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.
Summary: Q1 is feedback, not failure. Top-performing sales teams use a Q1 sales strategy review to assess whether they have an execution problem or a focus problem, then make targeted adjustments heading into Q2.
Quick Summary: The most effective way to rehearse a sales pitch is to practice out loud in front of real people until you own the story, not just recall it. When you reach that
Philip is a character licensing agent in the Philippines. His job is to connect beloved brands, anime titles, video games, and comic properties to companies that want to put those characters on their products.
Summary Elite sales performers differ from good ones in three key ways: they regulate their nervous system to lead conversations instead of react to them, they operate with clarity and alignment between their identity,
Summary LinkedIn hands salespeople more research than any other platform on earth, and most of them still send messages that get deleted on sight. This article covers the LinkedIn outreach mistakes I see constantly,
The sales player-coach — carrying a personal quota while also helping build and lead a team — is one of the hardest roles in sales, and most people in it burn out quietly. Surviving
Summary I spend my weekends on an ice rink. I have never been a competitive ice skater, not even close. But every Saturday morning, I’m out there at 5 a.m., ankles screaming, pride perpetually
You’re on LinkedIn every day. You’re posting, commenting, engaging with prospects, and doing everything the “experts” told you to do. Your activity metrics look great. Your pipeline looks terrible. And you can’t figure out
Key Takeaways When people leave training, why don’t they all perform at the same level? Training and coaching occupy different positions in the development process. One without the other leaves the job half done.
Caroline from Dayton, Ohio asked a question a lot of salespeople are wrestling with right now: How do you use AI efficiently without losing your human touch? It is a great question. And the
We all have the same number of hours in a week. The same golden hours. Yet so many sales reps do a poor job of protecting them. I have a customer who sells into
You just promoted your top performer to your newest sales leader. They crushed quota six quarters in a row. Closes deals in their sleep. Customers love them. The team respects them. On paper, it’s
Here is an undeniable truth: The No. 1 reason for failure in sales is an empty pipeline, and the No. 1 reason you have an empty pipeline is that you are not doing enough
You’re on LinkedIn, but do you really know how to use it effectively? There’s no good reason to avoid mastering LinkedIn. Your prospects are on LinkedIn actively engaging, researching, and making decisions. LinkedIn is
Cold calling terrifies most salespeople more than losing their biggest account. The rejection. The hang-ups. The voice telling you that you’re bothering people who don’t want to hear from you. Before transitioning into sales,
Here’s a question that keeps startup founders up at night: How does a first sales hire build pipeline and prospect effectively when there’s zero technology, no tools, and absolutely no data resources available? That’s
Ultra-High Performers Use An Omni-Channel Approach to Prospecting Text messaging is an important part of an omni-channel approach to prospecting that allows you to meet buyers where they are. Discover our five best practices
Every day, your prospects are assaulted by a digital firehose of generic, AI-generated emails and connection requests. It’s an incessant barrage of noise, and as a survival mechanism, your buyers have learned to ignore
Welcome to Grind Season. This week, we enter the most pivotal period of your entire sales year. From now until mid-December, how you choose to invest your limited time will determine whether you end
Here’s a question that’ll keep you up at night: What do you do when you believe in “buy or die” but you’re terrified of ruining future opportunities with annoying prospecting sequences? That’s exactly what
Walk into any sales conference, scroll through LinkedIn, or join a sales team meeting, and you’ll hear the same tired arguments: cold calling versus social selling, interruption versus relationship-building, quantity versus quality. The sales
LinkedIn is still the #1 platform for building pipeline in B2B sales, but the game has changed. Sales and marketing professionals have all come to rely on LinkedIn. It’s been their digital handshake, networking
While your competitors are stuck in voicemail purgatory, a small group of top performers has unlocked a secret pipeline of qualified sales leads. They’ve discovered how to stop chasing and start attracting, all by
Here’s a question that’ll flip your understanding of cultural intelligence in sales upside down: How do you win over a room full of skeptical Spanish teenagers when you’re the obvious American outsider who barely
If you’re only showing up in one place, you’re not showing up at all, which is why top sales reps are making multi-channel prospecting a priority and leveraging LinkedIn to get ahead. “The reality
You know the feeling. You’re mid-pitch, and you watch your prospect’s eyes glaze over—their mind somewhere else entirely. It’s exhausting, demoralizing, and it’s killing your close rate. But what if you didn’t have to
Here’s a question that’ll keep you up at night: What do you do when your emotions are sabotaging your sales performance? That’s the exact challenge posed by Kurt O’Donnell and the sales team from
Ben Hogan, who was arguably the greatest ball striker the game of golf has ever known, taught that if you wanted to improve your swing you should focus on the cause rather than the
Growing up, I was easily the shyest girl in the room. Not just quiet—debilitatingly shy. I was so shy that I wouldn’t even ring the bell to get off the bus. I’d simply ride
“I can’t do that.” How many times have you said those four words when facing a challenging sales situation? It could be picking up the phone to make that intimidating cold call. It could
How to Make Positive Change Stick These 8 strategies not only position leaders as catalysts for positive transformation but also ensures that their organizations remain agile, competitive, and poised for long-term success in an
Why Roleplay Should Be A Key Part of Your Sales Culture In this podcast, Jeb Blount, Jeremy Olson, and Kristin Isaacson discuss the importance of role-playing in sales. They emphasize the need for leaders
Mastermind Group Incredible Asks Jeb Blount Their Toughest Sales Questions In this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Mastermind Group Incredible asks Jeb Blount their real-life questions as he provides solutions to overcome their
Building and Leading a Successful Sales Team On this episode of the podcast, Allison Walsh, Vice President of Business Development and Branding for Advanced Recovery Systems, a national behavioral healthcare company, discusses her experience
Sales Training Is An Investment In YOU In this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount is joined by Sarah Browner, the Global Sales Enablement Manager at Adobe. If you are a sales
Recruiting For High Performance When you recruit the right person, you will find that they’re self-motivated and eager to train. On the other hand, if you hire someone that is not suited for the
Sales Training Matters For Small Businesses Sales Training can help your small business reach new heights, even with limited resources. There is a simple reason why large companies invest in sales training: It improves
Moving From A Culture of Efficiency to A Culture of Effectiveness Acting and improv skills are similar to soft skills in sales— leading with empathy and understanding your audience and your customer is paramount.
Human Connection Is Irreplaceable Dress appropriately for the situation and audience— it’s the little things that close the sale. Do research on who you’re trying to sell to and a personalized follow-up email after
