--- title: "3 critical questions for B2B sales: Why Change? Why Now? Why You?" description: Your B2B sales organisation faces an increasingly strong competitor - but you won’t find them in a Google search of the key players in your market. image: https://www.inflexion-point.com/hs-fs/file-14047501-png/images/anchor_stuck_flipped.png --- This is a search field with an autosuggest feature attached. - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. # 3 critical questions for B2B sales: Why Change? Why Now? Why You? ![Bob Apollo](https://app.hubspot.com/settings/avatar/78fa41976d534cacbb0e22e151bc6816) Post by [Bob Apollo](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/author/bob-apollo) August 9, 2012 ![3 critical questions for B2B sales: Why Change? Why Now? Why You?](https://www.inflexion-point.com/hs-fs/file-14047501-png/images/anchor_stuck_flipped.png) Your company is facing an increasingly strong competitor - yet you won’t find them listed in any Google search of the key players in your marketplace. But this competitor is playing a powerful and often-undefined role in almost every significant B2B buying decision. And it’s the reason why a growing number of your apparently well-qualified opportunities are ending up with the prospect deciding to “do nothing”. Have you recognised the competitor yet? It’s the status quo - and in today’s increasingly risk-averse decision-making climate, where it may be harder than ever before to get approval for discretionary investments, your prospects might think that sticking with the status quo is the safest option open to them. You need to persuade them otherwise. And you need to make the case for change before you make the case for your solution. ## Is the status quo holding you back? ![Anchor stuck flipped](https://www.inflexion-point.com/hs-fs/file-14047501-png/images/anchor_stuck_flipped.png) Before you can expect to win their business, you need to play your part in persuading all the key stakeholders in the buying decision process that the cost and risk of doing nothing significantly outweighs the cost and risk of the investment you are asking them to make – and that your offering represents the least risky of all the options open to them – including the decision to "do nothing". Let’s be clear. If you haven’t done all you can to persuade the prospect of the need for change, you probably don’t deserve their business. Yet I still observe experienced sales people rushing in to propose their company’s product or service offerings while the prospect is still unclear or unconvinced about whether they need to let go of the status quo. ## The truth about burning platforms and compelling events Sometimes you’ll get lucky, and the prospect will already have concluded that they are standing on a “burning platform”, or face a truly “compelling event”. But don’t be surprised if, during the course of your sales process, the flames start looking a little more bearable, or if the upcoming event seems just that little less compelling. The answer is in your hands. As [Tom Pisello of Alinean](http://alinean.com/team#tom_pisello) points out in a [recent webinar](http://alinean.com/webcasts#), you need to make sure that the key stakeholders in your prospect understand why they need to change, why they need to do it now, and why they need to work with you to accomplish it. And until you’ve successfully navigated the “why change?” and “why now?” questions, you ought to be very cautious about investing a lot of sales effort in trying to answer the question “why us?” It’s why I’ve been advising clients to test that their prospects recognise the case for change early in the sales process - and if a clear case does not yet exist, to work with the key stakeholders to either create one or to exclude the opportunity from any sales forecast until and unless the case has been made and agreed by the prospect. ## No case for change? no deal! Failure to make the case for change is one of the most common root causes when I conduct pipeline analysis to help prospects understand why opportunities are stuck or being lost to a decision to do nothing. But the impact is deceptive, because the effects often show up later in the sales cycle. If you’re suffering from a rash of stuck late-stage sales opportunities, I strongly recommend that you investigate whether an adequate case for change had been made and agreed earlier on in the sales process. Don’t be surprised if your sales people turn out to be suffering from a condition I have come to refer to as “premature elaboration”. ## Six steps to making a compelling case for change In order to establish the strongest possible case for change, I recommend that you coach your sales people to lead their prospects through the following six-step process, and that you provide them with the sales tools and marketing messages to implement them. Don’t be put off if this approach at first appears rather long winded: try it, get the “case for change” foundation built right, and you’ll be surprised how fast the subsequent stages in the buying process can be driven - and how many fewer well-qualified opportunities end in “do nothing” decisions. 1: Start building the foundation by sharing valuable **insights** with the prospect - you want to stimulate them to adopt a fresh perspective about what they need, and have them believe that you can help them make smart decisions that will take their business forward 2: Next, develop those insights into specific **issues** that directly affect their current business situation - these could be specific problems they need to address, goals they need to achieve, or opportunities they need to realise 3: Third, and most critically, help them to calculate for themselves the **impact** on their business of failing to address the issue - and to conclude that action needs to be taken sooner, rather than later 4: Before jumping in and proposing your product or service solution, explain why your **approach** is the one most likely to help them deal with the issue. Focus on how and why you do what you do, rather than the details of what you offer 5: Once you’ve clearly differentiated your approach from all the other options open to them, now - at last - you can show how your (carefully selected) **capabilities** directly address the issues you have established earlier 6: Finally, eliminate as much risk as possible from the equation by **proving** (with tangible, relevant evidence) how your approach and capabilities are going to help them accomplish the needed change successfully So - are your marketing and sales processes successfully building a compelling case for change? Are they providing clear answers to “why change?” “why now?” and “why you?” Or, if not, are you really happy with all the wasted effort that will have been devoted to the rash of decisions to “do nothing” that will inevitably result? ###### Tags: [B2B Marketing, ](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/b2b-marketing) [Scalable Systems, ](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/scalable-systems) [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) August 9, 2012 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 ### [4 critical questions for B2B sales: Why Change > Why Now > Why You > Why Trust?](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/bid/88303/4-critical-questions-for-b2b-why-change-why-now-why-you-why-trust) Posted by **[Bob Apollo](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/author/bob-apollo),** **May 01, 2025** Your company is facing an increasingly strong competitor - yet you won’t find them listed in any Google search of the key ... ### [B2B Marketing: Why Maximising Leads Won’t Maximise Revenues](https://www.inflexion-point.com/Blog/bid/80961/B2B-Marketing-Why-Maximising-Leads-Won-t-Maximise-Revenues) Posted by **[Bob Apollo](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/author/bob-apollo),** **Jan 24, 2012** I come across many marketing organisations that seem to believe that the more leads they generate, the better they are ... ### [B2B Marketing: Why the Number of Leads You Generate is Irrelevant](https://www.inflexion-point.com/Blog/bid/75255/B2B-Marketing-Why-the-Number-of-Leads-You-Generate-is-Irrelevant) Posted by **[Bob Apollo](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/author/bob-apollo),** **Oct 13, 2011** When I ask many B2B marketing departments how their success is measured, the most common answer is “the number of leads ... 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