Sales Gravy: Jeb Blount

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.

Dr. Jim Karrh, a sales messaging expert, joins Jeb Blount to discuss the essentials of sales messaging, the impact of poor communication skills, prioritizing positioning, connecting with prospects using empathy, creating a framework for sales conversations, and using automation tools like Chat GPT. They highlight the importance of translating marketing messages into effective sales conversations and the significance of good writing skills in sales and leadership roles. They also emphasize the need for authentic messaging and offer promotional courses on Sales Gravy University to enhance writing skills.

On this episode of the Sales Gravy podcast, Sales Mastermind Group "Awesome" asks Jeb Blount sales questions. If you've ever had a question you wanted to ask Jeb then you'll love this episode. It's free flowing, insightful, and informative. There is so much to learn from this episode including: - How to get more prospecting done in less time. - Building targeted prospecting lists and leveraging social proof to get engagement. - Keys to building better prospecting lists. - How to be more confident with your messaging. - How to be more consistent with Fanatical Prospecting Sequences. The sales lessons you'll learn in this episode are so powerful that you'll want to listen to it multiple times and share it with your entire team. Mastermind Groups: A Powerful Way to Start Selling and Leading Better A Mastermind Group is a peer-to-peer mentoring group where individuals come together to help each other solve their problems and improve their lives or businesses. Mastermind Groups are powerful tools for personal and professional growth. They can foster a sense of community and connection, help members overcome challenges, and facilitate significant progress towards their goals. The concept was popularized by Napoleon Hill in his 1937 book "Think and Grow Rich" who believed that the collective intelligence of a group is far greater than the sum of its parts. The members of a Mastermind Group are typically successful individuals who are motivated and dedicated to achieving their goals. They meet regularly (either in-person or virtually) to discuss their challenges, set goals, brainstorm ideas, and offer each other advice and support. In a Mastermind Group, the focus is on collaboration, growth, and mutual support. Each member benefits from the wisdom, experiences, and perspectives of the others. This dynamic leads to fresh insights, new ideas, and powerful motivation. Participants can hold each other accountable for their goals, offer encouragement, and provide honest and constructive feedback. A Mastermind Group can be focused on various topics, such as prospecting, time management, large account strategies, proposal and presentation skills, account management and retention, and more. They can be informal and self-organized or facilitated by a professional coach or mentor. Sales Gravy Mastermind Groups are an excellent way to improve your sales skills, become a more effective leader, or solve problems. Our masterminds are facilitated by a Master Sales Trainer and include additional training resources to build on group discussions. 7 Reasons You Should Consider Joining a Mastermind Group Knowledge Sharing: Mastermind groups can offer a wealth of shared experiences and insights. The diverse backgrounds and skill sets of the group can provide different perspectives on sales techniques, strategies, and approaches. Networking Opportunities: Mastermind groups often bring together professionals from various industries, offering the opportunity to build a strong professional network. These relationships can lead to business partnerships, referrals, or other collaboration opportunities that can help grow your sales. Problem Solving: You can bring your sales challenges to the group, and together, brainstorm and strategize solutions. The collective intelligence and creativity of the group can help you solve problems faster and more effectively than you might alone. Accountability: Setting goals is easy, but maintaining momentum and staying accountable can be challenging. In a mastermind group, members help hold each other accountable, which can be very motivating and contribute to better sales results. Emotional Support and Motivation: Sales can be a tough job with frequent rejections and setbacks. Being a part of a supportive group of peers who understand the challenges can provide emotional support, boost morale, and motivate you to keep going even during difficult times.

When They Say No: Overcoming Rejection And Shifting Your Mindset Introduces Andrea and Richard's new book, When They Say No, and provides valuable insights on overcoming rejection in sales. The fear of rejection has evolutionary roots, but it can be reframed to reach positive sales outcomes. Breaking the negative thought spiral that follows rejection is crucial and should be given due importance. The opening phase in sales, though often overlooked, holds significant value in establishing rapport and understanding customer needs. Learn practical strategies to effectively handle rejection and rewire the mindset for success. Salespeople should endeavor to embrace rejection as an opportunity for growth and relationship-building. When salespeople overcome the fear of rejection, they achieve lasting sales success. Your Fear of "No" Is Holding You Back Are you tired of feeling defeated by rejection in sales and find yourself avoiding potential opportunities because the fear of hearing "no" holds you back? It's time to shift your mindset and embrace rejection as a stepping stone to success. In this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, renowned sales experts Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz share valuable insights from their book When They Say No that will revolutionize your sales approach. The Power of Reframing Rejection Our fear of rejection is deeply rooted in our evolutionary history. Throughout human evolution, being accepted by the tribe was crucial for survival. Rejection meant being cast out and left to fend for oneself, facing increased vulnerability to predators and the loss of the collective support and resources provided by the group. Our brains developed a powerful instinct to avoid rejection at all costs. However, the good news is that we possess the ability to hack our brains and change our perception of rejection. Instead of automatically equating rejection with death or social isolation, we can actively reframe our thoughts. By recognizing that rejection in the modern world does not carry the same life-or-death consequences, we can replace our negative thoughts with more productive ones. We can remind ourselves that rejection is often subjective and influenced by various factors beyond our control. With this shift in perspective, we can approach rejection as a valuable learning experience, an opportunity to grow and improve rather than a definitive judgment of our worth. Breaking the Cycle of Negative Thoughts Salespeople, in particular, are often vulnerable to a dangerous spiral of negative thoughts following rejection. When faced with a rejection, it is easy to get caught in a downward spiral of worry, anxiety, and self-doubt. This negative cycle not only hampers our emotional well-being but also impairs our effectiveness in sales. The more we dwell on negative outcomes, the more our confidence wavers, and the less persuasive and motivated we become. Recognizing this pattern is crucial for breaking free from its grasp. By actively reframing our thoughts, we can disrupt the negative cycle and redirect our focus towards positive outcomes. Instead of dwelling on what went wrong or personalizing the rejection, we can shift our attention to the lessons learned, the potential for improvement, and the possibilities of future success. It is essential to understand that rejection is not solely a psychological problem but also a physiological one. The fear of rejection triggers stress responses in our bodies, which further perpetuate the negative thought patterns. By recognizing this physiological aspect and consciously choosing to reframe our thoughts, we can liberate ourselves from the chains of fear and propel ourselves towards success in sales and beyond. The Power of the Opening Phase The opening phase of the sales process is an aspect often overlooked in sales literature. Selling goes beyond pitching product features and freebies.