Selling Isn’t Life or Death But It Does Require Commitment
As you go about your day today, remember that selling isn’t life or death. However, if you prepare and have commitment, your approach is based on solid core values, and you execute and 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.
As you go about your day today, remember that selling isn’t life or death. However, if you prepare and have commitment, your approach is based on solid core values, and you execute and work
Several years ago, I read a fascinating article about a body language experiment that was conduced by a group of marketing students attending a major university. The experiment was designed to measure the impact,
Call me a referral snob if you will, but if we’re going to ask for referrals, spend precious time following up on them, and then work them with due diligence, don’t we deserve
Some people love meetings and others dread them. Despite having the reputation as sleep enhancers, meetings are actually an opportunity for you to network with management, fellow employees, clients and vendors. You may be
Attending meetings is a lot like going to class. Where you sit in class can affect your grade, and where you sit in a meeting can affect your career. Business meetings are opportunities for
Keep your emotions in check. Road rage is on the rise. While it ought to be avoided simply on the basis of safety, a display of temper behind the wheel could also cost you
Get ready by being clear on your message. Know what it is you want to say. Have three to five points to make regardless of what you are asked. Learn by watching politicians. They
Ask yourself: Ever had a prospective client request a discount, postpone an order, or worse, cancel purchasing from you or your salespeople? Well then it’s a good bet they don’t understand your offerings true
One of my rules for Champion sales people is that nobody buys anything unless there’s a gap between where they are and where they want to be. To effectively sell value, sales people need
In today’s fast- paced business world where too many people claim that they don’t have time to be nice, it’s easy to overlook the details that can help you grow your business, increase your
Now, for those of you who are wondering how one goes about becoming a motivational speaker, it’s pretty much the same as developing any other business. You need to develop your product and brand,
The point is that most people spend time worrying about not hitting their goal and concentrate a lot of time thinking about the things that could go wrong, while Top Performers in any industry
The difference between average salespeople and UHPs is, more often than not, their mindset about prospecting and pipeline.
In this podcast, Jeb Blount tells the real truth about why you suck at prospecting and gives you the tips, tactics, and techniques you need to keep your sales pipeline full.
On this podcast, Jeb goes head to head with the great Jeffrey Gitomer on some of the toughest objections faced by sales professionals.
Rejection points you in the right direction. It toughens you up and makes you stronger. It tells you when you are on to something big!
The Social Proof Heuristic is a powerful way to minimize fear. On this podcast, you’ll learn how to leverage it to make it easy for your buyer to move forward.
On this podcast episode Jeb Blount answers the number one question we get about prospecting and gives you the secret to timing your telephone prospecting calls.
One of your goals going into any sale is to deal with the potential of inaction. Risk is a big factor in sales, and there are many ways to manage, mitigate and maneuver risk.
On this episode of the Sales Gravy podcast, Kendra Lee and Jeb Blount discuss cold email prospecting techniques. Kendra Lee is the author of The Sales Magnet and one of the top experts on
Talking comes easily for most sales reps, but getting others to listen is a bigger challenge— and a critical element to your long-term success. Many sales reps have convinced themselves (and try to convince
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
Here’s a hard truth most salespeople never hear: The most dangerous thing you can do is think like an employee. On this week’s episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, business consultant for entrepreneurs David
Tyler Goss, from Tampa, has two critical sales questions: 1) How do we achieve those “crazy” prospecting numbers I talk about in my books? 2) When should a lead become a pipeline opportunity? In
Fear will kill sales and crush your chances of making quota. Hesitation, paralysis, and missed connections with prospects—that’s the consequence of fear. The truly trapped stop picking up the phone entirely. Fear hijacks your
During a practice round at a major golf tournament recently, one of the players hit an exceptionally beautiful shot. A fan in the gallery exclaimed, “Man, I wish I could hit a shot like
Here’s the brutal truth: Self-awareness is the ultimate sales skill. We obsess over skills like closing techniques, objection handling, and prospecting cadence. But self-awareness is the real make-or-break. Self-awareness is the lever that separates
You don’t want to be mediocre. You don’t want to be stuck in a rut of repeating last year’s performance. And you definitely want to smash your personal selling goals this year. In the
Steve from Portland, Oregon, faces and an all-too-common consultative selling dilemma: how to sell to prospects who claim they already know everything, have already “done the research” and question what value he can bring.
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.