Sales Gravy: Jeb Blount

Your sales team just closed a $50K deal. Marketing takes credit because the prospect downloaded three whitepapers. Sales takes credit because they nurtured the relationship for six months. Meanwhile, you’re wondering why this kind of success feels so random—and why similar prospects are slipping away. Companies with misaligned sales and marketing teams waste more leads and see annual revenue decline. But businesses that achieve true alignment? They close more deals and grow revenue faster year-over-year. The difference isn’t talent, budget, or market conditions. It’s whether your marketing and sales teams are pulling in the same direction or accidentally sabotaging each other. Clashing Departments Can Crash Your Bottom Line The consequences of misalignment between sales and marketing are significant. One common side effect is sales teams complaining about the quality of leads generated by marketing, often dismissing them as “bad leads.”  Another issue is messaging. Marketing can be blind to the value propositions that are working for sales if they do not understand the sellers’ pitches and approach to closing deals. Their messaging is stale and ineffectual, completely disconnected from where sellers are finding success. When marketing and sales have different metrics or goals, it leads to a breakdown in communication and a lack of shared understanding. That misalignment hampers productivity, damaging morale and impacting your bottom line. Start With the Customer Journey The most important aspect that sales and marketing need to align on is the customer journey. This involves mapping out every touchpoint—from initial awareness to final purchase to customer retention.  Map the customer journey together—then act on it. This shared blueprint reveals exactly when prospects are ready for direct outreach versus when they need more nurturing. The payoff is immediate: Marketing delivers leads at peak readiness, while sales focuses their time on prospects most likely to convert. When both teams operate from the same customer journey map, handoffs become seamless and conversion rates climb. Tackle Sales Objections Together Every sales professional understands that the path to a closed deal is rarely a straight line. It’s often a zig-zag through questions, doubts, and hesitations from prospects. Marketing’s role is to help develop messaging and collateral assets that help the sales team deal with these objections. This includes essential resources like case studies, white papers, product demonstrations, and ROI calculators. With the support of marketing materials, sellers have the resources to back up their pitch, highlight benefits, and keep buyers engaged. Most teams fail to communicate. Marketing creates polished but generic materials that sales doesn’t know exist. Sales knows which objections are the hardest to overcome but doesn’t have specific collateral to counter them. The winning approach: Sales documents the top 5 objections that derail deals, complete with context about when and why they surface. Marketing then builds laser-focused tools to address these concerns. Think comparison sheets for “your competitor is cheaper,” implementation timelines for “this seems too complex,” or peer testimonials for “we’re not sure this works in our industry.” Close the loop: Sales reports back on which materials move deals forward and which fall flat. Marketing iterates based on real-world results. This feedback cycle shifts objection-handling from guesswork into a refined system that consistently converts hesitation into confidence. Get Sales and Marketing Aligned Now How can businesses foster a stronger cohesion between sales and marketing? Here are six key strategies: Establish Shared Goals and Metrics Sales and marketing should work together to define common objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs).  Action item: Schedule a joint planning session within the next 2 weeks to agree on 3-5 shared KPIs, such as the conversion rate from marketing qualified leads (MQLs) to sales qualified leads (SQLs). Foster Open Communication Regular communication is essential. Sales and marketing teams should meet frequently to share insights, discuss challenges, and provide feedback.  Action item: Institute weekly 30-minute alignment calls where sales shares feedback on lead quality and marketing reports on campaign performance. Develop a Unified Customer Journey Map Sales and marketing must collaborate to create a comprehensive map that outlines every touchpoint and identifies opportunities for engagement.  Action item: Schedule monthly journey-mapping sessions where both teams review touchpoint data, identify gaps, and agree on lead scoring criteria.  Create Consensus On Responsibilities Define the expectations and responsibilities of both sales and marketing. Outline lead qualification criteria, follow-up procedures, and other key processes to ensure clarity and accountability.  Action item: Document and get both teams to agree on what constitutes a qualified lead, response timeframes, and follow-up requirements. Embrace a Customer-Centric Approach When sales and marketing think alike, they can work together to deliver a seamless and consistent journey, building trust and loyalty.  Action item: Implement a monthly “customer journey audit” where one team member from sales and one from marketing jointly follow up with 3 customers who purchased in the last 90 days to identify friction points, unexpected value drivers, and missed opportunities in their buying experience, then present joint recommendations. Make the Choice to Change Start today with building the roadmap: shared goals, open communication, unified customer journeys, and collaborative objection-handling. The choice is clear. Continue operating with sales and marketing working separately or unite them into a revenue-generating machine. Learn more about uniting sales and marking, tackling objections, and skyrocketing your revenue by taking sales training courses through Sales Gravy University.

Here’s a question that’ll make your head spin: What do you do when your top performer is crushing quota but not hitting a required talk time KPI? That’s the question posed by Josh Robich and Josh Nelson from Nashville. Josh Nelson ranked 18th out of 130 reps in his first full year at a new company, but he was consistently falling short of the company’s sacred talk time metric of 3 hours per day, averaging only 2.5 hours instead. Meanwhile, his company is obsessed with using talk time as its primary KPI to measure sales effectiveness. If you’re shaking your head right now, you’re not alone. Obsessing over the talk time KPI rather than actual sales outcomes is one of the most backward approaches to sales management I see today, and it’s costing companies their best talent. The Moneyball Problem: When Metrics Become Religion Remember the movie Moneyball? Billy Beane revolutionized baseball by focusing on on-base percentage instead of traditional stats that looked impressive but didn’t correlate with winning games. He found a metric that predicted success. Talk time is the opposite of Moneyball. It’s a vanity metric that makes leaders feel like they’re managing performance when all they are really doing is measuring noise. Here’s the brutal truth: Talk time means absolutely nothing if it doesn’t drive revenue. It means nothing if the conversations are shallow, non-productive, or a poor buying experience. You can have reps talking for 4 hours a day who are dead last on your ranking report, while someone like Josh is closing deals left and right with only 2.5 hours of phone time. Which one would you rather have on your team? Why Talk Time Is a Lazy Leader’s Crutch The reason companies fixate on vanity metrics like talk time is because it’s easy. It requires zero investment in actual coaching, observation, or skill development. Think about it: It’s much easier to look at a dashboard and say, “You need to talk more,” than it is to actually listen to calls, analyze technique, and provide meaningful feedback on discovery questions, objection handling, or closing skills. But here’s what happens when you manage this way: You drive away your best performers and enable your worst ones. Your top performers get frustrated because they’re being penalized for efficiency. Your bottom performers get comfortable because they can hit their talk time numbers while producing nothing of value. What Actually Matters: KPIs That Move the Needle Instead of obsessing over how long reps are talking, and other vanity KPIs, smart sales leaders focus on outcome-driven metrics that actually correlate with sales performance and closing deals. First-Time Appointments How many new conversations is each rep having? In sales, FTAs are your Moneyball. If a rep isn’t setting enough first-time appointments, they are sub-optimizing their sales potential. Next Step Conversion Rates What percentage of first-time appointments convert to second appointments? This tells you everything about relationship building, discovery skills, and value articulation. If Josh is converting at a higher rate with less talk time, he’s simply more effective per conversation. Show Rates How many scheduled appointments actually happen? This reveals qualification skills, the ability to create urgency and commitment, and the quality of prospecting conversations. Pipeline Velocity How quickly are deals moving through your sales process? This shows you who’s truly building momentum versus who’s just having long conversations that stall deals in the pipeline. Revenue Per Hour The ultimate sales efficiency KPI is who is generating the most revenue per hour of phone time. Stop Obsessing Over