 “God, when I cross the truth, give me the awareness to receive it the consciousness to recognize it the presence to personalize it the patience to preserve it and the courage to live it.” ― Matthew McConaughey, Greenlights The number one reason for failure in sales is an empty pipeline. The number one reason for an empty pipeline is the failure to prospect every day, every day, every day. This is the truth. A brutal, universal, and undeniable truth. But, of course, the truth, as the saying goes, is like poetry and everyone effing hates poetry. A few weeks back, my 24-year-old son was delivering a telephone prospecting workshop to a group of sales development reps (SDRs) who were all about his age. Early in the training, one of the reps pointed out that my mega-bestselling book Fanatical Prospecting, “Was written a while back.” And asked, “Is it even relevant anymore?” The young, always eager for the next bright, shiny thing and ready to chunk any ideas perceived to be “old.” That’s always been true from one generation to the other. ANY EXCUSE NOT TO PROSPECT What is also true though is that sales reps of all generations, for at least the past 125 years, have been willing to make any excuse, and I mean any excuse, to avoid the grind and pain of prospecting. And that’s exactly what this young man was seeking to do. He wanted my son to let him off the hook. To say that prospecting was old-school, that the marketing department should deliver hot leads on a silver platter and that he could while away the sales day sending asynchronous, automated email spam to prospects on his company’s sales engagement platform and call that prospecting. Mostly, he wanted validation that “that the telephone didn’t work anymore” and he could avoid talking to people. My son responded, “What do you think has changed in the past six years?” The young SRD shot back, “Well, nobody answers the phone anymore.” At that, my son pulled up his prospecting list for the day, showed it to the group, and said, “Ok, let’s test your hypothesis.” Then, he began dialing, right in front of the SDRs. In the first fifteen dials, he spoke to four decision makers and set two appointments. Then turned to the group and asked, “Any more questions?” Cased closed. As Elvis Presley said so aptly, “The truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away.” YOU CANNOT BE DELUSIONAL AND SUCCESSFUL AT THE SAME TIME Of course, there are loud voices, mostly on social media outlets, who shout that cold calling is dead, the telephone is dead, sales is dead, and one form or another of prospecting is dead – depending on which way the wind is blowing that day. Still others shout loudly from their “holier than thou” mountain top that robots and AI should take the place of people for sales prospecting activity. They argue that allowing these bots to spam stupid humans via email, text, and direct messaging is the secret to all present and future sales success. It isn’t. People hate robots and spammers. Put these two annoyances together and it only serves to turn prospects off and teach them to ignore generic, mindless robot messages. “Being loud,” says Mark Homer, in Uncommon Sense, “doesn’t increase the value or validity of their opinion. In fact, often by the very nature of being the loudest, those opinions are typically the furthest from reality.” The young sales rep in the story above is among the multitudes of sales professionals who are susceptible to these messages that pander to their fear and discomfort with interrupting strangers with prospecting activity. On a perpetual trip to delusionville and burdened by confirmation bias, sales professionals who believe that they can avoid prospecting seek out any information or excuse that contravenes the truth and gives them an easy way out. But you cannot be delusional and successful in sales at the same time. The results are predictable.

Sales Gravy: Jeb Blount

Sales Success is Paid For In Advance With Prospecting

During the holiday season, sales professionals face a host of difficult challenges. The holidays offer a perfect excuse not to go out and prospect new business. It is harder to close deals in December and create urgency with pipeline opportunities, let alone engage and get meetings with new prospects. And now more than ever, it's critical to have proper time discipline to reach your goals and crush your number as the end of the year approaches, while also setting yourself up to have a robust Q1 pipeline in the new year. In this conversation between Jeb Blount (Fanatical Prospecting) and Anthony Iannarino (Eat Their Lunch), they break down exactly how to deal with these end of year roadblocks and truly outsell the holidays. You'll learn how to sell more and still have fun over the holidays! You get specific tips, tactics, and techniques for compelling buyers to act, prospecting, time management, and keeping your pipeline full so you start the new year strong. Jeb and Anthony will also teach you how to: Target high potential prospects who have an urgency to buy now— maybe they have left over budget or are looking for year-end specials for products or services Create urgency with pipeline opportunities by using the emotional and business outcome value equation Build your Q1 pipeline with targeted lists and daily outbound prospecting Develop a daily battle rhythm with high intensity activity sprints and time blocking strategies Also find out: How much is too much when it comes to holiday promotions and marketing offers. Listen to the podcast or watch the video HERE. You may also want to read: Why Holiday Parties Can Make or Break Your Sales Career  

