The biggest lie about sales urgency? That it’s all about pressure.

If the word urgency makes you think of fake deadlines, pushy tactics, or convincing someone to buy before they’re ready, you’re not alone.

But what if urgency wasn’t about manipulation at all?

In this episode of Sippin’ Matcha and Helping You Make More Sales, Brooke Greening challenges one of the biggest misconceptions in sales. She explains why creating urgency isn’t about making people anxious—it’s about giving them the direction and confidence they need to make a wise decision.

If you’ve ever avoided this part of a sales conversation because you don’t want to come across as “salesy,” this episode will completely change how you think about it.

Episode Summary

Creating urgency is one of the most misunderstood parts of the sales process. Many business owners skip it altogether because they’ve experienced high-pressure sales tactics and don’t want to treat their customers that way.

In this episode, Brooke shares why avoiding urgency isn’t the kind or neutral option. When your customers have a real problem, doing nothing is still a decision—and waiting often comes with a cost.

You’ll hear why urgency should never create panic. Instead, it should create relief, excitement, and confidence. Through a powerful story from Brooke’s time helping families find senior living for their loved ones, she demonstrates how honest guidance can help people make decisions they’ll be grateful for later.

This episode is part of Brooke’s SERVICE Sales Framework, focusing on the sixth step: Create Urgency. You’ll discover how to lead sales conversations that serve your customers without pressure, manipulation, or manufactured scarcity.

What You’ll Learn

• Why urgency and pressure are not the same thing.
• How to motivate people with direction and hope instead of fear.
• Why avoiding urgency isn’t serving your customers.
• The hidden cost of letting prospects delay important decisions.
• How honest urgency builds trust instead of damaging it.
• Why hope always needs a clear next step.
• How to tell if your urgency creates confidence—or anxiety.
• One simple question to evaluate how you’re leading your sales conversations.

Resources Mentioned

1. Sales Conversation Assessment: Discover how well you’re leading each stage of your sales conversations. https://buildingmomentum.info/assessment
2. SERVICE Sales Framework: Learn Brooke’s human-first framework for leading effective sales conversations. https://buildingmomentum.info/sales-accelerator-lab/
3. Zig Ziglar (Referenced Quote) https://www.zigziglar.com

Join the Conversation

Want more practical, human-first sales advice delivered in bite-sized episodes?

Subscribe to Sippin’ Matcha and Helping You Make More Sales so you never miss an episode.

You’ll also find past episodes and ways to keep the conversation going.

👉 https://buildingmomentum.info/matcha

Connect with Brooke

Let’s connect on LinkedIn!

Brooke regularly shares practical sales tips, messaging advice, and encouragement to help you sell with confidence (without feeling sleazy). 👉 https://linkedin.com/in/brooke-greening

The Biggest Lie About Sales Urgency | Chapters

00:00 The Biggest Lie About Sales Urgency
00:00:48 Why Salespeople Avoid Creating Urgency
00:02:11 How to Create Urgency Without Being Pushy
00:02:39 Sales Pressure vs Healthy Urgency
00:04:07 The Cost of Waiting in Sales
00:05:05 Why Avoiding Urgency Loses Sales
00:05:48 A Real Client Story About Buying Decisions
00:09:02 Hope Isn’t Enough to Close Sales
00:10:38 Build Buyer Confidence During Sales Conversations
00:12:33 One Question Every Sales Professional Should Ask
00:13:20 The Right Way to Create Urgency in High-Ticket Sales

The Biggest Lie About Sales Urgency | Transcript

Brooke Greening: When people hear the phrase create urgency, they usually think of pushy sales tactics, fake deadlines, pressure, manipulation, but that is not what I mean Doing nothing is still a decision, and it still is going to impact them.

Sometimes the kindest thing that you can do is help someone see that it would be beneficial for them to be able to act now.

Urgency is helping them to move forward, like they need to move, but they're moving forward with confidence.

Just creating urgency isn't about speeding up people to buy, just to benefit you.