the KPI and Start Coaching When you shift your focus to outcome metrics, everything changes. Instead of telling reps to “talk more,” you can provide specific, actionable coaching: For the rep who has great first-time appointment numbers but poor conversion rates: Focus on discovery questions, relationship building, and value articulation. For the rep with high talk time but low revenue: They’re probably becoming friends instead of salespeople. Coach them on advancing the sale and creating urgency. For the efficient closer like Josh: Analyze their process and see where small improvements could yield massive results. Maybe 10 more minutes per call to deepen discovery could move them from 18th to No. 1. The Process Makes the Difference Here’s what I loved about Josh’s situation: His mentor noted that Josh “literally follows the script” and holds up the paper saying, “It says it right here, so I do it.” That’s the power of a repeatable, proven process. While other reps with more talk time were struggling because they didn’t follow the system, Josh was winning because he had the discipline to execute consistently. This is pure Fanatical Prospecting in action: Success isn’t about working harder or longer—it’s about working the system with precision and discipline. The Balance Between Quality and Quantity Don’t misunderstand me—quality conversations absolutely matter. You don’t want reps burning through leads with transactional, 2-minute calls. But you also can’t let “quality” become an excuse for inefficiency. The sweet spot is having enough conversations to fill your pipeline while making each conversation count. Use talk time as one data point among many, not as your primary success metric. If someone has extremely low talk time (say, 1 hour per day) and poor conversion rates, they’re probably rushing through calls. If someone has extremely high talk time but poor results, they’re probably avoiding the hard parts of selling—like asking for the appointment or creating urgency. Your Action Plan: Making the Shift If you’re a sales leader: Audit your current metrics. What are you measuring, and does it correlate with revenue? Implement outcome-based KPIs. Track first-time appointments, conversion rates, and show rates alongside talk time. Invest in call coaching. Listen to your reps’ calls and provide specific feedback on technique, not just effort. Stop penalizing efficiency. If someone is hitting their numbers with less talk time, study their process instead of criticizing their hours. If you’re a sales rep: Self-coach relentlessly. Track your own ratios and identify where small improvements could yield big results. Follow your process religiously. Like Josh, have the discipline to execute your proven system consistently. Focus on effectiveness, not activity. Your job isn’t to clock hours—it’s to move deals forward with purpose. The Bottom Line Stop being a slave to lazy metrics. Talk time might feel like objective measurement, but it’s actually just noise disguised as data. The best sales organizations measure what matters: conversations that convert, relationships that advance, and revenue that compounds. That’s how you build a championship sales team. That’s how you develop elite performers. And that’s how you stop losing your best people to companies that understand what really drives results. Learn how to boost performance and retain top talent with practical strength-based coaching strategies.

If you are spending more time staring at your windshield instead of looking into your customers’ eyes, you are doing field sales wrong.  Over the past couple of years, there’s been a resurgence in field sales. Businesses everywhere are adding field salespeople and sending representatives out into the territory to meet with customers face-to-face.  And for good reason—human beings buy from human beings. The most powerful way to anchor relationships, solve problems, and sell more is to get in front of your customers. With AI creating so much noise in the system, it’s getting harder to prospect via email and social media. Going out and knocking on doors has become an easier way to connect with people, build relationships, and open up opportunities in your pipeline.  And the good news, at least for now, is that prospects are happy to see field sales pros and inviting them in to their businesses and homes.  But with the resurgence of outside sales comes an age-old problem: Field salespeople have got to travel to get to customers. And here’s the brutal reality—the single greatest waste of time for field sales professionals is staring at a windshield. On this Money Monday segment of the Sales Gravy Podcast I’m going to teach you exactly how to minimize windshield time and maximize face time. Because at the end of the day, you don’t get paid to drive. You get paid to sell. The Windshield Time Delusion Too many reps delude themselves into believing that driving from one place to another is “working.” Let’s get something straight: Driving is not an accomplishment. I don’t care if you put 100 miles on your vehicle in a day. That doesn’t mean you accomplished anything meaningful. It just means you drove from one place to the next, burning dinosaurs and wasting time. I see this all the time. Reps will drive to one customer, then drive all the way across their territory to another customer, instead of concentrating their work in a single geographic area.  They’ll dead-head out to an appointment, then drive all the way back to the office, passing up dozens of prospects they could have walked into along the way. Don’t confuse activity with productivity.  Just because you drove all over creation, that doesn’t mean you had a productive day.  Your job is to be in front of customers, not behind a steering wheel. Every minute you spend staring at your windshield is a minute you’re not building relationships, solving problems, putting new opportunities in the pipe or closing deals. The Mathematics of Effective Field Sales Territory Management  Let me put this in perspective with some simple math that will blow your mind. Let’s say you’re a typical field sales rep working in a moderate-sized territory. You make 5 customer visits per day, and between poor route planning and territory management, you spend an average of 45 minutes driving between each appointment. That’s 3 hours and 45 minutes of windshield time daily. Over a 5-day work week, that’s 18 hours and 45 minutes of non-productive driving time. That’s nearly half of your work week spent accomplishing absolutely nothing. Now, let’s say you tighten up your territory management and reduce that drive time to 20 minutes between appointments through better planning. You’re now down to 1 hour and 40 minutes of windshield time daily, or 8 hours and 20 minutes weekly. You just freed up more than 10 hours per week. That’s enough time for 15 to 20 additional customer visits or prospect calls. Over a month, that’s 60-80 more customer touchpoints. Over a year, that’s 720-960 additional opportunities to build relationships and generate revenue. The reps who figure out how to minimize windshield time don’t just have better work-life balance—they absolutely dominate their territories and blow past their quotas while their competitors are still driving around wastefully. Map Your Territory Into Quadrants This is why the first rule of field sales is getting your territory mapped, segmented, and planned to reduce drive time.  I remember when I started out in field sales that the first thing my sales manager, a guy named Bob Blackwell, did was sit down with me and help me map my territory into daily quadrants where I’d be working on specific days of the week.  He said if it’s Monday and you are in your Thursday quadrant, you better have a damn good reason.  At the time, I didn’t understand exactly what we were doing but soon it made sense. By concentrating my focus each day in a tighter geographic area I wasted less time and made a lot more money. It was a lesson I never forgot.  Start by printing out a map and grabbing a sharpie.  Monday might be the northeast quadrant. Tuesday, the southeast. Wednesday, the southwest. Thursday, the northwest. Friday could be your flex day for special situations or your highest-priority accounts regardless of location. Keep that map visible where you can see it.  The tighter your route planning, the more selling time you create and the less windshield time you waste. Yes, you will get off track from time to time. That’s the real world. But because you have built a set of tracks, when you get off, you’ll know where to get back on.  The Hub-and-Spoke Model Then use the hub-and-spoke model to maximize your time in each geographic area. It works like this: Once you have an appointment booked on your calendar, use your CRM and mapping tools to pre-plan and route five additional drop-ins or door swings around that appointment.  This will both increase the number of prospecting calls you make each day, and help you avoid the temptation to just head back to the office after your appointment.   The T-Calling Technique to Boost Prospecting Activity You’ll increase your productivity further with the practice of T-Calling.  As you walk into or out of those pre-planned prospecting calls, look to your left, look to your right, and look behind you, then knock on those doors, too.  Walk in. Introduce yourself. Build relationships. You’re already ther—you’ve already invested the windshield time to get to that location. Maximize your return on that investment. Think about it, with this methodology you can easily make an additional 10 to 15 additional prospecting touches after each scheduled appointment. It’s how you squeeze every ounce of productivity out of your sales day.  