Defenders Don’t Progress

There’s a special category of buyers that you can avoid.

The defender comes under many personas. The manager that’s incentivized to only preserve. The high-status, well-known individual, trying to avoid scandal. The struggling person that’s stuck in limiting beliefs. The leader with a scarcity mindset.

In all cases, there is only something to lose, and little to gain, from change. There is no avenue for progress, only incentives to re-arrange existing options.

In a sense, these people have found a top, with no way to get higher. To get to a higher peak, in every direction, there are only roads heading down, and they’ve decided to stay put. Mostly.

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These defenders will hire help. They’ll have a lot of resources to spend to solve problems. But beware their worldview, as you won’t be able to hitch your expertise or your product on an upward momentum. Not until something happens. Not until something big happens.

Yes, the defender can change into someone who wants progress.

They’ll experience a fall.
They’ll be pushed into a corner with nowhere to go.
They’ll experience a sort of loneliness.
They’ll run out of options.
They’ll stall.

And then they’ll want progress. “Enough is enough”. And maybe you’ll want to be there with your offers.

Just don’t bother trying to sell before, because there is no need for progress for the defenders.

Detect the defenders early.