It's about helping them to see why moving forward matters, and that's a very different conversation. If you're truly giving them direction and hope, that's the type of urgency that you want to be creating.

Scott Greening: Hello, welcome to another episode of Sippin' Matcha and Helping You Make More Sales, where in about the time it takes you to have your matcha or coffee break, our resident sales expert, Brooke Greening, gives you some great advice on your sales conversations.

Because if you have to talk to people to make sales, how well you lead those conversations will make or break your revenue. And Brooke is coming in now. We just got back. Hello. In the, in a moment of full disclosure, our podcast today is sipping water because we didn't have time. We just got back from vacation.

We didn't have time to get milk yet. So no matcha latte for Brooke today. Oh.

Brooke Greening: No, it's just grind, grind, grind. Work, work, work. No matcha today. But I do have a beautiful new cup that I got when we were on vacation. There you go. And I did get it for this podcast.

Scott Greening: Yep. It's a nice turtle. It matches our colors.

We got all the things. So we've been working through our service sales framework, and we've gone through five of the parts now. We talked about setting expectations, establishing rapport, recognizing the problem, verbalizing the value, and identifying objections. And now we're to another typically favorite part of conversations for people.

Ah. Creating urgency, and this makes people usually very uncomfortable.

Brooke Greening: It, it does. And I understand why, because a lot of us have experienced urgency, and it was used as manipulation. And so then usually when that happens, like, we just decide to avoid it altogether.

Scott Greening: All right. So that's what probably a lot of us have in mind is manipulation.

What do you mean instead?

Brooke Greening: I mean we need to be able to motivate them with action, with direction, and hope. Not pressure, not manipulation, not tricking them, not pushing them in a corner. None of those things. Just giving them clear hope and then direction of what to do next.

Scott Greening: All right. So motivating with direction and hope is a very different definition than most people probably have in mind.

It's, it goes along with a very different definition or thoughts about identifying objections that we talked about last time. And so this is, again, another place where your service sales framework takes a turn in a different direction- … which is great, 'cause most people don't like these parts of the conversation.

Brooke Greening: It, yeah, it does. Because I am not trying to convince someone to buy. A lot of times when you hear about urgency and creating that fake sense of urgency, you're trying to force them. And so pressure is trying to force them into a decision, but using- direction and hope is encouraging them to be able to make a decision, and the best decision that they can make, the wisest decision they can make.

That is the difference. We're not trying to pressure them into making a decision. We are trying to help them so that they can make the decision on their own with the direction and hope that we give them

Scott Greening: All right, so urgency is encouraging action and that, and but pressure is forcing the decision, why is it so important- Mm-hmm

to think about actually doing this? Why can't we just do what everybody wants to do and say, "Eh, I'm jusgoing tona skip it"?

Brooke Greening: Because we're actually not serving our clients in that moment, because problems are growing. So it… And we've worked through this whole service framework. When we've understand, okay, the problems they're facing, whether they're good problems, bad problems, what's happening in their business, then them not doing anything doesn't actually help anything.

Things continue to grow. So maybe their revenue continues to struggle. Maybe it's time that's getting affected. Maybe it's their confidence. Maybe it's opportunities that their sales teams are never going to get back. Doing nothing is still a decision, and it still is going to impact them.

Scott Greening: Yeah, and I, it's easy to lose sight of that for yourself because maybe you don't like thinking about the alternative or you…

We tell our stories, we tell ourselves stories all the time. And so it's actually helpful to encourage people. "Hey, if you don't do anything- It's not going to, it's not going to stay the same. No. what's another reason why people should think about this idea of creating urgency?

Brooke Greening: The other reason why you want to create urgency is because if you avoid urgency, you're not playing the neutral ground.

So many times people think, "Well, if I just don't do it, then everything's great and I'm actually serving them." And you are not, because we're trying not to be pushy, and I understand that 'cause I hear it all the time. But when you actually avoid helping them to be making a decision, helping them to have an action, you're not being any more caring at that point.

Because if we see a person and they have a problem and it's costing them something, and we don't even help them to think about that or what that looks like, we're not serving them very well. Sometimes the kindest thing that you can do is help someone see that it would be beneficial for them to be able to act now.

