
Help Customers See Value in What You Offer
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
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.

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

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
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

Sales managers are all around us; those in the selling game have likely encountered multiple. Like salespeople themselves, they have a wide range of qualifications, personality traits and work ethics, but the role of

Your buying vision needs to be closely linked to the specific customers you are looking to do business with. Create a vision in their minds about why they should buy from you. It sounds

If you are waiting to get motivated before you make calls remember this: Motivation comes from action, not the other way around. I often receive time management questions from sales reps. This week I

Business ethics, when positive and consistently displayed, build customer confidence and add tremendous value to the buying decision-making process. Foundation for Success Writers never truly know what hits a nerve with their readers and

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.” — Eleanor Roosevelt Is

Salespeople who use bad techniques that get them ignored, screened out, and quickly dumped off a call will still be that same person with the same results using LinkedIn. Ever been to one of

Today’s industrious entrepreneurs, small business owners, and even C Level executives have a new strategy not afforded to past generations – blogging. Today’s industrious entrepreneurs, small business owners to even C Level executives have

Most salespeople repeatedly find themselves navigating waves of extreme highs and lows. During their lowest points, they have to decide whether the metaphorical glass is half-full or half-empty. We’re salespeople. That means that most

Social engineering is asking for information from people that will help other people and the organization as a whole. One reason that most “cold” calls fail and result in rejection is that sales reps
Before You Promote That Salesperson to Sales Manager… Often, top performing salespeople are promoted to sales manager roles with the expectation that their talent, drive, and success will motivate the rest of the sales
This hard-hitting and thought provoking episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast features a deep conversation on the state of sales leadership. Jeb Blount, author of People Follow You and Frank Cespedes, a Harvard Business
Why Great Sales Leaders Are A Little Paranoid Great leaders have to be a little bit paranoid because they can help their team uncover holes or problems well before they emerge. As long as
Forward-Thinking Leaders Stay Ahead of the Curve Forward-thinking leaders have their thumb on the pulse of their team, their organization, and the ever-changing landscape of modern business. Here are 10 tips for staying ahead
The Five Cornerstones of All Wise Leaders Every leader wants to become a GREAT leader. It seems to be in their DNA to strive toward this goal. In examining how leaders operate, we must
Great Leadership Requires A High Level of Emotional Intelligence Effective leadership requires a high level of emotional intelligence. Great leaders are developed, not trained. These 5 skills are what sets great leaders apart from

Giving Positive Feedback During a feedback session, the sales manager cannot only congratulate the sales rep for their achievement but also help the sales rep to better understand why they achieved the win in

On this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount who is the author of People Follow You, sits down with Wanda Wallace, author of You Can’t Know it All. In this power-packed conversation

Don’t Get Stuck With Hiring Remorse Hiring a new sales rep is less than a perfect art or science. And many salespeople simply don’t work out or perform as expected. This is largely due