Sales Gravy: Jeb Blount

Here’s a question that’ll keep you up at night: What do you do when your emotions are sabotaging your sales performance? That’s the exact challenge posed by Kurt O’Donnell and the sales team from Joyland Roofing in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. They’re crushing it—doing $10 million in revenue with individual reps generating $2 million each—but they identified a critical weakness that could derail their ambitious goal of hitting $100 million in 10 years. Kurt put it perfectly: “We need to actually learn how to read ourselves better and just be consistent. Emotionally consistent, even when everything else can heave around us. How do I show up at the door and be that consultant… and not just kind of be desperate because I had a few bad calls?” If you’re nodding your head right now, you’re not alone. Emotional inconsistency is the silent killer of sales careers, and it’s costing top performers millions in lost revenue. The Hidden Performance Killer: Your Emotional State Most sales training focuses on techniques, scripts, and closing strategies. But here’s the brutal truth: Your emotional state in the moment of truth determines your success more than any other factor. Think about it. You can have the perfect pitch, flawless product knowledge, and ironclad objection handling skills, but if you walk into that appointment carrying the baggage from your last three rejections, you’re dead in the water before you even ring the doorbell. Your prospects don’t know about your bad morning. They don’t care that the last homeowner beat you up on price or that your competitor just undercut you again. All they know is the energy you bring to their front door—and that energy determines whether they trust you enough to invite you in. The Compartmentalization Imperative The first skill every elite salesperson must master is emotional compartmentalization. Here’s how to think about it: That homeowner you’re about to meet? This is the only conversation they’re having with your company today. They don’t know about your other appointments, your wins, your losses, or your quota pressure. To them, you represent their entire experience with your organization. More importantly, their home is their biggest asset—the most valuable thing in their life. When they’re considering a roof replacement or new windows, they’re not just buying a product; they’re making an emotional decision about protecting what matters most to them. Their emotional experience with you is more predictive of the outcome than any other variable. People buy you first, then they buy your product. They buy you because they feel like you care about them, that you listen to them, that you understand them, and that they can trust you. That doesn’t happen if you show up desperate, distracted, or carrying emotional baggage from previous calls. Process Goals vs. Outcome Goals: The Mental Reset The difference between average performers and elite closers comes down to one thing: focus. Average performers obsess over outcome goals. They walk up to the door thinking, “I need to close this deal.” When they’ve had a few bad calls, they skip the relationship-building and go straight to pitch mode because they’re desperate for a win. Elite performers focus on process goals. They have a systematic approach: “I’m going to greet them this way, connect like this, ask these discovery questions, present like this, and ask for the business using this method.” They trust the process because they know it works. When you focus on running your process perfectly, you give yourself the highest probability of getting the desired outcome. Sometimes the putts go in, sometimes they don’t—but you ran the process every time. As one wise salesperson once said: “If you try to control the outcome, you’re not going to get the outcome you’re looking for. If you trust the process and trust yourself, you’re typically going to get the outcome you’re looking for.” Your Mobile Reset Strategy Here’s a practical question: What’s coming out of the speakers in your truck between appointments? If you’re listening to the news, you’re filling your mind with negativity. If you’re listening to sports radio while thinking about your next call, your focus is scattered. But if you’re listening to sales training content, motivational audiobooks, or fanatical prospecting techniques, you’re programming your mind for success. Your drive time between appointments is prime real estate for mental conditioning. Use it to stay focused, positive, and sharp. The Power of Self-Talk The conversation happening in your head determines everything. When you mess up a call or get rejected, what are you saying to yourself? Most salespeople spiral into negative self-talk: “I’m terrible at this. I can’t close anything. This customer was never going to buy anyway. Maybe I’m not cut out for sales.” Elite performers catch themselves in that spiral and flip the script: “I can do this. I’m getting better every day. That last call was just practice for this next one. I’m going to slow down, stick to my process, and deliver value.” It sounds simple, but changing your internal dialogue is one of the most powerful performance improvements you can make. Your mind believes what you tell it—so tell it something that serves your success. Building Your Support System When all else fails, phone a friend. Having teammates you can call between appointments to reset your mindset isn’t weakness—it’s professional. The best sales organizations create cultures where reps lift each other up instead of competing against each other. Build relationships with colleagues who can talk you off the ledge when you’re spiraling. Sometimes all it takes is hearing someone say, “You’ve got this. That last call doesn’t define you. Go show them what you’re made of.” The Scottie Scheffler Standard Your goal is to become the Scottie Scheffler of your industry—calm, cool, and consistent regardless of what’s happening around you. That doesn’t mean you don’t feel emotions; it means you don’t let those emotions dictate your performance. Every appointment is a fresh start. Every prospect deserves your best self. Every interaction is an opportunity to demonstrate the professionalism and expertise that separates you from your competition. When you master emotional consistency, everything else becomes easier. Your objection handling improves because you’re not defensive. Your closing gets stronger because you’re confident rather than desperate. Your relationships deepen because you’re genuinely focused on serving your prospect rather than serving your quota. Your Action Plan If you’re ready to stop letting your emotions sabotage your sales performance: Develop your reset routine. What will you do between every call to clear your head and refocus? Make it systematic and stick to it religiously. Master compartmentalization. Each prospect gets a fresh, fully-engaged version of you. Their experience with you is their entire experience with your company. Focus on process, not outcomes. Perfect your sales methodology and trust it to deliver results over time. Control your inputs. What you listen to, read, and consume between calls directly impacts your mindset and performance. Build your support network. Identify colleagues who can help you reset when you’re struggling. Monitor your self-talk. Catch negative spirals early and redirect them toward confidence and competence. The Bottom Line Your technical skills might get you in the door, but your emotional state determines whether you walk out with a signed contract. Master your inner game, and your outer results will follow. Stay emotionally consistent, trust your process, and watch your closing ratio soar. That’s how you build a championship sales career. That’s how you dominate your market. And that’s how you turn emotional intelligence into competitive advantage. Jeb Blount’s bestselling book Sales EQ: How Ultra High Performers Leverage Sales-Specific Emotional Intelligence to Close the Complex Deal helps guide salespeople through the many hurdles that many struggle with in building authentic relationships with prospects. Download our free Sales EQ Book Club Guide HERE.

The second quarter of 2025 delivered some incredible conversations on the Sales Gravy podcast. From discipline strategies that separate winners from wannabes to the psychology of selling that most reps completely miss, here are the five most powerful insights that can transform your sales results immediately. 1. Focus on Activity, Not Outcomes The Problem: Most sales reps get discouraged when they don’t book meetings, causing them to change their approach daily. The Solution: Cynthia Handal, who runs high-performing BDR teams, revealed her game-changing mindset shift: “The outcome isn’t to book a meeting. The outcome is to do the three hours of work.” Her approach is deceptively simple but incredibly powerful: Time block your prospecting activities (she does 9 AM to 12 PM daily). Set a timer and don’t stop until the time is complete. Focus on controlling what you can control—the work itself. Trust that results will follow consistent activity. This eliminates the emotional rollercoaster of good days and bad days. When you focus on process over outcomes, you build the discipline that creates sustainable success. 2. Get a ‘No’ Then Aim for a ‘Yes’ The Problem: Most salespeople chase prospects desperately, making them less attractive. The Solution: Mike Maples Jr., a Silicon Valley VC and former software entrepreneur, uses a counterintuitive approach to actively trying to disqualify prospects. The “go for the no” technique works like this: Start conversations by suggesting you might not be the right fit Use body language that shows you’re willing to walk away Make prospects convince you they need your solution Qualify out aggressively those who don’t value your advantage This approach leverages the psychological principle that people want what they can’t have. When you’re not desperate, you become magnetic.  3. Align Your Entire Organization’s Message The Problem: Five sales reps with five different value propositions confuse customers and create internal friction. They need to be unified. The Solution: Lisa Dennis discusses that messaging alignment must extend beyond just the sales team to the entire organization. Her process includes: Involving the whole company in messaging rollouts, not just sales Ensuring customer success and support teams understand the same value propositions Providing discovery questions and conversation frameworks to salespeople Creating organizational congruence from marketing through delivery When everyone in your organization tells the same story, customers experience consistency at every touchpoint. This builds trust and reduces friction throughout the customer journey. 4. Trust Commands a 30% Premium The Problem: Salespeople focus on features and benefits while underestimating the value of trust. The Solution: Yoram Solomon’s research that people will pay an average of 29.6% more to buy from someone they trust versus someone they don’t know (not someone they distrust—just someone neutral). The trust-building behaviors that matter most: Listening instead of pitching Showing genuine care for the customer’s situation Being attentive and present during conversations Making and keeping promises consistently Trust is worth dollars. 5. Get Your Math Right The Problem: Most businesses stay stuck in six figures because they’re fundamentally undercharging for their service. The Solution: David Neagle, who has helped countless entrepreneurs break through seven figures, says the issue is usually mathematical, not motivational. His tips for confidently pricing right: Stop comparing yourself to the average—compare to the top performers Charge based on results delivered, not time spent Ask yourself: “If they get the same result, why can’t I charge the same price?” Actually ask for the sale at your true value As David puts it: “It’s hard to do $50,000 a month if you’re selling your service for $1,000 a pop.” You can’t hustle your way to seven figures if you’re selling dollars for fifty cents. The Bottom Line These insights are practical strategies being used by top performers right now. The difference between successful salespeople and everyone else isn’t talent or luck. It’s implementing systems that work consistently. Pick one of these strategies and commit to implementing it this week. Maybe it’s time-blocking your prospecting like Cynthia, practicing the takeaway technique like Mike, or finally having that pricing conversation like David suggests. Remember: people pay more for trust, and the harder you work, the luckier you get. When you’re tired and ready to go home, make one more call. For more spot-on sales insights, listen to the Sales Gravy Podcast, Ask Jeb, and Money Monday, every week on SalesGravy.com.

