. As sellers of complex solutions in a complex sale, our job is to help our customers make the changes in their organizations they need to achieve their goals and help them overcome the gravitational pull of their status quo. Which means we need to FIRST honor and talk about what's at risk if they keep doing what they are doing. What will they lose if they change nothing at all? Can they live with that? Is it worth it to change?

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” - Ana?s Nin

Unless there is a moment in the conversation when your customer recognizes their status quo to be untenable there will be no change, no decision, no sale. Unless they realize the pain of keeping things the way they are is greater than the risk of trying something possibly better - there will be no change. Because the risk won't be worth the loss. The best sellers take the time to focus the conversation on the current situation and how it makes them feel, versus the opportunity for gain because they know we all hate losing many more times than we like to gain.

It's in that moment when you're no longer seen as the enemy – but seen as trusted veteran who has fought and won a hundred other similar battles and will help them make the changes they need to win THEIR REAL WAR. In their eyes, you will have transformed from an ax-wielding barbarian trying to wreck havoc on their world into an Obi-wan who is teaching them the ways of the force.

You will now be seen as their trusted guide, their advisor who will give them what they need to overcome their real enemy - which is an outdated, inefficient, expensive and ineffective way of doing things.

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Greg Rosner is the Founder and CMO of www.pitchkitchen.com, a presentation development agency based in NYC that helps software and service business leaders fix their bad sales presentations and boring homepages – turning ineffective narcissistic pitches into engaging conversations that involve them deeply in their customer's transformation story.