Sales Gravy: Jeb Blount

Why Roleplay Should Be A Key Part of Your Sales Culture In this podcast, Jeb Blount, Jeremy Olson, and Kristin Isaacson discuss the importance of role-playing in sales. They emphasize the need for leaders to create a culture of role-playing and accountability within their teams. They also highlight the benefits of roleplaying in helping salespeople improve their skills, gain empathy for the customer's perspective, and build confidence. They encourage individuals to find their preferred style of roleplaying and commit to regular practice, even if it feels uncomfortable at first. Roleplaying in sales is a powerful tool that helps salespeople improve their skills, gain empathy for the customer's perspective, and build confidence. It allows them to practice and refine their sales techniques in a safe environment. Leaders play a crucial role in creating a culture of roleplaying and accountability within their teams. By embracing and encouraging roleplaying, leaders can foster a collaborative and growth-oriented atmosphere that drives individual and team improvement. Consistency and commitment are key to successful roleplaying. It should be a regular part of the sales process, rather than a one-time activity. Salespeople should make a commitment to practice regularly, even if it feels uncomfortable at first. Roleplaying exposes weaknesses and areas for improvement. By simulating different scenarios, salespeople can identify their strengths and weaknesses, allowing them to focus on areas that need development and enhancing their overall performance. Constructive feedback and coaching are essential for growth in roleplaying. Salespeople should seek feedback from their leaders, peers, or even trusted individuals outside the team. This feedback helps them identify areas for improvement and refine their approach. Creating a Culture of Role-Playing One key takeaway from this podcast episode is the role of leaders in fostering a culture of role-playing within their teams. By encouraging and embracing roleplaying exercises, leaders can establish an environment where individuals feel safe to practice and refine their sales techniques. This culture of accountability sets the stage for continuous growth and improvement. Benefits of Role-Playing Roleplaying allows salespeople to step into the shoes of their customers, understand their perspective, and develop empathy. By simulating real-life scenarios, sales professionals gain insight into the challenges and concerns their customers may face. This understanding enables them to ask the right questions, provide tailored solutions, and build stronger relationships. Moreover, roleplaying serves as a platform for salespeople to enhance their skills and build confidence. Through practice and repetition, they can refine their pitch, overcome objections, and improve their overall sales performance. Roleplaying provides a controlled environment where individuals can experiment, receive feedback, and make necessary adjustments. The Role of Consistency Consistency is a vital component of effective roleplaying. Just as athletes train regularly to maintain peak performance, salespeople must commit to regular practice. Consistent roleplaying ensures that skills remain sharp, and individuals continue to grow. It is not a one-time activity but an ongoing process that drives continuous improvement. Unifying the Team Roleplaying has a unifying effect on sales teams. It establishes a shared language, understanding, and approach to sales. By engaging in roleplaying exercises together, team members develop a collaborative mindset and foster a sense of camaraderie. This collaborative atmosphere promotes knowledge-sharing, peer feedback, and mutual support, leading to a stronger, more cohesive team. Overcoming Discomfort and Embracing Growth While role-playing may initially feel uncomfortable, it is crucial to overcome this discomfort to reap its benefits fully.