Here’s a question that’ll make your blood boil: Why do most sales leaders spend their pipeline reviews asking about dollar amounts and close dates while completely ignoring whether their reps actually have real deals? That’s the brutal reality I see in sales organizations every single day. Leaders are obsessing over MEDIC, BANT, and other qualification frameworks while their pipelines are stuffed with dead deals that will never close. Meanwhile, their forecasts are consistently wrong, deals keep getting pushed, and reps are burning time on opportunities that died months ago. If you’re nodding your head right now, you’re not alone. Focusing on surface-level qualification instead of true deal engagement is one of the most backward approaches to pipeline management I see today, and it’s costing companies millions in missed forecasts. The Qualification Theater Problem: When Frameworks Become Fantasy Remember when everyone thought MEDIC and BANT were the holy grail of qualification? Sales leaders everywhere started drilling reps on budgets, authority, need, and timing like they were conducting a police interrogation. But here’s what actually happens: Reps learn to check the boxes without understanding whether they have a real deal. They’ll tell you they’ve qualified the budget, but they’re talking to someone who has to “go talk to the boss.” They’ll say there’s urgency and timing, but the prospect is waiting to hire an executive in a completely different department before making a decision. Traditional qualification frameworks are the opposite of real pipeline inspection. They’re vanity metrics disguised as sales rigor. Here’s the brutal truth: You can have a deal that checks every qualification box and still have a 2% chance of closing. Meanwhile, a deal that looks “unqualified” on paper might be ready to close tomorrow because the right stakeholders are engaged and moving forward. Why Most Pipeline Reviews Are Theater, Not Strategy The reason most sales leaders run terrible pipeline reviews is because it’s easy. It requires zero investment in actual deal coaching, stakeholder analysis, or strategic thinking. Think about it: It’s much easier to ask, “What’s the budget?” than it is to dig into whether the decision-maker actually sees value in solving this problem. But here’s what happens when you manage this way: You end up with pipelines full of zombie deals that look good on paper but will never close. Your reps get comfortable keeping deals in the pipeline because they’ve “qualified” them. Your forecasts become fiction because you’re counting revenue from prospects who aren’t actually buying. What Actually Matters: The One Question That Reveals Everything Instead of obsessing over qualification checklists, elite sales leaders focus on the one metric that actually predicts deal success: What’s the next step? This isn’t just another question—it’s the ultimate deal quality detector. Here’s why: Dead deals have no next steps. When a rep says, “They’re going on vacation, so I’ll call them in a few weeks,” that deal is dead. When they say, “They told me to call back in a month,” that’s not a pipeline deal—that’s a prospect. Real deals have committed next steps. When a rep says, “We’re doing a technical demo with their IT team on Friday, and the CFO specifically asked to see ROI projections by Tuesday,” that’s a deal with momentum. Engaged prospects match your effort. If you’re doing all the work—sending proposals, scheduling calls, following up—while they’re giving you vague responses, you don’t have a deal. You have a prospect who’s being polite. The Three-Question Pipeline Inspection System When I’m inspecting pipeline quality, I use a simple three-question framework that reveals everything: 1. What’s the Next Step? This is the deal-killer question. If there’s no specific, committed next step with a date and stakeholders involved, the deal is stalled or dead. Period. 2. Who Are You Actually Talking To? In my experience selling sales training, if I’m talking to an influencer instead of the person with the money, the probability of closing is about 2%. The person with the budget doesn’t see training as valuable unless it was their idea. This applies to every industry. You need to know: Are you talking to someone who can say yes, or someone who can only say no? 3. Are They Matching Your Efforts? Real buyers show up to demos. They bring their team to meetings. They respond to your emails. They give you the information you need to build proposals. If you’re doing all the heavy lifting while they’re giving you crickets, you’re not in a sales process—you’re in a procurement process where you’re getting used for free consulting. The Probability Revolution: Moving Beyond Stage-Based Forecasting Here’s where most companies completely lose the plot: They forecast based on sales stages instead of actual deal probability. They say if you’re in discovery, it’s 40% probable. If you’re doing a demo, it’s 60% probable. This is pure fantasy. Just because you’re 60% of the way through your sales process doesn’t mean there’s a 60% chance the deal will close in this quarter. It might mean you’re 60% of the way to getting rejected. Real probability is collaborative. After inspecting next steps, stakeholder engagement, and competitive positioning, you sit down with your rep and ask: “Based on everything we know, what’s the real probability this closes in the next 90 days?” Maybe it’s 80% because all the stakeholders are engaged and there’s a signed agreement on next steps. Maybe it’s 10% because they’re not returning calls and keep pushing meetings. The key is that it’s based on deal reality, not process stages. The Pipeline Discipline That Changes Everything This approach requires one thing most sales leaders aren’t willing to give: actual leadership. You can’t just look at dashboards and ask surface-level questions. You have to: Run regular pipeline reviews where you dig into deal strategy, not just deal status. Coach on next steps constantly—not just in formal meetings, but in hallway conversations and phone call debriefs. Push deals forward or pull them back based on real engagement, not wishful thinking. Force decisions on dead deals. Sometimes you have to tell your rep: “Take this out of the pipeline. Turn it into a prospect. Come back to it later. But stop using this as an excuse not to go find real deals.” The Bottom Line: Stop Managing Hope, Start Managing Reality The best sales organizations don’t manage hope—they manage reality. They know the difference between a qualified prospect and an engaged buyer. They measure deal momentum, not process completion. They forecast based on stakeholder commitment, not stage progression. That’s how you build accurate forecasts. That’s how you develop elite sales judgment. And that’s how you stop wasting time on deals that were never going to close in the first place. Your pipeline isn’t a parking lot for prospects who might buy someday. It’s a commitment engine for deals that are moving toward a close. Start inspecting what actually matters, and watch your forecast accuracy—and your revenue—transform. Learn how to ensure that you have enough pipe to make your number with this simple sales pipeline reality check technique in this microbite course: How to Give Your Pipeline a Reality Check.

