RR#142 - Why They Won't Buy...

Last week, the owner of an IT business asked me:

It’s a question I hear frequently: Why won't prospects invest in services they clearly need and can afford?

It’s frustrating. But it’s not about price.

And many of you may not want to hear this, but they don’t even care about whether they need the services or not.

Think about it.

If we made decisions purely based on need, we’d all be gym rats living on kale smoothies.

But we don't, because humans are wired to chase what we want, not necessarily what we need.

Those billboards?

They're screaming what this prospect wants most: growth, visibility, more customers.

Sure, they might desperately need better cybersecurity or a stable IT infrastructure.

But that's like trying to sell broccoli to someone with a chocolate craving.

It won't work. Ever.

The Art of Chocolate Broccoli

A former client of mine, Dan Martell, shared with me a concept he calls "chocolate broccoli” — turning something people need into something they want.

It fits perfectly here, because as service providers, our job is deliver what people need while selling them what they actually want.

Here's how to nail it:

1. Align Your Service With Their Goals

If your client’s top priority is to grow, stop selling cybersecurity IT services and start selling growth acceleration.

Your prospect is betting big on expansion—those billboards make that crystal clear.

So, you’ve got to answer, “How does your IT service facilitate their growth machine?”

Maybe it means:

• Lightning-fast response times to sales leads because their systems never crash

• Marketing data they can actually trust to make smarter growth decisions

• Sales teams that close more deals because they're not fighting with buggy tech

You're no longer competing with their growth budget—you're amplifying it.

2. Highlight the Cost of Inaction

If alignment feels like a stretch, show them how not buying your service prevents them from achieving their goals.

Here you’re simply sharing how your service is aligned with their objectives by demonstrating that investing in services still increases the probability of success for them.

For example, using the question I got from an IT business owner:

• "How many customers stick around when ransomware locks you out for a week?"

• "What's the real cost of your sales team wrestling with glitchy systems while competitors are closing deals?"

• "Do you have the data or systems to tell you which marketing channels are really working and which aren’t?"

Suddenly, that $2,500 monthly investment looks different when it's protecting millions in revenue and growth potential.

The Takeaway

Here's what I've learned after years of watching deals succeed and fail: Your prospects will tell you exactly what they want, if you listen closely enough.

Your job isn't to change what they want.

It's to show them how you're actually selling exactly what they're craving—even if it comes with a helping of broccoli.

The moment you start positioning your service as fuel for their biggest goals instead of a competing priority, everything changes.

Because at the end of the day, people don't buy what they need. They buy what they want.

And you’ll close a lot more deals when you stop fighting their chocolate cravings and start figuring out how to deliver chocolate broccoli.

- Ray