
Twelve Questions That Precede a Purchase
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
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.

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

Selling is the art of creating new possibilities and solutions. Salespeople are responsible for the creation rather than the controlling of solutions for their prospects. As such if you are a highly creative salesperson,
Over the years, I’ve discovered that when sales people tell me that they have prospecting on their “to do” list, what they really are saying is that they “intend” to prospect. When sales people

Certainly, these are unprecedented times, but fundamentals are fundamentals. When you stray from them, you get into trouble. When in trouble, return to the fundamentals and return to consistent and sustainable sales success. In

‘The more we try to maintain control in our lives, the less freedom we create for ourselves,’ illustrates one of the many paradoxes in life. While we may strive to maintain control over our

Here’s the secret to boosting your confidence today; make confidence a choice. Wait, I know what you may be thinking; it sounds too easy. It has to be more difficult than this. Well,

So here’s the scene: Large corporate sales convention in the company’s training center in Washington State; over 250 sales reps flown in from all over the country; Sales directors, V.P.s, sales managers all running

A Top 20% closer is an expert at asking questions, layering those questions, questioning the red flags, etc., and at the end of a prospecting call or presentation, they call can tell you exactly

Just because the media says that the economy is sliding downward does not mean that your sales will be affected. Your mental mindset plays a tremendous role in your success. While it is difficult

Most sales people live a hurried life and time is of the essence. While we agree that in sales, time is money, there is a cost for polluting our bodies with so much junk food that

From blind dates to marriage, here are six lessons from the dating scene that will improve your sales results. I’ve been married to the same man since Noah built the ark, so you’d expect

Developing a deep knowledge of your sales landscape helps you sell more in less time. English navigator Henry Hudson learned the hard way in the 17th century what can happen when you don’t know

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
Short Answer What is priming in sales? Priming in sales is exposing your buyer to specific words, images, stories, and questions that shape their emotional state before you ask for the sale. Buyers who

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,

In today’s world, people have a very strong belief in their weaknesses and an even stronger belief not to “brag” about their strengths. Yet, winning teams win because of the strengths of all team

As individual contributors top Sales Professionals have the luxury of only thinking about themselves. They can selfishly protect their own interests, act as lone wolves, and win at the expense of others. But as

What would happen if existing and future leadership programs were centered around a results-based model of leadership instead of a competency-based one? Think for a moment of a leader you appreciate or admire. Then

It’s not a question of if you should spend money on training, the question is how much will you spend on training. While you’re planning the budget for your organization don’t forget to include

Learn to say “No” thoughtfully and respectfully with the focus on creating a high-performance sales culture. Are you limiting your sales team and the ability to increase sales by not ever saying “No”? Sometimes,

Bullying behavior creates a hostile work environment. Eventually, word will spread about you being the bully boss. With technology, the spread of bullying in schools continues to make front-page news. Schools, corporations, and parents

Sales managers are charged with leading the sales team. Salespeople watch the leader, like kids watch parents, to see if words and actions are congruent. I recently read Stephen M.R. Covey’s book, The Speed

What would happen if each day you scheduled 12 minutes to push yourself away from the desk and take a walk outside or even lock yourself in the bathroom if need be? Just stop

It is imperative that all employees understand how they are profit centers and how all these profit centers connect to the bottom line. Certain paradigms exist within each business culture. These paradigms are philosophical