Why can’t I get my sales to close? JOLT Rx can tell you

As we enter Q4, the pressure on sales people to get deals signed intensifies. So why are the sales that seemed like a perfect fit stalling? Our new JOLT Rx dashboard helps you put the proven method into play, so you can identify and fix what stalls your sales.

When the world went on lockdown in 2020, our research partners at DCM Insights saw an opportunity. Up until then, understanding the sales process relied on recounted anecdotes from salespeople’s in-person meetings. As all of these meetings moved to virtual methods, recorded video meetings gave them a chance to analyze and diagnose issues along every step of the sales cycle. 

Using Tethr, they analyzed 2.5 million sales calls. What they uncovered surprised them. It wasn’t ineffective sales pitches that failed to convince buyers. 

Instead, customers ended up making no decision at all. Indecision caused buyers to pause, stall, and indefinitely postpone purchases. 

You can read more about the research in Matt Dixon and Ted McKenna’s new book, The JOLT Effect. For their research, they used Tethr to uncover the problem of customer indecision and identify how top performers overcome it. 

Now, we’ve created a ready-to-use dashboard so anyone can evaluate their sales calls using methods outlined in the research and the book.

What the JOLT Rx dashboard shows you

When you analyze your sales calls with Tethr, the JOLT Rx dashboard helps you answer crucial questions related to the JOLT method. 

Is this buyer indecisive?

The first step of the method asks you to judge the buyer’s indecision. When buyers are indecisive, you need to sell to them differently than you would if you were merely trying to convince them that your product features are superior.  With Tethr, you can look at individual calls or groups of calls over time and use machine learning to analyze conversations for signs of indecision. 

Tethr created a custom scoring system for conversations, the Tethr Opportunity Score. This score focuses on emotions expressed during a call that signal indecision, including customer confusion. 

Did I offer firm recommendations? 

The second step of the JOLT method – offer firm recommendations – urges salespeople to tell buyers what they should do. When buyers struggle with indecision, they respond positively to sellers who serve as an expert guide.

In the JOLT Rx dashboard, you can see if your sales team exhibited behavior associated with offering firm recommendations, including analytics on three important activities: proactive guidance, advocacy, and probing questions. 

Did I limit the exploration?

In the book, Dixon and McKenna explain that top-performing salespeople own the flow of information. They anticipate the buyers’ questions, concerns, and objections. Then tell them honestly what steps they should take. 

In JOLT Rx, we measure this flow of information by analyzing how much time during a conversation the sales agent talks compared to the buyer. Research found that sales were more likely to close when agents talked slightly more than the buyers did and silence time was minimal. 

JOLT Rx also shows you metrics for other key areas where salespeople can limit the exploration: signaling expertise and anticipating objections. 

Did I take risk off the table?

It’s easier to stick with the status quo than to face negative consequences of a big purchase. Indecisive buyers let the fear of messing up get in the way of making a decision. High-performing salespeople recognize this and know how to remove risk from buying decisions to temper the fear of making a mistake.

In JOLT Rx, we measure this by looking at a few things: 

• How often salespeople used ‘expectation setting’ language 
• Whether salespeople offered preemptive rebuttals, such as saying a purchase could be changed or was free to cancel. 

Want to see if indecision is threatening your sales? Our product experts can take you on a tour of the JOLT Rx dashboard to show you how you can extract the same metrics from your calls. Request a demo now.