Breaking the Status Quo Barrier
Convincing your prospects to do something different
Relevant to Your
Prospect
Unique to You
14% Only 14% of “benefits” promoted create commercial impact
Failure to create impact
86%
Status Quo
Barrier You Yes 60%
No decision
? Ignored Invaluable
Malcolm Gladwell
Scientist for Tipping Point Morton M. Grodzins
What was the difference?
What the best are doing different
• Challenge assumptions • Define new set of needs • Align w/your Strengths
SELL A DISTINCT POINT OF VIEW
Status Quo Threatened
Identify New Needs
Define Solution
Identify Viable Vendors
Review Approaches
Make Decision
65
“Why Change?” “Why Us”
• Our promise of what you get • How we do it • Why we are the best option
SELL YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION
35 % % Buying Vision Bake-Off
-3 -1 +1 +2 +3 -2
New Brain Designed for Analysis
Old Brain Designed for Survival
A decision to change
Decision-Making Engine
Make the Status Quo Unsafe
Don’t Call the Baby Ugly
Make me Smarter
Status Quo
Barrier
Attention Scarcity
“While our access to raw information has grown exponentially, our time to process this information has declined rapidly, which has
placed an unprecedented premium on the act of meaning-making.”
George Dyson (Futurist)
• Don’t play 20 questions
• You got 30 seconds to tell me something I don’t already know
• You see more people who look like me than I do
• So act like it!
Risk/Loss Aversion
Atten
tion Scarcity
Status Quo
Barrier
Change Burden
Incum
bent A
dvantage
Context Creates Urgency
Which would you choose?
A guaranteed gain of $75,000 An 80% chance of gaining $100,000 with a 20% chance of getting nothing
Which would you choose?
A certain loss of $75,000 An 80% chance of losing $100,000 with a 20% chance of not losing anything
Status Quo
Barrier
Change Burden
The pains I’m living with…
Are bigger than the pain of change…
Status Quo
Barrier
Incumbent Advantage
Find your Contrast
Con
tras
t =
Val
ue
Y Status Quo
Barrier
YOUR POINT OF VIEW Y
Distinct Point of View
The Hero Model The Hero Model: based on The Hero with A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
• The world is normal
• Something changes
• Hero struggles
• Enter: the mentor
• Hero accepts the quest
Distinct Point of View
• Number Plays
• Metaphors
Grabbers
Distinct Point of View
CONTEXT: Give them enough reason to do
something different
• Documentation
• Visualization
Pain and Impact
Distinct Point of View
• Make the complex, simple
• Make the abstract, concrete
Contrast
Validate your Contrast
Proof Points • 3rd party testimony
validates story
• External studies
Distinct Point of View
BRAINSHARK EXAMPLE
“People are information-rich and theory-poor. If you can give them a way of organizing their experience, then their minds are wide open.”
— Gladwell
Who are you going to be?