Why You Need to Become Obsessed With Process Goals (Money Monday)
Ben Hogan, who was arguably the greatest ball striker the game of golf has ever known, taught that if you wanted to improve your swing you should focus on the cause rather than the
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.
Ben Hogan, who was arguably the greatest ball striker the game of golf has ever known, taught that if you wanted to improve your swing you should focus on the cause rather than the
You know the drill. The quota clock is ticking, the pressure is mounting, and there’s that relentless urge for a quick win. Every sales professional has felt that impulse to rush the process, to
That’s the question every sales leader, CEO, and HR department is wrestling with as AI tools flood the market with promises to automate everything from prospecting to closing deals. Meanwhile, salespeople are panicking, wondering
Growing up, I was easily the shyest girl in the room. Not just quiet—debilitatingly shy. I was so shy that I wouldn’t even ring the bell to get off the bus. I’d simply ride
Is there such a thing as natural sales talent? Are top-level sales professionals born that way? Do they possess a gift from God that powers their ability to close sales? On this Money Monday,
“I can’t do that.” How many times have you said those four words when facing a challenging sales situation? It could be picking up the phone to make that intimidating cold call. It could
Here’s a question that exposes one of the most dangerous myths in modern sales: How do you set the right pipeline creation target to consistently hit quota? That’s exactly what Maryellen Soriano from New
It’s almost that time of the year again. The weather is warming up, and the social calendar—not your sales meeting calendar—is filling up—beach with the family, boats on the lake, and burgers in the
Have you ever been working on a deal where you had this feeling, this intuition, this Spidey sense—something in the back of your mind telling you that this wasn’t going to close? That you
Your sales team just closed a $50K deal. Marketing takes credit because the prospect downloaded three whitepapers. Sales takes credit because they nurtured the relationship for six months. Meanwhile, you’re wondering why this kind
Here’s a question that’ll make your head spin: What do you do when your top performer is crushing quota but not hitting a required talk time KPI? That’s the question posed by Josh Robich
Most people assume sales start when you have a product to sell. Mine started when the only thing I had was myself—and a dream nobody else believed in. A Dream and Not Much Else
How To Open A Prospecting Call Besides being very busy, your prospects probably get a lot of sales calls every week, and many of them from your direct competition. So why would they want
Email or Telephone: Which one do you use more for prospecting? The question should not be the number of people you can contact. The question we need to be asking is, “What is the
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
Short Answer What is priming in sales? Priming in sales is exposing your buyer to specific words, images, stories, and questions that shape their emotional state before you ask for the sale. Buyers who
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,
Not all times of day are equal: how to structure your team’s day for optimal focus and flow. If you’re a sales leader, then you spend a lot of time thinking about your team’s
Leading companies are building stronger, more reliable, and recession-proof pipelines. When times get crazy. When there is uncertainty in business. When the markets take us on a roller coaster ride. When the world seems
During unplanned timeouts in business, the very best companies and ultra-high performers embrace that gift of time and leverage it as much as possible. There are some excellent anecdotes concerning the value of leveraging
To vet your sales reps and their progress fully, ask them specifically about the progress they’ve made during the time since your last meeting. This allows you to keep a finger on the pulse
In a hyper-competitive industry filled with giants, we need Millennials with superior sales acumen. But as wise leaders, we also have a responsibility towards the well-being of our up-and-coming sales leaders. My husband, Gordon,
Millennials are loyal to the bigger picture. They will help you get what you want if you help them get what they want. But first, you need to know more about what motivates them.
What mountains are your sales teams facing? How might you inspire them to be more engaged in their own success, as well as yours? What can you do together to reach the top of
When considering a merger or acquisition, investigate the sales management processes in place. Over the years of being in business, I’ve discovered a common strategy among consistently successful sales teams. These sales teams thrive
A deeper understanding of naturally recurring patterns of thoughts and behaviors ensures that everyone on the team can maximize their strengths and work in collaboration with others to achieve both personal and professional goals.