“If the warehouse feed is late right before cutoff, who tells sales to stop promising stock?” the warehouse manager asks. If a rep accepts an order based on an outdated quantity, the team may only find out there’s a problem when the warehouse tries to pick it.
In the Influence episode, the same fictional distributor ran three stock tests. Sales could see the quantity available to sell, reserved stock stayed out of that figure, and reassigning a reservation required approval. All three tests passed in the demo. The demo used a shared database. The distributor has a separate warehouse system, so the team still needs to see what happens when an update from that system comes in late, especially during the switch to the new workflow.
Matthew Dixon and Ted McKenna’s The JOLT Effect (2022) describes four moves for helping buyers who see a reason to change and worry about choosing badly or getting a poor outcome. Here’s how I’d apply those moves with the distributor. The dialogue and proposed rehearsal are fictional. Book page from Penguin Random House · The authors’ explanation of JOLT
J · Judge the indecision
When a buyer says they need time, find out what they’re waiting for. Would they prefer to keep the current workflow even if the test goes well? Is a decision waiting on budget or someone’s approval? If the team wants to change, what makes choosing a way forward hard? They may be unsure which option to pick, whether they’ve checked enough, or what will happen if they go ahead.
Sales lead “If we can show what happens when the feed is late, would you want to start with one warehouse? What else would you need before you could decide?”
Warehouse manager “I’d consider it. I need to see what the rep can do while we’re waiting for an update. Our operations director also has to approve any test that uses live orders.”
The request for evidence has a clear answer the team can test. The operations director’s approval is a separate requirement. Record both before deciding whether the team needs help choosing among rollout options.
O · Offer your recommendation
ERP specialist “I’d rehearse with one warehouse before using live orders. We can take an approved sample of its reservation data and simulate a delay near cutoff. That gives your team a chance to see what the rep sees and practice what to do while the update is late.”
Start with a warehouse that uses the relevant integration and can spare the people needed for the rehearsal. The recommendation follows from the buyer’s concern about stale stock. If the warehouse’s order flow differs from other sites, document the difference and review it before recommending any expansion. The buyer can decline the proposal or choose a different site.
L · Limit the exploration
Before sending another set of screenshots or comparison sheets, agree on the question the next round of work needs to answer. In this case, can sales tell that the quantity is stale and hold an order confirmation until the warehouse verifies it? Run that scenario and check what happens when the delayed update arrives. Record other open questions with the decisions they affect. If procurement or IT needs further evidence for its review, include that evidence in the work.
T · Take risk off the table
A rehearsal outside production with sample orders lets the team try the pause and recovery steps before any customer order is affected. If the rehearsal passes, the buyer can consider a live pilot with an agreed warehouse, a time window, and an operations lead authorized to pause it. Agree on who reconciles orders and reservations before the team resumes the old workflow. Some orders may already have been accepted when a problem appears, so the team needs a way to identify and check those orders before making new promises.
| What to agree on | What that means in this case |
|---|---|
| Evidence needed to pass | IT and sales agree on the maximum acceptable update delay. In the rehearsal, the rep can recognize a stale figure and hold the confirmation. Once the update arrives, the warehouse verifies that reservations and available stock match the expected result. |
| When to pause and who calls it | The buyer names an operations lead who can pause the pilot if the update exceeds the agreed limit or the quantities can’t be reconciled. The buyer’s sales lead tells reps to hold confirmations for affected orders. |
| How to resume | Warehouse and IT reconcile affected orders and reservations before operations authorizes a return to the previous workflow. Review the result with the buyer before deciding whether to retry, expand, or stop. |
A checklist for the next decision
Decision we’re asking for now / who can approve it
Buyer’s concern / evidence or approval still missing
Recommended scope / why this warehouse or workflow
What we’ll test / pass criteria / who checks the result
When to pause / who calls it / how we reconcile and resume
Review date / options to proceed, repeat, or stop
Permission to follow up / who to contact and whenFor this meeting, I’d ask whether the team wants to schedule the rehearsal. A yes covers the rehearsal. The operations director can decide on a live pilot after reviewing the result. If the team asks to pause or declines, close the loop and follow up only if they agree to it.
Suppose the rehearsal goes well and the buyer asks to include every warehouse within the original budget. The delivery team still needs to check how the other sites handle their data. In the next episode, Getting to Yes helps both sides use the test results, estimated effort, and acceptance criteria to discuss scope and price.