I recently started working with a quite big SaaS client. Their customers are in the 200 to 400 employees range, sometimes reaching the thousands.
One of the things that stuck with me while watching some of their demo call recordings was how long some of these customers took to make a decision and switch to my client’s product.
For some it was something like 1 year and 5 months!
That’s 1 year and a half doing things the old, inefficient way. 1 year and a half they could have used to start getting familiar with the new software so that by now, they would already be more efficient.
In the book “Nudge”, the author calls it “collective conservatism: the tendency of groups to stick to established patterns even as new needs arise. Once a practice (like wearing ties) has become established, it is likely to be perpetuated, even if there is no particular basis for it.”
This says a lot about how much switching costs influence people’s decision making. Especially for big companies where once a system is ingrained, it’s very hard to transition to a new one. Even with amazing promises.
Most times the mere pain of having to transition can be crippling!
When you know you have this conversion problem, that’s when you have to dig deeper into what helped your customers overcome these switching costs.
Was it a guarantee? Maybe a different, more convenient pricing and payment structure? Maybe a deal breaker feature or need that you solve for and your competitors don’t?
Talk to people and find out.
Then focus a big part of your page around that.
What if there are no solutions like yours? Consider the old way of doing things, whatever it was, even if completely different, to be the thing they’re switching from. What are the costs involved there?
Maybe it’s about having to “install” entirely new habits or a new culture in the organization. And so on.
In order to obliterate collective conservatism, you have to change people’s minds. The only way is to find out how.
Need help? Get in touch.
P.S. I’m currently booked until the end of July, and about to sign new projects after that. So act fast!…just $9.999.999.99!…just kidding, but yeah act fast.
