Are You In It To Win It?
If I get into a game, I play to win. What nobility is there is playing like a slacker? What virtue is purposeful mediocrity? None! I live my life to be a winner. Have
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.
If I get into a game, I play to win. What nobility is there is playing like a slacker? What virtue is purposeful mediocrity? None! I live my life to be a winner. Have
Do you long for a life lived in high gear? One that is filled with joy and achievement? It is possible! How would you like to kick your life into high gear? I can
When you are winning deals, it’s easy to slip into a euphoric mindset and completely forget about the process that got you there in the first place. Out of all the sales rules, there
What would happen to your business results if you just said “no” a little more often? Building business demands that you, as the solo professional, wear many hats. In wearing all of these hats,
Hark back to who you were on interview day. We promised to deliver above and beyond. Chances are, we gave it our all for a while, settled into a groove and have gotten lazy
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
Cold Calling C-Level Executives When calling into the upper “C” suites, assess their mood and circumstances at the time of the call quickly and match it with your tone and conversation. This will give
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
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
In a recent sales productivity study we conducted for one of our clients, we learned that while their sales reps spend more time on selling activities compared to the external benchmark, they spend a
If you rely on the features and benefits of your product or service to create differentiation… good luck! Start differentiating through the quality and relevant value of your daily interactions with your customers and
Consider how much time and effort you and your sales team spend preparing RFPs. What if you could do this faster and improve your success rate? What Are the Three Most Critical Success Factors
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.