Ben Hogan, who was arguably the greatest ball striker the game of golf has ever known, taught that if you wanted to improve your swing you should focus on the cause rather than the result.  This was good advice for golfers and brilliant advice for sales professionals. Because in sales, if you want to sell more it pays to become obsessed over your behaviors, techniques and processes rather than your outcomes.  Most Sellers Obsess Over Outcomes Most salespeople are focused on winning or losing individual deals. They get emotionally wrapped up in every prospect, every conversation, every close attempt. When they win, they’re on top of the world. When they lose, they’re devastated. But top performers? They think completely differently. They’re not obsessed with any single deal. They’re obsessed with the process that creates consistent results over time. This mindset shift is the difference between feast-or-famine selling and predictable, sustainable success. The Downside of Outcome Based Sales Goals Here’s what happens when you’re obsessed with outcomes instead of process: Every deal, every month, every quarter becomes life or death. You put all your emotional energy into individual prospects and hitting numbers, which clouds your judgment and makes you act desperate. You take rejection personally. When someone says no, it’s not just a business decision – it feels like a personal attack on your worth as a salesperson. You make poor decisions under pressure. When you need a deal to close to hit your number, you start discounting too early, chasing bad prospects, or making promises you can’t keep. Your performance becomes inconsistent. You have great months followed by terrible months because you’re riding the emotional roller coaster of individual wins and losses. You burn out faster. The constant emotional highs and lows are exhausting and unsustainable. Shift to Process Goals Process goals are different. They focus on the activities and behaviors you can directly control, not the outcomes that depend on factors outside your influence. Instead of “I need to close three deals this month,” a process goal is “I will make 50 prospecting calls every day.” Instead of “I have to win the Johnson account,” it’s “I will have four meaningful touch points with stakeholders at Johnson this week.” Instead of “I need to hit 120% of quota,” it’s “I will follow my proven sales methodology on every single opportunity.” Process goals put you in control. You can’t control whether a prospect buys, but you can control how many prospects you contact, how well you qualify them, and how consistently you follow your process. Why Top Performers Love Process Goals Create predictable results. When you focus on the right activities consistently, the outcomes take care of themselves. It’s like compound interest – small, consistent actions create massive results over time. Reduce emotional volatility. You’re not devastated by individual losses because you know that if you stick to your process, the wins will come. Improve decision-making. When you’re not desperate for any particular deal, you make better strategic decisions about where to invest your time and energy. Build confidence. Every day you hit your process goals, you build momentum and confidence, regardless of whether deals close that day. Create sustainable habits. Process goals turn success behaviors into automatic habits rather than things you do when you feel motivated. The Mathematics of Sales Process Goals Here’s why process goals work: Sales is a numbers game, but most people focus on the wrong numbers. Average performers focus on: How many deals they close The size of individual deals Their closing percentage on active opportunities Top performers focus on: How many new prospects they contact daily How many discovery calls they conduct weekly How many proposals they deliver monthly How consistently they follow up with existing prospects The difference is control. You can’t control whether someone buys today, but you can control how many people you talk to today. Examples of Effective Sales Process Goals Notice how none of these process goals depend on prospects saying yes. They’re all activities you can control through discipline and effort. Daily Process Goals: Make 30 prospecting calls before 10 AM Send 15 personalized LinkedIn messages Follow up with 10 existing prospects Update CRM for every interaction Weekly Process Goals: Conduct 8 discovery calls Deliver 3 proposals or presentations Schedule 5 demos or next-step meetings Have 2 conversations with existing customers Monthly Process Goals: Add 50 new qualified prospects to pipeline Complete needs analysis on 20 opportunities Present to 10 decision-making teams Ask for referrals from 15 customers Leveraging the Compound Effect When you focus on process goals consistently, something magical happens: the compound effect kicks in. If you make 30 prospecting calls every day, that’s 150 calls per week, 600 per month, 7,200 per year. Even with low conversion rates, that volume creates massive pipeline. When you follow up consistently with every prospect using a proven sequence, your closing percentage improves dramatically over time. By asking every customer for referrals using a systematic approach, your prospecting gets easier and more effective. Process goals create a flywheel effect where each activity makes the next activity more effective. Yes, Outcomes Still Matter This doesn’t mean outcomes don’t matter. Of course they do. You still need to hit your quota and close deals. But here’s the key: When you focus obsessively on the right processes, the outcomes become predictable byproducts rather than uncertain hopes. Top performers track outcomes to measure the effectiveness of their process, not to determine their self-worth or emotional state. If outcomes aren’t meeting expectations, they adjust their process, not their emotional investment in individual deals. Process Goals Create Emotional Freedom One of the biggest benefits of process goals is the emotional freedom they create. When your identity and confidence are tied to activities you control rather than outcomes you don’t, rejection stops hurting. “No” becomes another data point that helps you improve your process. You can walk away from bad deals because you’re not desperate for any individual outcome. Your pipeline is constantly full because you’re always feeding it. You sleep better at night because you know that if you executed your process well today, you’re moving toward your goals regardless of what happened in any specific conversation. Playing the Long Game Process goals require patience and faith. You might make 30 calls today and not close anything. But if you make 30 calls every day for six months, you will close deals. Average performers want immediate gratification. They want every call to turn into a meeting, every meeting to turn into a proposal, every proposal to turn into a close. Top performers understand that sales is a long-term game where consistent process execution creates inevitable success. Your brain will resist process goals because they’re not as emotionally exciting as big outcome goals. Closing a million-dollar deal feels better than making 30 prospecting calls. But remember: The calls create the deals. The process creates the outcomes. The activities create the results. Top performers get excited about process goals because they understand that controlling the process is how you control your destiny in sales. The Bottom Line The next time you catch yourself getting emotionally invested in whether a particular prospect buys or not, stop and redirect your focus to your process. Ask yourself: “Did I execute my process perfectly with this prospect? Did I ask the right questions, follow the right methodology, and advance the opportunity appropriately?” If the answer is yes, then you’ve succeeded regardless of the outcome. If the answer is no, then you have something specific to improve for next time. Your job isn’t to close every deal. Your job is to execute your process so well and so consistently that closing deals becomes an inevitable byproduct. As the great Ben Hogan said, focus on the cause and the results will follow.  And remember, when it’s time to go home, always make one more call. Because that one more call is a process goal you can control, and it might just be the one that changes everything. What if you could reduce cold calling while increasing your pipeline? What if you could become a lead magnet that compelled more prospects to reach out to you? What if you could leverage AI + LinkedIn to sell more than you’ve ever imagined possible? Well, “what if” is here in my brand new book: The LinkedIn Edge: New Sales Strategies for Unleashing the Power of LinkedIn + AI to Cold Call Less and Sell More

You know the drill. The quota clock is ticking, the pressure is mounting, and there’s that relentless urge for a quick win. Every sales professional has felt that impulse to rush the process, to push for the immediate “yes,” because, well, the numbers demand it. But here’s the tough question you need to ask yourself: What if that very pressure is actively sabotaging your long-term success? What if chasing the fast buck is actually costing you the lucrative, lasting relationships that define an elite sales career and build a lasting book of business? As Sales Gravy Podcast guest Steve Pyfrom puts it: “Building relationships takes time and sales, teams need desperately to get off of this short-term win dynamic. The goal is long-term revenue for your company, lifetime value for the end user.”  Focusing solely on the quick sale burns through pipeline leads faster than you can replace them, leaving you on a perpetual hamster wheel of prospecting just to stay afloat. It’s time to talk about the long game, because building real relationships is where sustainable revenue lives. Why Churn Is Killing Your Commissions Let’s talk numbers. According to SimplicityDX, customer acquisition costs have increased by 222% over the last eight years, while customer lifetime value has remained flat. It’s getting harder and more expensive to find new customers, making the ones you have incredibly valuable. Yet most salespeople treat customers like one-time transactions. They close the deal, celebrate briefly, then immediately move on to the next prospect. This approach is financial suicide. Customers who feel rushed through the buying process rarely become loyal advocates. When a customer feels pressured into a decision or perceives the sale as purely transactional, their loyalty is paper-thin. They’re constantly looking for better deals, questioning their purchase decision, and jumping ship when problems arise. When a customer churns, you lose all potential referrals, upsells, and cross-sells they could have generated. You’re back to square one, hunting for new prospects to replace the revenue you just lost, all while acquisition costs keep climbing. The Trust Equation That Changes Everything Most salespeople think selling is about convincing, but selling is about connecting. When you rush a prospect, you’re telling them their decision-making process doesn’t matter. You’re saying your timeline is more important than their comfort level.  