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

Leverage Friday afternoons for phone calls to people you haven’t been able to connect with or with prospects who are tied tightly to a competitor. It happens every summer. The number of sales appointments

What you want to do is offer value in your visit or demo, and then leave it up to your prospect to decide if it’s worth taking your call or visit any further after
On this episode of Sales Pipeline radio, Matt Heinz and Jeb Blount discuss emotional intelligence, Sales EQ, and Fanatical Prospecting. You’ll be surprised to hear Jeb’s opinion about how sales and marketing should work

It’s evident that time is a critical factor in completing sales, building and keeping the relationship. Given that, what strategy does your dealership have in place to shorten the time it takes to close

The only asset you have that is in limited supply is your own time. When a slow customer takes up too much of it, you lose. The time you’re spending with them is preventing
At the end of the day, you want to make things as easy as possible for the prospect, not turn them into your admin. Last week I received an email from a very friendly
The key to any sale is getting your prospect to tell you how to sell them. If you can do that, you’ll make your job much, much easier. Today it seems to be harder

Too often we get so focused on what we produce or deliver, that everyone in the company loses sight of the real value of the product or service. Aligning everyone in the company to answer one question can

Sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and others can be powerful tools to help you prospect more effectively. In my new book coming out this September, “High-Profit Prospecting,” I share insights every salesperson needs to

Early right actions make it easier to accomplish future critical milestones and prepare the team for unforeseen issues that arise later. Do you sometimes wonder how they do it? You know who I mean

Just as there is a set of best ways to paint a room, so there are sets of best ways to ask a question, seek an appointment, build rapport, make a presentation, close the

If you ask and they have found good examples, you have an opportunity to collect more stories and the new hire quickly learns what will be rewarded. If you ask and they have found

So, what separates the great channels from the “not-so-great”? Great channel organizations truly focus on what really matters. By doing so, these companies and their people are able to accelerate revenues, increase market share,

Your management team may have implemented a team selling model with great expectations for success. However, team selling doesn’t always live up to its potential. To Team Or Not To Team? Does this sound

Tips for Building a Successful Process for Onboarding New Salespeople To build and sustain a high-performing sales team you must begin with successfully onboarding new salespeople. Getting it right from the start will help

It’s often difficult to motivate sales reps to focus on developing expertise when they want to develop relationships, but the two can go hand in hand. Trust is Not Enough For many years, developing

In the context of selling, a blind spot is something you commonly do within your sales interactions that potentially threatens your success. And here comes the kicker… you’re not aware of it. I’m a

Sales is about relationships. Your sales team can boost your company’s image by blogging, contributing to trade publications, and presenting within your marketplace. Use the Sales Team to Uncover Success Stories Success stories are