Managing Customer Indecision

There’s a customer phrase that feels like a gut-punch to any salesperson: “Let me think about it.” In fact, according?The JOLT Effect?by Matt Dixon and Ted McKenna , this phrase is more highly correlated with lost deals than any other, based on an analysis of thousands of sales calls.

It’s clear?The JOLT Effect?is an important new book for those attempting to understand the ongoing evolution of B2B sales. My colleagues?Tiana Abdulmassih,?David Huang, and I hosted a live “B2B Book Club” to bring the book's research to life. In case you missed it, below are the key takeaways. You can also watch a recording of our session?here.

The Evolution of B2B Sales

Broadly speaking, the history of B2B sales spans three distinct phases: pre-Internet (up until the mid-1990s), early Internet (mid 90s until 2020), and accelerated Internet (COVID and beyond). For each of these phases we see the impact of two trends: volume of information and clarity of choice. The graphic below illustrates changes in the buyer-seller dynamic as these two trends continue to play out:

For the pre-Internet phase, the seller had greater clarity of choice because sellers had an asymmetric information advantage over buyers. Then the Internet inverted this dynamic. Suddenly B2B buyers had free and unfettered access to almost everything that was once exclusively available to sellers. Practically overnight, sellers lost an enormous amount of leverage with buyers.

With the shift to all-digital and digital-first in the COVID era, the buyer-seller dynamic has changed again. The volume of information today is no longer net positive for buyers, at least not in all cases. Quite often it is net negative because there is simply too much to process. Buyers are more prone to uncertainty as a consequence of these information trends. They are less clear about their choices, and there is growing interdependence between sellers and buyers, as sellers can help to improve buyers’ decision clarity.

The Two Playbooks

Practically speaking, there are now two playbooks for B2B sales. Playbook 1 is the traditional sales approach that seeks to challenge, and ideally change, the status quo. For Playbook 1, the seller confronts the client's “present bias,” or the tendency to overweight the cost of change compared to future benefits. The seller shrinks this cost-benefit time gap by speaking to the consequences of inaction. Ideally, buyers are made aware of what they will lose if the status quo remains unchanged.

If the seller is successful, then Playbook 2 kicks in. At that point the seller begins to grapple with a different customer psychology, known as “omission bias.” Now the buyer agrees the status quo must change, but is reluctant to move forward because of the fear of messing up. The client judges the harm of commission (action) more negatively than the harm of omission (inaction). Crucially, Playbook 1 tactics no longer work. They are actually counterproductive, because highlighting the consequences of inaction in this later stage tends to feed analysis paralysis.

Top performers have figured this out, according to extensive call data.?They notice the shift in customer psychology, and they move to a more prescriptive approach with Playbook 2: making a clear recommendation, circumscribing decision variables, and capping the client's perceived downside. That is the essence of the “JOLT” effect.

Top Performer Habits

This raises an obvious question: Given the limited amount of influence sellers have today, what gives them license to be more directive with clients? The answer can be found in?LinkedIn's own research?on top performer habits from earlier this year. Looking at 1,500 salespeople who attain 150% or more of their quota, a counterintuitive pattern emerged. Even with a reduced amount of influence on the sales journey, top performers are not prepared to sacrifice quality for quantity. They are willing to trade less time with clients for more time researching their client's needs:

Top performers are determined to make every interaction count. With this mindset and approach, they earn the right to claim plausible objectivity on what is truly in the client's best interest.

Takeaways for Sellers and Sales Leaders

For sellers, know where are you are in the sales journey. Are you challenging the status quo or overcoming indecision? If you find yourself in Playbook 2, this is the time to be more prescriptive. But understand you need to have earned this right.

For sales leaders, know how much of your pipeline is in Playbook 1 versus Playbook 2. According to the?The JOLT Effect, somewhere between 40-60% of deals are lost to “no decision.” This is also the time to include Playbook 2 capabilities in your hiring, training, and sales intelligence plans.