Sales researcher Matt Dixon discusses findings from his book 'The JOLT Effect' regarding customer indecision and fear of failure during sales conversations.
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Dixon: Pushing FOMO on hesitant buyers backfires 87% of the time
“87% of the time when salespeople do that dial up the FOMO in those moments, especially with a customer who says that they're ready to move forward, but they start to backpedal and waffle and waver and become hesitant, dialing up the FOMO backfires 87% of the t…”
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Dixon: 56% of no-decision sales losses stem from fear of failure
“It turns out those are only 44% of the no decision losses. 56% of no decision losses are customers who are, who want to buy, but can't buy because they're stuck in this no man's land of indecision, and that indecision itself stems from their fear of failure”
Insight
Dixon: Buyers' fear of messing up outweighs fear of missing out
“In the human mind, people are okay with missing out. They are not okay with messing up and being blamed. And this is really powerful. It's even more powerful than status quo bias, as I said. And so the shorthand for salespeople is this, dialing up the FOMO can…”
Insight
Dixon: Incumbent software vendors suffer more buyer indecision than startups
“Look, you guys, yes, it's tough to be a startup right now, early stage company. There's a lot of risks there, but who's offering more choices, them or you guys? You guys have a partner ecosystem. You have like, 20 different cloud products. You've bought like s…”
Insight
Dixon: Effective sales involves revealing unseen customer risks tied to unique solutions
“The challenger approach is about showing the customer what should be keeping them up at night. What is the thing you know that they need to know? What is the way that other customers are using your solution to Generate returns and in benefit for their organiza…”
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Dixon: 40% to 60% of qualified sales pipeline ends in 'no decision'
“Our analysis showed that anywhere between 40 and 60% of the average salesperson's qualified pipelines, these aren't just leads, you know, sometimes bad leads that are thrown over to us by marketing. These are qualified opportunities. These are You know, people…”