How to Entertain Business Etiquette When Dining for Profit
If you pay attention to the details and make every effort to see that your clients have a pleasant experience, they will assume that you will handle their business the same way. Before long
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.
If you pay attention to the details and make every effort to see that your clients have a pleasant experience, they will assume that you will handle their business the same way. Before long
The Right People for Sales There is a saying, mostly used in the world of athletics; “You can lose with great people but you cannot win without them.” Clearly this theory applies to many
The problem with many sales managers is that they aren’t expected to get on the phone and sell. And the problem with that is how can they teach and coach something they aren’t doing
People are in “holiday mode” and many businesses are in a holding pattern, waiting for budgets to be released in the New Year. These ideas should give you enough to keep you busy in
So you now own an iPad or other type of tablet and you’re wondering if you should use it on a sales call. Here are 6 quick rules to consider: 1. Don’t use it
A Surprise Opportunity with The Ultimate Decision Maker I was having breakfast with a client, Spike Count of the Baxa Company, in Denver right before a training program I was delivering, and we were
A compensation plan that works. When it comes to how businesses pay their salespeople, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. That’s especially true for Microsoft’s diverse partner companies. Each has its own business model, margins and
To build a quality relationship with your prospect, you must sell three things in a specific order. Step one sell yourself, step two sell the quality of your company, and step three sell the
There are many ways to go about creating a defined sales process and training program and one of the best ways is to break down what your Top 20% are doing. They obviously have
When Do Executives Buy? When do the C-level executives make the decision to buy? When they believe that your solution brings new “opportunity” to their company. Most executives are decisive. They evaluate their decisions
Hiring good salespeople is one of most important tasks a manager faces. Few decisions are more essential to the success of your company than who represents your products and services. The time and money
Your objective as the salesperson is to get the customer to share with you at least three reasons they need what you’re offering. One of the three should be time sensitive. The customer’s time-sensitive
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
All companies want to thrive. No company just wants to just “exist”. It’s “business nature” to want to grow, to become better…..to thrive. We wrote about Rising channels (see the previous blog) and discussed
This year, the company I had been using for the last several years was unresponsive when I tried to schedule service. Coincidentally, I received an email from one of their competitors offering the same
Why do sales professionals who become aware of their sales approach not working continue to plunge ahead? An unfounded “expectation of success” appears to play a significant role in such cases. Recently, I finished
Simplicity equates to clarity.Simple will always beat out complicated. Have you ever researched a new purchase only to find that there are too many options? What did you do? Sometimes people delay the purchase
Baseball players and sales professionals don’t have much in common. However, Elite athletes and Ultra-High Performing sales professionals know their numbers because that’s where the MONEY is. In this video, Jeb Blount addresses the
Salespeople sometimes treat LinkedIn like just another cold prospecting tool, and they end up engaging their prospects in a pretty abrasive way. A few weeks ago, I received a LinkedIn message from a user
Ah, the life of a salesperson. Perpetually condemned to sleazeball status, pushing unneeded or unwanted services on prospects who have no interest in those wares, only to run off into the sunset with briefcases
“I’m not sure if I have the right people and I am not sure if they’re doing the right things.” — Every Leader I’ve heard this from countless CEO’s, Sales Leaders, and Business Owners over
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
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.