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How Does Inertia Suck the Life Out of Your Small Business?

Written by: Mark Smiciklas

Article Overview: Sales are important to every business because revenue is the fuel that drives growth. But in the case of small businesses, there seems to be a greater sense of urgency when it comes to converting every individual sales opportunity. Due to the real or perceived pressure of closing a sale, small businesses sometimes fail to recognize when the grip of inertia has taken hold of a prospect. What is inertia and how does it affect your small business? Are there any strategies to deal with "Prospect Inertia"?

How Does Inertia Suck the Life Out of Your Small Business?

Sales are important to every business because revenue is the fuel that drives growth. But in the case of small businesses, there seems to be a greater sense of urgency when it comes to converting every individual sales opportunity. Due to the real or perceived pressure of closing a sale, small businesses sometimes fail to recognize when the grip of inertia has taken hold of a prospect. What is inertia and how does it affect your small business? Are there any strategies to deal with "Prospect Inertia"?

Prospect Inertia.

Inertia is defined as "a feeling of unwillingness to do anything." Blinded by the need to make the sale, small businesses often mistake inertia for a prospect needing more time, information, etc. to make a decision. In a recent blog post, Seth Godin discusses indecision and inertia from a marketing perspective:

"We think that people are undecided because they don't know enough about our features or our competitors, or because they don't have enough money or they are waiting to hear from their friends. In fact, most of the time, they're undecided because they are afraid of deciding. No is scary and yes is scary. The reason that so many people don't vote is the same as the reason that so many people walk past your store every day or click past your site every day. Because inertia is compelling. Inertia absolves them of responsibility."

The Effects of Inertia.

Prospect Inertia can affect your small business in two ways:

* Inertia wastes one of your most important assets - time. Time spent on Inertia Type Prospects takes away from precious moments you could spend engaging your interested target audience; helping move Action Type Prospects towards a decision; etc.

* Inertia limits productive feedback. Salespeople don't understand where they are in the sales process; inertia prospects starve your small business of information that can help improve your product/service, help you gauge where your pricing is in the marketplace, help you build your brand, etc. "A no is better than a maybe, any day" says Seth Godin. "At least you can learn from a no". 

Inertia Strategies.

It is impossible to prevent inertia from taking hold of some of the prospects in your pipeline - but there are a few strategies that may assist in breaking down barriers and helping some of your target audience reach a decision. These strategies include:

1. Published pricing. In my opinion, dealing with pricing during the early stages of the sales process is a great filter. The earlier your prospects understand pricing the earlier they will decide whether it fits their budget - they will either move on (which is good because it doesn't waste your time) or the will continue along in the sales process (which is also good because now you've eliminated a major objection).

2. Make it easy to test your product or service. The easier it is for prospects to try your product or service the quicker they can decide whether it solves their problem. It's great if you can offer things like free trials, have online demos available, etc.

3. Make it easy for prospects to get a number of their questions answered (before they have to call you). Whatever business you are in, take a look at the problems that plague your target audience
and take the time to publish how your product/service solves those problems. One example could be a great features/benefits or FAQ section on your website.

When inertia takes grip of your small business prospects, it's probably best to make the difficult decision to move on. Focusing your energy on the share of your target audience that is willing to make a decision (yes or no) will always prove to be a better investment of your time than working with prospects that will never decide.

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  The Courage to Change the Things I Can
  Home Business Continues To Create Opportunities

Article Tags: assets, effects of inertia, enough money, indecision, individual sales, mistake, move action, perspective, precious moments, prospects, sales opportunity, salespeople, sense of urgency, seth godin, small business, small businesses, target audience, time time, two ways, what is inertia



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