
5 Things I Learned Last Year
The end of the year is always a time of reflection, and what I’ve learned to do over the years is to identify the things that had the biggest positive impact on my business,
Welcome to the Sales Gravy blog, where salespeople and sales leaders get better every week. We publish new sales training articles and podcast episodes three times a week, covering prospecting, cold calling, objections, negotiation, and leadership, written by Jeb Blount and the Sales Gravy trainer team.

The end of the year is always a time of reflection, and what I’ve learned to do over the years is to identify the things that had the biggest positive impact on my business,

Few people seem to hold back for fear of committing a faux pas. Nevertheless there are rules regarding toasting and if you want to be the polished professional at the office party or the

Knee jerk objections occur for two reasons. First, you are an interruption. The prospect wasn’t expecting your call and you’re taking him away from the task at hand. Second, the prospect is worried about

It starts with recruiting the right agents. One needs to recruit people who have the skills, attitude, and business-owner mindset necessary to succeed. Finding, attracting and selecting the right prospective candidates is an art

It’s tempting to select someone who’s “hungry”. It would seem logical that a candidate who is anxious for an opportunity would be the perfect person. They’d work hard, be conscientious, and push through any

If you have to make cold calls as part of your sales process – either to set appointments or to find potential clients to sell your products and services to – then you know

Someone wrote me once about a prospect who wasn’t calling him back only to find out the prospect was leaving the company. He wrote me and said, “I guess intuitively I knew he wasn’t

What typically happens when we interact with others is that we size up what’s happening in a conversation from our perspective. We make judgments and evaluations of the other person based on what

Ask direct, specific questions that require your prospect to either commit to what’s next, or that get your prospect to reveal that the sale might not go through (I know you hate to hear

Years ago I heard the story of a 70-year-old woman who lifted a car off her grandchild and saved his life. When she was interviewed, instead of being ecstatic, she was melancholy and admitted
Being a new business owner is a lot like skydiving in the sense that you are taking calculated risks daily that run you through a flurry of emotions before landing on the ground

When you make that initial phone call or in-person door knock, you don’t know what you don’t know. Who says the greeter is not the CEO, or at least the husband, wife or brother