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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
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.
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
One advantage that salespeople posses is this; aside from being a salesperson, you are also a consumer and a prospect, enabling you to better connect with each prospect you speak with. Think about
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
Want to break through the noise and get your prospect’s attention? Want to stand out? Integrate video into your sales process. Video is a powerful medium that may be integrated throughout the entire sales
There is no reason—other than laziness—to ever place a “cold” call. Cold calling. Just hearing the words causes chest-tightening, loss-of-breath anxiety for many. And it’s dumb. I suggest you never place another one. In
If their objection is truly a legitimate one, their explanation will provide you with information which will help you address it. The simplest techniques can be so effective. I heard a call where a prospect
Steal this trial close technique and exact scripts to motivate buyers to make decisions and act without making big price concessions.
Salespeople fail at cold calling for five common reasons. Fix them and the phone starts producing appointments again.
Most salespeople are looking for the secret edge that will move them to the top of the sales ranking report. The truth though is that there isn’t just one thing that separates top performing
Short Answer How honest should you be in sales? Completely. The moment a customer catches you in even a small lie, like fudging how long a meeting will run, they have every reason to
The best pitch I’ve ever heard about didn’t have a single slide. It had an ax, an elevator, and a crowd that had no idea what was about to happen. The sales storytelling techniques
Sales complacency is the silent performance killer that sets in after winning — and the only defense is returning to the fundamentals that built your success in the first place. Key Takeaways When Success
Quick Summary Reading buyer signals means recognizing the behavioral and psychological cues prospects send before they ghost you, and using that information to keep deals moving toward a real decision. Key Takeaways Listen to
When results drop and motivation fades, the fix is to increase your prospecting activity above your normal baseline, not wait until you feel ready. More calls create more conversations, more conversations create more opportunities,
No matter your industry or deal size, mastering how to negotiate in sales comes down to seven rules that protect your leverage and win more profitable deals.
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