You Might Be A Sales Zombie If…..
A recent editor’s note in a sleep products magazine discussed how many people suffer from poor sleep and the editor referred to these individuals as zombies. Instantly, I thought of dozens of sales people
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.
A recent editor’s note in a sleep products magazine discussed how many people suffer from poor sleep and the editor referred to these individuals as zombies. Instantly, I thought of dozens of sales people
Winning companies are the ones that give power to the employees to make decisions that are in favor of taking care of the customer. Does your culture put the customer first, does it empower
A sales conversation involves two parties; the salesperson and the decision maker. The premise of this conversation is that the salesperson will try to present the decision maker with features and benefits to create
Asking questions can slow a situation down long enough to see where it’s heading. This allows you to take corrective action sooner instead of later. You can surface hidden agendas and reveal lies without
If you choose to power through your sales responsibilities, commit to them fully (no excuses). Understanding that you are not feeling 100% leads to an understanding that you must work harder to obtain the
When times are tough and prospects seem to be holding on to every dollar, your job as a sales manager is more important than ever before. Now is the time to roll out a
As professionals who take pride in their work (just as the celebrities care about their charities), your staff will likely try their best to ensure your company’s success while exhibiting. However, by matching your
If you employ salespeople or proactively sell a product or service by another means, you have a sales standard. Sales improvement is satisfied with an increase in qualities and quantities of various sales activities.
Mike called me recently and asked, “What does the 4th of July look like?” I replied, “It looks like the 5th, but a day earlier and it also looks like the 3rd, but a
Though still emerging, the concept of “sales without selling” has attained a precedent that no variation of the American standard can claim: the American sales model has not been merely revised, but rather replaced
How much, and how fast, would you improve if you could critique and correct how you handle the brush offs you get, the stalls you have to deal with when getting back with prospects,
In order for sales to occur, a process for converting prospects into clients or customers must exist. The essential goal of a sales improvement effort is to discover and maximize the process that most
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
Want to build rapport quickly and get people to like you more? Notice, and bring up similarities. You can easily find out some useful info on a person’s LinkedIn profile or company bio if it’s
What’s wrong with focusing on your sales process first and your sales philosophy second, or just ignoring the whole thing? It’s all about the results you want vs. the results you will get. Have
Poor time management is the biggest challenge for new sellers. Your most finite resource as a sales professional is time. In our business we work with salespeople and sales managers of all levels. Recently,
Closing the sale involves being able to diffuse and deflect (and often anticipate) customer objections. Closing the Sale Like putting the finishing touches on a masterpiece work of art – closing is the apex
Your challenge is that you can’t use a positive sales approach with a negative person. Are you too positive? If you’re like most salespeople—and most salespeople are—you’re pretty positive. The same is true if
How do you view yourself as a salesperson? What would happen if you changed that perspective? Sales still slumping along and not where you want them to be? Maybe you need to change your
Billions of dollars are spent every year on carefully crafted impressions by businesses anxious to carve out a valuable position in the minds of their customers. Alas, if only the same thing could be said
Get rid of old beliefs and outdated sales techniques. The new economy demands a new approach and philosophy in sales. The self-help gurus are the best at teaching, “You are what you believe. Your
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
If you truly want to do more with the same amount of time each and every day, then begin by developing those self-leadership skills necessary for personal success. Can we agree that: A minute
These 8 keys can help you unlock your sales training and development programs so that you get “the most bang for your buck”. Sales training will be one of the few training and development
Part of the reason so many small business owners are crazy busy is because they are not 100 percent forward-thinking leaders. “We don’t have a budget as much as we need to take this
How frequently in business do we continue to ride dead horses? From ineffective marketing to misaligned operational systems to poor management, all continue to exist even though they are, simply speaking, dead horses. Years
Often, when a sales rep knows the right way to ask for the sale, they’ll be more inclined to do so! This common error costs more sales than most sales leaders are willing to
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
Early right actions make it easier to accomplish future critical milestones and prepare the team for unforeseen issues that arise later. Do you sometimes wonder how they do it? You know who I mean
Just as there is a set of best ways to paint a room, so there are sets of best ways to ask a question, seek an appointment, build rapport, make a presentation, close the
If you ask and they have found good examples, you have an opportunity to collect more stories and the new hire quickly learns what will be rewarded. If you ask and they have found