Stay on Track With Better Decisions Territory planning also helps you make better decisions about responding to customer requests.  If a customer calls on Tuesday needing help, rather than dropping everything and driving all the way to their location, assess whether it’s truly an emergency or if it can wait until you’re in that part of your territory on Thursday. Learn to say, “I’ll be in your area Thursday morning. Can I schedule some time with you then?” Most requests that feel urgent really aren’t. Don’t let poor planning by others derail your territory strategy. When you do need to leave one part of your territory to handle a high-priority customer, don’t dead-head straight back to your office or home base. Look left, look right, and look behind you to make additional calls in that immediate area before you leave. Make Drive Time Learning Time  No matter how well you plan, you’re still going to spend time behind the wheel. So here’s the critical question: When you’re driving between accounts, what’s coming through your speakers? Is it lifting you up, making you better, helping you make more money—or is it tearing you down? Top performers attend  Automobile University. Instead of listening to news or sports radio that usually puts you in a negative mindset, they’re listening to audiobooks, training courses, and business podcasts. The compound effect of consistently investing in yourself during windshield time is enormous.  If you spend just 60 minutes a day listening to educational content in your car while you are driving , that’s 5 hours per week, 20 hours per month, 240 hours per year of professional development.  That’s the equivalent of 6 full work weeks of training annually—just from your drive time.  When you’re always learning, you improve your skills, build stronger business acumen, stay current with industry trends, and develop a competitive edge over reps who waste their windshield time listening to talk radio. Most importantly, consistent learning maintains a stronger belief system and winning attitude. You arrive at each appointment energized and confident, instead of drained and negative. Territory Action Plan Here’s what I want you to do this week to transform your territory productivity: Step 1: Audit Your Current Windshield Time: For the next week, track exactly how much time you spend driving. Calculate the total hours you spend behind the wheel. I guarantee the number will shock you. Step 2: Map Your Territory into Quadrants: Get out a map or use Google Maps to divide your territory into logical geographic sections. Assign each section to specific days of the week and commit to staying in your designated areas except when absolutely necessary. Step 3: Plan Routes in Advance: Every evening or first thing each morning, use your CRM and mapping tools to plan your most efficient route through your designated quadrant. No more winging it. Step 4: Implement Hub and Spoke Planning: For every scheduled appointment, pre-plan five additional stops in that immediate area. Turn single appointments into territory blitzes. Step 5: Create Your Learning Playlist: Download 3 audiobooks, subscribe to 5 relevant podcasts, and enroll in at least 1 audio training course. Build your Automobile University curriculum. By the way, the new re-mastered audiobook version of my international best selling book Sales EQ was just released, so perhaps that might be one of your first choices.  Step 6: Track Your Progress Keep a log of time saved by staying in quadrants, what you’re learning during drive time, and how it’s impacting your performance. When you get off track—and you will—commit to getting right back on your plan. In Field Sales, Time is Money Remember, in field sales, time is literally money. Every minute you waste staring at your windshield is money out of your pocket. But every minute you invest in smart territory planning and continuous learning is an investment in your success. The field sales professionals who master territory management don’t just sell more—they work smarter, reduce stress, and create more time for the things that matter outside of work. Stop staring at your windshield and start looking into your customers’ eyes. That’s where the money is. And remember, when you’ve been out in the field all day, knocking on doors, and you are ready to quit and go home, always stop and make one more call.  Maximize drive time for learning by listening to Sales Gravy Audio Courses.

AI isn’t here to replace you; it’s here to boost your game. Used wisely, AI can be your secret weapon. AI is everywhere: in social selling, content creation, automation, to say the least. Here’s the double-edged sword: If you’re trying to outsource everything to AI, you won’t last. If you’re stuck in the old ways, refusing to adapt, you’ll get left behind. Top performers are integrating AI into their workflows to make their human skills even sharper. They know AI is the edge they need to rise above the competition. Where AI Actually Delivers Value Think about how much sales time you burn on necessary tasks that don’t drive revenue, like data entry and research. That’s where AI shines. It handles the repetitive work faster and more accurately than you ever could. Feed it your ideal customer profile, and  you can have a filtered list of prospects before you even finish your coffee. AI can analyze thousands of LinkedIn profiles in minutes to identify prospects who match your best customers’ characteristics. It can scrape company websites, news articles, and financial reports to give you conversation starters that actually matter. While you’re having one discovery call, AI can prep intel for your next five meetings. Consider email outreach. Instead of sending generic templates, AI can help personalize messages at scale using real company data—recent funding rounds, leadership changes, and industry challenges. All this results in open rates that don’t make you cringe and response rates that actually justify your time investment. Be Smart About How You Integrate The mistake most sales reps make is thinking AI means “set it and forget it.” That’s plain wrong. The winners are using AI as a research assistant, not a replacement for judgment. They’re feeding it context, reviewing its output, and adding the human insight that turns data into deals. The best use AI to identify patterns in their closed-won deals, then apply those insights to current opportunities. They analyze which messaging resonates with different buyer personas, then craft more targeted outreach. They’re not working harder; they’re leveraging better intelligence. Take objection handling. AI can analyze your call recordings to identify the most common pushback you’re getting, then help you develop stronger responses. It can even suggest which case studies or references would be most compelling for specific prospect types. It’s taking your experience and making it work for you at warp speed. What’s Coming Next for AI Wait until you see what’s on the docket for AI advancements: AI agents that anticipate what you need before you even ask.  What if your follow-up email was already drafted after a call, incorporating specific points from the conversation? Your proposal includes ROI calculations tailored to their business model, all generated from publicly available data about their company. AI will soon do more than respond to prompts; it will proactively support your sales process. It’ll flag when a deal is stalling based on engagement patterns. It’ll suggest the optimal time to follow up based on the prospect’s communication preferences. It’ll even coach you on your delivery by analyzing successful calls from top performers. That’s why the time to adopt is now. Don’t let AI’s growth outpace your own knowledge of how to use it. Stay on top of new systems and improvements. The Human Element Remains King But here’s what AI will never recognize: the moment in a sale when a prospect’s voice changes and you know they’re really interested. It doesn’t have the ability to read between the lines of what someone isn’t saying. It lacks the intuition that tells you to pivot your pitch mid-conversation because you’ve spotted a better angle. AI can’t build genuine rapport. It can’t adapt to the subtle cues that tell you someone’s ready to buy or needs more nurturing. It can’t handle the complex, nuanced objections that require empathy and creative problem-solving. These uniquely human skills become more valuable, not less, in an AI-enhanced world. The most successful salespeople will be those who use AI to eliminate the mundane so they can focus entirely on these high-value human interactions. They’ll show up to every conversation better prepared, with more relevant insights, and more time to actually listen. The Bottom Line Look, change is uncomfortable. You might be hesitant to shift your workflow, adopt new tools, or rethink how you sell. But the market won’t wait for you to feel ready. The time to start is now. Start small. Pick one area where you’re spending too much time on low-value tasks. Find an AI tool that addresses that specific area and test it for a month. Don’t let AI make you less human. AI can’t replace emotional intelligence, creativity, or the gut instinct you’ve developed from years in the field. But it can help you perform at your peak. It can make you faster, more focused, and more effective. So don’t fear it. Use it. Make AI your co-pilot. Let it handle the grunt work while you focus on the thing that actually closes deals: building genuine relationships. Stay curious; start experimenting. Keep the heart of your sales process with you, exactly where it belongs. 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.

