Telling the Hard Truth is the New Path to Successful Sales
Improving Your Leadership Skills As a leader in your company, there comes a time when you will have to convey a truth that isn’t easy to hear or say. Whether you’re telling a prospect
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.
Improving Your Leadership Skills As a leader in your company, there comes a time when you will have to convey a truth that isn’t easy to hear or say. Whether you’re telling a prospect
3 Tips For Selling to Your Prospect’s Brain You’ve heard many sayings when it comes to selling, such as customers buy emotionally and then back up their decision with logic. Or, how about, “you
Instead of getting older and losing strength, stamina and flexibility, you can actually reverse this and become “functionally younger” next year than you are right now. You can actually change the decline curve that
Just what actions ARE you taking right now to accomplish your goal? Do you have a sales coach or have you joined a mastermind group to support you and give you the tools you
Do you lie to yourself? You may not think so but I suggest that you probably do. Here’s what I mean… Sales Lie #1: “I could reach my quota if my company lowered their
When an attendee visits your booth but you realize he either doesn’t match your personal reasons for participating (so you don’t want to chat with him) or your focused area of expertise (so you
Achieving “unachievable” revenue goals If there’s a universal truth in sales, it’s that the start of a new year means everything starts over. Whether you had a terrific year or not, whether you create
Demonstrate your credibility by what you say and by how you conduct yourself. Have the courage to ask tough questions, and have fierce, honest discussions. Seven Steps to Building a Solid Client Relationship
A new year for your customers usually means a new budget cycle and now is the time to stimulate their interest and get ahead of the curve. You’re not discounting your products and services,
The lack of business etiquette skills runs the gamut from polite dining, professional dressing to such simple acts as saying “Thank you” to a customer or an employee. Very few people bother with expressing
You’ve heard Albert Einstein’s famous definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Here’s my corollary: Focus on new ideas and actions and expect better results. Sales
Unless you are replying to a message marked urgent, there is no need to send an instant response. Your e-mail is a representation of you personally and professionally. E-mail Errors That Can Cost You
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
To create true sales predictability (and avoid Sales Whiplash), it’s critical to consider both independently, and to have your pipeline numbers influence your forecast output. Drastically Refine Your Sales Pipeline This Year Understanding that
When you are winning deals, it’s easy to slip into a euphoric mindset and completely forget about the process that got you there in the first place. Out of all the sales rules, there
Here’s the scenario that’s playing out in sales organizations everywhere right now: Your team fought through a brutal first half of the year, rallied momentum in the second half, crushed their numbers, and now
You’re Coachable, But Are You Truly Humble? You’ve been coachable your entire career. You take feedback, adjust your approach, read books, listen to podcasts, and implement what works. Yet being coachable doesn’t automatically make
The automated “Great job, team!” email blasted to 47 people at 4:37 PM on a Friday isn’t authentic appreciation. Neither is the generic gift basket ordered by someone in HR who’s never met your
To a sales leader, it’s a familiar story.Month one: Your new SDR is on fire. Energy through the roof. They’re excited about cold calling.Month two: Still strong. Meetings are getting booked. Dashboard looks good.Month
This time of year is critical. As sales leaders map out their budgets for the new year, the conversation always centers on a core conflict: How to cut expenses and, simultaneously, motivate teams to
Here’s a question that’ll keep you up at night: How do you take a company from $300K in annual revenue to $1.5 million in 18 months, then scale to $3-$5 million within five years?
Your sales team has the tools. They know the pitch. The CRM is full of leads. So why are half your reps still missing quota? The real issue? Most sales leaders are managing activity
Walk into any sales conference, scroll through LinkedIn, or join a sales team meeting, and you’ll hear the same tired arguments: cold calling versus social selling, interruption versus relationship-building, quantity versus quality. The sales
Leadership is the single most important factor in a sales team’s success. You can have talented reps, strong products, and a solid sales process, but without effective leadership, performance stalls. As Duff Tucker, Sales