13 Real Alternatives to Cold Calling That Build Pipeline
Can’t stomach cold calling? Steal Jeb Blount’s 13 proven alternatives to picking up the phone that build real pipeline and actually work.
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.
Can’t stomach cold calling? Steal Jeb Blount’s 13 proven alternatives to picking up the phone that build real pipeline and actually work.
The right time to hire a fractional sales leader is when your team has outgrown what you can manage on top of running the business. Here are 7 signs that tell you it’s time,
Making just three to five of proactive calls to customers in a five-minute block, breaks the reactive cycle most account managers live in and builds the relationships that drive real, predictable revenue.
Recruiting is a sales leader’s number one job, and the way to find sales candidates is the same way your reps find customers: recruit like you prospect.

Steal this trial close technique and exact scripts to motivate buyers to make decisions and act without making big price concessions.
Referral leads close at three to four times the rate of cold and self-generated leads. Once both reach a real sales conversation, referrals close at roughly 26 percent versus 9 percent for cold and

When should you ask questions on a cold call? Questions come after you’ve earned the right, when you’re gathering information and qualifying, and they lead the conversation only when the prospect contacted you first.
To prospect for new clients, stop making random touches and run a consistent five-step system. Work this system every day and you gain control of your pipeline, along with the peace of mind that
The best way to measure sales productivity is with leading indicators—the KPIs and metrics that predict future revenue and let you fix problems before sales dry up.
A good sales voicemail is short, scripted, and gives the prospect one clear reason to call you back. This guide gives you seven word-for-word sales voicemail scripts that work!
Salespeople fail at cold calling for five common reasons. Fix them and the phone starts producing appointments again.
Email response rates are collapsing because decision maker inboxes are stuffed with automated, AI-written slop. This is exactly why the phone is more powerful today than it was ten years ago.

On this discussion with Dylis Guyan, host of The Inspired Selling Podcast, I discuss that most failure in sales – especially for business owners – is caused by the failure to prospect consistently. The

Gryphon Networks sat down with Jeb Blount, CEO of Sales Gravy and bestselling author of Fanatical Prospecting and Sales EQ, to discuss misconceptions about cold calling and overcoming the fear of picking up the phone and being

When you build a hunter-based sales culture, you accelerate sales productivity and pipeline velocity. On this Enterprise Sales Podcast with Noah Goldman, Jeb Blount, author of Fanatical Prospecting shares the secrets of ultra-high performing

Use this checklist to determine why your email list may not be performing up to your expectations. Your lead generation email list is one of the top four factors that cause marketing campaigns to

People buy from you, not because you understand, but because they feel understood. As a sales professional, I urge you to rethink NO. Who knows what buyers mean when they say no? I certainly don’t.

Uncertainty Means Lots of Objections Objections. When things hit the fan – inflation, economic upheaval, market disruption, recession – you’re going to still get lots of them – even when you’ve got empathy packed

Are you ready to stop playing “supermarket roulette” with your prospects? Wouldn’t it make you feel accomplished at least knowing regardless of the outcome, that you did everything on your end to move the

On this Sales Gravy Quick Tip, Jeb Blount reveals the real secret to superstar sales success. The good news is it’s obvious and within your grasp.

Many so-called “sales experts” are quick to tell you that they have the one path to prospecting salvation or the top secret for making sales prospecting easy. Run away from these charlatans as fast

Business ethics, when positive and consistently displayed, build customer confidence and add tremendous value to the buying decision-making process. Foundation for Success Writers never truly know what hits a nerve with their readers and

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.” — Eleanor Roosevelt Is

Salespeople who use bad techniques that get them ignored, screened out, and quickly dumped off a call will still be that same person with the same results using LinkedIn. Ever been to one of

Today’s industrious entrepreneurs, small business owners, and even C Level executives have a new strategy not afforded to past generations – blogging. Today’s industrious entrepreneurs, small business owners to even C Level executives have

Most salespeople repeatedly find themselves navigating waves of extreme highs and lows. During their lowest points, they have to decide whether the metaphorical glass is half-full or half-empty. We’re salespeople. That means that most

Social engineering is asking for information from people that will help other people and the organization as a whole. One reason that most “cold” calls fail and result in rejection is that sales reps

In a recent sales productivity study we conducted for one of our clients, we learned that while their sales reps spend more time on selling activities compared to the external benchmark, they spend a
If you rely on the features and benefits of your product or service to create differentiation… good luck! Start differentiating through the quality and relevant value of your daily interactions with your customers and

Consider how much time and effort you and your sales team spend preparing RFPs. What if you could do this faster and improve your success rate? What Are the Three Most Critical Success Factors
Here’s the scenario that’s playing out in sales organizations everywhere right now: Your team fought through a brutal first half of the year, rallied momentum in the second half, crushed their numbers, and now
You’re Coachable, But Are You Truly Humble? You’ve been coachable your entire career. You take feedback, adjust your approach, read books, listen to podcasts, and implement what works. Yet being coachable doesn’t automatically make
The automated “Great job, team!” email blasted to 47 people at 4:37 PM on a Friday isn’t authentic appreciation. Neither is the generic gift basket ordered by someone in HR who’s never met your
To a sales leader, it’s a familiar story.Month one: Your new SDR is on fire. Energy through the roof. They’re excited about cold calling.Month two: Still strong. Meetings are getting booked. Dashboard looks good.Month
This time of year is critical. As sales leaders map out their budgets for the new year, the conversation always centers on a core conflict: How to cut expenses and, simultaneously, motivate teams to
Here’s a question that’ll keep you up at night: How do you take a company from $300K in annual revenue to $1.5 million in 18 months, then scale to $3-$5 million within five years?
Your sales team has the tools. They know the pitch. The CRM is full of leads. So why are half your reps still missing quota? The real issue? Most sales leaders are managing activity
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
Leadership is the single most important factor in a sales team’s success. You can have talented reps, strong products, and a solid sales process, but without effective leadership, performance stalls. As Duff Tucker, Sales