If you’re in field sales, you know the reality: You spend hours every week sitting behind the windshield, staring at traffic that’s moving at the speed of molasses. Whether you’re dealing with Atlanta’s notorious I-285 parking lot or any other major city’s rush hour nightmare, that windshield time is either making you better or making you bitter. Recently on the Ask Jeb segment of the Sales Gravy podcast, Jacob Kimrey asked about helping his field sales team maximize their productivity while stuck in traffic. But here’s the thing—this advice isn’t just for managers to give their reps. It’s for YOU, the field rep, to take control of your own success. Let me tell you how to turn those frustrating hours in traffic into your secret weapon. Driving Isn’t an Accomplishment First, let’s get something straight: Driving is not an accomplishment. I don’t care if you put 200 miles on your car today—that doesn’t mean you accomplished anything meaningful for your business. Too many field reps confuse activity with productivity. They think that because they drove all over creation, they had a productive day. Wrong. The goal is to minimize your windshield time and maximize your face-to-face time. But when you ARE stuck in traffic, you better make damn sure you’re using that time to get better. Smart Territory Management Saves Windshield Time Before we talk about maximizing windshield time, let’s talk about minimizing it through smart territory planning. Map your territory into quadrants: Monday territory, Tuesday territory, Wednesday territory, Thursday territory, and Friday territory. If you’re supposed to be in your Monday quadrant but you’re driving to your Friday area, you better have a damn good reason. When you’re planning your field time: Group your appointments geographically: Don’t hopscotch all over your territory in one day. Plan your route in advance: Use your CRM to map out the most efficient route. Use the T-calling technique: When you arrive somewhere for an appointment, look left, look right, look behind you—can you make additional calls in that immediate area? The tighter your route planning, the more selling time you create and the less windshield time you waste. Prospecting from the Road (Safely) Now, here’s where it gets interesting. That windshield time can actually become prospecting time—if you do it safely and legally. There are apps and dialers that let you load phone numbers and dial hands-free while you’re stuck in traffic. You can also set up your phone so contact numbers are easily accessible with voice commands. Safety first: Only do this when you’re completely stopped in traffic or pulled over. Never compromise safety for a sales call. Hands-free follow-up calls: Use voice-to-text features to send follow-up messages to prospects or customers. Planning calls: Call ahead to confirm appointments or reschedule meetings. Customer check-ins: Those relationship-building calls that keep you top-of-mind with existing customers. The key is preparation. Have your call lists ready, know who you’re calling and why, and keep it simple and safe. Voice Technology Is Your Friend Today’s smartphones have incredible voice capabilities that field reps should be leveraging: Voice-to-text for quick CRM updates Voice memos to capture important thoughts or follow-up reminders Hands-free scheduling and calendar management Voice-activated research on prospects or companies Learn to use these tools, and you’ll be amazed how much more productive your windshield time becomes. Welcome to Automobile University The number one thing you should be doing while stuck in traffic is attending what the great Zig Ziglar called “Automobile University.” When you’re sitting in your car, staring at brake lights, what’s coming through your speakers? Is it the news (which will just make you angry)? Music (which won’t make you any money)? Or are you investing in content that makes you better at your job? Here’s your Automobile University curriculum: Sales audiobooks: There are hundreds of excellent sales books available in audio format. Start with the classics and work your way through modern sales methodology. Podcasts: The Sales Gravy podcast runs three days a week. That’s hours of free sales training every week. But don’t stop there—find other quality sales and business podcasts that challenge your thinking. Audio courses: We’ve created specific audio courses on Sales Gravy University designed for people exactly like you who spend time in their cars. Push a button and learn while you drive. Industry-specific content: Listen to podcasts and audiobooks specific to your industry. The more you understand your prospects’ world, the better conversations you’ll have. The Compound Effect of Automobile University Here’s what most reps don’t understand: The compound effect of consistently investing in yourself during windshield time is enormous. If you spend just 30 minutes a day listening to sales training content, that’s 2.5 hours per week, 10 hours per month, 120 hours per year of professional development. That’s the equivalent of three full work weeks of training annually—just from your commute time. Elite athletes in the business world constantly invest in themselves. We’re in skill positions. The better your skills, the better your results. When you’re always learning, you: Have better conversations with prospects Ask more insightful questions Think more strategically about your territory Stay current with industry trends Develop a competitive edge over reps who waste their windshield time Make It a Non-Negotiable Habit The difference between successful field reps and mediocre ones often comes down to how they use their “dead time.” Traffic jams are going to happen. Construction zones are unavoidable. Rush hour is inevitable. You can either let these situations frustrate you, or you can turn them into opportunities to get better. Make Automobile University a non-negotiable part of your daily routine. Every time you get in your car, something educational should be playing through those speakers. Your Windshield Time Action Plan Starting tomorrow: Audit your current windshield time habits: What are you listening to right now? Is it making you better or just killing time? Create your learning playlist: Download sales audiobooks, subscribe to relevant podcasts, sign up for audio courses. Plan your territory more efficiently: Map out your weekly quadrants and commit to staying in your designated areas. Set up hands-free prospecting tools: Research safe, legal ways to make calls from the road. Track your progress: Keep a log of what you’re learning and how it’s impacting your performance. Your competition is sitting in the same traffic you are, listening to music or complaining about their day. While they’re wasting time, you’ll be getting better, smarter, and more prepared for every sales conversation. Turn that windshield time into your competitive advantage. Your future self—and your bank account—will thank you. Ready to maximize your learning time? Check out Sales Gravy University for audio courses designed specifically for reps on the road.

