Helene Christensen

The Real Battle: Fighting Inertia

When you’re launching a new product and refining your positioning, it’s easy to focus on direct competitors—the companies offering similar solutions, the brands you’re trying to outshine. But often, your biggest competition isn’t another product. It’s inertia.

Customers who don’t yet know your product exists, who aren’t actively looking for a better solution, will default to what they already know—even if it’s inefficient.

I saw this firsthand when I worked at a Danish broadcaster. Email was the go-to tool for everything—project management, tracking tasks, planning, chatting, you name it. Even when better solutions were available, email felt like the “right” way to work for many of my colleagues. Switching to a dedicated tool for each task—one actually designed for the job—felt like a steep mountain to climb. Why? Because it required telling a new story: one that made the existing way of working feel outdated and the new approach feel indispensable.

This is the reality for many businesses. If it’s not clear what your product is replacing, why it’s worth the investment, and how it will make life easier, customers will stick with what’s familiar. That’s why spreadsheets still replace proper workflow tools, manual processes persist instead of automation, and Post-it notes serve as makeshift project management systems. Not because these are the best solutions, but because they’re easy, known, and “good enough.”

The challenge isn’t just proving your product is better—it’s convincing your audience that change is worth the effort.

Why Customers Stick with the Status Quo

Change is uncomfortable, even when the alternative is better. In my experience, customers hesitate for a few key reasons:

Switching feels like a hassle – Learning a new tool takes time and effort.
The pain isn’t immediate – Inefficiencies build up gradually, so they don’t feel urgent.
They don’t see the hidden costs – Wasted time, lost revenue, and errors aren’t always obvious but add up fast.

If your product is competing against “doing nothing,” your job is to make the cost of inaction painfully clear.

You also have an opportunity to acknowledge the emotional resistance to switching. Be honest about the investment required—but make it clear that what’s waiting on the other side is worth it. No pain, no gain, right? Your messaging should address both.

How to Win Against “Good Enough”

To get customers to move, you need to shift their perspective. Here’s how:

1. Highlight the Cost of Inaction

Make the hidden costs visible. Show them how much time, money, and energy they’re wasting by sticking with the status quo. Use numbers to reframe the conversation:

“Teams lose an average of 10 hours per week managing projects in spreadsheets.”
“Manual workflows lead to a 20% increase in errors, costing businesses thousands per year.”

This kind of data makes the problem tangible. It also helps customers realize that they’re not just deciding whether to adopt a new tool—they’re deciding whether they want to keep losing out on a smarter way to work.

2. Paint a Picture of What’s Possible

Once they see the cost of staying the same, show them what’s on the other side. Make the benefits feel real:

Before: Hours spent updating spreadsheets, missing deadlines, and chasing teammates for updates.
After: A seamless workflow where tasks are automatically tracked, deadlines stay visible, and everything just works.

It’s not just about selling a product—it’s about selling a better way of working and living. Position your solution as the obvious upgrade, the next step forward, the thing that will make them wonder why they waited so long.

3. Use Social Proof and Data to Prove ROI

Customers don’t just want promises—they want proof. Show them how others have made the switch and never looked back.

“Switching to Asana cut our project management time in half.”
“Zapier automated our workflows, saving us 15 hours a week.”

Real success stories remove the fear of change and replace it with confidence.

Real-World Examples: From “Good Enough” to Game-Changing

If you want to win against inertia, your story has to be crystal clear: What are customers walking away from, and what are they walking into? Your job is to make the reward of switching too good to ignore.

Let’s look at two brands that have done this well:

Monday vs. Spreadsheets: Many teams still track projects manually in Google Sheets or Excel. But spreadsheets don’t send reminders, track dependencies, or provide real-time visibility. Monday.com positions itself as the smarter alternative by making project management feel effortless:
“Streamline workflows and gain clear visibility across teams to make strategic decisions with confidence.”
Zapier vs. Manual Workflows: Before automation, teams spent hours copying and pasting data between apps. Zapier succeeds by showing how much more efficient and stress-free life can be with automation:
“Stop waiting for developers to bring order to your apps. Take control with Zapier, streamline your tasks, and achieve more with less effort.”

Both brands understand that they’re not just competing with other software—they’re competing with the old way of working. And they win by making the cost of sticking with the old way feel too steep.

The Key Takeaway

If your biggest competitor is inertia, your strategy is clear:

Make the pain of staying the same impossible to ignore.
Show the joy and ease of switching.
Back it up with proof.

People don’t change unless they feel they have to—or unless the reward is too good to pass up. Your job is to make sure they see both.

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When Your Biggest Competitor Is “Doing Nothing"