Procrastination is a common habit that affects many aspects of our lives, including our businesses. According to Dr. Itamar Shatz, founder of Solving Procrastination, people procrastinate because their drive to delay is irrationally stronger than their drive to act. Here are three common reasons people procrastinate.

1. Behavioral: It feels better to put something off than to complete the task.
2. Fear: You're afraid of making mistakes or doing the task wrong and being criticized. 
3. Perfectionism: You can't complete the task because it isn't perfect yet. 

How Procrastination Can Harm Your Business
Procrastination can cause delays in....

• Missed Opportunities: For instance, a delayed product launch could cause you to lose ground to your competitors and ultimately reduce your forecasted revenue. 
• Response Time: Delayed responses to customer inquiries can result in a loss of sale and your reputation. Every lead that you receive is valuable, and delaying a response could mean losing that lead and the time and money you spent getting it in the first place.
• Strategy and Planning: Procrastination can lead to spray-and-pray marketing efforts that lack a coherent narrative and customer journey. Inconsistent marketing efforts can lead to a lack of engagement and ultimately hurt your business.

How to Stop Procrastinating
Overcoming procrastination can pose a formidable challenge, but it's crucial for the success of your marketing endeavors. Below are some suggestions to avoid it in the future:

1. Identify and Address Your Fears: Many people procrastinate because they are afraid of failure, success, or change. By identifying and addressing your fears, you can gain a better understanding of what's holding you back.
2. Break Tasks into Manageable Steps: Large and complex tasks can be overwhelming, making it easy to delay action. By breaking tasks into smaller, manageable steps, you can make progress and feel more motivated to continue.
3. Give Yourself Permission to Make Mistakes: Perfectionism can be a significant obstacle to completing a task. Accept that your work won't always be perfect and give yourself permission to make mistakes along the way. 
4. Set Deadlines: Procrastination can thrive in an environment without deadlines. By setting deadlines for yourself, you create a sense of urgency that can help you stay focused and motivated.

Another Option - Hire a Consultant!
Hiring a marketing consultant can provide you with essential assistance in organizing your marketing efforts, prioritizing tasks, and establishing a strong foundation for successful marketing programs. With their expertise, they can also aid in setting up CRMs, crafting campaigns, developing customer journeys, generating leads, and streamlining follow-up processes, all of which can simplify the launch of your marketing initiatives.

Selling enterprise solutions to any organization is challenging and time consuming to say the least.  And the more complex your product is, the longer it will take to close. Even if you’ve made a contact, garnered interest and locked-in a meeting or even a proposal phase, you still have 4 big barriers to overcome. 

Barrier #1: Integration
Your solution can’t deliver the benefits you promise until it is integrated with currently used systems and  workflows. If left to the customer, this may be beyond the ability of internal resources (time, money, staff) to do it successfully.

Barrier #2: Trialability
Because of the first barrier (integration), it is difficult, if not impossible, to effectively try your solution before it is bought. Scaled-down demos or trial versions often can’t show enough of a benefit to validate a purchase decision.

Barrier #3: Transcendence
Your solution cuts across multiple organizational (functional and political) boundaries and requires near simultaneous buy-in from multiple influencers and approvers, each with a different receptivity to innovation.

Barrier #4: User Behavior
Because of the innovative nature of your solution, users must change their behavior to attain the benefits the solution promises to deliver. Left on their own, users will rarely change.

Here are Some Solutions to Help You Overcome these Barriers

• Develop an easy, three step process that demonstrates how easy it is to integrate your solution

• Propose a pilot program where customers can experience success in the early stages

• Develop stories to satisfy the differing interests of everyone involved in the buying decision

• Nurture your end users and show them how your solution will highlight their continued success.