Most value propositions stink. They’re boring, generic, feature-heavy garbage that make buyers’ eyes glaze over. And the worst part? Most salespeople don’t even realize their value proposition messaging is hurting them. On this week’s Sales Gravy Podcast, Lisa Dennis breaks down her process for building value propositions that actually work—the kind that grab buyers by the heart and don’t let go. But before we get to the solution, let’s talk about why most value propositions fail miserably. Reason #1: You’re Talking About Yourself, Not Them Here’s the fundamental problem with 90% of value propositions: They’re all about you. “We’re the industry leader with cutting-edge technology and award-winning customer service that delivers best-in-class solutions…” Blah, blah, blah.  Do you hear that sound? That’s the sound of your prospect mentally checking out. Here’s a hard truth about human nature: Nobody cares about you. They care about themselves. Every buyer wants to talk about their problems, their challenges, their goals, and their pain points. When you launch into your pitch about incredible features and market-leading capabilities, your buyer is silently thinking, “What does this mean for me?” And if you don’t answer that question immediately, you’ve lost them. Your value proposition isn’t a corporate brochure. It’s not a marketing slick. It’s the value-bridge between what you do and what they need.  If it’s a monologue about you, your company, and your product features you’ve lost the game before kickoff. What to do instead: Make your value proposition a laser-focused spotlight on them. Start with their problem, not your solution. Lead with their pain, not your product. Reason #2: You’re Using Generic, Meaningless Buzzwords Most value propositions include phrases like “industry leader,” “best-in-class,” “cutting-edge,” or “world-class customer service.” “We’re a one-stop shop with purpose-built solutions that increase efficiency and decrease costs.” Really? And I suppose your competitors specialize in decreasing efficiency and increasing costs? These phrases and buzzwords make you sound exactly like every other salesperson who’s ever walked through your prospect’s door: boring.  Here’s the brutal truth: If your competitor could copy and paste your value proposition and use it for their company, it’s not a value proposition—it’s forgettable noise. What to do instead: Get specific. Use numbers. Use their language, not yours. Instead of “increase efficiency,” say “reduce your monthly reporting time from 40 hours to 4 hours.” Instead of “industry leader,” show them exactly how you’re different and why that difference matters to them. Reason #3: You Haven’t Done Your Homework Most salespeople build their value propositions standing in their own shoes rather than those of their buyers. If you don’t know what keeps your prospects awake at 3 AM, if you don’t understand their specific challenges, and if you haven’t talked to real customers about why they bought from you (or didn’t), then your value proposition is built on sand. Guesswork rather than research. What to do instead: Talk to three groups of people and gain insight through their lens. Your Lovers: These are your raving fans. What do they say about you when you’re not in the room? What specific problem did you solve that made them heroes in their organization? Your Likers: These are satisfied customers who aren’t writing love letters about you. What almost made them choose your competitor? What reservations did they have? Your Haters: These are the tough conversations. The prospects who chose someone else or the customers who fired you. Why? What did they feel you were missing? This insight helps you shape your messaging so that it connects with the buying motivators of potential customers. How to Build a Value Prop That Actually Works Now that we’ve covered why most value propositions fail, let’s talk about how to build one that wins deals. Step 1: Start With Their Problem, Not Your Product Your value proposition should begin with their problem, not your product.  Here’s the formula: “For [specific type of customer] who [specific problem/challenge], [your company] provides [specific solution] that [specific, measurable benefit].” Step 2: Get Brutally Specific Vague value propositions are worthless. Don’t say you “increase efficiency”—say you “reduce month-end close time from 15 days to 3 days.” Don’t claim you’re the “industry leader”—prove it with specific, verifiable metrics. Step 3: Use Their Language Stop using your internal jargon and corporate-speak. Use the exact words your prospects use to describe their problems. If they say they’re “drowning in manual processes,” don’t translate that to “seeking automation solutions.” Use their words. Step 4: Prove It Every claim in your value proposition should be provable. Can a third party verify what you’re saying? Do you have case studies, testimonials, or data to back it up? If not, cut it out. Step 5: Make It Human People buy from people. Your value proposition can’t be purely clinical and business-focused. Acknowledge the human element. What does success look like for the individual making this decision? How will solving this problem make their life better? What Your Differentiators Should Actually Differentiate Your differentiators are proof points that you’re uniquely qualified to solve your prospect’s specific problem. Ask yourself: What can we do that competitors literally cannot do? Where are we measurably better than alternatives? What gaps do we fill that others leave open? If your “differentiator” could apply to any company in your industry, it’s table stakes rather than a true competitive edge. The Bottom Line Building an effective value proposition isn’t about clever wordsmithing or marketing magic. It’s about doing the hard work of truly understanding your buyers and then articulating—in their language—exactly how you solve their unique challenges better than anyone else. Most salespeople won’t do this work because it’s difficult and uncomfortable. They’d rather stick with generic, safe language that offends no one and excites no one. But if you’re willing to have the tough conversations, do the real research, and build a value proposition that’s genuinely focused on your buyers’ needs, you’ll gain a massive competitive advantage. Because while your competitors are still talking about their “industry-leading, best-in-class solutions,” you’ll be speaking your prospect’s language with a value proposition that compels them to engage and buy. Learn how to build buyer-centric value propositions that resonate, differentiate, and drive sales, using Lisa Dennis’ proven framework that transforms your messaging into a deal-winning asset. Check out her sales training course Value Propositions That Sell

Jon Buehler from Jacksonville asks: “How do you maintain the consistency and intensity with prospecting? I find myself doing these sprints to get momentum, but struggle to keep that momentum going for long, sustained periods of time.” Jon’s question gets to the heart of one of the most significant challenges in sales: maintaining disciplined, consistent, daily prospecting over the long haul. It’s a challenge that plagues even experienced sales professionals. In this Ask Jeb article and Sales Gravy Podcast, I dig into why this happens and how to fix it. The Prospecting Paradox Prospecting is the lifeblood of sales success, yet it’s the activity most salespeople hate and avoid. This creates a dangerous pattern I call the “desperation rollercoaster”—a cycle that wreaks havoc on your results, your mental health, and ultimately your career. Here’s how it works: You prospect hard for a while, fill your pipeline, and start closing deals. Life is good. Then you get busy servicing those new clients and tell yourself you’ve “earned a break” from prospecting. Your prospecting activity slows down or stops entirely. Fast forward 30-90 days, and suddenly your pipeline is dry. Panic sets in. Your manager is breathing down your neck. Your commission checks shrink. Only then do you rediscover your “motivation” to prospect. And the cycle repeats. Up and down. Feast and