Why aren’t your sales reps closing deals? The common answer focuses on lead quality or sales process execution. However, from a sales leadership perspective, the biggest culprit is often the buyer’s internal risk aversion, not a lack of interest in your product. Buyers, especially those in the problem-aware stage, are navigating complex internal dynamics. They’re weighing the perceived risk of adopting a new solution against the status quo, and that risk is often the primary driver of deal delays or no-decisions.
This perspective flips the script. Instead of assuming buyer disinterest, we must understand the internal pressures and risks influencing their decision-making process. The buyer might be interested in your solution, but their ability to move the deal forward is often contingent on how well they can mitigate internal concerns.
Why This Fails in Practice
The problem arises from a disconnect between how sales teams are incentivized and how buyers actually evaluate solutions. Sales teams are trained to identify and chase “ready-to-buy” signals. They prioritize conversations with buyers who are actively seeking demos, requesting pricing, or demonstrating a clear need. This focus, while seemingly efficient, often overlooks the crucial early stages of the buying process, where internal risk is paramount.
Here’s how this plays out:
- Overlooking the Internal Champion: Sales reps often fail to identify and support the internal champion effectively. This champion is the key to navigating internal bureaucracy and risk management. Without a strong champion, the deal will likely stall.
- Ignoring the Buying Committee: Modern B2B SaaS purchases involve multiple stakeholders. Sales reps might focus on the initial contact, but they often fail to engage all relevant stakeholders, leaving internal concerns unaddressed.
- Pushing Too Soon: Pressure to close deals can lead to pushing the sale too early in the process. When the buyer is still problem-aware, they need education and validation, not a product pitch. Prematurely pushing for a demo or proposal can increase perceived risk.
- Lack of Empathy: Sales reps, focused on their quota, might fail to empathize with the buyer’s internal challenges. They might dismiss concerns about implementation, integration, or internal buy-in as “objections” to be overcome, rather than legitimate risks to be addressed.
What Teams Miss
Sales teams often miss the opportunity to proactively address internal risk. They focus on features, benefits, and pricing, but they neglect the crucial work of helping the buyer mitigate internal concerns. This includes:
- Internal Education: Providing content and resources that help the buyer educate their internal stakeholders.
- Risk Mitigation: Offering testimonials, case studies, and guarantees to reduce the perceived risk of adoption.
- Stakeholder Engagement: Facilitating conversations with key stakeholders to address their concerns directly.
- Process Alignment: Understanding the buyer’s internal approval processes and helping them navigate them effectively.
The core issue is a misalignment between sales incentives and buyer behavior. While sales teams are incentivized to close deals, buyers are primarily motivated to reduce risk. By understanding and addressing the buyer’s internal risk factors, sales teams can significantly improve their close rates and shorten sales cycles.
Kliqwise observes these dynamics across B2B SaaS GTM motions, offering a practitioner’s perspective on the realities of demand generation and buyer behavior.