Winning in Sales with a Dinner Table MBA
It isn’t everyone who can say they got an education in sales at the dinner table, but for my brother and I, that’s exactly where our education—and our love of sales—began. My father was
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.
It isn’t everyone who can say they got an education in sales at the dinner table, but for my brother and I, that’s exactly where our education—and our love of sales—began. My father was
Every sales professional has a horror story that still makes them break out in a cold sweat years later. The deal that imploded spectacularly. The customer interaction that went sideways in ways you couldn’t
Here’s a problem that’ll tie you in knots: You’ve got a killer software solution that saves companies massive amounts of money on employee benefits. You know exactly who needs it: Fortune 1000 companies with
The year was 1938. Families across America gathered, listening during the golden age of radio. On the eve of Halloween, a broadcast interrupted their evening: A live report claimed Martian cylinders had landed in
Success comes down to knowing exactly how to wield this technology. AI will supercharge every aspect of your sales process when you know how to use it properly.
AI in sales isn’t coming soon. It’s already here, and it’s quietly separating the salespeople who will thrive from those who won’t. On the Sales Gravy Podcast, sales expert and author Victor Antonio shares
Here’s a question that’ll keep you up at night: How do you take a company from $300K in annual revenue to $1.5 million in 18 months, then scale to $3-$5 million within five years?
I’ve been intrigued by all of the LinkedIn posts lately from sales professionals, leaders, and experts proclaiming the phone is back! Even the “phone-is-dead” evangelists seem to have had a change of heart and
Every week, someone asks me: “Jeb, do I need Sales Navigator to prospect on LinkedIn?”My answer: No. But you do need a system. LinkedIn is the most powerful prospecting platform on earth. It’s a
Your sales team has the tools. They know the pitch. The CRM is full of leads. So why are half your reps still missing quota? The real issue? Most sales leaders are managing activity
Here’s a question that’ll make your head spin: How do you train MLM recruits who have zero sales experience to actually sell instead of just posting on social media and hoping for the best?
You’ve probably heard it a hundred times lately—AI is coming for your job. Every week, there’s a new headline about another role being automated, another company replacing people with bots, another “AI agent” that
How NOT To Respond to ‘No’ There are six common mistakes salespeople make when they hear “no” from a prospect. They might take it personally, not understand the reasons for the rejection, and give
3 Lies About Rejection Salespeople Need to Stop Telling Themselves Lying to customers is a big no-no in sales. What about the lies salespeople tell themselves? Yet salespeople continuously sabotage themselves with lies about
On this fun episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount is joined by the incredible social media influencer and successful real estate agent, Alexander Zakharin. Jeb and Alexander discuss that when the going
What Are You Waiting For? Just Send The Text Text messaging is a largely undiscovered gold mine where prospecting is concerned. Follow these tips for leveraging text as a prospecting channel and you will
The Real Truth About Prospecting? It Sucks “There is no easy button in sales. Prospecting is hard, emotionally draining work, and it is the price you have to pay to earn a high income.” –
Ever wondered how you can get the attention of that elusive, hard-to-reach prospect you’ve been chasing? You know the one. The big fish that is your ticket to President’s club and a huge commission
Putting Aside Time Every Day to Prospect Will Keep Your Pipeline Full Kaizen is a theory that developed in Japan after World War II and revived the country, their spirit, and their commerce. It’s
The Cold Calling Conversation Dilemma You’ll need to elevate your conversations to get busy prospects to talk to you on cold calls. When you approach a new prospect, whether by email or cold calling,
Video messaging is hot and it is a core component of effective prospecting sequences because it works! At Sales Gravy we love using video messages to grab the attention of prospects. Our favorite tool
Sales managers are all around us; those in the selling game have likely encountered multiple. Like salespeople themselves, they have a wide range of qualifications, personality traits and work ethics, but the role of
Your buying vision needs to be closely linked to the specific customers you are looking to do business with. Create a vision in their minds about why they should buy from you. It sounds
If you are waiting to get motivated before you make calls remember this: Motivation comes from action, not the other way around. I often receive time management questions from sales reps. This week I
Business ethics, when positive and consistently displayed, build customer confidence and add tremendous value to the buying decision-making process. Foundation for Success Writers never truly know what hits a nerve with their readers and
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.” — Eleanor Roosevelt Is
Salespeople who use bad techniques that get them ignored, screened out, and quickly dumped off a call will still be that same person with the same results using LinkedIn. Ever been to one of
Today’s industrious entrepreneurs, small business owners, and even C Level executives have a new strategy not afforded to past generations – blogging. Today’s industrious entrepreneurs, small business owners to even C Level executives have
Most salespeople repeatedly find themselves navigating waves of extreme highs and lows. During their lowest points, they have to decide whether the metaphorical glass is half-full or half-empty. We’re salespeople. That means that most
Social engineering is asking for information from people that will help other people and the organization as a whole. One reason that most “cold” calls fail and result in rejection is that sales reps
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.