Real relationships are built on trust, and trust takes time. Think about your personal life. Your closest friends aren’t the people who tried to fast-track the process. They’re the ones who showed up consistently, listened without an agenda, and proved their reliability over time. The same principle applies in sales. The prospects who become your biggest advocates aren’t the ones you pressured into a quick yes. They’re the ones who felt heard, understood, and genuinely cared for throughout the entire process. The Compound Effect of Relationship Selling Consider Mary, a software sales rep who was in competition with 2 other software vendors for a deal with a manufacturing company. Mary’s competitors immediately launched into aggressive pitches and discount offers to David, the CFO, hoping to close the deal quickly. Mary took a different approach. Instead of pitching, she spent two months understanding David’s cash flow challenges and upcoming board presentation needs. She shared relevant case studies, introduced him to a supply chain consultant, and helped him think through his decision criteria. She never once mentioned her software. When David’s team raised concerns about implementation timelines during their evaluation, Mary’s competitors pushed back, insisting their solution was simple to deploy. Mary listened, then connected David with a similar CFO who had successfully managed a comparable rollout. That conversation addressed David’s real concerns and kept Mary’s solution in contention. Eight months later, David bought Mary’s $180,000 three-year contract. More importantly, he became her biggest advocate, introducing her to his former colleague, his brother-in-law in logistics, and even bringing her to present at his industry association. That single relationship has now generated millions in revenue across multiple deals—all because Mary chose to consult rather than convince. While her competitors chased quick wins, Mary built a referral engine that continues to compound. The consultative approach saved her from losing the deal and created a decade of sustainable revenue. In sales, the fastest way to lose a deal is to act desperate to win it. When you focus on serving the customer’s needs rather than your own quota, you increase your chances of closing that deal and build the foundation for a referral-driven career. Your 30-Day Relationship-Building Challenge Ready to make the shift? Here’s your roadmap: Week 1: Audit your current pipeline. Identify five prospects you’ve been pushing too hard. Reach out with something valuable, but send it with no pitch attached. Just help them solve a problem. Week 2: Research 10 prospects you want to target. Find three meaningful insights about each company. Reach out with personalized messages that reference these insights. Week 3: Set up “no-ask” meetings with existing prospects. Your only agenda is understanding their business better. Come prepared with thoughtful questions, not sales materials. Week 4: Create a follow-up system for staying in touch with prospects who aren’t ready to buy. Send monthly check-ins with industry insights, relevant articles, or useful introductions. The Bottom Line In a world where everyone is trying to close faster, your competitive advantage lies in slowing down. While your competitors are burning through leads with aggressive tactics, you’ll be building a sustainable pipeline of high-value, long-term relationships. Your prospects remember the rep who listened. Who showed up with solutions, not pitches. Who cared about their success, not commission checks. Be the rep who gets the referrals, the repeat business, and the career everyone envies. Tap into the secrets of becoming a client’s trusted advisor with this Sales Gravy University course.

That’s the question every sales leader, CEO, and HR department is wrestling with as AI tools flood the market with promises to automate everything from prospecting to closing deals. Meanwhile, salespeople are panicking, wondering if their jobs are about to disappear to some algorithm that can write emails faster than they can type “Dear Valued Customer.” If you’re losing sleep over this, take a deep breath. The fear is real, but it’s also completely misplaced. Here’s the brutal truth: AI isn’t going to replace you. But salespeople who understand how to leverage AI absolutely will replace those who don’t. When Robots Try to Sell It’s Not Authentic Remember when email prospecting worked? When a well-crafted subject line could get you a meeting, and personalization meant more than just mail-merging someone’s first name? Those days are over, and AI killed them in about nine months. Here’s what happened: Marketing departments discovered they could use AI to blast out thousands of “personalized” emails that sounded human but weren’t. They could fake voicemails using voice cloning technology. They could create sales sequences that felt authentic but were completely artificial. The result? Complete market saturation with fake outreach that destroyed trust across every communication channel. Humans Have a BS Detector for Fakeness Here’s what these AI-obsessed companies don’t understand: People have an incredibly sophisticated BS detector. We can sense inauthenticity from a mile away, even when the technology is nearly perfect. When you receive an email that sounds too polished, too perfect, or follows a pattern you’ve seen before, your brain immediately flags it as fake. When you hear a voicemail that sounds just slightly off—even if you can’t pinpoint why—you delete it. But here’s the real killer: Once people realize you were too lazy to write your own email or leave your own voicemail, they lose all respect for you. They think, “If this salesperson can’t be bothered to put in the effort to reach out to me personally, then why would I want to do business with them?” The One Thing AI Can Never Do This is where the magic happens, and it’s where your competitive edge lies. AI can write emails. It can analyze data. It can even fake phone calls (poorly). But it cannot engage in real-time, empathetic, synchronous conversation with another human being. It can’t read micro-expressions during a video call. It can’t pick up on the subtle hesitation in someone’s voice that signals an unspoken objection. It can’t pivot in real-time when the conversation takes an unexpected turn. Most importantly, it can’t build the kind of authentic human connection that makes people want to buy from you instead of your competitor. The AI + Human Intelligence Formula Smart salespeople aren’t running from AI—they’re running toward it—but they’re using it as a tool to make themselves better, faster, and stronger, not as a replacement for actual selling skills. Here’s where AI excels in sales: Research and Preparation: AI can analyze a prospect’s 10-K filing, research their competitors, and create discovery questions in minutes instead of hours. It can build detailed company profiles and identify potential pain points before you ever pick up the phone. Data Organization and Analysis: That timeline your manager needs for a customer service issue? AI can pull data from your CRM, email, and support tickets to create a comprehensive summary in seconds instead of the hours it would take you to compile it manually. Writing Enhancement: Most salespeople aren’t great writers. Don’t shoot the messenger. AI can help you craft better emails, proposals, and follow-up messages, but only if you edit them, personalize them, and make them authentically yours. The Holy Grail: Intelligent Prospecting Lists: The biggest opportunity is using AI to build high-quality prospecting lists. Imagine walking into the office and having AI present you with a list of prospects who are in a buying window. They’re not random companies that fit your ICP, but organizations where multiple signals indicate they’re ready to buy what you’re selling. AI can analyze intent data, website traffic, job postings, financial reports, and social media activity to identify these opportunities. It can cross-reference all this disparate information and say, “Here are the 20 people you need to call today, because they have the highest probability of converting to pipeline.” The Art of Sales Conversation Matters When AI handles the research, data analysis, and list building, you’re free to focus on having meaningful conversations that create value and build relationships. This means mastering: Discovery skills that uncover real business problems Listening techniques that make prospects feel heard and understood Questioning frameworks that advance the sales process Objection handling that addresses concerns without being pushy Closing skills that create urgency and commitment These are the skills that will separate top performers from everyone else in an AI-dominated world. Embrace AI Without Losing Your Soul If you’re a sales leader: Stop buying into the “AI will replace salespeople” hype from software vendors trying to sell you their latest bot. Invest in AI tools that enhance your team’s capabilities rather than replace their human interactions. Focus on training your reps to have better conversations, not just more conversations. Use AI for research and organization, but never for actual prospect outreach. If you’re a salesperson: Learn to use AI as your research assistant and writing coach, not your replacement. Never let AI write emails or make calls on your behalf. People will know, and they’ll hate it. Double down on developing your conversation skills, empathy, and relationship-building abilities. Remember the Golden Rule: Never trust, always verify. AI will lie to you, so double check everything. The Bottom Line In a world where everything can be faked, the only thing that’s real is authentic human conversation. It’s your competitive edge, your job security, and how you win in the age of AI. The future belongs to salespeople who can leverage artificial intelligence to become more effective while never losing the human touch that makes people want to buy from them. That’s how you build relationships that last. That’s how you create value that can’t be commoditized. And that’s how you ensure AI works for you instead of against you. Want to learn more about how AI can lift you over your competition? Read Jeb Blount’s The AI Edge for more tools and tips.

