
Sending Out Business Cards And Notes
Send notes and cards to anyone with whom you do business or anyone with whom you would like to do business. Your relationship to people and their level in an organization will determine the
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.

Send notes and cards to anyone with whom you do business or anyone with whom you would like to do business. Your relationship to people and their level in an organization will determine the

There are advantages to an automated system. It saves money in salaries and benefits. It prevents old-fashioned phone tag by allowing people to leave detailed messages in their own voice with clear and correct

Don’t you wish that along with those bizarre directions on how to set up and use your phone—the ones written by the people who designed the phones and therefore already know how to use

Do tattoos and body piercing belong in business? There seems to be an increased number of people with tattoos on their body and a variety of body piercing. Body piercing used to be limited

As a media crisis trainer, Ms. Hoffman advises her client to figure out what their audience will be wearing and to go one step above. The same rule applies in all areas of business.

The same overall rules apply to women’s work attire as apply to men’s. Business clothing is not a reflection of the latest fashion trend. A woman should be noticed for who she is and

If you choose to vary your business attire depending on the day’s schedule, make sure that you are prepared for the unexpected. Have a change of clothes at the office. And remember that it

Many of my clients tell me that their sales team are made up of a bunch of service people or farmers. The challenge in difficult times are that new customers are risk averse to

The key to success during a downturn, aside from surviving, is to further entrench yourself with your existing client base and at the same time look for ways to penetrate and position your product

It is up to us to respect time and give it both meaning and value. If you want to know the value of a year, ask a P.O.W. that has lost his freedom. If

If you were to poll all of your customers as to why they bought from you, they would respond with a variety of reasons. What follows are the most common reasons why people choose

The greatest obstacle in making a purchasing decision is fear. When it comes to selling, you better handle the prospect’s fear or it will handle you. Fear of making the wrong decision. Fear that

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

Opening, rather than closing, is the most important phase of selling because it’s binary. It’s akin to doing science without Newton’s first law or acknowledging gravity. It’s like trying to be a fighter but

What I love about Jeb is his charismatic ability to weave personal stories from his time in the trenches into his material. He has a great sense of humor, no nonsense approach and always

Sales Gravy CEO Jeb Blount joins Tim Martin on this episode of the Success Is Voluntary podcast to discuss two of Jeb’s bestsellers: Fanatical Prospecting, and his most recent release, Objections. From establishing micro-commitments, to

There are two types of sellers – Rain Barrels and Rain Makers. One waits for leads to show up, the other gets after it and makes it rain. On this podcast episode, Jeb Blount,
It’s easy to get overwhelmed with prospecting. Where do you even start? In this short video, Jason Eatmon, who is a Sales Gravy master trainer and author of BOSS, teaches you how to take

The Four Types of Sales Objections Jeb Blount explores strategies and techniques for effectively skipping past the 4 types of sales objections. On this episode, I have a conversation with Chris McDonough. He’s a

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

A professional actor would never walk out onto a stage without warming up their instrument to make sure they are communicating at their best. What is your most powerful sales tool? Your website? Video

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’re going to bypass mid-level gatekeepers, you have to be strategic, and you also have to use the right tone & pace, so you can be perceived as someone who truly cares about

Whether you are just learning the language of sales or improving your game as an already successful SalesMaker, there are six timeless principles to keep in mind. The sales industry has changed dramatically over

I’m not ready to just toss voice mail out into the sales-o-sphere — there’s still hope and opportunity for it to hold a prime spot in the sales mix. But that will require a

Today’s sellers need to be agile and actively looking for problems and opportunities they can help their buyers address or capture. Have you ever thought about the type of sales role you are in?
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.

Most sales team meetings fail because they aren’t actually about selling. Mike Weinberg says the fix is simple: stop running status updates and start running meetings that make your team more aligned, more energized,
Jumping in to save a rep’s deal feels like leadership, but it trains your team to call you instead of solving problems themselves. Real sales leadership means coaching the rep, not closing the deal
If you want to know how to scale a sales team, document your sales process and prove your close rate before you add headcount, then decide whether your next hire is a leader or
Most sales forecasts fail for a reason no CRM can fix. Sellers stop telling their leaders the truth the moment honesty starts costing them something.
Summary The most effective sales compensation strategy for getting a small team focused on high-value complex deals is to layer a significantly higher reward on those deals without reducing incentives on transactional ones. Pair
Summary When the market shifts, your salespeople are not going to figure it out on their own. That’s your job. As a sales leader, your responsibility is to see the change coming, get ahead
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: 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.