Stop Hiding from Your Buyers
Millions are spent on advertising and marketing yet some companies don’t realize that most sales transactions of any size result from human contact. While the first company avoided the cost of answering their phones,
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.
Millions are spent on advertising and marketing yet some companies don’t realize that most sales transactions of any size result from human contact. While the first company avoided the cost of answering their phones,
You can’t help seeing them on television. I’m talking about those fast-talking hucksters selling cheesy products that nobody needs but millions buy.Who can forget the Inside the Eggshell Scrambler? How about the Snuggie? The
Think about the tremendous advantage you would have as a baseball manager if you knew the opposing team’s signals and were able to anticipate their game plan. Obviously, your team would have a competitive
Recently a client called me and said, “Kim, my customers aren’t taking me seriously on the phone or in person.” My eyebrows went up. Then she said, “I’ve reviewed everything…my sales materials, my
For those of you who have either met me or watched me present a speech – you know I’m a little crazy and I absolutely shoot from the hip. Hey – I can admit
Nothing will disqualify you faster than a history of job hopping, or a history of staying at jobs for less than a year. Obviously, the reason this is a red flag for companies is
Being a new business owner is a lot like skydiving in the sense that you are taking calculated risks daily that run you through a flurry of emotions before landing on the ground
When you make that initial phone call or in-person door knock, you don’t know what you don’t know. Who says the greeter is not the CEO, or at least the husband, wife or brother
Successful sales people know the importance of persistence but the key is to change your approach or strategy with each prospect every time you contact them. You also need to consider the frequency of
Listening is the number one skill of Top 20% producers. Their listening goes far beyond just listening though, because top producers actually hear what is behind what their prospects are saying, and they know how
There was an old joke in my photocopier days when we in-person cold called door to door in downtown Chicago that we would say a prayer before every visit. It went something like
Since leaving the industry, I have learned that having a well established professional network of executives was critical to building my business and a great way to ensure career security. I strongly advise both
Instead of wasting time figuring out an impressive response, spend time understanding what caused the objection in the first place. Identify what you are doing, or not doing that triggered the money objection in
As a call screener, my job is to protect the time of the decision maker that I work for – so I need to make sure I’m not passing through calls that are going
What is the real objection to buying your product? The “price is too high” is usually just a smokescreen to some other objection. Ask the right questions and you’ll get the answer. Do they
What you’re trying to do is isolate and uncover what the objection or stall is going to be at the end so you can position yourself to deal with it and advance the sale.
Objections are not deal killers. Sometimes, they are deal enablers, helping the salesperson to understand the buyer’s real needs and requirements. Zig Ziglar was the best-known sales trainer in the world. The man from
Philip is a character licensing agent in the Philippines. His job is to connect beloved brands, anime titles, video games, and comic properties to companies that want to put those characters on their products.
Summary LinkedIn hands salespeople more research than any other platform on earth, and most of them still send messages that get deleted on sight. This article covers the LinkedIn outreach mistakes I see constantly,
Caroline from Dayton, Ohio asked a question a lot of salespeople are wrestling with right now: How do you use AI efficiently without losing your human touch? It is a great question. And the
Here’s a question that cuts to the heart of what makes sales hard: What do you do when your commodity is identical to every competitor’s, the buyer knows it, and the only lever they
Buyers don’t experience your good intentions—they experience your process. In the age of AI, the sellers who win are the ones who remove friction and make buying effortless. Key Takeaways: How to Remove Friction
Let me ask you: What if the biggest thing standing between you and your next closed deal had nothing to do with your product knowledge, your pricing, or your pitch? What if it came
Here’s a question that keeps salespeople up at night: How do you build a powerful personal brand without stepping on your company’s toes? That’s the question Taylor Deadrick asked me during a recent live
Here’s a question that keeps salespeople up at night: How do you ask for more compensation when you’re getting competitive external job offers without sounding like you’re issuing an ultimatum? That’s the question posed
Here’s a problem that’ll make your head spin: What do you do when you can sell way more than your company can produce? That’s the question posed by Dylan Noah from Toronto. Dylan sells
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.