Tech firms, we do love a good fight, don’t we?

Line up the competition, list our USPs, polish the pitch, shout about why our tech is smarter, faster, shinier. We’ve got the features, the benefits, the ROI – ok, the potential ROI ;-). We’re convinced. We’re winners, we believe in us!

And yet… there’s a competitor we rarely acknowledge. One that wins more often than we care to admit.

It’s called doing nothing.

Fine, just as they are.

Your buyer is doing fine. Just as they are. Really. What they’re doing now works well enough. It’s low risk. It may be using an in-house solution, or one of the tired, battle-worn competitors you’ve just dismissed, but the obvious bases are covered. More important, it doesn’t involve hours of consuming content, talking to sales people, convincing colleagues and the boss, wrangling a budget – and that’s before putting it all in place.

Change? It’s just hassle, uncalled for. It costs time to rationalise, money to adopt, and let’s not forget the awkward overlap between old and new. Oh, and if it fails? Guess who’s carrying that if it all goes pear-shaped?

Doing nothing is safe, certainly not moving hastily. Comfortable. Rational. And we forget that.

An example close to home?

Think of the last time you considered switching your broadband provider. The new deal looked great on paper – faster speeds, better price. But then you thought about it more: squinting through the contract for ‘gotchas’, installation, an engineer visit, downtime, chasing customer service. Actually, sticking with the current provider feels like the smarter move.

Why marketers miss it

Because we’re high on our own supply. We love to believe our own hype.

We’ve got the best tech in the space. We’ve benchmarked against the competition. We’ve got benefits piled high like Jenga blocks. Surely they’ll see it?

Except they don’t. Because better isn’t always enough to swing it.

A stat to chew on:

According to Gartner, 77% of B2B buyers say their last purchase was “very complex or difficult.” Ouch.
Complexity kills momentum, reality kills dreams – and it makes doing nothing, look rather appealing.

The hidden price tag of change

Look at it through your buyer’s eyes: here’s what they see when you pitch your shiny new thing:

• Time drain: They’ll need to evaluate, justify, and explain.

• Budget pain: Not just the upfront cost – fully loaded and ongoing costs too.

• Overlap hell: Paying for old and new systems while they transition.

• Personal risk: Convince the team and the boss, own the outcome, pray it works.

We’ve all been there

Marketers are buyers too! A marketing director considering a new automation platform isn’t just thinking about features. They’re thinking: “Will my team hate me for this? And what about Sales ?! How long will it take to adopt? Will I blow half my budget and still miss targets?”

Empathy check: Would you?

Would I gamble my reputation on your promise of ‘better’? Or would I quietly take a sip of coffee and turn to all those pinging inbox reminders, just carrying on as I am?

Before you deploy that next full-on campaign, ask yourself, if I were in their shoes, would I make this change?

For us, sometimes the most human thing we can do is… calm down. Step back. Give them space.

So what do we do?

It’s ok, we don’t have to stop marketing. But we do stop assuming their priorities meet ours.

Here’s the more realistic play:

• Make change feel safe: Show real ROI, not just pretty charts. Get those real customer quotes, even just snippets or stats. Be upfront with assumptions and explanations. Offer buyers risk mitigation.

• Reduce friction: Easy onboarding, clear, true and loaded costs, no nasty surprises.

• Build trust over time: Educate, don’t pressurise. Share proof points. Look from every angle, through a customer’s eyes.

• Be indispensable, and yes, unavoidable, but not intrusive: Create content that solves problems – even if they don’t buy today, it’s a slow burn, they’ll start to have doubts about their now, and remember you.

And here’s the kicker: this isn’t just campaign thinking.
It’s the slow burn, undercurrent content marketing we should always be doing. The stuff that sets out the stall, earns trust and gives your highly crafted, incisive ABM campaign a chance of landing well when the time is right. Because when the moment comes for the buyer to move, you want to be the obvious and low-risk choice.

Stat to remember:

Forrester found that B2B buyers consume up to 5 pieces of content before making a decision (and that sounds low!), and up to 13 people may be involved. Translation: they’re not rushing into anything. So don’t push – guide them.

The human touch

Content strategy should be ‘unavoidable’ and ‘indispensable. But in reality, maybe let’s add add ’empathetic’ to the list. Respect their pace. Offer value without strings. Sometimes stepping back builds more trust than pushing forward.

Because here’s the truth:

The right to do nothing isn’t resistance – it’s rational, human nature. And the marketer who understands that? Wins in the long run.

Sources:
Gartner B2B Buying Behaviour Survey- cited in Advertising Week
Forrester Research – Buyer’s Journey Stats