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.
Prospecting is More Than a Cold Call There are six steps to more effective prospecting campaigns will help you reduce pure cold calling and engage highly qualified prospects. “Why won’t salespeople prospect? All they
The 5 Essential Elements Of Personal Prospecting Emails Breaking new ground with prospects is the initial hurdle you need to climb over on your path to a sales call or meeting. Before you start
The Virtual Selling Book Club Guide Mastering virtual selling techniques gives you a massive competitive advantage because it allows you to engage more prospects & customers, in less time, at a lower cost, while
How to Stand Out in Virtual Meetings Virtual selling is the new normal. Here are three tips for preparing yourself for a successful transition onto the virtual sales stage and for making a good
Tips for Effective Pipeline Reviews Avoid standing in front of the board next month and telling your reps that you missed the target… AGAIN. A pipeline review gives you and your reps an opportunity
How to Reach Your Prospect With Email If you want your prospect to open, read, and act upon your emails, start using these three actionable steps and instantly increase your email response rate. We
Just Send Your Material Here you’ll find five new scripts to help you separate the real buyers from those prospects who will just end up wasting your time. One of the biggest traps sales
Building Relationships On Sales Calls Building a relationship with someone you can’t see can be difficult, but simply changing the way you talk can make a big impact. Here’s six tips for using the
Cold Calling is Alive and Well With New Rules Cold calling is one of the most targeted, efficient and effective ways to reach potential customers but there are new rules for cold calling in
Understanding how to create an impression that stands out is the way to close the sale in 10 seconds or less. Actually, great sales people can do it even faster IF they make a
In this economy, asking whether you need to sell online or in person is like asking which came first, the chicken or the egg. I was keynoting at a conference last week, when a
In this article, Mike Brooks encourages sales teams to ask themselves what’s really holding their prospects back from buying. The holidays are upon us and guess what? The teams I’m working with are still
Here are some of my favorite screw-ups. Those funny stories that I have seen many of my fellow sales professionals make – me included. Ever realize how much you can learn from watching other
If you don’t invest the time and effort in your projects, you will not enjoy exceptional results. Doesn’t your business deserve the most impressive product possible? Have you ever made spaghetti sauce from scratch
In a world that’s getting noisier by the day, the longer you wait to reveal yourself, the likelier it is that you’ll find yourself stuck in the visibility vacuum. For months (or maybe even
To be spectacular is to be different. Do you encourage your employees to be different, to do different? Are you encouraged to be or do different? There is great honor in being the first
Chris Beall, CEO of ConnectAndSell, and Jeb Blount, CEO of Sales Gravy, discuss the economics of building and running highly productive sales teams. As with virtually every aspect of our world, even the field
If you don’t like to sell, it means that you are doing it wrong. Stepping in with courage and determination into a sales conversation is the most powerful aspect of your business. The biggest
The sales player-coach — carrying a personal quota while also helping build and lead a team — is one of the hardest roles in sales, and most people in it burn out quietly. Surviving
Key Takeaways When people leave training, why don’t they all perform at the same level? Training and coaching occupy different positions in the development process. One without the other leaves the job half done.
You just promoted your top performer to your newest sales leader. They crushed quota six quarters in a row. Closes deals in their sleep. Customers love them. The team respects them. On paper, it’s
I spent an afternoon at Ramsey Solutions in Tennessee with Jason Williams, Vice President of Sales for the EntreLeadership Division. What stood out wasn’t the size of the operation or the fancy building. It
A book of business that isn’t growing is dying. When your team drifts into “farmer mode” and stops hunting new logos, it’s on leadership to make prospecting non-negotiable again. Key Takeaways: How to Get
“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
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
“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
“You can’t be more committed to somebody’s success than they are.” That insight comes from Colleen Stanley, author of Be the Mentor Who Mattered, during a recent conversation on the Sales Gravy Podcast. It’s