Sales Presentation Skills That Get You To "Yes" Faster In this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount talks to renowned sales experts Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz about their “Go For No” approach to embracing rejection in sales. They discuss how the fear of “no” sabotages sales presentations and what salespeople can do to deliver more successful and engaging presentations that get them to “yes”. The fear of failure and rejection can sabotage sales presentations and affect performance. Embracing rejection and understanding its value can lead to more successful sales presentations. The "Go for No" strategy involves intentionally increasing failure rate and using each "no" as valuable data for growth. Preparation and structure are essential in delivering compelling sales presentations. Improvisation in sales presentations can come across as unprofessional or unprepared. Don't just show up and throw up. Storytelling is a powerful tool to engage the audience and connect with them on a deeper level. Sharing stories about overcoming challenges and how your solution helped can capture attention and emotions. Losing your place or stumbling over words during a presentation is common, but maintaining composure and smoothly continuing is key. Well-prepared presentations instill confidence in the salesperson and engage the audience more effectively. But it's important to bring passion and authenticity to sales presentations rather than striving for perfection. The Fear Of “No” Derails Sales Presentations In the dynamic world of sales, where each presentation is an opportunity to forge valuable connections and secure vital deals, a formidable adversary often lurks in the shadows—the fear of failure and rejection. It's a sentiment that frequently courses through the veins of salespeople, affecting their confidence and ultimately their performance. This fear, while entirely human, can become an insidious obstacle to delivering compelling sales presentations. But here's the paradox: it's precisely this fear, when understood and harnessed, that can catapult a salesperson from mediocrity to mastery. This podcast delves into the heart of this challenge, exploring why salespeople often grapple with the fear of rejection and failure, how it affects their ability to engage their audience, and most importantly, why embracing this fear can be a game-changer in the competitive world of sales. What Is “Go For No” All About? The concept of "Go for No" is about intentionally increasing your failure rate and intentionally hearing "no" more often. The idea behind this is that when you embrace rejection, it paves the way for more "yeses" to come. However, this doesn't mean that you should simply keep hearing "no" without making any improvements or using the feedback from those rejections. It's important to treat each "no" as valuable data for growth. For instance, you can set goals based on the number of "no" responses you aim to receive, and actively seek out opportunities to hear "no." Don't Show Up and Throw Up In the world of sales presentations, there's a phrase that often rings true: "Don't show up and throw up." It's a cautionary mantra that reminds salespeople of the importance of preparation and structure in their interactions with potential clients. Showing up unprepared, with no more than a vague idea of what to say, can lead to a meandering and unconvincing pitch. Instead, successful sales presentations require careful planning. Salespeople should have their notes ready to go, create a basic outline for the conversation, and prepare specific talking points. While improvisation might seem like a way to appear more "natural," it often results in coming across as unprofessional or unprepared. A well-prepared presentation not only instills confidence in the salesperson but also engages the audience more effectively. And the truth is, when people speak without preparation,

Clare Dorrian, SugarCRM's CMO, joins Jeb Blount to discuss prioritizing customer service, outbound prospecting for pipeline growth, and building a strong sales culture. They explore the role of relationships in modern selling, multichannel engagement, and delivering a next-level buying experience through real connection.

A Great Modern Seller Leverages These 5 Skills In this podcast, Jeb Blount and Amy Franko discuss the importance of modern sellers having strong business acumen and an ownership mindset. They emphasize the value of being able to provide insight to executives based on knowledge of their organization, rather than regurgitating information that can be found online. They also discuss the importance of discipline and habits in maintaining success as a salesperson, especially when working from home. Finally, they touch on the rebirth of field sales and the importance of building strong relationships with leadership. Instead of simply regurgitating information that can be found online, sellers must have a deep knowledge of their clients' organizations in order to provide business insights that are truly valuable. Ask provocative questions that create awareness of potential problems or opportunities within the organization. Build strong relationships with leadership and even going as far as getting into the "bowels" of the organization to get a better understanding of what's happening. Modern sellers must also have an ownership, or entrepreneur, mindset. They should look at their sales territory as a business, and make decisions based on the top and bottom line as well as weigh risks and opportunities. Discipline and habits are also crucial for maintaining success as a modern seller. For instance, you should build a strong plan, set goals, track your activities and metrics, and adapt to changes in the sales landscape. Building strong relationships with leadership and being able to adapt to changes in the sales landscape. What Differentiates A Modern Seller? The truth is that there are core basic activities that every salesperson must perform. Modern sellers have elevated these skills, honing the craft of selling to rise above their competitors and sell differently - and better. When Amy was doing research for her new book, The Modern Seller, she noticed a particular set of skills that stood out from the rest in terms of indicators of success for salespeople. There are the "everyday skills" of prospecting, presenting, negotiating, and closing. Then there are five skills that modern sellers consistently do better than others, and are clear differentiators. Agility Entrepreneurship Holistic Sales Territory and Pipeline Management Strategic Relationship Building Ambassadorship Through Amy’s career and observations, she has found that mastering these five skills is key to standing out as a top seller. Whether you are an individual seller or a leader building these skills in yourself or your team, these are skills that you should prioritize for the future. Modern Sellers Are Masters Of Business Acumen One of the biggest challenges for sellers today is the level of business acumen that they are expected to have. It's not just about having a feature-benefit-price conversation anymore. Instead, sellers must study the client's business and industry to have more in-depth, business-oriented conversations. Modern sellers need to display a level of business acumen that other sellers may not possess, or they may need to focus on improving these skills. Ultimately, a modern seller is someone who truly differentiates themselves and stands out for their clients. The best sellers out there cannot be separated from their product or service because they are a crucial factor in the equation of their client's success. Business acumen is essential to connect with clients and demonstrate the value of your services or products in addressing their individual and unique business challenges, issues, and opportunities. In longer cycle sales, where the complexity is higher, simply providing a standardized proposal deck is not be enough to stand out. Instead, you need to be able to build a bullet proof business case that clearly demonstrates ROI. This requires the ability to show the actual outc...

