The Commission That Cost Me Everything: Integrity First Selling
I was about two years into my sales career when I took a deal I had no business taking. A local business owner was expanding fast, opening new locations all over town, and I
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.
I was about two years into my sales career when I took a deal I had no business taking. A local business owner was expanding fast, opening new locations all over town, and I
Here is the truth about enterprise selling right now: the dividing line in the age of AI is people, not technology. The salespeople who figure this out are going to pull away from the
Summary: The leading indicator of sales success is not calls made, emails sent, or LinkedIn touches. It is the First Time Appointment (FTA) — a net-new meeting with a prospect you have never spoken
Buyer resistance is at an all-time high and has reached a tipping point. Two emotional intelligence competencies separate sellers who push through from those who back down. Key Takeaways: Using Emotional Intelligence to Break
Summary Prospects ask about price on a cold call because they are overwhelmed, not because they are serious buyers. The fix is a combination of better call timing, confident objection responses, and language that
Summary Your attitude arrives before you do in every sales conversation. Before buyers process what you’re saying, they’re already reacting to your energy, tone, and presence — on the phone, on Zoom, and in
Confidence isn’t something you wait for. It’s something you build, one conversation at a time.
Quick Summary Q1 surfaced a consistent theme across our best podcast conversations: the reps who win consistently are the ones who treat the fundamentals (goal setting, communication, prospecting discipline, and self-awareness) as non-negotiable. In
Summary: Most sales managers confuse empathy with sympathy and pay for it in team performance. Jeb Blount breaks down the real difference, why listening first is the most powerful coaching move you have, and
Summary: Why people buy has far less to do with logic than most salespeople think. Buyers make decisions driven by emotion first, then justify those choices with rational explanations after the fact. To close
Summary: In sales, relaxed assertive confidence is the calm, settled belief that when you ask, the answer will be yes. It is one of the most reliable traits separating top-performing salespeople from those who
Here is a question that comes up more than you might think: What do you do when your company is pushing you to have bigger, more strategic conversations with C-suite executives, but every relationship