13 Real Alternatives to Cold Calling That Build Pipeline
Can’t stomach cold calling? Steal Jeb Blount’s 13 proven alternatives to picking up the phone that build real pipeline and actually work.
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.
Can’t stomach cold calling? Steal Jeb Blount’s 13 proven alternatives to picking up the phone that build real pipeline and actually work.
The right time to hire a fractional sales leader is when your team has outgrown what you can manage on top of running the business. Here are 7 signs that tell you it’s time,
Making just three to five of proactive calls to customers in a five-minute block, breaks the reactive cycle most account managers live in and builds the relationships that drive real, predictable revenue.
Recruiting is a sales leader’s number one job, and the way to find sales candidates is the same way your reps find customers: recruit like you prospect.
Steal this trial close technique and exact scripts to motivate buyers to make decisions and act without making big price concessions.
Referral leads close at three to four times the rate of cold and self-generated leads. Once both reach a real sales conversation, referrals close at roughly 26 percent versus 9 percent for cold and
When should you ask questions on a cold call? Questions come after you’ve earned the right, when you’re gathering information and qualifying, and they lead the conversation only when the prospect contacted you first.
To prospect for new clients, stop making random touches and run a consistent five-step system. Work this system every day and you gain control of your pipeline, along with the peace of mind that
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.
A good sales voicemail is short, scripted, and gives the prospect one clear reason to call you back. This guide gives you seven word-for-word sales voicemail scripts that work!
Salespeople fail at cold calling for five common reasons. Fix them and the phone starts producing appointments again.
Email response rates are collapsing because decision maker inboxes are stuffed with automated, AI-written slop. This is exactly why the phone is more powerful today than it was ten years ago.
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
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This year, the company I had been using for the last several years was unresponsive when I tried to schedule service. Coincidentally, I received an email from one of their competitors offering the same
Why do sales professionals who become aware of their sales approach not working continue to plunge ahead? An unfounded “expectation of success” appears to play a significant role in such cases. Recently, I finished
Simplicity equates to clarity.Simple will always beat out complicated. Have you ever researched a new purchase only to find that there are too many options? What did you do? Sometimes people delay the purchase
Baseball players and sales professionals don’t have much in common. However, Elite athletes and Ultra-High Performing sales professionals know their numbers because that’s where the MONEY is. In this video, Jeb Blount addresses the
Salespeople sometimes treat LinkedIn like just another cold prospecting tool, and they end up engaging their prospects in a pretty abrasive way. A few weeks ago, I received a LinkedIn message from a user
Ah, the life of a salesperson. Perpetually condemned to sleazeball status, pushing unneeded or unwanted services on prospects who have no interest in those wares, only to run off into the sunset with briefcases
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Understanding how to create an impression that stands out is the way to close the sale in 10 seconds or less. Actually, great sales people can do it even faster IF they make a
Salespeople and sales managers are caught up in their own version of Ground Hog Day. They keep using the same approach, having the same conversations, which are leading to the same outcomes. Sales Ground
Working smarter with people entails three key activities: assigning the right number of people, identifying roles and planning compensation strategically. Sure-fire Ways to Work Smarter with People Your sales force is defined by the
Data can do more than tell you facts about your own business. It also can reveal important information about what’s going on with your competitors in the marketplace. How to Be Data Savvy In