In this episode, Jeb Blount interviews David Newman, author of Do It! Marketing and Do It! Selling. They discuss the importance of strategic planning and research for sales and marketing professionals, targeting a specific market, establishing credibility, and using interviews as a prospecting channel to gather intelligence and build relationships with high-level decision makers.

Sales expert Jeb Blount provides solutions to tough sales challenges for Mastermind Group Incredible. Topics include standing out in interviews, targeting bigger accounts, contacting hard-to-reach stakeholders on LinkedIn, and scaling a business. Strategies discussed include putting a wedge between the incumbent vendor and the customer, personalized service for small companies, and using voice messages or video messages on LinkedIn. The power of persistence, challenges of LinkedIn for sales, and the impact of chat GPT on salespeople are also explored.

Chris Beall, CEO of ConnectAndSell, discusses the connection between cold calling and market dominance. He explains the importance of building trust and demonstrating curiosity in sales conversations. Sales reps can improve their skills by breaking down the conversation and practicing each part in training.

Learn about building and leading a successful sales team, the importance of trust, relationships, and professional development, creating career pathways for personal growth, adapting to virtual selling during the pandemic, mindset shifts and overcoming challenges, the power of positive thinking, and reflections on the pandemic and lessons learned.

Sales Training Is An Investment In YOU In this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount is joined by Sarah Browner, the Global Sales Enablement Manager at Adobe. If you are a sales leader, sales enablement professional, or training facilitator, you will want to tune in for their conversation about keeping learners engaged and using feedback to improve enablement initiatives. As for salespeople, you’ll find out why it’s critical to continue advancing your skills and investing in yourself throughout your sales career. Sales enablement is a critical investment for companies looking to increase sales. Sales skills, particularly soft skills, are perishable and need to be continuously developed. Taking advantage of free training opportunities is crucial for personal and professional development. Learning is never wasted, and even reviewing familiar concepts can provide new perspectives. Leaders and trainers should give learners options and ask for feedback to keep them engaged. Meeting learners where they are means providing information in a modality that works best for them. Increase Skills to Increase Sales As part of Sarah’s role, she is responsible for curating enablement for over 2000 individual contributing sales reps for Adobe, globally. She either finds or creates the information that their sales reps need to perform their jobs more effectively. Adobe, like hundreds of other companies that we work with at Sales Gravy, invest in sales enablement and training for one simple reason— to increase sales, sellers need to continually increase their skillset. Why Invest In Sales Enablement? Sales training and enablement isn’t just for new hires. Salespeople must not only master the basics and fundamentals of selling, but in order to see continued success and growth, it is crucial that they advance their skills— long after the onboarding process has concluded. One of the frustrations that sales enablement leaders face is hearing dissent from salespeople who think they know everything and don't need to learn more. This way of thinking is dangerous. Sales as a profession is changing constantly, especially with the never-ending advances in technology. To make your number and stay ahead, you need to be adept with these new technologies and always be looking for opportunities to expand your knowledge when it comes to your product, your competition, and the selling tools at your disposal. There Is No Unused Learning You might be instructed or advised to join a team-wide training session or read a book as part of a team book club. And you might think, “There’s nothing new here.” The truth is, this cynicism is holding you back. Almost everything we learn, everything that's presented to us, someone has already thought of. The important part of taking in information, even if it’s something you knew already, is the chance to reconfigure your thinking. In sales, we apply the fundamental basics of how we interact with people, from soft skills to how we develop our products, to different contexts and circumstances. Products, services, and software change, and we must learn to navigate those changes out of necessity. In training, you might learn a concept or hear a practical piece of advice you’ve heard before, but you can get a new perspective on existing knowledge because it’s presented or applied in a different context. Learning is never wasted. Never Turn Down Free Training Your company likely provides training opportunities, so it's wise to take advantage of them. Workshops, even virtual ones, are delivered in a live format and watching a recording won't provide the same benefit. Attending training sessions live or in person allows you to learn from your coworkers, share ideas, and expand your way of thinking. Investing in your education and training is important, because it makes a difference. At Sales Gravy University, we have 30,000 users,

In this podcast, Jeb Blount interviews Robin Hills, a business psychologist and emotional intelligence expert. They discuss the importance of emotional resilience and mental resilience in sales, including strategies for managing emotions, building support networks, and interrupting negative self-talk. They also explore the power of affirmations and making positive choices in sales. This episode provides valuable insights into emotional intelligence for salespeople.