What Salespeople Can Learn About Creating Buying Urgency From a Snowstorm
Every winter, the same scene plays out across the Midwest. The weatherman shares a huge cold front with large amounts of snow heading our way, dropping temperatures will hit Ohio in 48 hours. The grocery stores are full of consumers stocking up and buying. Long lines at gas stations and snow blower sales at Home Depot and Lowe’s go through the roof. With the recent storm Fern here in Ohio, January 25th, it made me pause and consider: What Salespeople Can Learn About Creating Buying Urgency from a Snowstorm. Once salespeople learn conversation and value-outcome conversation skills to create buyer urgency, their close rates and gross profit per sale often increase dramatically.
Why do People Panic-Buy Before a 3-Day Storm—and What It Reveals About B2B Sales Creating Buying Urgency?
Weather alerts flash across phones.
News anchors warn of an incoming snowstorm.
Social media is filled with dramatic forecasts.
Radio announcers are requesting people stay off the roads.
Heck, the Governor of Ohio asked us to stay off the roads during the upcoming storm.
Your social network contacts start sharing posts about how they are preparing for the big storm.
Within hours, grocery stores look like disaster zones.
People rush to buy:
- Milk
- Bread
- Eggs
- Bottled water
- Toilet paper ( remember Covid?)
Shelves empty. Lines stretch down aisles. Parking lots overflow.
Consumers visit stores they never shopped at before in search of essentials.
Here’s the strange part: Most snowstorms last two to three days tops in Ohio. I was born and raised in Ohio, and I have experienced snowstorms over the years. Because we are close to Lake Erie, we often receive lake-effect snow in addition to the forecast, but it does not last for one or two weeks.
Our cities and state road crews do a fantastic job of clearing snow and treating ice, and we often can travel within 24 hours.
No one is facing famine.
No one is losing access to civilization.
Yet, buyer behavior looks like survival mode.
Buyer behavior is all about reducing and mitigating risk to prevent potential undesirable outcomes.
This is not irrational behavior.
It is human psychology.
And it holds a powerful lesson for B2B sales.
The Real Truth About Creating Sales Urgency in B2B Sales:
In sales, leaders often say, “Our salespeople need to create urgency. “
Creating Sales Urgency is not created by pressure, discounts, or aggressive, unprofessional closing techniques. B2B sales urgency is not created by several calls and voicemails on customer phones. Sales Urgency is not created by multiple emails and texts. Sales urgency is not created by having your sales manager or CRO call the customer.
How do B2B salespeople turn a nice-to-have into a must-have?
When we assess sales teams, one of the competencies we want to understand is sales urgency.
Do the salespeople know how to uncover customer challenges, constraints, and identify issues?
Do the salespeople know how to create a reason to buy?
Do salespeople have the skills to create buyer urgency?
Often, we find 60% to 70% of the sales team can identify issues, but sadly, they lack the sales urgency skills to make this a must-buy.
In some B2B sales engineering team assessments, less than 20% of the salespeople know how to make the purchase a must-buy, not a nice-to-have.
They have done a brilliant job of identifying needs and generating their own leads, but they fail to convert those leads into revenue because they don’t create buyer urgency.
Research shows that there are two types of buyers: approach-oriented and avoidance-oriented.
Approach-oriented buyers want the most innovative, to be the first to buy, and to be ahead of their industry. They account for about 30% of buyers, from my experience. Avoidance-oriented buyers, particularly in B2B sales, are about avoiding risk. They do not want to make a mistake or fail to act, letting something occur in the future that could have been prevented. Avoidance-oriented buyers represent about 70% of buyers, and it’s all about risk avoidance for their companies and careers.
B2B Salespeople who want to increase their close rates by 15%-25% need to help buyers create a sense of urgency to buy.
B2B sales engineers, for example, are very skilled at identifying opportunities to help their customers. Identify several ways to help their customers and prospects, but identification alone does not close the sales.
If B2B salespeople lack sales-urgency skills, profitable new opportunities become nice-to-haves for their customers.
The no-smoke-and-mirrors sales enablement process is not fancy, and we strive to make serving and selling customers simple. ( even in complex B2B sales)
How is urgency created in B2B buyers?
Urgency is created when buyers perceive:
-
Risk
-
Consequence
-
Immediacy
The snowstorm triggers all three.
People are not buying milk because they want milk or they are thirsty.
They are buying certainty.
They are not afraid of snow or how deep it might become.
They are afraid of disruption.
People are not buying a snow blower because a salesman pitched it to them; they should own one.
People buy snow blowers for the job they will do, remove snow quickly while reducing the risk of a heart attack from shoveling.(Check out the job to be done YouTube from Harvard Professor Clay Christensen)
In B2B sales, buyers behave the same way.
Why Snowstorms Create Urgency (And Most Salespeople Don’t)
Before the storm hits, people experience three psychological triggers:
1) Visible Threat
The storm is real, specific, and credible.
- Weather maps
- Forecast models
- Government warnings
The threat is not abstract.
In B2B sales, most salespeople fail here.
They talk about features, benefits, and improvements—not threats if the buyer does not act.
Buyers rarely feel urgency because they do not see a clear risk in doing nothing.
No-smoke-and-mirrors insight: More B2B sales are lost due to buyers doing nothing than buying from your competitors.
2) Tangible Consequences
People imagine concrete outcomes:
- Roads blocked
- Stores closed
- Power outages
- Inconvenience and discomfort
- Heart Attack
The consequences feel personal and immediate.