How to Sell More and Still Have Fun Over the Holidays

This is another episode of #AskJeb where Jeb answers a question, from Justin, a sales leader based in Dallas. Justin asked: "What's the best predictive indicator of a person becoming a sales champion." Sales Champions Are Optimists This is a question that sales leaders all across the globe grapple with because they all want to hire sales champions and build sales champions. The answer is relatively simple, and it's based on studies that have come from numerous places. It comes down to optimism. Salespeople who have a higher degree of optimism tend to become champions, and for good reason. Salespeople face a lot of defeat, a lot of rejection, and so many things can go wrong in sales that salespeople who wallow in that defeat have a tendency to crash and burn pretty quickly. Sales Champs Forget Failure Fast However, the salespeople who forget rejection fast or forget failure fast and see the next yes, the next opportunity around the corner— those are the salespeople who are more likely to be more mentally resilient. They have a stronger ability to make a shift or be more agile. They're the ones that when things go wrong, rather than saying, "Why me? Why is this happening to me?" they're more likely to say, "What am I supposed to learn from this failure? What am I supposed to learn from this defeat?" Therefore, they continue to grow and improve over time. So How Do You Find Salespeople Like That? The key is in your interview process. During the interview, you're looking for that glimmer of optimism. You need to ask questions about what they have done in the past when they faced defeat. Have them give you a specific situation where they failed and what they did next. Create A Winning Atmosphere As a leader, you want to hire people who have a high degree of optimism, but you also want to build that optimism by creating an atmosphere that people want to be in. That's a winning atmosphere that rewards people for the good work that they do by patting them on the back and doesn't beat them up for the things that they do wrong. Instead, it coaches them when they do things that don't work out to get better or to learn from that. Through your coaching and through your leadership, you want to build an environment where you're fostering and nurturing that optimism because optimism is the greatest predictor of a person becoming a sales champion. Take your prospecting campaigns to the next level, get into more doors, build deeper relationships, and close more deals with the techniques in our FREE guide, The Seven Steps To Building Effective Prospecting Sequences.

The Making of a Sales Champion #AskJeb

It's How You Sell That Matters Most On this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount Jr. and Larry Levine, author of Selling From the Heart, discuss why how you sell is often more important than what you sell. Larry and JBJ break down why sales professionals who demonstrate authenticity and empathy gain a clear competitive advantage and what it really means to sell from the heart. Watch the Video ﻿  

It’s Not What You Sell, It’s How You Sell That Matters

On this #AskJeb, Jeb Blount takes a question from Becca who wants to know what to do when prospects hang up on cold calls. Getting hung up on can be disconcerting, discouraging, and often feel like rejection. But, they don't have to be. Jeb gives you tips and tactics for dealing effectively with prospects who hang up during cold calls. Listen above or watch the video below. Pro Tip: Play this at your next weekly sales meeting.

What to Do When Prospects Hang Up on Cold Calls | #AskJEB

On this episode of the Sales Gravy podcast, Jeb Blount, Jr makes his debut with discussion about leveraging the telephone with Alex Goldfayn who is author of the new book, Pick Up The Phone and Sell. In this insightful conversation, JBJ and Alex make the case that you should pick up the phone and sell because picking up the phone proactively can help you quickly double your sales. Listen above or watch the video below: Take your first course for FREE on Sales Gravy University with coupon code FREECOURSE.

Pick Up the Phone and Sell

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 school professor and author of the new book Sales Management That Works, discuss modern sales leadership challenges in a world that never stops changing. With so much data coming at sales leaders these days, the failure to separate fact from hype, can create faulty assumptions leading to poor decisions. Cespedes makes the point that leaders, at all levels, who embrace data while executing the tired and true fundamentals of sales management are better positioned to accelerate sales productivity and capture marketshare. Listen to more episodes of the Sales Gravy Podcast

Sales Management Techniques That Work in the Age of Data

On this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount, author of Virtual Selling, discusses the power of collecting video testimonials from your customers with film maker and producer Bruce Himmelblau. You'll learn just how easy it can be to grab these short videos and leverage them to close more sales.

How Collecting Video Testimonials Helps You Close More Sales

On this #AskJeb, Jeb Blount takes a question from Jennifer who is looking for the best times of the day or week to make outbound cold calls. Jeb offers three of his best Fanatical Prospecting tips for timing prospecting calls. You may be surprised at his answer. Listen above or watch the video below. Pro Tip: Play this at your next weekly sales meeting.

