How to Scale a Two-Person Sales Team Into Something Bigger
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
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.
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
To prioritize prospects effectively, evaluate every opportunity using three variables: lead temperature, sales cycle timing, and deal size. Together, these factors show which prospects deserve immediate action, which need ongoing nurturing, and which belong in automation. Key Takeaways Why do so
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.
AI works for sales when the purchase is simple and low risk enough that a buyer feels comfortable clicking a button without talking to anyone. The moment a deal gets complex, expensive, or risky,
Field sales reps who blended virtual and in-person outreach during the pandemic consistently outperformed those who relied solely on in-person contact. The most efficient field sellers use virtual tools for prospecting, qualifying, and maintaining
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
Stalled deals are rarely a follow-up problem — they’re a process problem. When you’re selling to risk-averse, consensus-driven buyers, deals die in the middle of the pipeline because the decision-making process was never defined
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
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
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
AI call screeners are blocking more sales calls every day — and most salespeople are making it worse by leading with the wrong message. Getting past AI gatekeepers comes down to one thing: relevance.
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,
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
Hot Leads In 10 Minutes… Seriously! If you find yourself either abstaining from social media or spending excessive time on it (we’ve all been guilty of that!), here are 10 practical and effective ways
Mastering The Art and Skill of Sales Negotiation Negotiating is one of the most important skills you can learn. However, by understanding the common difficulties faced during negotiation and arming themselves with the right
Want To Be More Successful in 60 seconds? Maximize your sales success potential by making your minutes matter. A minute isn’t a lot of time…just 60 seconds. What you do with those minutes can make
Pain Motivates Buyers to Act A universal and timeless truth is that pain is a greater motivator than pleasure. Therefore, to compel prospects to buy from you, sell the pain. “So, what exactly is
The Six-Figure Secret While being a top 20% producer and income earner is obviously a nice place to be, the next question I get is, “How do I get there?” The answer to that
Closing the Sale Meets the Modern Buying Journey When your sole focus is on closing the sale rather than helping your buyer, they sniff this out, it turns them off, and you are more
Sales Closing Rock Stars Focus on Customers Not Quotas Start paying more attention to your customer needs, pains and problems and start solving their issues and challenges you’ll find you no longer have a
Closing the Sale Should Not Be Hard Closing the sale is easy if you follow your sales process and gain commitments along the way. Sales managers are always asking me for help teaching their
Struggling To Build A Connection? Try This! Sometimes you just won’t click with a buyer right away. This doesn’t mean you’ve hit a dead end! Try out these two suggestions for enhancing engagement and
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.