In sales, consequences are often vague:
- “You could be more efficient.”
- “You might fall behind competitors.”
- “ You need this.”
- “Will you order this?”
- “Others in your industry have bought this.”
These statements do not create urgency.
No-smoke-and-mirrors insight: Urgency is created when consequences are specific, quantified, and unavoidable.
3) Time Compression and Creating Buyer Urgency to Buy
The storm has a deadline. ( It will start snowing at midnight Saturday night and snow most of Sunday, accumulation can be 9-12 inches)
People know they have limited time to act.
Urgency requires a clock.
In B2B sales, most deals lack a clear timeline.
Salespeople ask, “When would you like to move forward?”
Buyers respond, “Let’s revisit next quarter.”
Without a deadline, urgency dies.
The No Smoke & Mirrors™ Insight: People do not act because something is good.
They act because inaction feels dangerous.
Snowstorms teach us a brutal truth:
No Smoke and Mirrors Insight: Urgency is not created by persuasion. It is created by the perceived risk of delay.
The 3 Ways Trained B2B Salespeople Are Creating Sales Urgency:
1) Make the Risk of Inaction Visible
Snowstorm analogy:
People see forecasts, maps, and warnings.
Sales application:
Salespeople must expose hidden risks.
Instead of saying:
“Our solution improves productivity and is better than….”
Say:
“Here’s what the data tells us will happen if your current process continues for 12 months.”
Examples of outcomes buyers want to avoid:
- Lost revenue
- Rising costs
- Competitive disadvantage
- Customer churn
- Regulatory risk
- Inventory is not available when they need it
- running out of material
- Shutting down production
- Explaining to leaders why they can’t ship orders
No Smoke & Mirrors Rule: If buyers cannot see the storm, they will not prepare.
2) Quantify the Consequences
Snowstorm analogy:
People imagine running out of food, heat, or supplies.
Sales application:
Translate risk into numbers.
Instead of:
“You’re losing efficiency.”
Say:
“You’re losing $2.4M annually due to this process. Every month we do not fix this issue, it is costing your company $200k.”
Instead of:
“This slows your team down.”
Say:
“This adds 19 days to your sales cycle. Or…This, if left unchecked, reduces throughput 23%.”
No Smoke & Mirrors Rule: Urgency increases when consequences become measurable.
3) Create a Real Clock
When will the B2B product or service need to be ordered and installed to solve the issue we uncovered?
Snowstorm analogy:
The storm arrives Saturday night around 11 PM.
Sales application:
Urgency requires a credible timeline.
Examples:
- Budget cycles closing
- Contract renewals
- Market shifts
- Regulatory deadlines
- Competitive moves
- New product launch date
- Plant expansion date
- Order turnaround time
Instead of asking:
“When would you like to decide?”
Say:
“Based on your growth targets, you have about 90 days before this becomes materially expensive to fix.”
No Smoke & Mirrors Rule: Without a clock, there’s no urgency.
Why Do Most B2B Salespeople Fail At Creating Buying Urgency?
We assess sales team effectiveness, then prescribe sales skills training and coaching, and often implement sales process improvements and system updates. One area where B2B salespeople consistently struggle is creating sales urgency because they fear discomfort.
Creating urgency requires confronting buyers with uncomfortable truths.
They worry….
What if asking this question hurts my relationship?… It took so long to get this far.
What if asking this question makes me seem like a pushy salesman?
What if I flinch and do not ask the questions professionally? It could cost me this order…it could cost me my job.
Creating Urgency requires acting like an industry-trusted advisor and saying:
- “Doing nothing is not neutral.”
- “Waiting will cost you.”
- “Your current approach is unsustainable.”
- “Your cost of doing nothing is $200k per month.”
- “Missing the scheduled launch date because —- is not in place could cost your company millions based on our discussions with your team.”
Many salespeople avoid this because they want to be liked.
When we assess sales teams, one area we assess is the need to be liked.
No-Smoke-and-Mirrors Rule: If a salesperson’s need to be liked is greater than their need to be respected, they fail to ask great questions and fail at creating buyer urgency to buy.
But snowstorms teach us something important about creating sales Urgency:
People do not prepare because they “like” the weather forecast.
They prepare because they believe it.
The No Smoke & Mirrors™ Conclusion
Creating buyer urgency is not about pressure.
It is about clarity.
The desire and intent to serve your customers and help them avoid difficulties if they fail to make a decision outweighs hitting your monthly sales goal.
Snowstorms create urgency because they make risk visible, consequences tangible, and time finite.
Elite salespeople do the same.
They do not beg buyers to act.
They help buyers understand why waiting is dangerous.
And when buyers truly see the storm coming, they do not need to be convinced.
They act.
When was the last time you assessed the skills of your B2B salespeople and sales engineers?
What storm(s) are heading your customers’ way if they do not act?
Could your sales engineers have a strong need to be liked, making purchasing your product or service a nice-to-have rather than a must-have?
Have your salespeople received sales skill training to have professional sales conversations that create revenue?
B2B salespeople and sales engineers have strong product and application knowledge. They can design solutions that address real business problems, and we can quickly quantify the financial impact of solving them.
If your sales engineer does not know how to create sales urgency or feels uncomfortable doing so, you are losing orders you could have won.
What’s worse is if your competitor’s sales team has been trained to create sales urgency, they are perceived as industry-trusted consultants, and your sales engineers may be seen as sales reps.
Let’s schedule a call to discuss whether your sales engineers need training and coaching to improve sales urgency and drive explosive growth for your company.