As a student of my profession, I’ve probably read about 100 sales books. Of these, there are only a few that I would read more than once and even fewer that I would enthusiastically recommend. To qualify, the book must teach something new, be backed up by hard data, and be well-written. I’m happy to say that The JOLT Effect: How High Performers Overcome Customer Indecision, by Matt Dixon and Ted McKenna, easily meets all those criteria.
Here’s the gist of the book in one paragraph. The single biggest reason sales are lost is because customers can’t or won’t make a decision. The way that most salespeople have been taught to sell doesn’t’ work against indecision, and actually makes things worse. Using the counterintuitive approaches described by the acronym JOLT can more than double your chances of winning deals.
Let’s take these one by one.
Your biggest competitor
For any sales opportunity to succeed, the customer must take action to buy from you. That means that they must intend to change, select your offer, and follow through with their intent. In other words, your three competitors are status quo, competitive vendors, and indecision. The first surprising insight from this book is that indecision is the most common reason that deals don’t close, comprising 40-60% of losses. Indecision is not the same as deciding to stick with status quo; it occurs when the customer has expressed an intent to change, but is either unwilling or unable to actually pull the trigger on the decision. Amazingly, even after customers have said they’re willing to buy, conversion rates are only 26%!
You can’t fight fear with fear
Since sales is about change, most sales approaches are designed to overcome status quo bias. In this battle, fear is the salesperson’s friend. Because change is hard, salespeople have learned to bring out the fear of loss—to make the cost or pain of not changing greater than the cost or risk of changing. It’s extremely effective in getting the customer to agree that they need to change.
But there’s a problem. Once the customer has decided that change is necessary, another more powerful fear kicks in, called commission bias. We are more afraid of making a mistake through action than inaction. Especially in a large organization with a lot of people involved in the decision process, it’s easier and safer not to decide. Fear of missing out is not as strong as fear of messing up.
When the customer delays or dithers, the average salesperson assumes they haven’t done a good enough job on making their case for change, so they double down on the fear. But this just injects more fear into the customer’s mind and actually backfires. Statistics gleaned from literally millions of sales conversations show that while dialing up fear works 16% of the time, it does not work 84% of the time.
So, to combat indecision, the trick is to flip the switch—from fear to reassurance. You have to lower the fear of deciding. Every business book needs an acronym and that’s where JOLT comes in.
JOLT them into action
Judge the indecision. The best sales reps qualify not only ability to buy, but ability to decide. This is probably the hardest part: being able to detect the presence and depth of indecision. Their research has shown that indecision is present in 84% percent of sales opportunities. It comes from three sources: valuation problems, which means they have trouble comparing options; incomplete information; outcome uncertainty, which is the risk of not getting the results they expect. This chapter explains how to gauge the source and depth of indecision through things the customer does and says during the sales cycle.
Offer recommendations. Another “aha! moment” for me. I’m a huge proponent of asking questions and talking less during sales conversations, but that’s not the best approach at this stage of the sale. Their research showed that the most effective reps actually talked more rather than less, telling more than asking. Too much choice and resulting complexity make it harder to decide, so the salesperson who offers proactive guidance and expert personal opinion makes it easier, boosting conversion rates from 13% to 48%. (I note that for this to be effective, the rep must have established credibility and trust, and asking a lot of questions earlier in the sales cycle is still one of the best ways to demonstrate customer orientation and to get the information needed to make credible recommendations.)
Limit the exploration. Every salesperson knows the frustration of analysis paralysis, where the customer is always asking for just a little more information. High performing reps learn to own the flow of information in three ways. First, they establish their own expertise. One of the ways they do this is by actually limiting the participation of subject matter experts like sales engineers. Another way is to anticipate objections or concerns the customer is likely to have, and bring them up before the customer does. This strategy of “pre-buttal” is extremely effective, as shown by a 45% increase in win rate when it’s used. Third, they are not afraid to challenge the customer’s request for more information, and follow up with questions to probe for exactly what uncertainty is driving the request.
Take risk off the table. When the book first came out, I texted Dave Brock to ask if he thought it was worth investing the $29 price. He responded by saying that it was well worth it, and if I did not agree, he would personally reimburse me. He demonstrated the effectiveness of finding ways to lower the customer’s downside risk and make it easier for them to decide.
Will adopting the JOLT approach pay off for you? Let me try my hand at taking risk off the table[1]. First, using JOLT does not mean you throw out everything you’ve learned to date about changing the status quo. That is still necessary. It’s an addition, not a replacement, for your sales playbook.
Second, I can’t totally reduce your outcome uncertainty, but let me stress what I said at the beginning about hard data. Dixon and McKenna did not make up the JOLT techniques; they discovered them in the patterns from the data. They have taken advantage of the explosion of virtual sales conversations caused by the pandemic, using machine learning to analyze 2.5 million sales conversations and uncover patterns of what separates the high performers from the average. As you can see from the liberal use of statistics in this review, they’ve measured what works and how well. If it worked for them, it will work for you.
It’s an easy decision: buy it, read it, apply it.
[1] I don’t have the resources to make the same offer Dave did to me.
Anyone who is familiar with Lean Communication knows how important it is to be brief and prevent waste. So, of course I was intrigued by the title of a new book, Smart Brevity: The Power of Doing More with Less, and read it immediately on receiving it this week.
My assessment? Well worth reading, but could have been shorter.
You write too much for the way your readers consume information. No one has the time or patience to read everything they are sent, so it is likely that most of what you write goes unread.
This matters to you personally because, as a knowledge worker, your contribution, influence and credibility depend on being heard, or in this case, being read. It matters to the organization when important information slips through the cracks and things happen—or don’t—as a result.
