What Not to Say on a Sales Call
The best salespeople spend hours rehearsing sales calls, because statements, and meeting pitches so they know exactly what to say when they finally get a prospect on the line. The best know that practice,
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 best salespeople spend hours rehearsing sales calls, because statements, and meeting pitches so they know exactly what to say when they finally get a prospect on the line. The best know that practice,
Marcin from Warsaw, Poland, asks: What are the top sales trends shaping the future of sales? Our conversation ranged from the impact of AI to the growing importance of a consultative selling mindset in
WARNING: This Monday’s message will be one of the most powerful hacks you’ll ever integrate into your life—because it’s simple, easy to put into practice, and it works. It has the potential, over the
On the surface, you’d think that “selling” and “asking” go hand in hand. In reality, salespeople at all experience levels often hesitate, tiptoe around, or dodge direct closes because they’re afraid of rejection, worried
Elli in Galveston, Texas, faces a scenario that many young sales professionals know all too well: How do you earn respect and project confidence in selling when you’re dealing with people who are older
Is your website truly working as hard as your sales team? In today’s competitive digital landscape, your website isn’t just an online brochure—it can be one of your best salespeople. Podcaster and influencer Sam
Zack in Defiance, Ohio, faces a unique challenge that might sound specific at first but is more common than you think: he can only close a deal if his customer closes a deal of
Insights into embracing conflict, staying mindful, battling internal doubt, and communicating effectively from motivational speaker and co-founder of The Constance Group Brian Parsley. Key Takeaways Why Conflict Is Everywhere in Sales Sales is an
If you’ve been banging your head against the wall trying to get your team (or yourself!) to prospect consistently, these tips are for you. In this episode, I answer a question from Paul in
As humans, we naturally fear rejection and do everything possible to avoid it. We’re social creatures at our core, and being rejected feels like we’re being shunned, banished, or kicked out of the group.
Sales Leadership is a continuous journey of self-awareness, connection, and growth. By cultivating courage, emotional intelligence, and authenticity, leaders can navigate challenges effectively and inspire their teams to reach new heights. Through active listening,
Ron wants to know how to get CEOs to actually answer his cold calls (or at least respond). He runs a recruiting firm and finds that his cold calls to top executives often go
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
What Does It Mean To Give Your Customers The Red Carpet Experience? How many people are you losing because you treat even one person poorly? What’s at the heart of good or bad service? You
The Two Opposing Sales Philosophies After years of pursuing sales as a serious closer, I grew into what I refer to as an “of service” sales professional. While I’m still all about closing deals,
How To Design An Effective Sales Call Plan You are supposed to sell in such a way that people would prefer to work with you over anyone else. You need to be known, liked,
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
How You Open Your Closing Calls Might Lose You The Deal I’m going to share with you one of the easiest and most effective ways to close more business. And it all starts with
On this Sales Gravy podcast episode, Jeb Blount and Daniel Disney discuss the real secrets to becoming a LinkedIn selling machine. You’ll learn the keys to to filling your pipeline with qualified opportunities, building
Got a Stalled Pipeline Opportunity? Here’s What To Do Next When facing stalled pipeline opportunities, you might wonder, “Was it something I said? Did I do something wrong?” Often, it is out of your
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
The buyers in procurement are professionally trained to negotiate. Salespeople not so much. This can put you at a huge disadvantage when you are forced to negotiate with them. But not anymore. On this
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.