The JOLT Effect: How High Performers Overcome Customer Indecision by Matthew Dixon and Ted McKenna

About the Book

From the bestselling co-author of The Challenger Sale, a paradigm-shattering approach to overcoming customer indecision and closing more sales

In sales, the worst thing you can hear from a customer isn’t “no.” It’s “I need to think about it.”

When this happens, deeply entrenched business advice says to double down on your efforts to sell a buyer on all the ways they might win by choosing you and your business.

But this approach backfires dramatically. Why? Because it completely gets wrong the primary driver behind purchasing decision-making: once purchase intent is established, customers no longer care about succeeding.

What they really care about is not failing.

For years, sales expert Matthew Dixon has been busting longstanding business myths. Now in The JOLT Effect, he and co-author Ted McKenna turn their trademark analysis and the latest research to the vital and growing problem of customer indecision—and offer a shocking new approach that turns conventional wisdom on its head.

Drawing on a brand-new, first-of-its-kind study of more than two and a half million sales conversations from across industries, they reveal the surprising truth that high-performing sales reps grasp and their average-performing peers don’t: only by addressing the customer’s fear of failure can you get indecisive buyers to go from verbally committing to actually pulling the trigger.

Packed with robust data, counterintuitive insights, and practical guidance, The JOLT Effect is the playbook for any salesperson or sales leader who wants to close the gap between customer intent and action—and close more sales.

About the Author

Matt Dixon is one of the world’s leading experts on sales, customer service, and customer experience. He is a Founding Partner of DCM Insights, The Customer Understanding Lab.

Prior to co-founding DCM Insights, he served as the Chief Product & Research Officer of Tethr, an AI venture in Austin, TX, that helps companies mine customer voice data for insights.

And before that, he spent time as a Senior Partner and the Global Head of Sales Force Effectiveness Solutions at Korn Ferry Hay Group and as Group Leader of the sales, service, and customer experience practices of CEB, now Gartner.

Matt is a sought-after speaker and advisor to corporate leadership teams around the world on topics ranging from sales effectiveness to customer service and customer experience and is also a noted business writer.

His first book, The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation, was a Wall Street Journal best seller, selling more than a million copies worldwide.

He is also the co-author of the customer experience bestseller The Effortless Experience: Conquering the New Battleground for Customer Loyalty and the follow-on book to The Challenger Sale titled The Challenger Customer: Selling to the Hidden Influencer Who Can Multiply Your Results.

Matt is also a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review with more than 20 articles to date, including many that have appeared in HBR’s “Top Ten Must Reads.”

And, interesting fact – he’s a huge New York Mets fan!

Listen to the Interview…

Links…

• The JOLT Effect: How High Performers Overcome Customer Indecision by Matthew Dixon and Ted McKenna (Amazon)
• The JOLT Effect (book website)
• Matt Dixon (LinkedIn)
• Matt Dixon (Twitter)
• Matt Dixon (DCM Insights)
• Jolt Cola (Wikipedia)
• The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation by Matt Dixon and Brent Adamson
• The Challenger Customer: Selling to the Hidden Influencer Who Can Multiply Your Results by Brent Adamson, Matthew Dixon, Pat Spenner, and Nick Toman (Marketing Book Podcast interview)
• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
• The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less by Barry Schwartz
• SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham
• Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip and Dan Heath
• Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers by Chip Heath and Karla Starr
• The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward by Daniel Pink

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