Pit Crews and Sales Teams: Planning Improves the Odds of Winning
Keep in mind that pit crews don’t prepare during the race. There is a time for preparing and a time for selling. We don’t start prepping when we’re supposed to be out selling. Before
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.
Keep in mind that pit crews don’t prepare during the race. There is a time for preparing and a time for selling. We don’t start prepping when we’re supposed to be out selling. Before
Something is amiss! Today’s sales consultants are not sales experts; they are expert administrators of the prepackaged, template-based models they “tailor” or “customize” and superimpose onto a client’s business. They evaluate businesses from a
Follow these three proven secrets of top producers and your appointment rate will increase as well as your qualified appointment ratio! This article is too short to script all these things out for you,
Just as you wear one outfit to exercise, a different one to work, and another to enjoy a nightclub, you must consider what your team will be doing while on-site to choose the most
The bottom line is that a sale is a game of strategy in which “numbers” are only one part. And, apart from improvement in strategy, process, skills, and techniques, you won’t improve sales. The
Some people are more married to their grudge (it gives them a reason to live) than they are to resolving it. People are prickly, they take offense and lock onto it, and once they’ve
Sales is a dynamic occupation that engages a dynamic world. Salespeople depend on your support to help realize their efforts. In order to achieve reliable growth, your operation must be designed to evolve from
Social media has changed our lives in many ways, and it’s changed the way we make buying decisions as well. If you’re like most people today, you probably search several sites, read reviews, look
Shifting into auto-pilot mode can affect a sales person’s results and not in a good way. When you move in auto-pilot, you lose your effectiveness. You do yourself and your potential customers a disservice.
Every sales professional feels frustrated when they’re put on hold even after receiving all the buying signals, including agreement with your solutions, price and service. 3 Reasons Clients Procrastinate According to a recent study
Are you writing your next series of educational articles for publication? Designing new marketing materials for an upcoming trade show? Preparing a special presentation for VIP prospects? These are a few example circumstances where
The most successful sales people almost always have very clear objectives, plans on how to get there and an ability to push past the pain of work to achieve it. Something that proved to them
Can’t stomach cold calling? Steal Jeb Blount’s 13 proven alternatives to picking up the phone that build real pipeline and actually work.
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
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.
Quick Summary Cold calling anxiety is not a symptom of weakness. It’s human and natural to feel fear when you cold call. You are interrupting a stranger who was not expecting you, and everything
Fear of the phone is quietly draining sales pipelines, and the reps who win are the ones willing to stop hiding behind email and LinkedIn and simply make the call.
Salespeople seek a magic window that makes cold calling easy. When prospects answer happy, say yes without a fight, and book the meeting themselves. So, is there a best time to call?
Short Answer Yes, you can make cold calling fun, and it is worth doing, because the reps who enjoy the phone are the ones who stay on it. Fun is not a personality trait
Philip is a character licensing agent in the Philippines. His job is to connect beloved brands, anime titles, video games, and comic properties to companies that want to put those characters on their products.
Summary LinkedIn hands salespeople more research than any other platform on earth, and most of them still send messages that get deleted on sight. This article covers the LinkedIn outreach mistakes I see constantly,
Caroline from Dayton, Ohio asked a question a lot of salespeople are wrestling with right now: How do you use AI efficiently without losing your human touch? It is a great question. And the
Here’s a question that cuts to the heart of what makes sales hard: What do you do when your commodity is identical to every competitor’s, the buyer knows it, and the only lever they
Buyers don’t experience your good intentions—they experience your process. In the age of AI, the sellers who win are the ones who remove friction and make buying effortless. Key Takeaways: How to Remove Friction
Let me ask you: What if the biggest thing standing between you and your next closed deal had nothing to do with your product knowledge, your pricing, or your pitch? What if it came
Here’s a question that keeps salespeople up at night: How do you build a powerful personal brand without stepping on your company’s toes? That’s the question Taylor Deadrick asked me during a recent live
Here’s a question that keeps salespeople up at night: How do you ask for more compensation when you’re getting competitive external job offers without sounding like you’re issuing an ultimatum? That’s the question posed
Here’s a problem that’ll make your head spin: What do you do when you can sell way more than your company can produce? That’s the question posed by Dylan Noah from Toronto. Dylan sells
Be a true leader and use these 13 rules to ensure your business not only survives, but thrives, in any economy! Adversity is just a road to success – you have to learn from
So, what is the front line sales manager’s job? Simply stated, it’s maximizing the performance of each person on their team. The only way sales managers achieve their goals and make their numbers is
In the chaos of daily priorities managers often forget their most important responsibility: Developing their people. Overlooking this core leadership imperative sub-optimizes the performance of their team. A manager’s primary job is to develop
People don’t learn by listening to the words you speak. They learn by watching your behavior. They learn from what you do, the actions you take, not your words. Make sure the lessons you
The most dangerous lie that salespeople tell themselves (and anybody else who will listen) is that they lost the opportunity with their dream client on price. Salespeople—like all other groups of people—lie to themselves.
Developing a deep knowledge of your sales landscape helps you sell more in less time. English navigator Henry Hudson learned the hard way in the 17th century what can happen when you don’t know
Characteristics of a resilient, sustainable business include leadership that understands the difference between working “for” and working “with” their employees. Consider these glum facts: Only one in eight workers worldwide are engaged at work,
Salespeople and sales managers are caught up in their own version of Ground Hog Day. They keep using the same approach, having the same conversations, which are leading to the same outcomes. Sales Ground
Working smarter with people entails three key activities: assigning the right number of people, identifying roles and planning compensation strategically. Sure-fire Ways to Work Smarter with People Your sales force is defined by the