5 Things I Learned Last Year
The end of the year is always a time of reflection, and what I’ve learned to do over the years is to identify the things that had the biggest positive impact on my business,
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.
The end of the year is always a time of reflection, and what I’ve learned to do over the years is to identify the things that had the biggest positive impact on my business,
Few people seem to hold back for fear of committing a faux pas. Nevertheless there are rules regarding toasting and if you want to be the polished professional at the office party or the
Knee jerk objections occur for two reasons. First, you are an interruption. The prospect wasn’t expecting your call and you’re taking him away from the task at hand. Second, the prospect is worried about
It starts with recruiting the right agents. One needs to recruit people who have the skills, attitude, and business-owner mindset necessary to succeed. Finding, attracting and selecting the right prospective candidates is an art
It’s tempting to select someone who’s “hungry”. It would seem logical that a candidate who is anxious for an opportunity would be the perfect person. They’d work hard, be conscientious, and push through any
If you have to make cold calls as part of your sales process – either to set appointments or to find potential clients to sell your products and services to – then you know
Someone wrote me once about a prospect who wasn’t calling him back only to find out the prospect was leaving the company. He wrote me and said, “I guess intuitively I knew he wasn’t
I once read that there are two types of people. People who are willing to wait for a reward and those who want the reward now even though the payoff may be higher if
Selling in these challenging times demands determination and personal fortitude. Having the will to persevere when times are tough is a characteristic commonly found among self-made millionaires. Are you a quitter? The last time
What typically happens when we interact with others is that we size up what’s happening in a conversation from our perspective. We make judgments and evaluations of the other person based on what
Ask direct, specific questions that require your prospect to either commit to what’s next, or that get your prospect to reveal that the sale might not go through (I know you hate to hear
Years ago I heard the story of a 70-year-old woman who lifted a car off her grandchild and saved his life. When she was interviewed, instead of being ecstatic, she was melancholy and admitted
Build Relationships With Gatekeepers Tricks or tactics to “bypass the gatekeeper” may get you some surprise face time, but it’s often at the expense of the deal. Winning over a gatekeeper can often be
Your Prospect Is Stalling. Now What? Top producers know a weak prospect when they hear one, and they would much rather know ahead of time who is leading them on and not likely to
Why You Should Start Reversing Objections Reversing objections is counter-intuitive, highly effective, and requires superior preparation and courage. You must consider the response that requires the most confidence, preparation, quick-thinking, understanding, and sales talent.
How To Sound Natural Over The Phone If you sell for a living, sooner or later you have to pick up the phone for prospecting, follow up, and sales calls. To be effective, you
The Dreaded “I Am Not Interested” Objection Nothing, absolutely nothing, cuts a conversation with a prospect shorter than a brusque, “I am not interested.” Knowing how to respond to this objection can make selling
On cold calls, to grab attention your message and approach needs to be relevant. There are 5 questions to answer before you make that cold call that will help you develop a message that
The Status Quo Objection A common objection you might run into when prospecting is the status quo objection. Your prospect will tell you that they’re happy with their current provider, or that they simply
The #1 Trade Secret Of Pro Buyers After a lengthy new client acquisition process, the time has come to submit a proposal including pricing. Countless hours are spent formulating a glorious proposal that details
Prospects Have Objections, You Need to Know How to Handle Them Learning to handle objections is important so that you don’t spend time with prospects who are not going to buy and you ensure
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.
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.