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Ian Altman: Welcome to the Same
Side Selling podcast. I am your

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host, Ian Altman. What's the
biggest thing that drains

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resources from your business?
Well, if I ask that question to

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a group of executives, I might
get a variety of different

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answers. And ironically, the
least common answer is the one

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that I think might be the
biggest drain for businesses.

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And that is when you're selling
into an opportunity, and your

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client just stays with the
status quo. So what do I mean by

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that? I mean, that you're trying
to sell something to that client

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or prospect. And at the end of
the process, it's not that you

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lose out to a competitor, you
lose out to a non decision. In

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essence, what they do is they
say, You know what, we're just

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gonna stick with whatever we did
in the past, if we did this

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manually in the past, we're
still gonna do it manually. If

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we're using this other vendor in
the past, we're gonna keep using

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that same vendor, we're just
gonna stick with the status quo.

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If you want to get top results
for your team, take a look at

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the Same Side Selling Academy,
just visit same side selling.com

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to learn more. So for starters,
why does that happen? Well, one

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of the biggest reasons why
organizations stick with the

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status quo is because there's
not enough pain for them,

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there's not enough impact to
them of not changing. So what

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happens is, ultimately, they're
saying, you know, your stuff

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might be pretty good. But I
don't yet think that it's worth

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it for us to take the risk of
stopping what we're currently

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doing to switch to your stuff.
And when that happens, what it

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means is that as the seller, we
were more passionate about

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solving this problem than they
were. Because if they truly felt

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that what they were doing right
then wasn't effective, if they

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truly felt like there was a
consequence of their business of

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not changing, then they would
have changed. But what's

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happened is, they've all of a
sudden decided that it's okay to

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just stick with whatever they
were doing in the past. Now, as

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an organization, if you're
looking to change, you have to

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do two things that are very
difficult for our customers to

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do. The first thing is you have
to acknowledge that maybe you

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made a mistake, hiring that
other vendor, or using that

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other method to solve whatever
it is you're trying to solve.

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And that's something we as
humans, we don't like to do. The

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second thing that you have to do
is you have to potentially fire

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the person you liked enough to
hire to begin with. That's why

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in many cases, what will happen
is, somebody has an existing

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vendor, they're doing a horrible
job, you come in and identify

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some areas, that would be great
improvement for their business.

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And in fact, you identify
deficiencies with their current

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vendor. And instead of switching
to you, what they do is they

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say, oh, you know what, that's a
really good point. And they

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reach out to their existing
vendor, and they say, here's

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this idea. Can you guys fix
this? Here's this deficiency,

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can you remedy this for us? As
if that organization will never

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make another glaring mistake
again? But of course, they

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probably will. So how do we
avoid those status quo

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decisions? Because I will tell
you that it's extremely

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frustrating for sellers. Because
if you lose to a competitor,

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you're like, well, the
competitor had a better

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proposal, they had a better
solution, they better understood

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the client's needs, we decided
to go with them. No, No. The

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status quo is, look, we decided
doing nothing was better than

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doing business with you. And
that's kind of a deflating

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mindset to walk into. How do we
get past that? Well, it's

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probably no surprise that we're
going to get past it using the

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Same Side Quadrants. The Same
Side Quadrants are a part of

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chapter four of Same Side
Selling in the hardcopy of the

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book, it's on page 76. I don't
know where it is, and the

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electronic version. But if you
search for Same Side Quadrants,

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you'll find it. And the idea of
the Same Side Quadrants is it's

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a method for taking notes during
our meetings. The idea is that

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in the upper left quadrant, we
take notes about the issue that

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the client is trying to solve
the upper right quadrant, we

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take notes about the impact or
relative importance, namely,

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what happens if they don't solve
this, how important is this

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compared to other things on
their plate? In the lower left

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quadrant, we take notes about
the results, namely, what does

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success look like? What are we
going to measure together and

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the lower right quadrant, we
make sure that we identify who

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else needs to be included or
involved in this process, who's

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most directly impacted? The big
mistake that people make is

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sellers find themselves trying
to convince the client they

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should do something? And here's
a pivotal change that I want you

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to consider. I want you to be a
little bit skeptical. I want you

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to when you reach out to
clients, always in the back of

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your mind. Ask yourself, have
they convinced me that they have

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a problem that's worth solving?
Had they convinced me that if

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they don't make this change,
something bad is going to happen

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with them, that makes it worth
going through the effort of

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making a change. See if I went
to a good doctor, and I said,

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Yeah my shoulders bother me a
little bit, I want to have

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surgery. A good doctor wouldn't
say, Okay, let me scheduled for

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surgery. A good doctor would
say, How long has this been

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going on? What have you done to
try and solve this? Have you

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taken ibuprofen? What about
Tylenol? Does it keep you up at

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night? Does it wake you up at
night? Does it impact your

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ability to do things every day
that you'd like to be able to

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do, because what they're trying
to gauge is the severity because

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a good physician is always
weighing the risk, and your

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current discomfort with the
potential outcome they can

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deliver for you. And if they
don't feel that it's worth that

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delta, that change between where
you're at and where you're

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trying to get to, they're not
going to try and push you into a

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procedure or surgery. Now, a bad
doctor might, but a good doctor

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won't. And in sales, it's the
same thing. So we have to do is

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you have to go into those
opportunities with a little bit

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of skepticism. I don't mean,
throw a damp towel on on

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whatever their ideas are. So
what happens if you don't solve

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this? And how important is this
compared to other things on your

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plate? What would happen if
three months from now we hadn't

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done anything? And if they say,
Well, you know, then we'll wait

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another three months. That's not
someone who's likely to make a

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decision. Now, this almost
sounds counterintuitive, because

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typically, in sales, people say,
Oh, this is an opportunity, I

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can't let this go because I'm
supposed to bring every deal

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across the finish line. It
doesn't work that way. That's

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not the way business operates.
We have to have the humility to

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say not everyone's a good fit
for us. And as soon as we do

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that, then we start realizing
that we need to be more

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selective in the pursuits that
we go after. So we don't waste

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our time and energy on the
people who aren't going to do

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anything. If your client or
prospect can't convince you

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their problems worth solving.
How much time should you spend

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trying to develop a solution to
something that they don't think

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is worth solving? And the answer
is zero. So next time you're

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looking at opportunities, ask
yourself, have they convinced us

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for each opportunity that this
problem that's worth solving,

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have they convinced us that if
they don't solve this bad things

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are going to happen? What
that'll do is that will

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eliminate many of the vampires
that are sucking the resources

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out of your business, and you'll
be able to better focus on the

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right opportunities that will
lead to growth. Instead of

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wasting your time with people
who are never going to make a

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decision. There are topics you'd
like to hear just drop me a note

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to Ian@Ianaltman.com and I will
see you on the next Same Side

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Selling podcast