Laggard is a nice old-fashioned word that hardly anyone uses. It was surprising to learn that “laggard” is not infrequently used in discussions of technology adoption, and also how relevant it is to the issue of planning video for buying teams.
Gartner uses the psychographic profiles “conflicted laggards” and “disinterested laggards” to characterize the least successful IT buying teams — the ones who can’t reach a decision on technology adoption and fall behind as a result.
The new chasm
This chart is taken from Gartner research on “The New Chasm,” an extension of Geoffrey Moore’s influential Crossing the Chasm (1991).
Of course, no technology seller knowingly wastes resources on organizations who will inevitably “decide not to decide.”
But the fact that a whopping 50% of the buyers in the market are unlikely to do anything at all until they are forced to does not mean that sellers can afford to do nothing.
Mini-commitments and video for buying teams
Gartner analyst Hank Barnes recommends considering the “mini-commitment” tactics first suggested by sales guru Anthony Iannarino. The idea of mini-commitments aligns well with multi-threading tactics recommended in a previous post.
Several of the mini-commitments Iannarino talks about seem ideal for reaching out with video.
- Commitment of Time. Buyers value videos because they see video as a time-efficient way to learn something. But they also want to be sure that their time won’t be wasted. Provide them with a clear summary of what’s in the video, and maybe a short “teaser” to show that it’s not just a lot of PowerPoint slides.
- Commitment to Explore. Use-case videos, webinars, and other non-sales-y videos fit in here. The more closely you can target the different roles on the buying team, the better.
- Commitment to Change. Video can argue the need for change quite dramatically by focusing on what’s wrong with the current situation. But your prospect probably knows this — better to get to the point and use video to dramatize how much better things could be with your solution.
Laggards or not, buying team members need to gather information and come up with arguments, both for and against. Multi-threading and mini-commitments strategies will be easier and more successful if you think about buying team videos that your sales team will be eager to share, regardless of length. If a video is useful for decision-making, it doesn’t really matter if it’s a webinar, a tutorial, a traditional explainer, or just somebody answering an interesting question.
