--- title: Dealing with the Consequences of Inaction description: Increase your chances of closing that deal by elevating the consequences of inaction, ensuring decision alignment, and conducting systematic win-loss analyses. --- This is a search field with an autosuggest feature attached. - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. # Dealing with the Consequences of Inaction ![Bob Apollo](https://app.hubspot.com/settings/avatar/78fa41976d534cacbb0e22e151bc6816) Post by [Bob Apollo](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/author/bob-apollo) March 8, 2009 You've found a well-qualified prospect with an urgent need that you have a superior solution for.  You've helped them through the sales process and other competitive vendors have been eliminated.  Congratulations! But now you have to confront the strongest competitor of all - the tendancy, in these risk averse times, for buyers to fall back and determine that their best choice right now is to preserve the status quo and decide to make "no decision". "No decision" is a fearsome competitor. If you can't master it, there is a serious risk that your well-qualified deal will end up going nowhere.  How can vendors take steps to avoid this outcome? Firstly, in the current climate, having a strong ROI is a necessary but frequently inadequate element of your proposal.  Competing against no decision requires that you elevate the consequences of inaction in the minds of your prospect.  You need to help them come to terms with the thought that bad things are likely to happen if they simply continue with the status quo - you need to be positioning yourself as the lowest risk option. Next, you need to understand your prospect's approvals process.  These are increasingly complex and lengthy, and frequently require influencing people who are inaccesible to you.  By now, your competition is probably a bunch of completely different projects, or a decision not to spend any money at all.  You need to ensure that you have equipped your champion inside the prospect to do your selling for you. Finally, whatever the outcome, you need to ensure that you learn from the exercise by conducting a proper independent win-loss analysis.  These should never be left to the sales person responsible - there is simply too much valuable learning that could be lost. Hopefully, you'll be celebrating a win.  If you've put into practice the recommendations in this and my last two blogs, you'll already be in the top quartile amongst your peers in terms of sales effectiveness. ###### Tags: [B2B Marketing, ](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/b2b-marketing) [CRM, ](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/crm) [Complex Sales](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/complex-sales) ![Bob Apollo](https://app.hubspot.com/settings/avatar/78fa41976d534cacbb0e22e151bc6816) Post by [Bob Apollo](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/author/bob-apollo) March 8, 2009 Bob Apollo is a Fellow of the Institute of Sales Professionals, a regular contributor to the International Journal of Sales Transformation and Top Sales World Magazine, and the driving force behind Inflexion-Point Strategy Partners, the leading proponents of outcome-centric selling. Following a successful corporate career spanning start-ups, scale-ups and market leaders, Bob now works as a strategic advisor, mentor, trainer and coach to ambitious B2B sales organisations - teaching them how to differentiate themselves through their provably superior approach to achieving their customer's desired outcomes. [Follow me on my website](https://www.inflexion-point.com) [Follow me on LinkedIn ](https://uk.linkedin.com/in/bobapollo) [Follow me on Twitter ](https://twitter.com/bobapollo) ### Comments ###### Related Articles ### [The Cost of Inaction](https://www.inflexion-point.com/Blog/bid/10976/The-Cost-of-Inaction) Posted by **[Bob Apollo](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/author/bob-apollo),** **Dec 24, 2008** It's clear that the current economic climate is causing a great of risk-averse behaviour on the part of B2B prospects. More ... ### [The 8 Sources of Sales and Marketing Waste](https://www.inflexion-point.com/Blog/bid/22872/The-8-Sources-of-Sales-and-Marketing-Waste) Posted by **[Bob Apollo](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/author/bob-apollo),** **Jun 22, 2009** It's clear that in the current economic climate, avoiding wasted sales and marketing effort (and budget) is a subject that ... ### [Navigating the BuyerSphere](https://www.inflexion-point.com/Blog/bid/22049/Navigating-the-BuyerSphere) Posted by **[Bob Apollo](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/author/bob-apollo),** **Mar 30, 2009** Today's buyers are influenced by a wide variety of sources, far beyond the conventional analyst and press community. They ... [![Outcome-Centric Selling Academy offer](https://www.inflexion-point.com/hubfs/OCSA%20CTA%20300x300.png) ](https://inflexion-point.thinkific.com/) Subscribe Categories - [Complex Sales (375)](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/complex-sales) - [B2B Marketing (200)](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/b2b-marketing) - [B2B Buying Process (122)](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/b2b-buying-process) - [Value Selling System (114)](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/value-selling-system) - [Outcome-Centric Selling (100)](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/outcome-centric-selling) - [Scalable Systems (89)](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/scalable-systems) - [Thought Leaders (75)](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/thought-leaders) - [Revenue Management (59)](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/revenue-management) - [Opportunity Qualification (36)](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/opportunity-qualification) - [Intelligent Targeting (35)](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/intelligent-targeting) - [CSO Insights (32)](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/cso-insights) - [Sales Enablement (31)](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/sales-enablement) - [Selling in the Breakthrough Zone (31)](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/selling-in-the-breakthrough-zone) - [Sales + Marketing Alignment (30)](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/sales-marketing-alignment) - [CRM (24)](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/crm)