If you can’t clearly describe the cost of doing nothing, you’re not selling value, you’re selling hope.

And hope, as we know, is not a strategy. Far too many sellers do a decent job talking about their offer, the shiny features, the benefits, the service levels, but completely miss the commercial context their buyer is living in. The risks they’re carrying. The friction they’re tolerating. The money leaking out. Worse, they assume the customer already knows the …