Smart Brevity will teach you how to grab attention and keep it, and so ensure that your message gets across crisply and clearly. The authors share a formula which they have developed over their work in print and electronic media. As you see in this review: tease them with a good subject line, craft a short opening sentence that tells the one big thing, explain why it matters, and then go deeper as necessary. Simple and effective.
As the author of Lean Communication, I am pulling for this book to take off, because it carries such an important message. But I do have to point out one caveat. The book could have been shorter by about 20%. There is too much backstory and puffery about Axios, the company the authors founded and run today, and after a while you get the feel that you are reading a corporate or product brochure.
Remember: write tighter, write better.
By the way, if you haven’t read Lean Communication, you may wonder which book to read first. If you want to focus solely on your writing, read Smart Brevity. If you want to focus on spoken communication, Lean Communication is the book for you.
Recently, I read and reviewed Jeffrey Pfeffer’s book, 7 Rules of Power. I had mixed feelings about the book, because even though it provides practical advice about how to attain power within an organization, it is explicitly amoral when it came to the use of your power when you have it. The dominant standard is, do what works, because becoming powerful will excuse anything you did to get it, or what you do with it once you have it.
Ironically, one of the strongest counterpoints to Pfeffer’s argument comes from a book he recommended, by his Stanford colleague Deborah Gruenfeld, Acting with Power: Why We Are More Powerful than We Believe.
The book’s title contains a clue to its two key themes. The first is that leadership is a form of acting. The second is that it’s important not only to have power, but how you act with it once you have it.
Let’s cover the latter theme first: Gruenfeld reflects on those who seek power because:
“…they want to be associated with the brand, create a personal platform, build a resume, and become more visible as a mover and shaker. Many books on power will tell you this is the right way to think about power. I have always thought it was nonsense. Everyone knows when this happens. These people have not just lost the plot, they never cared about the plot to begin with. “
As she says, “…the measure of a person is not how much power a person has but what one uses power for.” In other words, it’s not just about accumulating power, but in using it effectively. Effectively, in this case, does not mean for selfish ends, but for a greater good: for the team, the organization, the community.
Gruenfeld’s exhortation to use power for the greater good is not merely preachy moralizing, it’s also practical, because it makes others more likely to follow you and support you if they know you have their best interests at heart.
Back to the first key theme: leadership is a form of acting. The essential insight is that power is not a personal attribute, but something that others confer on you because of the situation, because we can give or withhold something they need. So power derives from the role we play in concert with others.
That means that, like an actor, we have to play the role assigned to us in the truest possible way. Paradoxically, this does not mean being “authentic”. It means bringing out the best aspects of ourself that are most appropriate to the situation. For example, you could be the big boss at work and play a totally different role around your family, or your friends.
I call it calculated authenticity, Gruenfeld calls it playing a role, hence the title of the book. So, if you play the role properly, others will see you acting responsibly and thus deserving of the power they grant you.
Some people may have trouble buying into this idea, but I wholeheartedly agree, as I’ve written before. For example, if you’re suffering from imposter syndrome or stage fright, being authentic will only make it worse. So, acting with power means that sometimes you need to win the battle within yourself, which is another reason not to be “authentic”. Often, you might have to radiate outward confidence even when you’re boiling with anxiety inside, and there are a number of useful tips for doing so. Incidentally, the chapter on acting to play up your power would fit perfectly into a book on presentations; I especially like the advice to act as a host and not a guest.
Gruenfeld also rightly recognizes that it’s not always about playing the alpha dog. Sometimes the situation dictates that you play down your power. If you have a lot of power, you may need to tone it down to make others more comfortable. If you report to someone more powerful, you have to “ride shotgun” effectively.
Pfeffer tells us we don’t have a right to preach, so I won’t. I’ll just leave it with a simple question. If you had a choice of leaders, one who got there by following either Pfeffer’s or Gruenfeld’s advice, which would you choose?
Bill Dellecker is not a famous management guru, business school professor, retired general or big name CEO, so why should you read his book on leadership?
Precisely because he doesn’t bring any of those specific perspectives. He merely brings the perspective of a professional small-to-medium business leader, one who knows what it’s like to get his hands dirty, meet payroll, build a business without unlimited capital budgets, deal directly with clients, train and motivate a diverse work force, and successfully meet the infinite variety of daily challenges posed by the market.
But experience by itself doesn’t automatically translate to a worthwhile book. Dellecker also adds the perspective of a thoughtful student of his profession, one who has long worked on, not just in business. He has done extensive reading and it shows.
Those two perspectives, I believe, will resonate with the vast majority of potential readers who will never go on to run a Fortune 500 company, but who nevertheless will make a tremendous impact on their own business, department, or team. Dellecker has turned his experience and learning into relatable practical advice that the reader can immediately begin to apply. He doesn’t just tell you what to do, he also demonstrates how to do it. For example, while he urges you to hire top talent, he also provides you with a specific list of questions that you can use during the interview to help you figure it out.
Leadership Worthy is well-written and clearly laid out. The first section deals with his three pillars of business success: People First, Purpose Second and Valuing Details. The second section covers specific skills, such as establishing culture, measuring what matters and communication. With the exception of his citing the old canard that only 7% of feeling content is carried in the words we speak, I thought his chapter on leadership communication was strong. The third section covers how to apply these principles and skills in a dynamic environment.
Ultimately, Dellecker’s three pillars of business success must rest on a solid foundation of knowing yourself. The most important theme of the book is that to do leadership right, it begins inside of you. To be worthy to lead, you must know who you are and what you stand for, and have an honest view of your own strengths and weaknesses. I’m not sure that lesson is taught in business schools today, but it certainly should be.
