Selling With Certainty

How a little neuroscience can help you stop losing so many deals to "no decision"

The Science of Indecision

There's a research study from a while back that says our brains process uncertainty the same way they process physical pain.

I'm no PhD, but that makes sense to me. Natural selection has made us cautious creatures. Early humans who walked carefully through an ancient forest probably had a very different probability of survival than the ones who went stomping carelessly through. Since our very beginning, being wary of threats has been a valuable quality. Fast-forward to today, and I like to think we're all descendants of our most anxious ancestors. As a result, we all crave certainty.

It’s how we’re wired. It’s what keeps us safe.

Here’s the problem. Buying stuff - especially expensive stuff like software - can be a really uncertain experience. Buyers aren’t sure what to look for, how much to pay, or whether the thing they’re about to plug into their company is going to do what they say it’s going to do. This is one of the reasons why bad marketing and bad salespeople are so frustrating. They add pressure and noise to an already-confusing process without offering to help make sense of the market.

But buyers don’t just want clarity. They also want certainty. Certainty that what they’re about to buy is easy to use, economically viable, and honest in its promises of what it can deliver. And when potential customers don’t get that feeling of certainty, they’ll kick a lot of tires, ask a lot of questions, and get all the way to the end of a months-or-years-long sales process… and still not buy.

Take a look inside your CRM. You’ll find plenty of examples of what I’m talking about. See any long-running deals that you forecasted to close that then break your heart by falling through at the last minute? That’s evidence of a certainty problem.

What To Do About It

Sales and marketing people need to do a better job of rising to this challenge, providing both clarity and certainty for the people they’re selling to. There’s really no excuse anymore. After all, there’s plenty of pointers out there on how to do this well. Some of the best recently-published stuff on "how to win more business" (check out The Jolt Effect by Matthew Dixon and Jamal Reiner’s Two Mountain Model from Mega Deal Secrets) honors this fact - that people need an almost overwhelming amount of evidence that the buying decision they're about to make is a logical one.

You can’t just tell people not to worry. You need a way to convince them.

So… are you providing that feeling of certainty in your sales and marketing? Where is it happening? Can you point to it? Are you actually finding a way to put your arm around your prospect and not only tell them, but also show them exactly how you're going to take care of them as you start to work together?

If not, do me a favor and fix that. It's almost certainly one of the hidden sources of drag on your win-rates, deal velocity, and ability to overcome the dreaded “no decision” - which is often code for "you didn't do a good enough job convincing me that you can actually deliver."

Here are a couple ways that I tackle this problem with my companies:

Tactic 1: The Buyer’s Guide

Most sales enablement material, like pitch decks and one-pagers, gets thrown at prospects early in the process. Then, months later, you send a proposal and hope for the best. There’s a big gap here: late-stage content that builds certainty.

Enter the Buyer’s Guide: A purpose-built document with two goals:

1. Remind prospects of “how we’re different” and what to expect from us.

2. Equip them with good questions to ask during their buying journey.

There’s no perfect format for a good buyer’s guide, but there is a secret ingredient: Empathy.

Are you truly helping this person navigate their options, or just touting your features and benefits again? The simplest way to help someone navigate their options is to help them avoid surprises. How do you do that? You arm them with good questions - smart, non-obvious questions. What should they dig into when it comes to features, integrations, implementation, and onboarding? What do the most successful buyers care about? Remember - you’ll see more buying cycles in your product category than almost any customer. Share what you know generously. And as you do, sure, go ahead and sprinkle in a little bit of bias, highlighting why you’re the best choice as you guide them through the process. Customers won’t mind.

Want to see an example? Here are two that I really like.

• Source Intelligence Buyer’s Guide

• OnBoard Meetings Buyer’s Guide

Tactic 2: The Proven Process

Buyer’s remorse sure seems like a big problem when it comes to buying B2B technology. So don’t be surprised if potential customers get more gunshy in the later innings of the buying process. In fact, you have to both expect it and, ideally, acknowledge the skepticism before it evolves into a full-on stall.

How do you do this? By laying out a "proven process" that simplifies the path to success. Here’s how you do it:

1. Acknowledge Potential Sticking Points: Start by recognizing the common hurdles your customers face during implementation and onboarding. This shows empathy and builds trust.

2. Break Down The Specific Steps: Clearly outline the steps you’ll take to ensure a smooth transition. This could include detailed timelines, dedicated support contacts, and specific milestones. Ideally, this all fits on one page so it reinforces how simple and easy you’ll make it for them. Some great examples to steal from here (and for an even deeper dive into the power of the proven process, check out EOS and Gino Wickman’s fantastic book Traction).

By doing this, you give your potential customers confidence that you’ve done this before and can handle any issues that might arise. This level of transparency and guidance can significantly reduce their hesitation and help them feel more certain about moving forward.

A few examples of proven processes I like:

• The one-page simple example: Lab651

• The “blow it out” enterprise example: Servicenow’s Create program

Tactic 3: Social Proof

We’re skeptical creatures. But we’re also communal. We’re much more likely to be convinced to go a certain way when we see other humans like us using the same thing and getting value from it. So whenever possible, try to incorporate social proof into your sales and marketing. (And I’m sorry, but a “NASCAR slide” of all your customer logos or a high-level case study or two isn’t enough.)

Here’s two other ways I like my teams to use social proof:

1. Micro Stories in Sales Meetings: Sprinkle short, relatable customer success stories into your sales conversations. These should be quick anecdotes that highlight how other customers have solved similar problems with your product. Gathering these can be a bit of a pain, but even a few three-sentence stories about actual customers (and the training your team needs to memorize and use them) can be unbelievably valuable.

2. Customer Testimonial Videos: Create videos where your customers talk about their problems and how your solution helped them. These authentic voices can be incredibly persuasive - and bonus points if you can incorporate a bit of footage that shows how they use the product. Some great examples to steal from here. (If you’re worried about how to ask your customers to talk about you on video, this article from Dan Martell and SaaS Academy has some great pointers.)

I talk a lot about the difference between “product-out” and “customer-in” with my companies. Any opportunity you have to remove your product from the center of the frame and get a customer (someone who already uses and appreciates what you’ve built) to stand in instead is usually a good idea. It’s selling without selling. Instead of pleading your case, you choose to simply let the evidence speak for itself.

“Here’s someone just like you who decided to work with us,” that evidence says. “See how happy they are?”