5 Ways to Protect Your Company’s Image from Corporate Drama
Take a moment to think about any behaviors you may have overlooked in the past with fresh eyes and imagine how your staff may react in the moment while representing your company in public
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.
Take a moment to think about any behaviors you may have overlooked in the past with fresh eyes and imagine how your staff may react in the moment while representing your company in public
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
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
You know AI is transforming sales, everyone’s talking about it, but you’re still staring at ChatGPT like it’s some mysterious black box, wondering what magical question you should type in first. That’s the reality
The OutBound Sales Training & Leadership Conference presented by Sales Gravy returns Nov. 9-12, 2026, at the spectacular Red Rock Casino Resort & Spa in Las Vegas. If you’re serious about your sales career
LinkedIn is still the #1 platform for building pipeline in B2B sales, but the game has changed. Sales and marketing professionals have all come to rely on LinkedIn. It’s been their digital handshake, networking
While your competitors are stuck in voicemail purgatory, a small group of top performers has unlocked a secret pipeline of qualified sales leads. They’ve discovered how to stop chasing and start attracting, all by
Here’s a question that’ll flip your understanding of cultural intelligence in sales upside down: How do you win over a room full of skeptical Spanish teenagers when you’re the obvious American outsider who barely
If you’re only showing up in one place, you’re not showing up at all, which is why top sales reps are making multi-channel prospecting a priority and leveraging LinkedIn to get ahead. “The reality
You know the feeling. You’re mid-pitch, and you watch your prospect’s eyes glaze over—their mind somewhere else entirely. It’s exhausting, demoralizing, and it’s killing your close rate. But what if you didn’t have to
Here’s a question that’ll keep you up at night: What do you do when your emotions are sabotaging your sales performance? That’s the exact challenge posed by Kurt O’Donnell and the sales team from
Ben Hogan, who was arguably the greatest ball striker the game of golf has ever known, taught that if you wanted to improve your swing you should focus on the cause rather than the
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