What’s the Best Time of Day and Week to Make Cold Calls? | #AskJeb

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 Wanda and Jeb discuss why exceptional leaders don't need to have all of the answers. Instead, top leaders focus on making themselves obsolete through coaching and developing a team of experts who know how to get the job done. There is so much truth about leadership to unpack in this episode that you'll likely want to listen to it again and again. Check out Jeb's Zip Line trip that was arranged by Blueboard:

Why Modern Leaders Don’t Need to Have All of the Answers

Brett asks Jeb, "I made 40 prospecting calls and couldn't get anyone to pick up the phone. How to I get people to answer the telephone when I call?" On this Ask Jeb episode, Fanatical Prospecting author Jeb Blount gives Brett three reasons why he is struggling to get people to answer his cold calls and what to do about it. Listen above or watch the video below. Pro Tip: Play this at your next weekly sales meeting. Got a question you want to ask Jeb just text it to 1-706-397-4599 or CLICK HERE TO TEXT.

How Do I Get People to Answer the Phone When Cold Calling? #AskJeb

On this powerful episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount sits down with AJ and Johnny, hosts of The Art of Charm podcast, discuss tips and techniques for building rapport and conducting engaging sales conversations that motivate stakeholders to do business with you and close the deal. Got a question for Jeb or comment about this episode? Text it to 1-706-397-4599 or CLICK HERE TO TEXT.

The Art of Conducting Engaging Sales Conversations

If more sales reps would do this one thing (hint: talk to people) their sales would instantly increase. On this short, powerful episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount answers a fan question while dropping a major sales truth bomb! Listen above or watch the video below. Pro Tip: Play this at your next weekly sales meeting. Got a question for Jeb just text it to 1-706-397-4599 or CLICK HERE TO TEXT.

If Salespeople Did This One Thing They’d Close More Sales #AskJeb

On this episode of the Sales Gravy podcast Jeb Blount and Bernie Weiss explore how to Ace It in Sales with lessons learned from selling radio advertising on the streets of New York City and the Bronx. They take on heavy metal selling, cold calling in New York City , how to sell more by becoming an expert in industry categories, why routines matter, and how a sales career makes you a better leader. Bernie Weiss is the President of iHeart Media New York, a lifelong student of the sales profession, and the author of the new book called Ace It!. This was one of our favorite interviews this season because Bernie is a top level executives who truly understands the value of the sales profession.

How to Ace It in Sales With Bernie Weiss

Each year, on July 4th, I reflect on the blessing to have been born in a country where anything is possible and anyone, no matter economic background, heritage, culture, race, gender, sexuality, or religion has the opportunity to succeed. This is the reason why so many people around the world dream of coming here. Is America a perfect place? Of course not! We are a country wedded in paradox. We fight bitterly amongst ourselves but quickly come together when there are threats or tragedy at home and abroad. We are materialistic, yet generous when others need help. Even though we celebrate a level playing field of one person one vote, we allow special interests on all sides to dilute the power of those votes. There is racism, prejudice, poverty, and exclusion. Though each person has equal opportunity to succeed, we don’t all start at the same place with the same resources. Though we celebrate those who pull themselves up by their own bootstraps we willingly provide hand-outs to others who claim that they are victims and take advantage of the system. In America where opportunity abounds, there is not and will never be a level playing field. The brutal reality is that life is not fair in America. Bad things happen to good people. Bad people sometimes win. There is defeat, failure, and plenty of roadblocks. There are poor people and rich people. Some people have to work harder than others to get ahead because they were born into unfortunate circumstances, dangerous neighborhoods, non-existent parents, poor schools, poverty, or are immigrants held back by language and cultural barriers. Some believe the government uses taxation to penalize the success of those who have worked hard to make something of their lives. Others think that not everyone is paying their fair share. Some people give, some people take. Some people work hard and become phenomenally successful while others whine about their circumstances. If you live in America there are myriad external forces beyond your control. There will always be obstacles in your way. There will always be something or someone to complain about. However, when you allow these external forces to control your actions and thoughts you hand over control of your life to the government, the company, the boss, your heritage, your circumstances, the whims and opinions of others, and to your own internal voice that keeps telling you that bullshit story about “what you can’t do.” But what if today you stood up and declared: “Starting today I will not depend on, wait on, or hope for luck, the lottery, the company, fate, or the government to help me change my life!  I will take responsibility. I will set my own course. I will make my own success. I will take action. I will persist. I will find lessons in setbacks. I will look forward not backward. I will turn haters into motivators. I will be empowered by my circumstances not impeded by them. I can achieve whatever I want and nothing can hold me back. I own my future. This is my Independence Day!” True freedom is accepting and believing that you and you alone must be responsible for your life. This is how you take back control. This is how you reach your dreams. This is the spirit and foundation on which this great country was built. This is REAL independence. Make this your Independence Day! Listen to more Sales Gravy Podcast episodes HERE

Make This Your Independence Day

Sales Professionals are the Elite Athletes of the Business World. The Sales Gravy Podcast has been described as “passionate, motivating and essential for Sales Professionals and leaders who want to win and win big!” Jeb Blount is the bestselling author of People Buy You.