How to create urgency (Dave's Newsletter)

WHAT WE'RE HEARING

Creating Urgency: Why Good Enough Is Your Biggest Enemy

Editor's Note: Dave here, fresh back from a trip to Stowe, VT site visiting for Drive 2026 and now editing this at 11:55 AM over my second coffee on Wednesday. This topic is a great one: urgency. People are interested in your thing, but they are not buying. Not now. But why not? And how can you create urgency? Today we’ll walk through a framework you can use directly, inspired by a great sales leader and trainer by the name of Jen Allen-Knuth aka DemandJen (follow her here btw).

Your messaging is clear. Your product is better. You've got the case studies to prove it. People are interested – but they aren’t buying.

Why not?

Because they don't think they have a problem. Their current way of doing things is "good enough." Even when it's costing them time, money, or sanity.

That is your enemy. GOOD ENOUGH.

Most marketers try to prove they're better. But "better" doesn't create urgency. Showing prospects what staying put is costing them does.

According to research from Gartner, 38% of in-flight opportunities are lost to buyer status quo. Not to competitors. Not to budget. To "we're fine for now."

That's the problem Jen helped us solve; and I think it’s extra important (if I can say that) because she is coming at it from the sales side of the house. Not in our marketing ivory tower.

Why "Better" Doesn't Win

Think about the last time you bought something for work. Did you immediately switch to the better option? Or did you stick with what you had because change felt risky, expensive, or just exhausting?

Your buyers are doing the same thing.

Jen used a simple example: a $100 packable raincoat versus a free umbrella.

The raincoat is objectively better. Hands-free. Fits in your bag. Won't flip inside out in the wind.

But the umbrella costs $0. And most people already own 2.1 of them.

So they stick with the umbrella. Even though they forget it 95% of the time and end up paying $40 for surge-priced Ubers when it rains.

That's your buyer (and probably you!). Rationally, your solution makes sense. Emotionally, they're not motivated to change.

So stop trying to prove you're better. Start showing them what staying put is costing them.

The "We-We" Problem (And How To Fix It)

^ how great is that headline? We can’t take credit for that one, it’s all Jen. You need to stop we-we-ing all of your prospects.

Here’s what it means - it’s not about pee you sicko.

Most cold emails look like this:

It's all about you. Your product. Your features. Your results.

But your prospect doesn't care about you. They care about themselves (!).

And more importantly, they care about what their peers are doing.

So instead of saying "we offer a better way," show them what the status quo is actually costing people like them.

Here's how Jen reframes the packable raincoat pitch:

No features. No pitch. Just a problem the prospect didn't realize they had with real numbers.

That's how you beat status quo.

The Four Questions That Change Everything

Jen shared a framework to help you rewrite your messaging around the real problem:

1. Who is most likely to have the problem your solution solves?
   Not just your ICP. The specific person inside that ICP who feels the pain every day. This is who your content should speak to.
2. How do those people solve the problem today? Why is that approach "good enough"?
   This is your status quo. You need to understand it better than they do.
3. What's the unintended negative consequence of solving it that way?
   This is the cost of inaction. The thing they're not tracking but should be. This becomes your hook.
4. Who took a different approach?
   This is your customer proof. But don't make your company the hero. Make their peer the hero.

When you answer these four questions, you stop pitching a product and start prompting a problem.

ROI vs. Cost of Inaction

One is hypothetical. The other is happening right now.

ROI says: "By doing SOMETHING you MIGHT see this positive return."

But Cost of Inaction says: "By changing NOTHING, you ARE seeing this negative consequence."

Guess which one creates more urgency?

Most marketing teams obsess over ROI calculators and case studies. But buyers often don't move because of upside. They move because staying put hurts.

Your job is to make that pain as visible and real as possible.

Two $0 Exercises You Can Run This Week

Exercise 1: Closed-Lost Audit

Pull your closed-lost deals from the last quarter. Look at the reason codes.

How many say "no decision," "timing," "budget," or "went with competitor"?

That's status quo winning.

Now dig deeper with your sales team: What was the actual reason they didn't buy? Not the polite excuse. The real one.

Most of the time, it's because they didn't believe the cost of staying put was higher than the cost of switching.

This tells you exactly where your messaging is falling short.

Exercise 2: Cold Email Audit

Pull the last 10 cold emails your team sent.

Count how many times you say "we" versus "you."

If it's more than 2:1, you've got a we-we problem.

Then ask: Does this email help the prospect size their status quo problem? Or does it just pitch how great we are?

If it's the latter, rewrite it using Jen's four questions.

You don't need a bigger budget. You don't need more tools.

You just need to stop making your product the hero and start making the status quo the villain.

– Dave

P.S. Do you have any tips on driving urgency? How can marketers create urgency? Reply back and let me know.

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