This reminds me of a story when I was at Sunrise. And when I was at Sunrise, I was in sales, and so families were coming to us and they needed to find a place for their loved one to stay, and this is where they were going to live. So we had these big colonial mansions, and they would come in and they'd be able to live there for the rest of their lives.

It's a really emotional time. It's… And it can be very alarming and jolting for them. And so we're having this whole conversation. We're realizing, okay, it is time for them to be able to move. They do need to move quickly, and they found the suite that they liked. So in comes, like, giving them clear direction and hope.

And I told them, I said, "If this is the suite that you want, you are welcome to have this. You can have it. All you have to do is just put a down payment on it. It's completely refundable if you decide not to move in, but this is the only way I can't sell this suite to anybody else. You have to be able to put a check down to, like, save it."

And the, the wife was just really kind of struggling, and she was like, "Yeah, but Brooke, but can't you call me if you're talking to somebody else?" And the husband was like, "Honey, she's not going to do that. Like, she's telling you this is what we need to do." She's like, "I don't know. I, I, I kind of… Like, I do really want to do it, but I just, I don't know."

And I said, "It's completely your decision, but I need you to understand that if you leave, and I am talking to other people today, I don't know if I'm talking to them specifically about this suite yet, but if you leave and they want to secure the suite, they're going to, and then you're going to need to have to pick out a different suite.

So it's completely up to you, but that is what's going to happen." And they're like, "No, no, no. Okay, okay, okay." And she left, and another family came in, And I knew it 'cause I knew that this was the type of suite that was quick, people were going to want it quickly. And so, and then they left the deposit.

And she literally came in two hours later after that family was leaving, and she even saw it on their face, and she was like, "They just secured the suite that we wanted, didn't they?" And I said, "They did." She's like, "I didn't actually think it was going to happen." And her husband was like, "She told you! She, she was trying to help you."

She's like, "I know, but I just thought it might have been, like, just a thing and I'm, I didn't know." And then we were able to help them, then they found the next suite that they wanted, and then she did secure it right then and there. That, it is… You have to be honest. You have to give them direction.

You have to give them hope. And if you don't, then you're setting them up for failure. Sometimes they'll do it, sometimes they won't, but it is our job to let them know, "Hey, this is what the process is going to be, and this is why you should act if you're ready to go."

Scott Greening: Yeah. And I think the, the moral of the story is for people that they should buy when you tell them to.

So, that's the- No. No, it's a good it's a, it's a great story because oftentimes we think about creating urgency and we just think of it… 'Cause we've experienced it. We've experienced the manipulation- Mm-hmm … and the bad things and that. But we can't imagine, we lose sight of the fact that there are legitimate reasons why urgency is a good thing and that.

Yeah. And that's a good reminder. It reminds me of that Zig Ziglar quote that says "If you believe you have a, your product or service meets a true need, it's your moral obligation to sell it." So I don't know if I g- would go that far, but it's, it's kinda along that- … That same type of thought.

What about another… I think you've got one more reason of why this creating urgency is a good thing and helps us think about it in a little different way

Brooke Greening: The other piece is that hope needs direction. So many times, like in our sales coaching, you can hear "You need to paint this picture of like all of their problems going away," and then they'll say yes and blah, blah, blah, blah.

And that, I think that's a little bit of pooey because you can't just give someone hope, and then they don't know what they need to do next. You have to tie them both together. You can't just paint this beautiful picture and have them say, "Oh, yes, this is exactly what I want." But then we're not giving them any type of direction of what that looks like.

That direction creates that urgency for them to either secure the deposit, to secure the date to start working with you, to… Like those are things that need to happen in order to create urgency that serves your clients well.

Scott Greening: Yeah. I thought I was going to have to get the beep button there for a minute, but you said- You said pooey.

Brooke Greening: All I have is water, Scott. This is-

Scott Greening: Pooey … not strong enough. That's very strong, strong language. But what I think what you're helping- I have a

Brooke Greening: five-year-old. That is the language that we use

Scott Greening: What you're helping us to realize is that urgency isn't about an- or it shouldn't be about raising anxiety or creating anxiety.

