13 Real Alternatives to Cold Calling That Build Pipeline
Can’t stomach cold calling? Steal Jeb Blount’s 13 proven alternatives to picking up the phone that build real pipeline and actually work.
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.
Can’t stomach cold calling? Steal Jeb Blount’s 13 proven alternatives to picking up the phone that build real pipeline and actually work.
The right time to hire a fractional sales leader is when your team has outgrown what you can manage on top of running the business. Here are 7 signs that tell you it’s time,
Making just three to five of proactive calls to customers in a five-minute block, breaks the reactive cycle most account managers live in and builds the relationships that drive real, predictable revenue.
Recruiting is a sales leader’s number one job, and the way to find sales candidates is the same way your reps find customers: recruit like you prospect.
Steal this trial close technique and exact scripts to motivate buyers to make decisions and act without making big price concessions.
Referral leads close at three to four times the rate of cold and self-generated leads. Once both reach a real sales conversation, referrals close at roughly 26 percent versus 9 percent for cold and
When should you ask questions on a cold call? Questions come after you’ve earned the right, when you’re gathering information and qualifying, and they lead the conversation only when the prospect contacted you first.
To prospect for new clients, stop making random touches and run a consistent five-step system. Work this system every day and you gain control of your pipeline, along with the peace of mind that
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.
A good sales voicemail is short, scripted, and gives the prospect one clear reason to call you back. This guide gives you seven word-for-word sales voicemail scripts that work!
Salespeople fail at cold calling for five common reasons. Fix them and the phone starts producing appointments again.
Email response rates are collapsing because decision maker inboxes are stuffed with automated, AI-written slop. This is exactly why the phone is more powerful today than it was ten years ago.
Prospects Have Objections, You Need to Know How to Handle Them Learning to handle objections is important so that you don’t spend time with prospects who are not going to buy and you ensure
Three Turnarounds to Common Insurance Sales Objections In inusrance sales, there are three objections that you will face when engaging prospects and customers. You gain a competitive advantage when you prepare in advance and
Your Prospect’s Attention Span is Short It is super easy to lose your prospect’s attention on a cold call. When you do, click . . . the call is abruptly over. When you make
Gatekeepers Are Not The Enemy It may seem like the gatekeeper’s primary job is to keep you out. But they can be your ally if you learn how to enlist their help. Knowing best
3 Key Elements of Sales Fitness To reach peak performance and productivity, sales professionals need to be physically fit, because mental energy is limited by physical energy. Here are three steps you can take
Snail Mail Isn’t Dead When it comes to making connections with hard-to-reach decision-makers, gaining familiarity with a prospect, and maintaining a relationship with your past and current clients, snail mail can’t be beat. Here’s
Video Messaging Works The simple truth is that video messaging works. Even a 60-second video can get you and your team right to the people who matter the most. Prospecting Isn’t Easy I was
Finding The Right Time To Prospect The best part of weekend warrior prospecting is that prospects tend to be more relaxed without distractions. Here’s why you should set aside a block of time on
Lessons In Sales Negotiation I built the confidence to never get rattled and to always ask for what I want. The worst thing that could happen is that a buyer walks away without putting
Answer These 4 Questions To Guarantee Sales Pipeline Accuracy When the end of the quarter is approaching, what do sales managers want? Easy answers. Which sales that their people promised will close this week?
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
Prepare For Your Next Sales Call Sales professionals everywhere set themselves up to fail by neglecting proper sales call preparation. Don’t be one of them. Here are ten of the most important things 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
Successful Sales Negotiation Made Easy It’s important to be intentional during every step of the sales process, but especially at the negotiation table. Even after you close the deal, the discussions you have during
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
‘Busy’ Does Not Mean ‘Productive’ The best account managers know how to stay busy doing the sales activities that are the most productive. Being ‘busy’ only matters if you are taking actions that move
Are You Really Listening To Your Prospects? Active listening is a crucial sales skill that so many salespeople overlook. The truth is, if you aren’t actively listening, you are holding yourself back from building
Fear is nothing more than a lack of knowledge. In order to survive any challenge that negatively impacts your selling career, you need to be prepared. Investing in self-improvement is the best way to
Everyone agrees that sales meetings can be excruciating. But, what if you turned your weekly sales meetings into rock star sales rallies? You can make just a few changes to make the meeting motivational,
What does average mean, especially in today’s workplace where the lack of employee engagement drains profits? Where it drains the performance of hard working employees who go beyond expectations? Years ago, a wise mentor
To build a winning sales team, and avoid making deadly mistakes, you need a scalable, predictable, and data-driven approach. Mistake #1: Hiring salespeople with your gut Hiring rock star sales people is the most
Put these 15 sales metrics in place and start monitoring them so you can see how you are performing as a company and individually, and where you need to make adjustments to achieve your
Complacency is hindering business growth and costing your sales teams new opportunities, valuable accounts, and profitable relationships. Here are three signs of complacency in your sales teams and how to squash it. Your sales
Sellers need individual business plans because personal performance planning fosters quota and territory ownership, accelerates the adoption of best practices, and builds a foundation for sales productivity accountability. It is surprising how few sales
Leaders cannot manage what they don’t measure. Therefore sales metrics and sales management are interconnected. For this reasons, it is imperative that sales managers and leaders clearly understand the metrics that matter. Sales Activities
Our team at Sales Gravy interviewed Ken Thoreson, president of Acumen Management Group, Ltd. As a sales management thought leader, Ken is recognized as an expert in sales execution, channel management, revenue generation, sales
Despite being awash in numbers, more sales data has not resulted in better sales performance. Therefore, it is critical that leaders understanding the sales metrics that contribute to effective sales management. Sales Activities, Sales