Who are laggards?
Laggards are the final ~16% of a market in Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations curve: the last segment to adopt a new product or technology, only doing so when the alternative becomes impossible (the previous solution is discontinued, regulation forces change, or social cost of non-adoption becomes prohibitive). They come after the late majority and represent the residual market the category eventually captures.
Characteristics
- Strongly tradition-oriented: reference past practice as the default; new is treated as risky by definition.
- Risk-averse to the extreme: require proof beyond what late majority demands: long industry track record, references from peer organisations, sometimes regulatory mandate.
- Price-sensitive in the strict sense: total cost of ownership matters more than feature differentiation.
- Switching forced by external events: end-of-life of incumbent technology, regulatory pressure, customer demand pushing them.
Strategic significance
Laggards are usually not worth a dedicated sales motion in early or growth stages: the cost to convert exceeds the revenue. They become economically interesting only at category maturity, when:
- The product is commoditised, productised and channel-distributed.
- Migration tools and services let laggards switch with minimal disruption.
- The incumbent solution they use is being end-of-lifed.
Laggards vs. other late-stage segments
- Laggards vs. late majority: the late majority adopts once a category is mainstream; laggards resist even mainstream adoption until forced.
- Laggards vs. non-customers: non-customers will never adopt; laggards do, just last and often reluctantly.
Do: serve laggards through channel partners and end-of-life migration playbooks once the category has matured, not direct sales.
Don’t: spend valuable founder-led or enterprise sales capacity on laggards in early stages: the unit economics never work.
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