Having built many BDR teams over his career, Alex answers the critical "build or buy" question.
Prevent the dreaded "do nothing" by helping the buyer buy, Alex shares 5 helpful tips.
Most SaaS buyers don’t struggle because they don’t want the product or solution; they struggle because buying feels hard.
Much has changed since I first put on my selling boots some 20+ years ago, today we have an overcrowded marketplace with too many options, too many stakeholders, and too much risk, but this is the environment where a SaaS salesperson now needs to earn their keep.
With that as the backdrop, today I’m going to share some thoughts on how we can work with buyers to move deals forward, not by pushing harder, but by making the buying process easier.
1. Help the buyer make sense of the problem.
Buyers often show up with symptoms (“Our churn is high,” “Reporting is messy”), not a clear diagnosis of the situation. So like a doctor diagnosing a patient, the salesperson needs to ask questions that help the buyer clearly articulate the problem and, importantly, the cost of inaction. They need to work with the buyer so the decision to purchase feels logical, not risky.
2. Reduce decision friction
Most deals stall not because of price, but because of internal uncertainty: Will this integrate? What if this fails? A successful salesperson anticipates & proactively answers these questions by sharing case studies, outlining realistic timelines, and surfacing risks honestly instead of pretending they don’t exist. The goal here isn’t to make the product or solution sound perfect but to make the path forward feel predictable.
3. Easing FOMU
As I have alluded to there, some of the decision friction, the fact that many deals result in no decision, and our biggest competitor is “do nothing” is about personal risk, or FOMU (Fear of Messing Up) that Dixon & McKenna referred to in their book The Jolt Effect. Great salespeople understand that this is emotional, and they need to guide them on what this solution means to the buyer personally and for their careers, for example, highlighting the people in the customer success stories, not just the companies.
4. Manage the internal sale
Buyers today very rarely purchase alone, they need to work with multiple stakeholders from finance, IT, leadership, legal - all of whom will have their own agendas and concerns. The best salespeople equip buyers with talk tracks, ROI logic, and simple explanations they can reuse internally. As a salesperson, you aren’t just selling software; you’re helping your buyer win meetings when you’re not in the room.
5. Guide the way
The most successful salespeople act like guides and not closers. They will map out the next steps and explain what a good decision process looks like. Buying can be stressful, so when a salesperson brings structure and transparency, they become a partner instead of a vendor.
At the end of the day, they want confidence that they are making the right decision. If you are able to de-risk the process, support them on their journey, and provide certainty on the outcome, then buying becomes the natural next step.
