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.
Here’s a question that should stop you in your tracks: What do you do when you’re booking meetings but prospects keep ghosting you? That was the challenge posed by Brittany, a sales rep watching
Have you ever had a moment where the answer you were looking for was right in front of you? I’m talking about a giant neon sign moment where you realize that a strategy is
Morgan Keim, founder of Ocean Ridge Capital, raised over $400 million in venture capital before he turned 35. One of his companies alone pulled in over $300 million pre-revenue—convincing pension funds and VCs to
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
You’ve heard people say, “Sales is a grind.” And they’re right. Sales requires relentless effort. You’ve got to make the calls, run the process, deal with internal roadblocks, handle piles of rejection, and show
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
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
Brad Beeler, author of Tell Me Everything and retired Secret Service agent who has conducted more criminal polygraphs than anyone in the agency’s history, was clearing a house on a search warrant when he
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
One of the most vivid memories from my childhood was the day I was bucked off my pony, Macaroni. I was only six years old. We were in an arena where my mother was
If you’ve only sold sexy products with cool demos and unique features, you’re probably missing the fundamentals that separate good salespeople from great ones. Marcus Chan, CEO of Venli Consulting and recent guest on
Here’s a question that’ll make you rethink everything about sales performance: What happens when your team has all the skills, tools, and training they need, but they’re still underperforming because they can’t regulate their
Sales activity is the lifeblood of your career. But for too many salespeople, it’s the very thing holding them back. You’re generating a ton of activity, your calendar is packed, your inbox is overflowing,
In today’s economy, being the account manager who keeps clients happy and renewals steady simply isn’t enough. Every budget line item is under the microscope. Customers want proof of ROI, so you have to
Overcoming call reluctance starts with understanding why even seasoned sales pros freeze up when it’s time to pick up the phone. They’re paralyzed by one simple fear: interrupting a prospect’s day. That’s exactly what
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
Should you use sales scripts to close more deals? That’s the question I get from salespeople who are struggling to hit their numbers and looking for that magic bullet that’ll transform their results overnight.
How many times do you actually attempt to reach out to a prospect before you give up? On the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jessica Stokes calls out a common sales reality when prospecting: “We all
Here’s a question that exposes one of the most dangerous myths in modern sales: How do you set the right pipeline creation target to consistently hit quota? That’s exactly what Maryellen Soriano from New
It’s almost that time of the year again. The weather is warming up, and the social calendar—not your sales meeting calendar—is filling up—beach with the family, boats on the lake, and burgers in the
Here’s a hard truth most salespeople never hear: The most dangerous thing you can do is think like an employee. On this week’s episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, business consultant for entrepreneurs David
Tyler Goss, from Tampa, has two critical sales questions: 1) How do we achieve those “crazy” prospecting numbers I talk about in my books? 2) When should a lead become a pipeline opportunity? In
Fear will kill sales and crush your chances of making quota. Hesitation, paralysis, and missed connections with prospects—that’s the consequence of fear. The truly trapped stop picking up the phone entirely. Fear hijacks your
During a practice round at a major golf tournament recently, one of the players hit an exceptionally beautiful shot. A fan in the gallery exclaimed, “Man, I wish I could hit a shot like
Here’s the brutal truth: Self-awareness is the ultimate sales skill. We obsess over skills like closing techniques, objection handling, and prospecting cadence. But self-awareness is the real make-or-break. Self-awareness is the lever that separates
You don’t want to be mediocre. You don’t want to be stuck in a rut of repeating last year’s performance. And you definitely want to smash your personal selling goals this year. In the
Steve from Portland, Oregon, faces and an all-too-common consultative selling dilemma: how to sell to prospects who claim they already know everything, have already “done the research” and question what value he can bring.
All’s fair in love and war—and sales. At the end of the day, what really matters is whether the deal closed or if you were left holding the bag. Did you make quota this
Great advice is everywhere, but most of it is fluff. In sales, you don’t need clichés—you need real strategies that help you win more deals. We’ve pulled together five of the biggest game-changing sales
Having A Common Sales Language Prevents Miscommunication The language we use is key to the success of all sales organizations. Most companies share a common corporate language, and that lingua franca is English. Even
On this episode of the Sales Gravy podcast, Jeb Blount (People Follow You) sits down with Leigh Cantrell and Rob Matura who are Regional Vice Presidents at Cigna to discuss the keys to leading
In today’s world there are few barriers to career change. Top sales talent can walk out of your door to another career opportunity at any time. This puts more pressure on sales leaders than
5 Leadership Skills to Weather Any Economic Storm The storm clouds are brewing once again. We don’t quite know what is in store for us economically, but what we do know is that we
Three Sales Habits That Close More Business Let’s take a look at the top three sales habits of top producers and examine the neuroscience and emotional intelligence skills behind the development of success habits.
Leaders Must Be Authentic Communicators These five tips for authentic communication can help build trust within an organization, especially when it starts with leadership. Whether it’s holding open dialogues, or sharing stories and passing
Are Sales Contests Worth It? Sales contests and promotions should be conducted with one thought in mind: Changing behavior to achieve a desired result or outcome. There are a few things to keep in
Sales Skills: In Class Vs. Out In The Field One of the biggest challenges for most organizations is helping salespeople execute in the field what they’ve learned in theory in the classroom. It is
Leading A Dysfunctional Sales Team? Here’s How To Fix It Maybe you inherited a dysfunctional sales team, or inadvertently created one. Here’s how you can turn it into a high performing sales machine. Ridding
