Chip Royce, Flywheel Advisors
When Sales Stall, Don’t Blame Your Team. Blame Sales Friction.
Growth hits a wall. Profits stall. And everyone starts looking for someone to blame.
Most CEOs point fingers at the usual suspects: the sales team. Maybe they’re too pushy. Maybe they’re underperforming. And sometimes, that’s true.
But just as often, the problem runs deeper. It’s stealthier.
Product friction: features that confuse, pricing that alienates, or value that isn’t clear enough to close the deal.
If you’re blaming your sales team without looking downstream, you’re fighting the wrong battle.
Have You Made It Easy to Buy?
A study by Gartner found that 77% of B2B buyers described their last purchase as complex or difficult.
Let that sink in—more than three-quarters of your prospects don’t think it’s easy to say yes. It’s your job to fix that.
Far too often, CEOs don’t focus enough on reducing sales friction. They think they’ve nailed the best features or the right pricing model.
Your Product Should Do the Work for You
The best sales pitch isn’t a polished script. It’s a product that sells itself. If what you’re selling creates resistance—whether through unclear pricing, over-complicated features, or poor perceived value—you’re handcuffing your team from the start.
Consider this: HubSpot revealed that 60% of B2B buyers would rather avoid a salesperson entirely when making a purchase. Why? Because they want frictionless buying experiences—tools and offers that feel so straightforward they don’t need the hard sell treatment.
So, What’s Next?
Step one: Take a hard, honest look at what you’re asking customers to buy. Is your offer so obviously great that hesitation disappears? Or does it create friction?
Step two: Simplify everything that gives buyers pause. Refine pricing models. Pare back bloated features. Make the value crystal clear. Don’t just make it good enough, make it irresistible.
Example: Take Slack. The cloud-based messaging tool didn’t just grow—it made collaboration between teams feel seamless, intuitive, and natural. Slack reduced the friction of workplace communication, and the result spoke for itself: over 12 million daily active users just a few years post-launch.
Friction Kills Confidence
Complexity makes buyers nervous. The more steps, hurdles, or choices you give them, the more reasons they have to doubt their decisions.
McKinsey research found that the average B2B buyer engages with 6-10 content pieces before making a purchase. This should tell you one thing—your messaging (and product) must be airtight.
If growth has slowed, don’t start micromanaging your team. Start micromanaging your offer.
Are You Giving Away the Sale?
Every extra feature or vague line on a pricing page gives your competitors the upper hand. You’re making it easier for buyers to pause, delay, or—worst of all—walk. And in today’s landscape, hesitation is deadly.
CEOs often overthink how to drive growth. They throw incentives at the sales team or hire consultants to revamp pipelines. But what if the problem isn’t there? What if the biggest win comes from removing unnecessary obstacles?
What Does Friction Look Like?
- A chatbot that gives half-answers instead of solving problems.
- Feature sets loaded with fluff but lacking essentials.
- Pricing tiers that confuse instead of clarify.
When you make things harder than they need to be, you’re creating friction. And that’s no way to scale.
The Fix Is Easier Than You Think
Simplifying your offer doesn’t mean making it basic. It means making it undeniable. Companies that win in reducing sales friction don’t hesitate to over-deliver on clarity.
Steal a page from Apple’s book: Perfect design. Transparent pricing. Seamless integration. Every product launch feels like a “Why wouldn’t we?” moment for buyers.
Make Buyers Criticize the Competition—Not You
Friction ruins trust fast. If a prospect sees murky pricing or struggles to find clear value, their gut tells them what they won’t say aloud: “Is this worth the risk?”
By contrast, frictionless products force the competition to catch up. You’re no longer in a debate over merit—you’re a shining example of how things should be done.
Think bigger. Ask yourself what makes your offer impossible to pass up. Then ask your team: What holds customers back? Who wins if they don’t choose us?
This Is Your Wake-Up Call
If your team hears “We’re still thinking it over” more than “Where do we sign?” take note. The gap might not be in the person pitching—it’s in the product pitched.
Stop expecting the quick close with slow-to-decide buyers. Start engineering irresistible deals and seamless experiences.
Reducing sales friction isn’t just resourceful—it’s transformative. Whether it’s cutting the noise from your pricing or paring down bloated features, the goal stays the same: get out of your way. Let buyers feel certain about saying yes.
When sales feel easy, growth follows.
Flywheel Advisors uncovers the hidden obstacles in your product and pricing that slow growth.
By reducing sales friction, we help CEOs unlock faster closes and stronger profits.
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