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Why creating urgency in sales can backfire
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A certain film is known for popularising the sales strategy of “always be closing”, but is this approach relevant today? Buyer-behaviour specialist, Gerry Forristal, believes that there are better ways to get a customer to say yes in 2026. Here’s what he shared with us:
“The strategy of "always be closing" became embedded in sales culture and training programmes as a result of the 1992 film Glengarry Glen Ross. But while the phrase has since fallen out of favour, the underlying approach hasn't disappeared. It's just been repackaged.
Walk into most sales-training sessions today and you won't hear "always be closing," but you will hear about creating urgency and leveraging scarcity. The language has softened, but the intent remains the same: apply pressure to accelerate decisions. However, neuroscience research reveals that this pressure affects buyers' brains, regardless of how we dress it up.
When researchers study what happens neurologically, when people feel pressured to make decisions, they observe activation in the amygdala, the part of the brain that detects threats. The brain processes sales pressure the same way it processes other forms of threat. When this happens, the limbic system, which drives all our decision-making, shifts into a protective state.
This is where understanding how people make decisions becomes important. The limbic system makes the decision first, based on emotional and instinctual factors. The neocortex, where language and rational thought occur, comes into play afterwards to justify what's already been decided emotionally.
Research by neurologist, Antonio Damasio, showed that patients with limbic damage couldn't make decisions even with their logical faculties completely intact. Without emotional processing, rational analysis became meaningless.
When a buyer feels pressured, and their limbic system therefore registers threat, they can't access the rational decision-making processes we assume they're using. That "I need to think about it" response isn't necessarily a stall. Often, their brain genuinely cannot process the decision while in a defensive state.
This is why the evolution from "always be closing" to creating urgency hasn't solved the problem. Countdown timers, scarcity alerts and limited-time bonuses all trigger the same amygdala response. The language has become more sophisticated, but if the buyer's brain is registering a threat, the outcome remains the same.
You might ask why these tactics are still so commonly used if they trigger threat responses. The answer is that they do produce results. Compliance through pressure works often enough to justify continued use. But there's a difference between getting someone to say yes and helping them make a confident decision.
Urgency tactics aim for short-term conversions at the expense of long-term relationships. They work through volume and attrition, not through effectiveness. The costs, such as buyer's remorse, damaged trust or a lack of referrals don't tend to appear in conversion-rate metrics.
Research on psychological reactance shows that when people feel their freedom to choose is being limited, they resist, even when agreeing might benefit them. Studies have found that buyers share more accurate information and move more readily through sales processes when they feel that they are controlling the pace and direction.
This suggests the importance of genuine buyer autonomy. There's a significant difference between a buyer who controls the process and can walk away, and one being guided through choices that feel autonomous but aren't. The limbic system recognises the difference even when the neocortex doesn't.
Rather than creating urgency around commitment, you might instead explore what would need to be in place for the sale to feel like the right decision for the prospective buyer. Brain-imaging research indicates that ‘permission-based’ approaches keep the prefrontal cortex engaged, allowing buyers to process information properly. At the same time, the limbic system remains in a state where it can make decisions rather than defend against threats.
This doesn't mean abandoning the structure of the sales process. It means building momentum through collaboration rather than pressure. When buyers recognise authentic autonomy, the limbic system can do what it's designed to do – make decisions based on genuine assessment rather than on a threat response.
To sum up, the techniques have evolved, the language has changed, but the fundamental question remains: are we selling according to how people's brains function, or are we working against this process?”
Gerry’s next workshop, ‘The Trust Triad: Why Buyers Hesitate and How to Remove the Friction, is on 16 April, from 10am-12.30pm.