famine. This isn’t a strategy; it’s a recipe for burnout and inconsistent performance. The Hidden Costs of Inconsistent Prospecting The desperation rollercoaster creates damage far beyond just an empty pipeline. When you’re desperate for deals, everything about your sales approach deteriorates: You become pushy and pitchy instead of consultative You come across as desperate and insecure You focus exclusively on what YOU need, not what the PROSPECT needs Your discovery questions become shallow You skip crucial steps in your sales process You discount aggressively because you have no leverage Your negotiation and closing skills deteriorate In short, when you’re desperate for deals, you sell terribly. Inconsistent prospecting doesn’t just hurt your pipeline—it undermines your entire sales approach. The 30-Day Rule: Why Consistency Matters More Than Intensity In Fanatical Prospecting, I discuss the “30-Day Rule”: The prospecting you do in this 30-day period will pay off in the next 90 days. This rule explains why inconsistent prospecting is so dangerous. When you take even a single day off from prospecting, it creates a hole in your pipeline 30-90 days from now. Take a week off, and you create a significant gap. Take a month off, and you essentially guarantee a sales crisis in your near future. Understanding this principle makes it crystal clear why consistency trumps intensity every time. I’d rather see you make 20 prospecting calls every day for a month than 100 calls in a single day and nothing for the rest of the month. The Pain and Pull Method for Maintaining Motivation So how do you maintain your prospecting discipline when motivation inevitably fades? I use the “Pain and Pull” method. The Pain: Visualize the Consequences When I don’t feel like prospecting (and yes, even after decades in sales, I still have those days), I vividly picture what will happen if I skip it: The stress of an empty pipeline 60 days from now The uncomfortable conversation with my team The hit to my income and reputation The desperation that will undermine my sales approach By focusing on the pain I’ll experience in the future if I skip prospecting today, I create immediate motivation to pick up the phone. The Pull: Connect to Your Why My friend Victor Antonio calls this “the big pull,” connecting your daily prospecting discipline to your most important goals and aspirations. Nobody wakes up excited to make cold calls. But many people wake up excited about buying their dream home, sending their kids to college, or achieving financial independence. When prospecting feels hard, don’t focus on the calls. Focus on what those calls will create in your life. What’s on the other side of those dials that makes them worth doing? Is it the vacation you’re saving for? The home you want to buy? The financial security you’re building? The career advancement you’re pursuing? As I often say, the only thing that matters in prospecting is how bad you want it. Not how bad you want to prospect (no one wants that), but how bad you want what prospecting will give you. Building an Identity-Based Prospecting Habit Beyond motivation, the ultimate solution is to make prospecting a non-negotiable habit—something you do automatically without requiring willpower or motivation. James Clear’s excellent book Atomic Habits provides a framework for this approach. The key is shifting from outcome-based habits (“I need to make 20 calls today.”) to identity-based habits (“I am the kind of salesperson who prospects every day, no matter what”). When prospecting becomes part of your identity—something you simply do because it’s who you are—consistency becomes much easier to maintain. Here are some practical steps to build this habit: Schedule prospecting blocks early in your day – before distractions and fatigue set in Make it ridiculously easy to start – commit to just 5 calls to overcome initial resistance Create an environment that eliminates distractions – turn off notifications, close unnecessary tabs Track your activity religiously – what gets measured gets managed Celebrate small wins – reward yourself for consistency, not just outcomes The Bottom Line Prospecting is like rent; it’s due every single day. Your income, your confidence, and your future pipeline are paid for in advance with consistent daily activity. The next time you feel like skipping your call block, remember this: The salespeople who win are the ones who prospect when it’s inconvenient, when it’s uncomfortable, and when no one is watching. When you’re tired, when you’ve given everything you’ve got, and when you’re tempted to call it a day, make one more call. That’s where the difference between average and extraordinary happens. Because in the end, your success in sales isn’t determined by what you do occasionally. It’s determined by what you do consistently. Learn the keys to developing a Fanatical Prospecting Mindset in Jeb Blount’s course: Fanatical Prospecting Essentials

On Sunday, Scottie Scheffler won the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. Looking at the final scoreboard, his five-stroke victory seemed like total domination. But I was there on the ground, and what I saw wasn’t domination. It was something far more valuable for you as a sales professional and has everything to do with success. What I witnessed was a master class in mental resilience. And in this Sales Gravy podcast and article, I’m going to break down exactly how Scheffler’s approach to adversity can transform your sales results. The Brutal Grind Quail Hollow is beautiful, but make no mistake—this course has teeth. It chewed up and spit out many of the world’s best golfers without an ounce of remorse. Just ask Bryson DeChambeau, who on Saturday watched his lead evaporate on the “Green Mile” – the brutal final three holes of the course. Or ask Jon Rahm, who briefly held the lead on Sunday before plummeting to eighth place after getting absolutely bitten by those same closing holes. If you just looked at Scheffler’s final score, you’d think he cruised through effortlessly. But that’s not even close to what happened. It was a grind—every single hole, every single shot. Scheffler came into Sunday with a five-stroke cushion, but by the front nine, he had completely lost that lead. Let that sink in for a second. The world’s best golfer, playing his best golf all season, watched his commanding lead completely vanish. For most players, that would have been it. Game over. The spiral begins. The tournament slips away. But not for Scottie Scheffler. Bounce Back Percentage – The Key to Winning There’s one statistic from the tournament that explains everything – and it’s a metric that should become your new obsession as a sales professional. It’s called the “bounce-back percentage.” The bounce-back percentage measures how often a player makes a birdie or better immediately following a bogey or worse. In other words, how often do you recover from failure and immediately create success? For the entire field at Quail Hollow, the average bounce-back percentage was 17.4%. For Scottie Scheffler? An astonishing 62.5%. Think about what this means. When the average player faced adversity, they bounced back less than one time in five. But Scheffler? He transformed failure into immediate success more than three out of every five times. That is massive mental resilience. It’s the difference between holding a trophy and watching someone else hold it. It’s the difference between being number one in the world and being just another talented pro. And it’s absolutely the difference between sales mediocrity and sales excellence. Bounce-Back Matters in Sales So why am I talking about golf statistics on a sales podcast? Because the bounce-back percentage is the perfect analogy for what makes or breaks a sales career. I’ve got news for you—bad stuff is going to happen in your sales career. You’re going to fail, lose, and face adversity. That’s not a possibility—it’s a guarantee. You’re going to have situations where everything seemed perfect, and then the deal falls apart. Sometimes it’s your fault. Sometimes it’s not. Maybe the champion of your deal suddenly gets fired or leaves the