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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
Success in sales is paid for in advance with prospecting. If you are not willing to pay this price, get out now. Go do something else. Life is far too short to spend it
Quick Summary The money in sales is in the follow-up, and nowhere is that more true than with inbound leads. Yet most salespeople quietly burn the best opportunities they get handed. They’re too slow,
Quick Summary An effective cold calling approach isn’t about a slicker pitch — it’s about earning the right to a conversation. The five elements below are research, asking questions, listening, honesty, and follow-through. Cold
Summary Prospects ask about price on a cold call because they are overwhelmed, not because they are serious buyers. The fix is a combination of better call timing, confident objection responses, and language that
Here’s a question that’ll make every salesperson’s blood pressure spike: What do you do when your cold call gets an objection in the first five seconds because prospects immediately stereotype you as something you’re
Here’s a question that’ll stop you in your tracks: Would you let someone walk up to you, take your wallet, empty out all your cash and credit cards, and leave your family with nothing?
Here’s a question that’ll expose one of the most common productivity killers in sales: How much research should you do before making a cold call? That’s the challenge Michael Bricker from West Monroe, Louisiana,
What do you do when you’ve been away from prospecting for a while and suddenly the call reluctance feels brand new again?
You’ve had great discovery calls, delivered compelling presentations, and built solid rapport with your prospect. Then comes the objection that stops your deal dead in its tracks. “We need to think about it.” “The
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.
How to Lead the Pack The past year was very challenging for many sales managers, but now we need to look ahead. Have you increased your sales targets? How will you ensure that your
Motivating Your Sales Team Can Be a Challenge For a sales manager, motivating your sales team is a never ending battle. Here are five simple strategies for sales team motivation. Everyone has a set
The worst trait of ineffective sales leaders is that they believe that they’re more important, smarter, and more competent than the people working for them. In leadership, one principle stands above all. You need
There is hardly a leader on earth that doesn’t yearn for accurate, predictable sales pipeline forecasting. The good news is that there are three elements of sales forecasting, that when mastered, will give you
Every Sales Manager’s Real Priorities The reason coaching is so important to sales is that the more you develop your sales team, the better your sales team becomes. There are dozens of tasks and
Examine Leadership Before Sales Skills If you hired reps who you believed could sell, and who proved that they’ve been successful selling in the past, then the first place to examine when your reps
For leaders, questions are king when it comes to coaching and training. Learning and practicing effective questioning skills is central to effective leadership. There are five rules for asking the right questions, at the
Reduce Bad Sales Hires With Better Interview Techniques It’s easy to make bad sales hires – we’ve all done it. However, with a few tweaks to your interviewing techniques you’ll improve the probability of
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been more than guilty of falling in love with the tallies on the sales report. I’ll read the report and assume that those whose names line up