You’ve done the preparation.
You understand the product.
You’ve had what feels like a good conversation.
The customer agrees with you. They nod along. They can see the logic.
And yet, when the call ends, you’re no further forward than when it began.
This is one of the most common frustrations we hear from commercial teams in animal health. If the value is genuinely there, why does progress stall?
The answer usually isn’t about the product, the price, or the data.
It’s about what the conversation didn’t reach.
The part of the conversation we often miss
In animal health, we tend to pride ourselves on being evidence-led. Clinical data, protocols, outcomes - these matter. But decisions aren’t made on logic alone.
Only a small part of decision-making happens at the surface, where facts and figures live. Most of it happens underneath, driven by things like cognitive load, biases, defaults and emotions.
This is why conversations can feel positive but still go nowhere. You may be addressing what makes sense, while your customer is quietly weighing up what feels risky, uncomfortable, or uncertain.
And when that happens, hesitation often shows up as familiar objections:
“We’ll need to think about it.”
“Now’s not quite the right time.”
“It sounds good, but…”
So what are the missing steps to solve the issue?
When momentum stalls, the natural instinct is to explain more. Add another benefit. Share another data point. But doubling down on logic rarely resolves hesitation rooted elsewhere. In fact, it can make conversations feel heavier - or worse, pushy - even when that’s the last thing you want to be.
What does help is a different approach to the conversation itself. When you start to think about sales as a journey rather than a presentation, everything shifts.
The kind of shift that happens when someone is no longer just listening to you, but actually processing what this change means for them. That shifts from persuading to exploring, from presenting to understanding, from “convincing” to helping someone make sense of change in their own terms.
Turning insight into something practical
Behavioural science gives us powerful insight into why people hesitate. But insight alone isn’t enough, especially in the middle of a real sales conversation.
The real challenge is knowing:
- What to listen for
- What to ask next
- How to respond without creating resistance
Over the past few months, we’ve been working behind the scenes to turn behavioural science into something practical - something that fits the realities of animal health conversations.
Introducing: Mastering Sales in Animal Health
Mastering Sales in Animal Health is a new course developed by InsideMinds and Trimble Group, designed specifically for those working in the veterinary and animal health sector.
It brings together veterinary expertise, behavioural science, communication, and storytelling into a clear, practical framework you can use in real conversations. Rather than offering scripts or quick fixes, the course focuses on helping you build habits that make conversations feel:
- More structured
- More confident
- More effective
You’ll be encouraged to test ideas, reflect on what works, refine your approach, and build capability over time.
Meet the instructors
Dr Becki Maher (InsideMinds Consulting)
Becki is a veterinary surgeon and consumer psychologist. She brings a deep understanding of behavioural science and how it applies to real conversations. She knows what it feels like to be on both sides of the table - in practice and in commercial roles - and she knows what’s really going on beneath the surface in decision-making.
Jon Robbins (Trimble Group)
Jon is our learning and performance consultant at Trimble Group. He focuses on how people actually change their behaviour in the real world. His expertise is in building practical frameworks and learning systems that help teams develop new habits that stick.
Together, we’ve built a course that brings these two perspectives together: behavioural science, practical communication and storytelling, designed specifically for animal health.
Built for how learning really sticks
This isn’t about sounding slick or “salesy.” It’s about creating conversations where value is genuinely understood, and where progress feels natural.
If you’ve ever left a call feeling like you were close, but not quite there, this course was built with you in mind.
Find out more here:
