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
The time and energy you devote to things that are outside of your control is better spent in areas where you have control. We don’t get to choose what happens in the areas where
Instead of wasting time figuring out an impressive response, spend time understanding what caused the objection in the first place. Identify what you are doing, or not doing that triggered the money objection in
I hear all the time from salespeople saying how their prospecting plan doesn’t seem to be delivering the results they need. Everyone needs to continually fine tune their prospecting process. The biggest problem I
How then do we make coaching conversations productive, efficient, and less stressful for the coach and coachee? With a bit of forward thinking and action and these 3 sales coaching hacks: We all know
This makes the salesperson a shrewd negotiator, choosing to negotiate with the weaker party, making it more likely that a deal is done. One of the things I hear from sales leaders most often
Leverage Friday afternoons for phone calls to people you haven’t been able to connect with or with prospects who are tied tightly to a competitor. It happens every summer. The number of sales appointments
On this episode of Sales Pipeline radio, Matt Heinz and Jeb Blount discuss emotional intelligence, Sales EQ, and Fanatical Prospecting. You’ll be surprised to hear Jeb’s opinion about how sales and marketing should work
It’s evident that time is a critical factor in completing sales, building and keeping the relationship. Given that, what strategy does your dealership have in place to shorten the time it takes to close
The only asset you have that is in limited supply is your own time. When a slow customer takes up too much of it, you lose. The time you’re spending with them is preventing
Training Cats Is Like Training Salespeople The same training and reward techniques required to get Fluffy to jump through a hoop can also be utilized to motivate your sales team to achieve peak performance.
Are You Really Confirming Appointments, Or Are You Canceling Them? If you’re not intentional about the way you confirm an appointment, you may wind up giving your prospect an opportunity to back out of
Many people are simply not comfortable walking into a room full of strangers and striking up conversations.
On this special episode of the Sales Gravy podcast you’ll step into the shoes of a Senior Vice President of Sales. Jeb Blount, Jr. (A.K.A. JBJ) interviews Ammon Woods who is the Senior Vice
Is Your Company Resilient? Diverse Thinking Is The Key Failure to listen to others who offer a contrary viewpoint can hamper progress, profitability, and performance. Here’s how to encourage diverse thinking in your organization
What Motivates Salespeople? Salespeople are motivated by momentum, and this momentum catches like wildfire on a team of high performers. Learn how salespeople are driven by progress and seeing results to find out how
Rethinking Round Robin Lead Distribution Start feeding your hunters the hot leads and rewarding them for their effort at building opportunities by giving them more. Don’t Reward Salespeople Who Rely On Luck There are
Why Leaders Should Participate In Training, Too As a leader, the number one way to ensure that your team gains the highest ROI on your training investment, is by getting involved. It communicates that
Ask These Unique Interview Questions To Find Your Next Great Sales Rep There’s no perfect system that can guarantee you’ll hire the right person every time. But there are fundamental guidelines you must follow