Is there such a thing as natural sales talent? Are top-level sales professionals born that way? Do they possess a gift from God that powers their ability to close sales? On this Money Monday, I answer these age-old questions. For the Love of the Game When I was 9 years old, after going to the Masters tournament with my Dad, I cut a limb that was shaped like a golf club from a tree, dug holes all over our backyard, and started playing “backyard golf” with a wiffle ball.  I loved my little backyard golf course and played every day after school. One day though, my Dad, who had been watching me, said, “Why don’t we just go play real golf?” My dad didn’t know anything about golf. He didn’t grow up playing. But we went down to Walmart, bought some cheap golf clubs, and started chasing little white balls.  We played at a legendary course in Augusta called The Patch—a municipal course with hard dirt fairways and patchy greens but a super fun place to learn the game. Our game was terrible, and we never practiced or took a lesson. But I loved going out with my dad to the course, and we had fun! In high school, I started playing on the golf team. That might have been a turning point for my game if we’d had a real coach, but instead we had a math teacher who did not play golf assigned to babysit us. So, we were on our own, but we had fun. Those years playing on my high school golf team were a blast! In college, I continued to play golf for recreation—usually with my fraternity brothers. Golf was about going out, telling jokes, and drinking a lot of beer. I have so many fun memories from those days.   The Myth of Natural Talent Stole My Joy After getting out of college, I continued to play—mostly in business situations—and that’s when golf stopped being fun. I would golf with clients and peers who were so much better than me. It didn’t make sense that they could hit the ball so well and I could not.  I would go out to the range and practice until my arms hurt, but I never got any better. It never occurred to me to take a lesson.  By my mid-30s I was so frustrated with golf that I started to believe something that would haunt me for the next 20 years: I convinced myself that people who could play golf well were just naturally gifted. And because I wasn’t naturally gifted, I would never be good at golf. So I quit. For two decades, I didn’t pick up a golf club. A Massive Mindset Shift Leads to a Comeback If you have read my books and listened to my podcasts you know that I’m a big horse person. I’ve been involved in equestrian sports since I was a kid. I’ve had formal coaching and training with horses. On horseback, I thought I was naturally gifted. I believed it was something that God had imbued in me. So I forgot about golf and poured my time and energy into horses. Eventually, though, my son got older and started playing golf. And being an equestrian at my age became more and more dangerous. A bad day on a horse means you’re in the hospital in traction. A bad day on the golf course means you go to soothe your wounds with a cold beer in the clubhouse. So I picked up the sticks again. But this time, I sought out a golf coach. A pro who could help me learn how to play the game.  Starting over has been hard. It is difficult to learn new skills. But with lessons, I’ve gotten better. In fact, last week I shot my lowest score ever. Over the past two years of working on my golf game, I’ve come to realize how much the story that I kept telling myself about not being naturally talented hurt me and how much it stole from my life. That story cost me 20 years of enjoyment of a game I loved. The difference between my success with horses and my failure with golf wasn’t natural talent. It was coaching and instruction.  The Power of an Open vs Closed Mindset Once you stop believing that you have to be naturally gifted in order to do anything well, you open your mind to new possibilities and amazing things happen for you.  For example, a couple of weeks ago, my good friend Mike Weinberg sent me a book called Putting Out of Your Mind. I read it and started putting those lessons into practice on the green. Over the next round that I played, I took 10 putts off my game. Ten putts! Just from the lessons I learned in that book. I’ve gotten better because I have a different mindset. I changed the way I look at the game because I changed the way I look at myself. Rather than believing I’m not naturally gifted, I started to believe that through coaching, reading, training, learning, and focus, I could get better. And I have.  Sales Professionals are Made, Not Born The irony of all of this is that I’m a sales trainer and coach who for years has said emphatically that salespeople are not born, they are made.  I’ve written 17 books on the subject including my latest book The LinkedIn Edge. People who read my books, attend Sales Gravy training, and put the techniques they learn into practice get better and sell more.   Yet it’s not uncommon for me to be working with leaders who hire a young rep, stick them in the field or put them on the phones, and then when this inexperienced rep somehow doesn’t display natural intuition or natural ability to sell, they begin doubting whether this person is a good fit for their team. When I sit down with these leaders, I ask them: “How would the rep know what they’re doing wrong if you never taught them how to do it right? How are they going to change what they cannot see if you don’t provide any coaching or feedback?” Just yesterday, as an illustration, I was out at the range working on my swing. The PGA professional I take lessons from stopped by where I was hitting. He gave me one small tip about where my club face was on the swing plane, and I immediately started hitting better.  That had nothing to do with natural ability and everything to do with someone teaching me technique. I couldn’t see what I was doing wrong. But with a coach holding a mirror up to my swing, I could.  Breaking the Myth of Natural Sales Talent Here’s the truth: There is no such thing as natural sales talent.  What we call “natural talent” is usually just someone who had good coaching, learned the right techniques, or developed good habits through trial and error. But none of it is innate. None of it is genetic. None of it is a gift from above. Earlier in my sales career, I had great training and a coach who invested in me. I read every sales book I could get my hands on and listened to sales training programs in my car. I ran the sales process and leveraged the techniques I was taught. That’s how I became the top sales rep in my company and was always at the top of the leader board. It had nothing to do with natural talent.  If you are a leader who believes that somehow people are naturally gifted to sell, then you’re always going to have lower-performing salespeople because you will not invest in training and coaching them.  Should you believe this as a salesperson, you’re never going to focus on making yourself better because why do so when you think you don’t have natural sales talent. But the truth is, you can learn how to sell. Everybody can. You can learn the skills and exactly how to run the sales process. If you come to a Fanatical Prospecting Bootcamp with me, I can teach you how to make a cold call that will get you results – how to ask better questions, overcome objections, present, close and negotiate.  Being great at sales has nothing to do with “natural sales talent,” whether you’re an introvert or extrovert, or whether you have “the gift of gab.” It has everything to do with mastering techniques and process. The Learnable Components of Sales Success Just like golf, sales success comes down to several learnable components: Fundamentals: In golf, it’s your grip, stance, swing mechanics, and course management. In sales, it’s your prospecting discipline, discovery and communication skills, closing techniques and sales strategy.  Mental Game: In golf, it’s focus, staying calm under pressure. In sales, it’s managing rejection, maintaining confidence, and staying true to the process. Practice: In golf, it’s hours on the range and playing rounds. In sales, it’s role-playing, getting reps on sales calls, and continuously honing your skills. Coaching: In golf, it’s working with a pro who can see what you can’t see. In sales, it’s having mentors, managers, and trainers who can guide your development. Continuous Learning: In golf, it’s studying the game, reading books, and learning from better players. In sales, it’s consuming sales content, attending training, and learning from top performers. None of these components require natural sales talent. They all require commitment, practice, and the right instruction. You Don’t Have to Be Naturally Talented to Pursue Your Goals The belief in natural talent is not just wrong. It holds people from reaching their potential, pursuing their goals, and doing things that give them joy.  You don’t have to be naturally gifted to be great at sales. Rather, you need to be willing to learn, practice, and get better every day. Looking back now, having re-discovered my love for golf and that I can actually improve, I have deep regret for all those years I could have been playing a game that brings me so much joy because I believed I didn’t have the natural talent. Don’t let the same thing happen to you. Do not allow limiting beliefs prevent you from achieving the success you’re capable of or waste years believing you’re not cut out for golf, sales or anything else in life when all you really need is proper coaching and training. If you are finally ready to break through and get better Sales Gravy has a plan for you. Start learning new skills on Sales Gravy University or working one to one with a master Is there such a thing as natural sales talent? Are top-level sales professionals born that way? Do they possess a gift from God that powers their ability to close sales? On this Money Monday, I answer these age-old questions. For the Love of the Game When I was 9 years old, after going to the Masters tournament with my Dad, I cut a limb that was shaped like a golf club from a tree, dug holes all over our backyard, and started playing “backyard golf” with a wiffle ball.  