The JOLT Effect – Helping Buyers Overcome Indecision
- Louis Fernandes
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
In previous posts we’ve explored two of the most influential sales methodologies in the B2B world: SPIN Selling, which taught us how to structure discovery, and Challenger, which showed us how to reframe the buyer’s thinking to create urgency.
But as buying cycles have grown longer and decision-making more complex, a new problem has emerged—one that neither SPIN nor Challenger fully solves.
That problem is indecision.
More deals today are dying not because buyers prefer a competitor, but because they’re too overwhelmed, risk-averse, or uncertain to make any decision at all.
Today, we’re looking at The JOLT Effect—a newer framework designed specifically to address this issue. It builds on the work of Challenger but turns its attention to the back half of the sales cycle, where most deals now stall.
The Origin of The JOLT Effect – Behavioural Science Meets Sales Execution
The JOLT Effect comes from Matt Dixon and Ted McKenna, and is a natural follow-up to The Challenger Sale. It’s based on a study of more than 2.5 million sales conversations using machine learning and conversational intelligence platform Tethr, a Creovai company .
Their core finding? The biggest reason deals are lost today isn’t competitor displacement or lack of budget—it’s customer indecision.
Their research showed that between 40–60% of committed pipeline stalls not because of objections or competition, but because buyers can’t decide what to do next. They fear making the wrong decision more than making no decision at all.
And that’s where JOLT comes in.
The JOLT Framework: A Response to the Rise of Indecision
JOLT is an acronym that represents four key behaviours sellers can use to help buyers overcome their own inertia:
J – Judge the level of indecision Qualify not just on fit or intent, but on indecision itself. Learn to recognise the signs early—hesitation, over-analysis, endless stakeholder validation.
O – Offer your recommendation Don’t just present options—advocate. Indecisive buyers are paralysed by choice. Great sellers make it easier by guiding them toward a confident decision.
L – Limit the exploration Stop feeding the need for “just one more call” or “another white paper.” Instead, help the buyer feel confident they already have what they need to move forward.
T – Take risk off the table Indecision is driven by fear. Mitigate that fear with guarantees, proof, social validation, and reassurance that the consequences of action are manageable
Why Buyers Really Get Stuck: Fear of Commission vs Fear of Omission
At the heart of most indecision lies fear—but not the kind we usually assume. The JOLT research draws an important distinction between two psychological drivers:
Fear of Commission – The fear of making a bad decision. “If I choose this solution and it goes wrong, it’s on me.” This is the fear of taking action and it leading to negative consequences. It drives risk-averse behaviours like delay, over-analysis, or asking for endless validation.
Fear of Omission – The fear of missing out on something better. “What if there’s a cheaper, safer, faster, more scalable option out there?” This creates buyer paralysis, particularly when there are too many choices or a lack of clear differentiation.
What JOLT makes clear is that even highly engaged, motivated buyers can stall—not because they don’t see the value, but because they’re afraid of the consequences of being wrong. Helping buyers overcome that fear—by building confidence, simplifying choices, and de-risking decisions—is one of the most overlooked skills in sales today.
Where JOLT Fits (and Where It Doesn’t)
JOLT is not a top-of-funnel framework. It won’t help you qualify, discover, or challenge your customer’s assumptions. That’s what SPIN and Challenger are for.
Instead, it shines in the back half of the sales cycle—the final third where your champion has already seen the value, but still isn’t buying.
This is where the old playbook—more demos, more decks, more “checking in”—simply doesn’t work. Indecision isn’t solved by more activity. It’s solved by more confidence.
JOLT gives sellers a structure for helping buyers make decisions in the face of uncertainty.
That said, JOLT is not without its limitations.
It’s a newer model, and while the dataset is vast, it's still being proven across diverse sales environments.
It relies heavily on sales rep judgement—particularly in recognising indecision and applying the right intervention at the right time.
It assumes a well-developed sales motion is already in place. If discovery is weak or messaging unclear, JOLT won’t save you.
How to Embed JOLT Thinking into Your GTM Execution
If SPIN builds discovery discipline, and Challenger creates urgency, then JOLT builds buyer confidence.
To operationalise it effectively:
Train your team to recognise indecision – This should be part of call coaching, pipeline inspection, and deal reviews. Ask: Is this a buyer who doesn’t want to buy, or one who’s afraid to?
Adjust qualification criteria – Add questions to assess indecision risk. Have they bought something like this before? Are they getting stuck on minor details? Is consensus breaking down?
Equip reps with risk mitigation plays – Pricing protection, opt-outs, references, or guarantees. Enablement needs to build and document these tools.
RevOps should monitor ‘no decision’ rates – Deals that close with no competitive loss. Track them. Analyse them. Coach around them.
Sales Managers need to roleplay late-stage tension – Reps must practise confident recommendation and limiting the exploration—not just handling objections.
Closing Thoughts
JOLT is a timely and much-needed addition to the modern sales methodology toolkit. As sales cycles stretch and buying committees stall, GTM teams need more than just insight and urgency. They need structure to help buyers act.
If Challenger creates the energy to move, JOLT removes the friction that stalls momentum.
Next week, we’ll move into the final framework in this series: MEDDPICC—the gold standard for sales qualification in complex, high-stakes selling environments.
Until then—how are you helping your customers make confident decisions?
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