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.
Matt from Grand Rapids says, “If I don’t make my cold calls, our pipeline will go dry.” He is juggling everything from operations to customer service escalations, all while trying to generate fresh leads
If you’ve hung around me for longer than five minutes, you’ve heard me say that sales is about talking with people. The fact is, the more people you talk with, the more you’ll sell.
The best salespeople spend hours rehearsing sales calls, because statements, and meeting pitches so they know exactly what to say when they finally get a prospect on the line. The best know that practice,
WARNING: This Monday’s message will be one of the most powerful hacks you’ll ever integrate into your life—because it’s simple, easy to put into practice, and it works. It has the potential, over the
As humans, we naturally fear rejection and do everything possible to avoid it. We’re social creatures at our core, and being rejected feels like we’re being shunned, banished, or kicked out of the group.
Ron wants to know how to get CEOs to actually answer his cold calls (or at least respond). He runs a recruiting firm and finds that his cold calls to top executives often go
I’m hearing sob stories from leaders and individuals everywhere who are waking up to the cold, hard truth that they are staring down the barrel of a thin or empty pipeline. If you are
In this episode of The Sales Gravy Podcast, discover how Alex Niswander used the Fanatical Prospecting framework to maximize outreach and build meaningful client relationships. Learn about creative touchpoints, High-Intensity Prospecting call blocking (HIPs),
Persistence is the Key to Fanatical Prospecting Excellence Other than not prospecting all together, giving up too soon is the primary reason salespeople are failing at prospecting on an epic scale. Three weeks ago,

Leverage Friday afternoons for phone calls to people you haven’t been able to connect with or with prospects who are tied tightly to a competitor. It happens every summer. The number of sales appointments

What you want to do is offer value in your visit or demo, and then leave it up to your prospect to decide if it’s worth taking your call or visit any further after
On this episode of Sales Pipeline radio, Matt Heinz and Jeb Blount discuss emotional intelligence, Sales EQ, and Fanatical Prospecting. You’ll be surprised to hear Jeb’s opinion about how sales and marketing should work

It’s evident that time is a critical factor in completing sales, building and keeping the relationship. Given that, what strategy does your dealership have in place to shorten the time it takes to close

The only asset you have that is in limited supply is your own time. When a slow customer takes up too much of it, you lose. The time you’re spending with them is preventing
At the end of the day, you want to make things as easy as possible for the prospect, not turn them into your admin. Last week I received an email from a very friendly
The key to any sale is getting your prospect to tell you how to sell them. If you can do that, you’ll make your job much, much easier. Today it seems to be harder

Too often we get so focused on what we produce or deliver, that everyone in the company loses sight of the real value of the product or service. Aligning everyone in the company to answer one question can

Sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and others can be powerful tools to help you prospect more effectively. In my new book coming out this September, “High-Profit Prospecting,” I share insights every salesperson needs to
Before You Promote That Salesperson to Sales Manager… Often, top performing salespeople are promoted to sales manager roles with the expectation that their talent, drive, and success will motivate the rest of the sales
This hard-hitting and thought provoking episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast features a deep conversation on the state of sales leadership. Jeb Blount, author of People Follow You and Frank Cespedes, a Harvard Business
Why Great Sales Leaders Are A Little Paranoid Great leaders have to be a little bit paranoid because they can help their team uncover holes or problems well before they emerge. As long as
Forward-Thinking Leaders Stay Ahead of the Curve Forward-thinking leaders have their thumb on the pulse of their team, their organization, and the ever-changing landscape of modern business. Here are 10 tips for staying ahead
The Five Cornerstones of All Wise Leaders Every leader wants to become a GREAT leader. It seems to be in their DNA to strive toward this goal. In examining how leaders operate, we must
Great Leadership Requires A High Level of Emotional Intelligence Effective leadership requires a high level of emotional intelligence. Great leaders are developed, not trained. These 5 skills are what sets great leaders apart from

Giving Positive Feedback During a feedback session, the sales manager cannot only congratulate the sales rep for their achievement but also help the sales rep to better understand why they achieved the win in

On this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount who is the author of People Follow You, sits down with Wanda Wallace, author of You Can’t Know it All. In this power-packed conversation

Don’t Get Stuck With Hiring Remorse Hiring a new sales rep is less than a perfect art or science. And many salespeople simply don’t work out or perform as expected. This is largely due