I loved my little backyard golf course and played every day after school. One day though, my Dad, who had been watching me, said, “Why don’t we just go play real golf?” My dad didn’t know anything about golf. He didn’t grow up playing. But we went down to Walmart, bought some cheap golf clubs, and started chasing little white balls.  We played at a legendary course in Augusta called The Patch—a municipal course with hard dirt fairways and patchy greens but a super fun place to learn the game. Our game was terrible, and we never practiced or took a lesson. But I loved going out with my dad to the course, and we had fun! In high school, I started playing on the golf team. That might have been a turning point for my game if we’d had a real coach, but instead we had a math teacher who did not play golf assigned to babysit us. So, we were on our own, but we had fun. Those years playing on my high school golf team were a blast! In college, I continued to play golf for recreation—usually with my fraternity brothers. Golf was about going out, telling jokes, and drinking a lot of beer. I have so many fun memories from those days.   The Myth of Natural Talent Stole My Joy After getting out of college, I continued to play—mostly in business situations—and that’s when golf stopped being fun. I would golf with clients and peers who were so much better than me. It didn’t make sense that they could hit the ball so well and I could not.  I would go out to the range and practice until my arms hurt, but I never got any better. It never occurred to me to take a lesson.  By my mid-30s I was so frustrated with golf that I started to believe something that would haunt me for the next 20 years: I convinced myself that people who could play golf well were just naturally gifted. And because I wasn’t naturally gifted, I would never be good at golf. So I quit. For two decades, I didn’t pick up a golf club. A Massive Mindset Shift Leads to a Comeback If you have read my books and listened to my podcasts you know that I’m a big horse person. I’ve been involved in equestrian sports since I was a kid. I’ve had formal coaching and training with horses. On horseback, I thought I was naturally gifted. I believed it was something that God had imbued in me. So I forgot about golf and poured my time and energy into horses. Eventually, though, my son got older and started playing golf. And being an equestrian at my age became more and more dangerous. A bad day on a horse means you’re in the hospital in traction. A bad day on the golf course means you go to soothe your wounds with a cold beer in the clubhouse. So I picked up the sticks again. But this time, I sought out a golf coach. A pro who could help me learn how to play the game.  Starting over has been hard. It is difficult to learn new skills. But with lessons, I’ve gotten better. In fact, last week I shot my lowest score ever. Over the past two years of working on my golf game, I’ve come to realize how much the story that I kept telling myself about not being naturally talented hurt me and how much it stole from my life. That story cost me 20 years of enjoyment of a game I loved. The difference between my success with horses and my failure with golf wasn’t natural talent. It was coaching and instruction.  The Power of an Open vs Closed Mindset Once you stop believing that you have to be naturally gifted in order to do anything well, you open your mind to new possibilities and amazing things happen for you.  For example, a couple of weeks ago, my good friend Mike Weinberg sent me a book called Putting Out of Your Mind. I read it and started putting those lessons into practice on the green. Over the next round that I played, I took 10 putts off my game. Ten putts! Just from the lessons I learned in that book. I’ve gotten better because I have a different mindset. I changed the way I look at the game because I changed the way I look at myself. Rather than believing I’m not naturally gifted, I started to believe that through coaching, reading, training, learning, and focus, I could get better. And I have.  Sales Professionals are Made, Not Born The irony of all of this is that I’m a sales trainer and coach who for years has said emphatically that salespeople are not born, they are made.  I’ve written 17 books on the subject including my latest book The LinkedIn Edge. People who read my books, attend Sales Gravy training, and put the techniques they learn into practice get better and sell more.   Yet it’s not uncommon for me to be working with leaders who hire a young rep, stick them in the field or put them on the phones, and then when this inexperienced rep somehow doesn’t display natural intuition or natural ability to sell, they begin doubting whether this person is a good fit for their team. When I sit down with these leaders, I ask them: “How would the rep know what they’re doing wrong if you never taught them how to do it right? How are they going to change what they cannot see if you don’t provide any coaching or feedback?” Just yesterday, as an illustration, I was out at the range working on my swing. The PGA professional I take lessons from stopped by where I was hitting. He gave me one small tip about where my club face was on the swing plane, and I immediately started hitting better.  That had nothing to do with natural ability and everything to do with someone teaching me technique. I couldn’t see what I was doing wrong. But with a coach holding a mirror up to my swing, I could.  Breaking the Myth of Natural Sales Talent Here’s the truth: There is no such thing as natural sales talent.  What we call “natural talent” is usually just someone who had good coaching, learned the right techniques, or developed good habits through trial and error. But none of it is innate. None of it is genetic. None of it is a gift from above. Earlier in my sales career, I had great training and a coach who invested in me. I read every sales book I could get my hands on and listened to sales training programs in my car. I ran the sales process and leveraged the techniques I was taught. That’s how I became the top sales rep in my company and was always at the top of the leader board. It had nothing to do with natural talent.  If you are a leader who believes that somehow people are naturally gifted to sell, then you’re always going to have lower-performing salespeople because you will not invest in training and coaching them.  Should you believe this as a salesperson, you’re never going to focus on making yourself better because why do so when you think you don’t have natural sales talent. But the truth is, you can learn how to sell. Everybody can. You can learn the skills and exactly how to run the sales process. If you come to a Fanatical Prospecting Bootcamp with me, I can teach you how to make a cold call that will get you results – how to ask better questions, overcome objections, present, close and negotiate.  Being great at sales has nothing to do with “natural sales talent,” whether you’re an introvert or extrovert, or whether you have “the gift of gab.” It has everything to do with mastering techniques and process. The Learnable Components of Sales Success Just like golf, sales success comes down to several learnable components: Fundamentals: In golf, it’s your grip, stance, swing mechanics, and course management. In sales, it’s your prospecting discipline, discovery and communication skills, closing techniques and sales strategy.  Mental Game: In golf, it’s focus, staying calm under pressure. In sales, it’s managing rejection, maintaining confidence, and staying true to the process. Practice: In golf, it’s hours on the range and playing rounds. In sales, it’s role-playing, getting reps on sales calls, and continuously honing your skills. Coaching: In golf, it’s working with a pro who can see what you can’t see. In sales, it’s having mentors, managers, and trainers who can guide your development. Continuous Learning: In golf, it’s studying the game, reading books, and learning from better players. In sales, it’s consuming sales content, attending training, and learning from top performers. None of these components require natural sales talent. They all require commitment, practice, and the right instruction. You Don’t Have to Be Naturally Talented to Pursue Your Goals The belief in natural talent is not just wrong. It holds people from reaching their potential, pursuing their goals, and doing things that give them joy.  You don’t have to be naturally gifted to be great at sales. Rather, you need to be willing to learn, practice, and get better every day. Looking back now, having re-discovered my love for golf and that I can actually improve, I have deep regret for all those years I could have been playing a game that brings me so much joy because I believed I didn’t have the natural talent. Don’t let the same thing happen to you. Do not allow limiting beliefs prevent you from achieving the success you’re capable of or waste years believing you’re not cut out for golf, sales or anything else in life when all you really need is proper coaching and training. If you are finally ready to break through and get better, Sales Gravy has a plan for you. Start learning new skills on Sales Gravy University or working one to one with a master Sales Gravy Coach.