company. Maybe a competitor swoops in at the last minute with a ridiculous offer. Maybe your prospect ghosts you after six months of work. Each day you’re going to run into situations when you’re prospecting where someone slams the phone in your ear, and then you’ve got to immediately turn around and make the next call. There will be days where nothing goes right and everyone says no. Your ability to bounce back doesn’t just influence your success – it defines who you are as a sales professional. It is the key to winning. Full stop. The Goldfish Paradigm  When I’m hiring salespeople, one of the things I’m measuring for is optimism. It’s essentially Ted Lasso’s goldfish paradigm—the ability to forget fast. On the show, Lasso asks his players:“You know what the happiest animal on Earth is? It’s a goldfish. You know why? It’s got a 10-second memory. Be a goldfish.” Being a “goldfish” is about letting go of mistakes, setbacks, or negative moments quickly—just like a goldfish forgets almost instantly. What You Think is What You Become If something bad happens to a pessimistic person, rather than forgetting, they believe something bad is going to happen again. Their mind starts spinning a story: “This always happens to me.” “I knew this wouldn’t work out.” “Nobody wants to talk to me today.” What you think is often what you become. When you dwell on negative outcomes, you invite more of them into your life. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that crushes your results. But optimistic people? They forget fast. They get a “no” and immediately think, “Great! My next ‘yes’ must be right around the corner.” That’s the definition of optimism in sales—the unshakable belief that success is just one more attempt away. Competitiveness is a Key Component of Bouncing Back Competitiveness is equally crucial. When competitors get knocked down, they don’t stay down. They get back up, and when they do, they’re not defeated—they’re fired up. They use that emotion, that drive, to propel themselves to win the next time. I see too many salespeople these days start a downward spiral after a single setback. It’s no different than what happens to amateur golfers on the course. You have one bad shot, which leads to another bad shot, which leads to a bad decision, which leads to another bad shot. Pretty soon, you’re ready to throw your clubs in the pond and call it a day. That spiral will kill your sales career faster than any market downturn or tough competitor ever could. How to Build Your Bounce Back Muscle So how do you build this mental resilience? How do you develop your bounce back muscle? I’ve got several strategies that have worked for me and for the top-performing sales professionals I’ve coached. 1. Create a Bounce-Back Routine The first key is having a specific bounce-back routine—a set of actions you take immediately after facing rejection or adversity. My sales bounce-back routine is different from my golf bounce-back routine. In sales, when something knocks me back, I often step away briefly and read a passage from a book I keep nearby. I deliberately put something positive into my mind to redirect my thinking. Sometimes it’s listening to a specific podcast or audio clip that I know will shift my mindset. The key is that I don’t leave my mental recovery to chance. I have a deliberate, planned response to adversity that I’ve practiced so many times it becomes automatic. What’s your bounce-back routine? If you don’t have one, create one today. Maybe it’s taking three deep breaths, saying a specific affirmation, or reviewing your biggest sales wins. Whatever it is, make it concrete and practice it until it becomes second nature. 2. Stay in the Present Moment One of the biggest killers of bounce-back ability is letting your mind drift away from the present moment. When something goes wrong, most people immediately do one of two things—they dwell on the past or they worry about the future. Dwelling on the past is pointless. You can’t change what’s already happened. Getting caught up in replaying the failure, the rejection, or the mistake only ensures you’ll bring that negative energy into your next interaction. Equally dangerous is projecting into the future, worrying about what might happen. “What if I never close another deal this month?” “What if my pipeline dries up?” “What if I miss quota again?” The only thing that’s real is the present moment. The only thing you can control is your next action. When I’m on the golf course and hit a bad shot, I remind myself to stay present. “This shot. This moment.” Then I refocus and execute. The same principle applies perfectly to sales. After a tough call, don’t ruminate. Reset. Focus only on the next call, the next conversation, the next opportunity. Nothing else matters. 3. Build Obstacle Immunity Through Exposure This is counterintuitive for many people, but the more adversity you face, the better you get at handling it. I call this “obstacle immunity.” Top performers don’t avoid difficult situations; they seek them out, knowing that each challenge strengthens their resilience muscle. Think of it like weight training. The resistance isn’t your enemy; it’s the very thing making you stronger. Make more prospecting calls than required. Have the tough conversations others avoid. Pursue the challenging deals others shy away from. Each time you face resistance and push through, you’re building your bounce-back capability. The salespeople who avoid discomfort to protect their egos are the same ones who crumble when inevitable challenges arise. They haven’t built their obstacle immunity. Scottie Scheffler hasn’t won all those tournaments because he’s never faced adversity. He’s won because he’s faced so much adversity that he’s developed immunity to its effects. 4. Master Your Self-Talk You’re talking to yourself all day long. The question is: What are you saying? Are you telling yourself you’re going to win or you’re going to lose? Are you feeding yourself excuses or solutions? Are you reinforcing resilience or fragility? If you watched coverage of the PGA Championship, you saw plenty of players have emotional meltdowns after bad shots. Remember Shane Lowry’s explosion? Those emotional outbursts might feel cathartic in the moment, but they rarely improve performance. Notice that Scheffler doesn’t have those explosions. He stays remarkably calm, even when things aren’t going his way. He’s mastered his self-talk. After a setback, he doesn’t tell himself a story about how unfair it is or how he’s losing his edge. He tells himself he has the ability to bounce back. He teaches his mind to believe it, and then he actualizes it. Your self-talk creates your reality in sales. Monitor it ruthlessly. Replace destructive narratives with empowering ones. Tell yourself you’re the kind of person who thrives under pressure and bounces back stronger after rejection. The Most Important Sales Metric That You’re Not Tracking At the end of the day, Scottie Scheffler is the PGA Champion and the number one golfer in the world not because he never faces adversity, but because he’s mastered the art of bouncing back from it. He’s a walking example of how to manage disruptive emotions, control your actions and reactions, maintain a winning mindset, and transform setbacks into comebacks. The sales profession will test your resilience every single day. There’s no escaping the challenges, the rejection, the unexpected obstacles. But like Scheffler, you can develop the mental toughness to not just survive those challenges, but to use them as fuel for your success. Your bounce-back percentage might be the most important sales metric you’re not tracking. Start today. Build that mental resilience. Watch your results transform. Remember, in both golf and sales, it’s not about avoiding the rough patches—it’s about how quickly and effectively you play your way out of them. Want more help to build your bounce back muscle and mental resilience? Check out Perform on the X. This brilliant on-demand course, from former Navy Seal Stephen Drum, teaches you Navy Seal tactics for performing at your best, in high-stakes situations, when everything is on the line.

