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
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,
In today’s world, people have a very strong belief in their weaknesses and an even stronger belief not to “brag” about their strengths. Yet, winning teams win because of the strengths of all team
As individual contributors top Sales Professionals have the luxury of only thinking about themselves. They can selfishly protect their own interests, act as lone wolves, and win at the expense of others. But as
What would happen if existing and future leadership programs were centered around a results-based model of leadership instead of a competency-based one? Think for a moment of a leader you appreciate or admire. Then
It’s not a question of if you should spend money on training, the question is how much will you spend on training. While you’re planning the budget for your organization don’t forget to include
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
Sales managers are charged with leading the sales team. Salespeople watch the leader, like kids watch parents, to see if words and actions are congruent. I recently read Stephen M.R. Covey’s book, The Speed
What would happen if each day you scheduled 12 minutes to push yourself away from the desk and take a walk outside or even lock yourself in the bathroom if need be? Just stop
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