“I can’t do that.” How many times have you said those four words when facing a challenging sales situation? It could be picking up the phone to make that intimidating cold call. It could be asking for the close with a high-value prospect.  If you say ‘I can’t do that,’ guess what? You’re absolutely right. You won’t. But here’s what’s surprising: The solution is simpler than you think.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddjRyIHq6LA The Wisdom That Sounds Ridiculous (Until It Changes Everything) Thirty years ago, sales coach Steve Chandler heard a client say those familiar words: “I don’t think I could ever do that.” His response was four words that initially sounded absurd.  “Then don’t be you.” When Richard Fenton, co-author of “Go for No!,” first heard this concept, he had two immediate reactions: “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” followed quickly by “That’s the most profound thing I’ve ever heard.” Think about it. When someone says they can’t speak in front of a thousand people, what’s the typical advice? “Just be natural. Just be yourself.” But if they’re someone who freezes up in front of crowds, why would they want to be that person in that moment? Although you can’t magically become a new person, you do have the power to choose which aspect of yourself shows up in any given situation. The Alter Ego Advantage of Top Performers Elite athletes and performers often adopt different personas to enhance their performance. When the game was on the line, Kobe Bryant would mentally shift into his Black Mamba persona, accessing a level of confidence and killer instinct that separated him from other players.  “The Black Mamba is something I created to get through the lowest points,” Bryant explained. “It’s a mindset, a way of approaching challenges.” Beyoncé morphs into “Sasha Fierce” on stage—a fearless, magnetic performer—but off stage, Beyoncé describes herself as naturally shy and introverted. Strategic identity shifting is the ability to step into a role that’s equipped for the task at hand.  Your 3-Step Transformation Process Ready to make it happen? Here’s your simple framework: Identify Your Limitation What specific sales activity makes you feel uncomfortable or incapable? Be precise. Instead of “I’m bad at sales,” identify exactly when you struggle: “I freeze up when asking for referrals from satisfied customers.” Design Your Persona Who would you need to be to excel in that situation? Create a specific identity, such as The Referral Request Professional, who understands that satisfied customers want to help others access the same value they received. Make the Switch Before entering a sales situation that makes you nervous, consciously transition into your character. Use mental preparation (visualizing success), physical cues (changing your posture, adjusting your voice), or even simple props (a specific piece of clothing or accessory). Creating Sales Identities That Perform The beauty of the “don’t be you” approach is that you’re not manufacturing a fake personality. You’re accessing different facets of who you already are or who you can become.  Here are some examples of identities to cultivate in sales: The Cold Calling Champion When you need to make prospecting calls, don’t be the version of you who worries about interrupting people or who fears rejection. Instead, become the professional who understands that you’re offering solutions to real problems. Lead with confident conviction—like you’re doing them a favor by calling. Channel the mindset of a sales rep who is genuinely excited about helping prospects discover opportunities they didn’t know existed. Before each calling session, take just two minutes. Visualize this persona. How do they talk? What’s their vibe? How do they sit? Then step into that identity. The Confident Closer When it’s time to close the deal, don’t get stuck in the part of you that feels pushy or uncomfortable with money conversations. Become the trusted advisor who recognizes that not asking for commitment is failing your prospect. This persona understands closing is the natural conclusion of a value-driven conversation. Next time you go to close, adopt the stance of someone who never apologizes for requesting a decision. The Networking Navigator At industry events or sales conferences, don’t be the version of you who feels intimidated by successful executives or worried about seeming too eager. Transform into the business professional who understands that networking is about mutual value creation, not self-promotion. Adopt a persona who approaches high-level contacts with genuine curiosity about their challenges and an authentic interest in how you might collaborate or assist them. The Science Behind the Shift When you consciously adopt a different persona, you’re permitting yourself to act outside your typical behavioral patterns.  This phenomenon works because your brain doesn’t distinguish between “real” confidence and “performed” confidence in the moment. When you act confidently, your nervous system responds as if you are actually confident, helping you navigate difficult moments. Adopting an alter ego is a practice backed by research. Columbia Business School studies suggest that people who adopt professional personas report higher confidence levels and better performance outcomes in challenging situations. The Compound Effect of Not Being You Each successful interaction while in your sales persona creates a feedback loop of confidence. When you close a deal you thought was out of reach or handle an objection with unexpected finesse, your brain files away these experiences as evidence of your capabilities.  The impostor syndrome that once whispered “you’re not cut out for this” gets quieter with every win. Over time, the gap between your “regular” self and your “performance” self narrows. The behaviors, thought patterns, and confidence levels that once felt like acting become easier to access.  Be the Sales Rep You Need to Be The next time you catch yourself saying “I can’t do that,” remember Steve Chandler’s four-word revolution: “Then don’t be you.” The most successful salespeople refuse to let their insecurities drive them. They step into whoever they need to be, make the call, close the deal, and prove that their current limitations don’t define their future possibilities. The world doesn’t need another hesitant sales rep. It needs the best version of you. That confident sales professional already exists inside you. It’s time to transform. Find more ways to improve your sales process and crush your quota at Sales Gravy University.

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 Jersey asked when she called into Ask Jeb. After crushing 134% of quota in her first year selling EdTech solutions—transitioning from owning her own childcare center to selling back into that same industry—she was being told she needed 11X pipeline to maintain her success. If that number made you cringe, you’re not alone. The obsession with pipeline multipliers is creating more problems than it’s solving, and it’s time we had an honest conversation about what actually drives predictable revenue. The Pipeline Myth That’s Killing Your Forecast Most sales teams are drowning in fake pipeline, and it’s destroying their ability to forecast accurately. Leadership teams, especially in tech companies, consistently miss their numbers quarter after quarter because they’re obsessed with one question: “How much pipeline do we have?” The real question should be: “How clean is our pipeline?” Would you rather have 11X pipeline filled with lottery tickets, or 2X pipeline packed with qualified buyers? The answer should be obvious, but somehow we keep chasing vanity metrics instead of focusing on what converts. Here’s the brutal truth: All pipeline opportunities are not equal. Two Approaches to Pipeline Creation There are two ways to approach pipeline creation, and only one of them actually works consistently. Approach #1: Maximum Daily Prospecting (The Proven Method) Don’t worry about how big your pipeline is. Worry about how much prospecting you’re doing, and run on a daily cadence of prospecting that maxes out the time you can spend every single day. Prospect every day, every day, every day. I have a block of time every morning for prospecting. Then I’m prospecting during any gap during the day. If there’s time between meetings, I’m doing outreach. Every single day I’m prospecting to the very max that I have time to prospect. When you do this, you don’t have to worry about pipeline size because it takes care of itself. You never get on the desperation roller coaster because you never stop feeding the machine. Approach #2: Pipeline Multiplier Obsession (The Broken Method) This is where leadership teams fixate on having “5X pipeline” or “11X pipeline” because they think more is better. The problem? As soon as reps think they have “enough” pipeline, they quit prospecting. Then reality hits when half those opportunities were pipe dreams. The Science of Pipeline: The Law of Replacement If you want to look at pipeline like science rather than hope, you need to understand the Law of Replacement: You need to replace opportunities in your pipeline at a rate that is equal to or greater than your closing ratio. Let me give you a real example of how this works. In a previous role, I had my numbers dialed in perfectly: I knew I needed 10 first-time appointments every week About 50% would move to follow-up appointments (5 deals) I’d close about 20% of those follow-ups (1 deal per week) It took me about 20 prospecting touches to generate 2 first-time appointments Working backwards from one closed deal per week, I knew exactly what I needed to produce in terms of prospecting activity and first-time appointments to feed my pipeline consistently. If I didn’t replace the deals that fell out every single week, I’d eventually end up with nothing. What Makes a Real Pipeline Opportunity Here’s where most organizations get it completely wrong. They’re stuffing their CRM with anything that moves and calling it “pipeline.” A real pipeline opportunity requires a conversation. It’s not a form fill or a marketing lead or something someone else talked to and dumped in your CRM. You need to have qualified it yourself and made a decision that it belongs in your pipeline. At Sales Gravy, we generate more than a thousand leads per month. Most of those don’t go directly into the pipe because nobody had a conversation with them. They go to the sales team for vetting and qualifying first. The only leads that go straight into the pipeline are our “hot” leads. People who come in saying, “I have 30 salespeople and I need Fanatical Prospecting training right now.” Those people have pre-qualified themselves, and we close about 90% of them. The Win Rate Reality Check If you’re running win rates against junk that marketing stuffed into your pipeline, those numbers are meaningless. Your win rate should be calculated against deals you sent written offers to buy. Here’s how I define a real win rate: Number of deals closed divided by number of proposals given. Until you give someone a proposal, you haven’t asked them to buy. Everything before that is just conversation. How to Build Predictable Pipeline When you’re ready to get scientific about your pipeline, here’s the formula: 1. Define Your Time Period Look at your pipeline on a 60-90 day rolling period, depending on your sales cycle. Don’t try to forecast a year out if your deals close in 60 days. 2. Assign Real Revenue Numbers Every opportunity needs an accurate revenue number. Don’t inflate deals to hit your multiplier target—that’s just lying to yourself. 