---
id: "quote-buyer-fear"
type: "quote"
source_timestamps: ["§ What the Best Sellers Did Differently"]
tags: ["risk", "enterprise-sales"]
related: ["concept-buyer-uncertainty", "framework-sprint"]
speaker: "Dave Rubinstein and Vincent Onyemah"
speakers: ["Dave Rubinstein", "Vincent Onyemah"]
sources: ["commercial"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-commercial"
originDay: 5
articleStem: "hbr-ext-21-founders-new-sales-playbook"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/06/startup-founders-need-a-new-sales-playbook"
sourceTitle: "Startup Founders Need a New Sales Playbook"
---
# Buyer Fear as the Ultimate Friction

> "The real friction in 2026 is buyer fear: AI hallucinating, data corrupted, workflows breaking in front of leadership."

**Speakers:** [[entity-dave-rubinstein]] and [[entity-vincent-onyemah]] (the authors).

**Context:** Names the specific risks that cause late-stage deals to stall in the modern tech landscape — the definitional statement of [[concept-buyer-uncertainty]] and the rationale for the **Implementation** element of [[framework-sprint]] (see [[action-preempt-risk]]). The statement is deliberately time-bound ("2026") but tracks trends emerging since 2023–2025.