Sales is a trust game. Always has been; always will be.  It’s not about features, price points, or flashy presentations. It’s about conviction. And conviction is born from trust: deep, unshakable trust across four critical fronts.  Ignore even one, and you’re leaving deals on the table. The First Deal You Close Every Day is YOU Before you ever make a cold call, send an email, or walk into a meeting, you’ve got to sell you to you.  Self-doubt is a silent killer. It creeps in, erodes confidence, and betrays you in your voice, your body language, and that split second when you hesitate to ask for the close. Top performers don’t have fewer fears—they just trust themselves to push through them. They build self-trust the hard way: doing the reps, facing objections, pushing through rejection until they’re bulletproof. Self-trust isn’t optional. It’s the launchpad for everything else you do. Trust in Your Product If you don’t believe in what you’re selling, neither will your prospect. Prospects can smell when you’re bluffing. They pick up on the hesitations, the weasel words, the way you tiptoe around weaknesses instead of confronting them head-on. When you know your product solves real problems—and you’ve seen it do so again and again—you sell with conviction. You don’t overpromise. You stop folding under pressure, and stop chasing price shoppers.  Trust in your product doesn’t mean it’s perfect. It means you know where it fits, what it does well, and who it helps—and you’re not afraid to walk away when it’s not the right match. Your Process is Your Competitive Edge Amateurs wing it. Top performers trust their process.  A rock-solid sales process is your roadmap to predictable success. It’s the framework that turns chaos into control. When you trust your process, you stop second-guessing yourself. You know exactly what to do next, even when prospects throw curveballs.  Your process should cover all parts of the sales cycle: prospecting, qualifying, handling objections, closing, and follow-up. Each step should be intentional and refined through experience.  Trust in your process gives you the courage to disqualify bad fits and the discipline to execute consistently.  Building Trust with Prospects: Where Deals Live or Die Prospects don’t buy from people they don’t trust. They buy from people who understand them, demonstrate competence, and follow through on every promise.  The 7 Trust Accelerators That Actually Work Prepare Like Your Career Depends On It: Before every interaction, know their business, industry challenges, and recent news. When you reference their Q3 earnings call or their CEO’s LinkedIn post, you show respect for their time and business. Lead with Insight, Not Pitches: Share something valuable they don’t know about their market, competitors, or opportunities. “I noticed companies in your space are struggling with X. Here’s what the successful ones are doing differently…” Ask Questions That Make Them Think: Skip the basic discovery questions. Ask: “If you could wave a magic wand and fix one thing about your current process, what would it be?” or “What’s the real cost of not solving this problem?” Admit What You Don’t Know: When stumped, say: “That’s a great question. I don’t have the answer right now, but I’ll find out and get back to you by tomorrow.” Then actually do it. Tell Them When You’re NOT a Fit: Nothing builds trust faster than saying: “Based on what you’ve told me, I don’t think we’re the right solution for you. Here’s who might be better…” They’ll remember your honesty. Share the Whole Truth About Implementation: Don’t sugarcoat. Tell them: “Here’s where clients typically hit speedbumps. Here’s how long it really takes. Here’s what you’ll need to invest beyond the price tag.” Follow Up with Value, Not Just “Checking In”: Every touch should add value. Send industry reports, introduce them to potential partners, share competitive intelligence. Make them glad they took your call. The Trust Killers to Avoid Talking Too Much: When you dominate the conversation, trust dies Rushing the Process: Pushing for a close before earning the right Breaking Small Promises: Missing a callback destroys credibility Faking Knowledge: Pretending to know something you don’t Being Unavailable After the Sale: Ghosting kills referrals How AI Influences Trust in Modern Sales Here’s the paradox: In an AI-powered sales world, your humanity becomes your biggest competitive advantage. Used strategically, it amplifies trust. Used carelessly, it destroys it.  AI as a Trust Builder Intelligent Research: AI helps you research prospects and tailor your approach. When you understand their specific challenges before the first call, you demonstrate preparation and respect. Consistent Follow-Through: AI ensures nothing falls through the cracks. Automated reminders, follow-up sequences, and activity tracking help you keep every promise. More Time for Relationships: By automating routine tasks, AI frees you to focus on meaningful conversations and strategic thinking. AI as a Trust Destroyer The Automation Trap: When every touchpoint feels robotic, relationships die. Use AI to enhance personalization, not replace it. Losing the Human Touch: When you let AI do all the talking, you become irrelevant. AI should amplify your voice, not replace it. Trust More, Sell More In a world of infinite options and instant information, trust becomes your only true differentiator. It’s the foundation of your career and the legacy you leave behind. Stop treating trust as a nice-to-have. Start treating it as your most valuable asset. Because people don’t buy what you sell. They buy who you are and how much they trust you to deliver. Do your customers trust you? In this 2-minute micro-bite, Cheryl Parks reveals the signs that your customer views you as a trusted advisor. 

Brian Kemski wants to know how to stop prospects from ghosting him. He asks a question that plagues salespeople everywhere: “What can I do about prospects who go through the process, seem interested, and then disappear into the witness protection program after I give them my information?” If you’ve been in sales for more than a week, you know exactly what Brian is talking about. You have a great discovery call, you build rapport, you send over your proposal or pricing…and suddenly—radio silence. The prospect ghosts you, leaving you frantically checking your email every five minutes and wondering what the hell happened. In this Ask Jeb episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, I’m going to teach you how to prevent it. You Gave Away Your Leverage for Free During our conversation, I asked Brian to consider what he’d do if I offered him $100 to go get me a Big Mac. He wasn’t interested. When I upped it to $200, he started considering it. At $500, he was ready to make the trip. Why? Because at $500, the value exchange made sense to him. Your sales information works exactly the same way. Your pricing, specs, and solutions have real value. When you hand them over without getting anything in return—especially before completing your sales process—you’re essentially giving away hundred-dollar bills for free. And once you give away all your value, the prospect has no more reason to talk to you. Understanding Power and Leverage in Sales In most sales situations, your prospect has more power than you do because they have more alternatives than you. They can choose your competitors or simply decide to do nothing. The only way to level the playing field is through leverage—something you have that they want because it provides value to them. It’s like that hurricane example I gave Brian: If there’s a hurricane in Miami, all the power is out, and you’re the only person selling ice, you have all the power because there are no other options. But in normal business situations, your prospect has plenty of options, which gives them power. Your information is the leverage that gets prospects to “dance to your tune.” Once you give that away without getting anything in return, you’ve surrendered all your power. Your Sales Process Should Be a Value Exchange Here’s what your sales process should look like instead: Use discovery calls to build value: Ask questions that help prospects think differently about their problems. Create insights they can’t get elsewhere. Meet multiple stakeholders: Insist on speaking with everyone involved in the decision. This builds relationships across the organization and prevents ghosting. Present your proposal in person: NEVER email a proposal. Your proposal meeting should be a closing meeting where you’re getting a yes or no. Look for engagement at every step: If prospects aren’t willing to invest time and effort in your process, they’re showing you they aren’t serious. Each step of your process should involve the prospect giving something (usually time and information) to get something from you. This creates what psychologists call the “investment effect”—the more effort people put into something, the more they value it. The RFP Trap The clearest example of giving away leverage is responding to RFPs without conditions. When you fill out all that information and send it without meeting the decision-makers, you’ll rarely hear back. My approach? “I’m not filling out all that information until you meet with me.” If they want your solution badly enough, they’ll meet. If they don’t, you’ve saved yourself hours of wasted time. I practice what I preach, but I’m not perfect. Just last November, I spent 12 hours on a proposal I knew had little chance of closing because I’d skipped steps in my own process. I gave away my leverage for free, and they ghosted me—exactly as I predicted they would. I have to relearn this lesson once or twice a year. Maybe you do too.= You Need the Power to Walk Away For this approach to work, you need a full pipeline. Because a full pipeline gives you more alternatives allowing you to walk away from prospects who won’t engage in your process. This is precisely why I’m so fanatical about prospecting. When your pipeline is full, you have options. You can afford to lose deals that were never going to close anyway. You can sell without selling. Look for the Warning Signs As you engage with prospects, watch for these warning signs of future ghosting: Unwillingness to introduce you to other stakeholders Reluctance to share budgets or timelines Resistance to following your sales process Lack of engagement in discovery conversations Pushing for pricing or proposals too early When you see these signs, address them directly: “I notice you’re hesitant to introduce me to your team. For us to create the right solution, I need to understand all stakeholders’ needs. Is there a reason you’re uncomfortable with that?” The Bottom Line on Ghosting Prospects ghost you when they’ve gotten what they wanted without having to commit to anything. The solution is simple but requires discipline: Don’t give away valuable information for free Insist that prospects follow your sales process Look for reciprocal investment at every stage Be willing to walk away when prospects won’t engage Keep your pipeline full so you can afford to lose bad deals Remember: What are prospects willing to do for your information? Hold the line on that question, and you’ll dramatically reduce the number of people who ghost you and disappear into the “witness protection program.” To learn more about how to avoid being ghosted take Jeb Blount’s course on Sales Gravy University: The Real Secrets to Avoiding Stalled Deals and Prospects Who Ghost You