
3 Reasons Why Customers Hate to Be Sold
The most successful sales professionals always focus on the needs of their customer. This puts them at the center of attention. When they feel valued for the information they share and you work to
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.

The most successful sales professionals always focus on the needs of their customer. This puts them at the center of attention. When they feel valued for the information they share and you work to

Savvy sellers know that trying to win a deal with partial information is akin to Tiger Woods expecting to win a golf game with only one club in his golf bag. Depending on who

Don’t let wounds fester, and don’t let grievances grow. If you suspect someone is holding a grudge, but you’re not certain, see what you can find out. If you find evidence that someone is

The up sell is one of the easiest and most important parts of your presentation to script out. So many sales reps (like 80% of them), ad lib the up sell (whenever they think

Hey, sales – and life – isn’t always going to go your way. But when you can stop and appreciate how incredibly fortunate and blessed you already are, and get restored to what your

The biggest mistake that most people make in facilitating change is that they expect people to go from ignorance to action in a single step. The result is that they wind up introducing so

An entire industry has been created around goal setting with the promise that salespeople can sell more by setting better goals using better methods. The problem is that none of these traditional methods address

Selling can be broken down into its parts, and much can be learned from doing so, but to put those parts together in a convincing sales conversation requires the artful skill of a true

Salespeople have to be emotionally invested in their work with a burning desire to achieve. They must also believe that the company they represent is the best and the solutions or services they sell

Don’t Stop Chasing Your Dream! In the mid 1970s, a man named Sylvester had a dream of one day becoming a movie actor, but couldn’t find a talent agency in New York City willing

Here are 3 Ways to Peak your Prospect’s Interest Getting a prospect’s attention these days is quite challenging. Prospects are bombarded every day with calls, emails, direct mail and social media for meeting requests

Although it is important to be realistic about number of events at which you can exhibit, I would encourage you to consider your resources carefully. If there is an event that fits every criteria
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

So, what separates the great channels from the “not-so-great”? Great channel organizations truly focus on what really matters. By doing so, these companies and their people are able to accelerate revenues, increase market share,

Your management team may have implemented a team selling model with great expectations for success. However, team selling doesn’t always live up to its potential. To Team Or Not To Team? Does this sound

Tips for Building a Successful Process for Onboarding New Salespeople To build and sustain a high-performing sales team you must begin with successfully onboarding new salespeople. Getting it right from the start will help

It’s often difficult to motivate sales reps to focus on developing expertise when they want to develop relationships, but the two can go hand in hand. Trust is Not Enough For many years, developing

In the context of selling, a blind spot is something you commonly do within your sales interactions that potentially threatens your success. And here comes the kicker… you’re not aware of it. I’m a

Sales is about relationships. Your sales team can boost your company’s image by blogging, contributing to trade publications, and presenting within your marketplace. Use the Sales Team to Uncover Success Stories Success stories are

The question you must ask yourself is: “Does this secrecy make good business sense in today’s marketplace?” How This Joke Hurts the Small Business Bottom Line Small business owners understand that profitability is critical

Many sales managers don’t like having the difficult conversations—who does? But as a leader, it is part of your role. You’re a top sales producer that has been rewarded with a promotion to sales

Sales prospecting can be tedious, intimidating, and terribly discouraging. Yet, it still has to be done. Why not make a game out of it and get past the boredom? You’ve probably heard the saying