Why the Basics Still Beat Fancy: The Unsexy Skills That Close Deals
Everybody wants the hacks. The quick fix. The shiny new tool. The LinkedIn post that magically draws leads like moths to a flame. But let me give it to you straight: Sales isn’t won
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.
Everybody wants the hacks. The quick fix. The shiny new tool. The LinkedIn post that magically draws leads like moths to a flame. But let me give it to you straight: Sales isn’t won
Steve from Portland, Oregon, faces and an all-too-common consultative selling dilemma: how to sell to prospects who claim they already know everything, have already “done the research” and question what value he can bring.
We are coming off of a week that can only be described as a stock market bloodbath—amping up uncertainty and making selling even harder. As the new tariffs imposed by the US government were
All’s fair in love and war—and sales. At the end of the day, what really matters is whether the deal closed or if you were left holding the bag. Did you make quota this
Dennis from Chesterfield, Missouri, wants to know if sales coaching truly moves the performance needle, especially when shifting from transactional approaches to more consultative selling. Below are the key insights from our conversation on
This is a very important Monday because this is the first Monday of the second quarter, and it’s time for a major gut check and assessment of where you are against your number coming
Great advice is everywhere, but most of it is fluff. In sales, you don’t need clichés—you need real strategies that help you win more deals. We’ve pulled together five of the biggest game-changing sales
Wes from Flower Mound, Texas, has a familiar challenge: how to attract more qualified B2B leads and convert them before they slip away. He’s already tried a variety of channels, including inside sales, social
George Foreman gave us a masterclass in resilience, on never giving up. His pivots and comebacks from defeat were legendary. He was a force of nature and one of the greatest boxers, salesmen and
Wherever you are in your sales journey, you need a mentor—now. If you’re serious about becoming a top performer or want to stay at the top of your game, you need more than just
The right mindset doesn’t just win games—it seals deals. It’s the “get it done” frame of mind that keeps your head in the game, keeps you sharp, and keeps you working for excellence. Work
Gaius, who runs an insurance brokerage in Ohio wants to know how to get his new sales agents cold calling and building pipeline earlier in their training cycle, without making them feel overwhelmed and
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
The most pressing issues facing sales professionals and sales leaders are, Prospecting, Pipeline, and Productivity. In this exclusive re-broadcast of VSKO17, four of the world’s most cutting edge thought leaders, shatter modern day sales
People buy on emotion and justify with logic. In fact, human emotions have a massive impact on buying behavior. On this podcast episode, Jeb Blount discusses why ultra-high performing sales professionals are astute students
Learn to say “No” thoughtfully and respectfully with the focus on creating a high-performance sales culture. Are you limiting your sales team and the ability to increase sales by not ever saying “No”? Sometimes,
Bullying behavior creates a hostile work environment. Eventually, word will spread about you being the bully boss. With technology, the spread of bullying in schools continues to make front-page news. Schools, corporations, and parents
Salespeople know what to do, however, when they hear a ‘buying signal’ they get excited and emotions start running the meeting, not consultative selling skills. You have all probably been a victim of this
Negotiations can be a dreaded and often high-stakes match with no clear winner. Use these four tips to guide your next negotiation and shift your mindset for a more positive collaboration. Negotiations are a
The way you pose the question is hampering you and preventing any likelihood of finding the right answer. It’s time to reframe your thinking. Selling isn’t easy. Every seller has that one problem or
Every business needs to put a plan in place for updating hardware and software as well as staying abreast as to new technology trends when it comes to local marketing through mobile technology. How
It is imperative that all employees understand how they are profit centers and how all these profit centers connect to the bottom line. Certain paradigms exist within each business culture. These paradigms are philosophical
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.