3. Calculate Probability by Deal, Not by Stage Your CRM stages are fiction. A deal in “discovery” isn’t automatically 50% likely to close. Look at the evidence for each individual deal and assign probability based on what you actually know about their buying process, budget, and timeline. 4. Do the Math Take your pipeline revenue and multiply by the probability of each deal closing. That’s your real forecast for the period. Get disciplined about this process, and you’ll find you can predict your results with scary accuracy. The Daily Discipline That Changes Everything Here’s what separates elite performers like Maryellen from everyone else: They maximize their prospecting time every single day, regardless of how their pipeline looks. When you hit 134% of quota, nobody cares what your pipeline multiplier was. They care about results. The most effective approach is simple: Block time every morning for prospecting. Fill gaps throughout the day with outreach. Follow your proven process religiously. Never stop feeding the machine. Stop Playing Pipeline Games Most sales teams are playing games with their pipeline instead of focusing on what actually matters. They’re: Stuffing CRMs with unqualified leads to hit multiplier targets Chasing deals that were never real opportunities “Checking in” on pipe dreams instead of prospecting for new business Missing forecasts because their pipeline was built on hope, not evidence Your Action Plan If you’re a sales rep: Maximize daily prospecting time regardless of current pipeline size. Know your real closing ratios based on actual proposals, not marketing leads. Be ruthless about qualification before putting deals in your pipeline. Track what matters: first-time appointments, conversion rates, and revenue per proposal. If you’re a sales leader: Stop obsessing over pipeline multipliers and start focusing on pipeline quality. Don’t let marketing stuff your CRM with unqualified leads that skew your metrics. Coach reps on qualification standards rather than just demanding more pipeline. Measure probability by deal evidence, not by arbitrary stage percentages. The Bottom Line Pipeline multipliers are vanity metrics that create false confidence and poor forecasting. Clean pipeline built through daily prospecting discipline and rigorous qualification creates predictable revenue. The Law of Replacement isn’t just a concept—it’s your lifeline. Master it, and you’ll never worry about pipeline size again. Ignore it, and you’ll ride the desperation roller coaster every quarter. Your commission check doesn’t care about your pipeline multiplier. It only cares about one thing: Did you close the deal or didn’t you? The next time someone asks about your pipeline, don’t tell them how big it is. Tell them how clean it is. Because clean pipelines close deals, and dirty pipelines just create false hope. Learn the keys to developing a Fanatical Prospecting Mindset in Jeb Blount’s course: Fanatical Prospecting Essentials

Have you ever been working on a deal where you had this feeling, this intuition, this Spidey sense—something in the back of your mind telling you that this wasn’t going to close? That you were going to waste your time? Maybe you had one of the stakeholders who was against you—an enemy. There was a naysayer who kept calling you out. Perhaps the stakeholders weren’t engaged, or the incumbent vendor was so integrated into the organization that it would be very difficult to displace them. Whatever the case, you knew in the back of your mind that you weren’t going to close the deal. But you kept working on it anyway. You rode that puppy to the ocean floor like the Titanic that it was. If you’ve done this, and I know you have, take heart because we’ve all been there. We’ve all had these situations, and we’ve later regretted them.  Top Sales Pros are Quick to Walk Away From Bad Deals  One of the traits of Ultra-High Performers that has always been true is that they’re very quick to walk away from a deal they can’t close—a deal where they’ve concluded that the probability of winning is so low it doesn’t meet their threshold. The reason Ultra-High Performers walk away from deals like this is simple: They know that the greatest waste of their time is investing it with the wrong prospect. The time they invest in a prospect that’s not going to close is money down the drain, because it’s time they can’t focus on a deal that will close. But average salespeople? They hang on—hoping against hope that somehow, miraculously, things will turn around. In sales, awareness matters. You must always know where the exit is. There are two primary reasons why salespeople work on deals that are never going to close. Understanding these reasons is the first step to avoiding the trap. Reason #1: The Failure to Qualify Properly Too often, qualifying is treated like a one-and-done activity. We qualify the opportunity against our ICP. We qualify the numbers, budget, timing, urgency, and whether we’re talking to a decision-maker with buying authority.  These are all quantifiable metrics that we can measure and check off our list.  But Ultra-High Performers take qualifying to the next level. Rather than making it a quick process, they understand that qualifying is never done. It’s an ongoing process of awareness that keeps you tethered to reality in every deal. And their top qualifier, once they’ve checked off the must-haves, is engagement. Are the stakeholders engaged? Are they leaning in? Are they matching your effort, answering questions, and working collaboratively with you? It’s okay that there are some stakeholders who may be naysayers. That’s normal in complex deals. But if you’ve got stakeholders who are enemies—people who are actively working against you—then your deal might be a bridge too far.  Engagement is my No. 1 qualifier. I’m constantly asking questions and giving stakeholders things to do to see whether or not they’re engaged. If they’re not engaged, I walk away because lack of engagement is a clear signal that you are not going to close the deal.  Reason #2: An Empty Pipeline This brings us to the second reason salespeople stay in bad deals—desperation born from an empty pipeline. On Friday, Dennis J. Walker, who is a benefits consultant with USI, posted something on LinkedIn that perfectly captures this dynamic. Here’s exactly what he wrote: Jeb Blount regularly states that you can’t be delusional about your pipe, your prospects, your efforts, etc and be successful as a salesperson. This week one of the larger deals in my pipe definitely didn’t progress the way I wanted- and it turns out one of the executives is what I call a “deal enemy” – he was actively working against me and my team. The last two meetings I’ve had with him tipped me off this could be the case; this week we had an incident that indicated he was actively working against us. Because my pipe is full? I can walk away from this (probably very bad) deal at a dysfunctional company and not worry about hitting my sales goal. With their current leadership, they’ll be a terrible client. Helping them will be painful. And I know I can help them with creativity, doing things differently, and giving them a lot of what they want and have at better pricing and higher quality. But I’m not freaking out. Because I have 15 other prospects, three that are advancing well, and about a dozen additional companies with buying windows later this year or early next. The Psychology of Pipeline Abundance When your pipeline is thin, every prospect feels like life or death, leading to poor decisions and desperate behavior. You cling to bad deals because they’re all you have. When you’re desperate, you get delusional. And when you get delusional, you lose perspective. You become unable to see the truth, so you keep working on a deal that’s never going to close—even though your intuition and everyone around one are telling you to walk away.  The Power to Walk Away from Bad Deals What strikes me most about Dennis’ story is the psychological shift that happens when you’re selling from a position of abundance versus scarcity. A robust sales pipeline is about more than numbers—it’s about the freedom to make better decisions.  When you invest in building a pipeline, if you’re prospecting every single day, if you’re out there talking with people—knocking on doors, picking up the phone, working LinkedIn, doing the hard work of filling your funnel—then when you get that Spidey sense that you should be walking away from a deal, it’s a lot easier to find the exit. It’s a lot easier to pull out of that deal because you know you have lots of other options. You gain clarity. You can see the situation for what it really is instead of what you desperately need it to be. How many of us have stayed in toxic sales situations simply because we didn’t have better options lined up? Whether you’re in sales, consulting, or running your own business, this principle applies universally. A strong pipeline helps you maintain your standards and allows you to focus on clients who truly value what you bring to the table. How to Recognize Bad Deal Warning Signs So what are the warning signs that you should be looking for? When should your internal alarm bells start going off? Lack of Engagement: Stakeholders aren’t returning calls promptly, they’re not asking questions, they’re not doing the homework you give them. They’re treating you like a vendor, not a partner. Internal Politics: You discover there are significant internal battles you weren’t aware of, or you realize you’re being used as leverage against an incumbent or preferred vendor. Moving Goalposts: Requirements keep changing, timelines keep shifting, and new stakeholders keep appearing who weren’t a part of the original process. Budget Issues: The budget that was “approved” suddenly needs “additional review,” or you’re being asked to match prices that seem unrealistically low. Decision-Making Dysfunction: The decision-making process is unclear, constantly changing, or involves people who refuse to meet with you. Your Gut: Sometimes you just know. That intuition, that Spidey sense—don’t ignore it. Your subconscious is picking up on signals your conscious mind hasn’t fully processed yet. Situational Awareness Matters in Sales Take a look at the deals you’re working on right now. If you’re working on an opportunity that everything inside you says is not going to close, if the people around you are telling you it’s not going to close, maybe it’s time to pick up your sticks and walk away. And if you don’t feel like you have the ability to walk away, perhaps it’s time to take a deeper, harder look at your pipeline and decide whether prospecting is your issue—not the fact that you’ve got bad deals in your pipe. Remember, in complex deals, situation awareness matters. You must always know where the exit is. And the best exit strategy is having so many options that walking away from bad deals becomes easy. Top sales pros don’t just know where the exit is, and they’re not afraid to use it. Hear more about how Ultra-High Performers sniff out bad deals on the Sales Gravy Podcast.