No. It's something- No … something different.

Brooke Greening: No, you're actually creating relief and excitement for them. That's how you know that you're doing a, a good job of creating urgency that's giving direction and hope. If it's going to give them some relief and excitement to start working with you, and confidence to move forward, that is what we want it to produce.

Not anxiety, not panic. Those things can work to be able to buy, but as we're going to talk about later, that's not a good idea because now they don't trust you from the get-go, and that's just going to be a downhill from there.

Scott Greening: All right. So how should people sort of think about this? We've given them, you've given them a, a different way to think about urgency.

What, how should they contemplate if where they're at on this approach to urgency?

Brooke Greening: Yeah. So if you're doing this right, this is where you're having a sales conversation and nobody is feeling pressured. No one is feeling like, "Oh, no, this is I have to do something." But the customer is actually thinking, "Oh, I haven't actually thought what it would cost if I had to, if I was waiting.

I actually didn't know how much that this could matter." But no one felt like they got manipulated and no one is feeling pushed into a corner. Urgency is not where we're trying to create panic for people. We're not trying to get them to panic, and they have to buy, and they're afraid they're going to lose out.

That is a way to do it. That is not what I suggest. That's not what we work with our clients with. Urgency is helping them to move forward, like they need to move, but they're moving forward with confidence. When you are creating urgency in a meaningful way, in a way that's going to resonate with them, that's what the results are.

They're moving forward with confidence, and they're excited. They're not panicked, and they're not trying to figure out all of these things. Because that is actually not where you want a customer to be when they're getting ready to buy. You don't want them panicking. You don't want them rushing to a decision.

That doesn't actually… It doesn't serve them at all, and it's not going to serve you in the long run

Scott Greening: I know you often give people questions to think about and to evaluate. Probably this time it's more of just sort of like what are your thoughts on urgency? But what would you encourage people to ask themselves?

Brooke Greening: Yeah, because the very first thing you need is you need perspective of how you're leading your sales conversations. And so you're going to know, are you creating any type of urgency? Are you not? So just ask yourself this question this week. When I hear the word urgency, am I thinking that I'm pressuring them, or am I thinking that I'm helping them make a wise decision?

That's going to be the very first step

Scott Greening: All right. Brooke has given us another way to think about our sales conversation, especially one of these areas where it's really easy to maybe skip past or avoid, and it makes us feel uncomfortable. If you're wondering "How am I doing in my sales conversation?"

Brooke has a great sales conversation assessment, and it would just take you about five minutes to do. You can go to buildingmomentum.info/assessment, and you'll get some questions from her on all the seven parts of her sales conversation framework, the service sales framework, and know how well you're leading those all so important sales conversations.

And we're going to keep talking about this idea of urgency. And where are we going with this next week, Brooke?

Brooke Greening: Yes. So next week we're going to talk about three ways that people are creating urgency. One way is that they're creating that fake it urgency. They're manufacturing it. Another way is where they're trapping people, and the other one is that they just avoid it.

And we're going to talk about all three of those, what those are, what we don't want to do. It's going to be a great conversation. I can't wait.

Scott Greening: Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. It'll be good. What's your final nugget of wisdom today for us, Brooke?

Brooke Greening: Just creating urgency isn't about speeding up people to buy, just to benefit you.

It's about helping them to see why moving forward matters, and that's a very different conversation. If you're truly giving them direction and hope, that's the type of urgency that you want to be creating.

Scott Greening: All right, everyone. We encourage you to like, to subscribe, to follow, to comment, to review, to do all those things so you can keep participating, keep hearing, keep getting notifications about these conversations.

As always, we do invite you to join into the conversation at buildingmomentum.info/matza. Ma- matcha. Let's try that again. We do encourage you to join the conversation at buildingmomentum.info/matcha, and you can find the links to subscribe and all the past episodes and all the good stuff. So until next time, we hope you make some great sales.