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Creating Urgency: How to Flip the Script—and Win
The companies that win aren’t the ones with the best product, but the ones that make every buyer move
now
—not later.
Stop losing to buyer indecision and stalled conversations, and instead learn how to create urgency, transforming hesitation into momentum that drives faster deals and bigger wins.
In Creating Urgency, Steven Mark Kahan draws on decades of experience helping startups scale to billions in value to show sales and marketing leaders how to replace buyer hesitation with decisive action. With lessons forged in the trenches and proven at high-growth companies, Kahan reveals how to make inaction feel costly, decisions feel necessary, and movement feel inevitable.
Discover how to stop competing against other vendors and start competing against the true inaction. Through frameworks, tools, and vivid real-world examples, Kahan teaches you to reframe buyer hesitation, uncover invisible risks, and create momentum that gets deals moving. Creating Urgency doesn’t offer theory—it’s a tried-and-true playbook for turning passive interest into urgent commitment. Inside, you’ll learn how
Expose the hidden costs of waiting and make delay feel riskier than change Use storytelling, contrast, and data to spark “aha” moments that buyers can’t unsee Create deadlines and time-bound triggers that force clarity and accelerate decisions Equip champions to win internal budget battles and overcome organizational inertia Keep urgency alive after the close, turning renewals and expansions into growth engines
With urgency embedded into your sales and marketing strategy, you’ll stop losing to inertia and start winning with speed. Creating Urgency is the definitive guide to moving buyers off the fence—and moving your business ahead.
Stop losing to buyer indecision and stalled conversations, and instead learn how to create urgency, transforming hesitation into momentum that drives faster deals and bigger wins.
In Creating Urgency, Steven Mark Kahan draws on decades of experience helping startups scale to billions in value to show sales and marketing leaders how to replace buyer hesitation with decisive action. With lessons forged in the trenches and proven at high-growth companies, Kahan reveals how to make inaction feel costly, decisions feel necessary, and movement feel inevitable.
Discover how to stop competing against other vendors and start competing against the true inaction. Through frameworks, tools, and vivid real-world examples, Kahan teaches you to reframe buyer hesitation, uncover invisible risks, and create momentum that gets deals moving. Creating Urgency doesn’t offer theory—it’s a tried-and-true playbook for turning passive interest into urgent commitment. Inside, you’ll learn how
Expose the hidden costs of waiting and make delay feel riskier than change Use storytelling, contrast, and data to spark “aha” moments that buyers can’t unsee Create deadlines and time-bound triggers that force clarity and accelerate decisions Equip champions to win internal budget battles and overcome organizational inertia Keep urgency alive after the close, turning renewals and expansions into growth engines
With urgency embedded into your sales and marketing strategy, you’ll stop losing to inertia and start winning with speed. Creating Urgency is the definitive guide to moving buyers off the fence—and moving your business ahead.
331 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 6, 2026
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November 4, 2026
Hesitation is the quiet competitor in so many sales and marketing rooms, and this listen names it directly. The author draws on decades helping startups grow to show how making a problem visible, personal, and immediate can move people from passive interest to real commitment. Behavioral psychology and communication strategy meet practical frameworks here. I spend my working life around marketing plans, so the focus on competing against inaction rather than against another vendor immediately caught my attention. I listened while doing chores around the house, and more than one chapter had me pausing to think about my own projects.
Storytelling, contrast, and clear deadlines are offered as tools for creating honest momentum without theatrics. The examples from high growth companies keep the ideas concrete, and the guidance on equipping an internal champion feels especially usable for teams. At times the pace of tactics is brisk for an audio listen, and I wanted to jot notes faster than my hands allowed.
Even so, I came away with a sharper sense of how to make the cost of waiting feel real in a kind way. There is genuine energy in treating urgency as clarity rather than pressure. I came away eager to bring more focus and follow through to the work already on my desk.
Storytelling, contrast, and clear deadlines are offered as tools for creating honest momentum without theatrics. The examples from high growth companies keep the ideas concrete, and the guidance on equipping an internal champion feels especially usable for teams. At times the pace of tactics is brisk for an audio listen, and I wanted to jot notes faster than my hands allowed.
Even so, I came away with a sharper sense of how to make the cost of waiting feel real in a kind way. There is genuine energy in treating urgency as clarity rather than pressure. I came away eager to bring more focus and follow through to the work already on my desk.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review