Matt's guest in this episode is Jeb Blount. Jeb Blount is a long time sales trainer, prospector and the best-selling author of eight books including Sales EQ, Fanatical Prospecting, People Follow You, People Buy You. He is a Sales Acceleration specialist who helps organizations reach peak performance fast by optimizing talent, leveraging training to cultivate high-performance sales culture, developing leadership and coaching skills, and applying more effective organizational design.

When Matt asked how the salesforce looks today he suprised us with his answer, "It looks the same as it did three years ago, five years ago - the things sales people are doing are the same things they did then. But, there are more ways to fill your pipleline and channels - more opportunities than ever before. Older salespeople are benefitting, but can be overwhelmed with the addition of so many places to interupt the day of prospects and connect."

Channels are being clogged, though, because they are so readily available. Matt asked, "How do you break through using these tools?"

Jeb tells us, "It's always been hard to break through, even when we had email and door knocking, before social became core channels. Prior to that - doors, phones and networking events."

Listen to this - the story of Richard from the UK and how he was persistent until he got through. He KNEW Jeb was a buyer, he KNEW. It's a great success story of knowing your target market and not giving up.

Through his companies – Sales Gravy, Channel EQ, and Innovate Knowledge - he advises many of the world’s leading organizations and their executives on the impact of emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills on sales, leadership, customer experience, channel development, and strategic account management. Under Jeb’s leadership Sales Gravy has become a global leader in sales acceleration solutions including sales recruitment and staffing, sales on-boarding automation, custom sales training curriculum development and delivery, sales coaching, and online learning. As a business leader Jeb has more than 25 years of experience with Fortune 500, SMBs and start-ups.

He has been named one of the top 50 Most Influential Sales and Marketing Leaders (Top Sales Magazine), a Top 30 Social Selling Influencer (Forbes), a Top 10 Sales Experts to Follow on Twitter (Evan Carmichael), a Top 100 Most Innovative Sales Blogger (iSEEIT), a Top 20 must read author (Yes Magazine & Huffington Post), and the most downloaded sales podcaster in iTunes history; among many other accolades. His flagship website, SalesGravy.com, is the most visited sales specific website on the planet.

episode 56 – blood-dimmed tides

your hosts