Why Change: Defeating Status Quo Bias

Funny story: I saw Tim Riesterer speak at a conference in Scottsdale two years ago and I got so fired up by his presentation that when I got home, I ran to my CMO’s office smiling like a kid on Christmas morning.

Our conversation went something like this…

Sure enough, we were both talking about Tim Riesterer (last name pronounced “REECE-ter”, by the way, which took way too long to figure out).

It turns out I had seen him in Arizona and Jeff had seen him shortly after in Vegas.

If you have never had the pleasure of hearing Tim speak, his presentation is one of the few keynotes that once you’ve experienced it, you’ll immediately want to run out of whatever conference you’re attending to fly home and put it into action.

It’s not only an entertaining talk—it’s a game-changing content marketing strategy. There are a few versions floating around YouTube, but the one from LeadsCon is the best.

The essence of Tim’s talk is simple: your biggest enemy—the biggest threat to your success—isn’t your competition.

It’s the status quo.

Status quo bias is a person’s natural preference for inaction, for staying the course instead of doing something different.

In his research with Stanford, Tim found that up to 80% of people who work their way through a buyer’s journey end up making no decision at all.

This is the bane of every business’s existence.

Everyone thinks that generating revenue means taking market share away from their biggest rival, but the reality is your biggest opportunity is the 80% of people who thought “maybe I need to do something different” and ultimately decided not to.

Here’s a clip from when I interviewed Tim and asked him about it.

Before we dive into the framework for beating status quo bias, here’s the science behind what it is and why it exists.