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.
Virtual sales appointments are easy to skip—but no-shows aren’t a people problem, they’re a systems problem. Build commitment at every step and prospects show up. Key Takeaways: How to Stop Virtual Sales No-Shows Sales
You’ve got a champion. Someone inside the account who gets it. They love your solution, they’re fighting for your proposal, and they’re feeding you intelligence about the decision-making process. So you’re golden, right? Wrong.
“You know, at the core of Working Genius, what it does is it allows us to avoid guilt and judgment—guilt about ourselves and judgment of others.” That’s Patrick Lencioni, bestselling author and organizational health
On this first Monday of the second month of the year, it’s time for a gut check. First, we need to check where we are against our new year goals. Next, we need to
Quick Summary Founder-led sales teams struggle to scale because the entire sales system lives in the founder’s head. Major clients only trust the founder, reps can’t replicate instincts they were never taught, and every
Here’s a question that’ll change how you think about this profession forever: What’s the one moment that reveals you’re built for sales success? For most people, that moment never comes. They stumble into sales,
I’m not sure if you noticed this, but there is a massive gap between what salespeople and leaders know and what they actually do. I’ve written 18 books and trained hundreds of thousands of
“That chip on my shoulder made me less empathetic, more rushed, too eager to solve things too fast, and less thoughtful. That chip built me, but then it started to tear me down.” I
Here’s a question that’ll make your head spin: You just inherited 50 neglected accounts, and your customers feel taken for granted. How do you reposition yourself as a high-value partner instead of just another
Have you ever gone into a closing meeting, a sales presentation, or even a prospecting call with total confidence? That mindset and feeling that everything’s going to go your way, that nothing can go
You are on slide 34 when the CFO’s phone buzzes. She glances down. The VP to her left is nodding, but you can tell he checked out ten minutes ago. You know this pitch
Here’s a question I get asked all the time: What’s the single biggest misconception holding salespeople back? That question came from a room full of college students at BYU-Idaho, ages 19 to 24, all
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
The reason salespeople fail to get what they want is they fail to ask. Instead of asking they beat around the bush and passively wait for their prospect to do the work for them.
So what’s your team’s Sales EQ? Here are three emotional intelligence skills to look for in your next hire. You’ve met this person. They are brilliant. Their ideas are creative. Yet no one wants
In one of our most intense podcast episodes ever, Jeb Blount and Alex Goldfayn discuss why salespeople who want to make more money must re-learn how to use the phone.
If you are using these three words you need to stop. They add no value, trigger reflex buyer scripts, and stall your deals in the pipe.
When your customers make buying decisions based on value, they are doing exactly the same thing that you do when you make buying decisions as a customer. Many top sales executives believe that few
In sales, today’s educated buyers know the difference between real butter and an imitation. Funny, how many business professionals say they are a good salesperson, yet in all actuality, they are just in sales.
In sales, its easy to become the buyer’s little puppet – they pull the strings and you dance. On this podcast episode you will learn how to use engagement tests, take aways, and emotional
The “what” centers around the value you as the solution provider bring to the buying decision table. The hardest question for any business owner to answer and along with the correct response to potentially
Top sales performers and successful small business owners embrace the human touch and are viewed by their constituents to clients as “valuable.” These individuals make time to stay human. In what is still a
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.
