Sales Gravy: Jeb Blount

Economic winter is coming. Storm clouds are brewing. And with it is going to be a recession. On this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount discusses why you need to prepare right now for the economic storm. This Time Will Be Different This recession will be different than anything we’ve recently experienced because we’ll also be dealing with inflation. There will be the potential for the long slog of stagflation in some some economies.  We are still going to have some supply chain issues and interest rates are going to be crazy. If you need to borrow money, it will be painful. There will be poverty and hunger. People who can’t afford the cost of energy will be shivering in the cold. In the midst of this economic downturn and disruption we’ll be dealing with war and the potential for a nuclear confrontation.  All you need to do is look at your news feed and it’s frightening. Get Right With Reality If you are a sales professional, the big question is what should you do to prepare for the storm right now?  Helping you to prepare is one of the key reasons I wrote my new book Selling In A Crisis. Sales professionals are always on the leading edge of the economy. We are going to get hit hardest by the economic storm and we’re the ones that are going lead the world out of this mess.  The most important thing you can do is to be right now. Focus on what you can control in the present.  You’ve got to get right with reality and reality is, winter is coming.  This Ain’t Easy Street It is not going to be easy. A few months ago your phone’s ringing off the hook today. Today, nobody is going to call you. Therefore, you are going to need to start hunting to find the money that’s still moving. And there’s always money moving. But it’s going to be a tough grind to find it.  Look around. Half the people that you work with right now won’t be here when we get to the end of this economic downturn. They won’t be willing to step up to the plate and do the hard work.   This ain’t easy street. That’s why you have to get right with reality. Right now and prepare to work harder.  Start With Right Now Actions What can you do right now to: get your mindset right? get connected to reality? let go of your need to find Easy Street? protect your income, family and career? invest in yourself? improve your sales skills? Rather than worrying, focus on the three things you can control. Your actions, reactions, and mindset.   In Selling In A Crisis Jeb gives you 55 easy to consume tips, techniques, and tactics that are time-tested and proven to help you stay on top when everything and everyone else is down.

Recession. Inflation. Stagflation. Stockmarket Free Fall. Energy Crisis. Supply Chain Crisis. Political Divisiveness.War. We are living and selling in a time of deep volatility. It is more challenging to close business, objections are harsher, and qualified buyers are becoming more scarce. On this special episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount delivers a powerful message about what it takes to outsell this crisis. You’ll learn why it pays to think like a squirrel, why rainmakers are already digging for ponies, and why you need to get right with reality and put your swimsuit on. Right now you have to be better than you ever were before, get back to the fundamental and basics, and stay out of buckets with crabs. In this podcast you’ll learn the truth about winning and selling in a crisis. In Selling In A Crisis Jeb gives you 55 easy to consume tips, techniques, and tactics that are time-tested and proven to help you stay on top when everything and everyone else is down. Read the first three chapters, FREE.

On this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount and Jennifer Smith, CEO of Scribe, give you tips and tactics for working smarter, dealing with repetitive tasks that slow you down, and getting more done in less time with better outcomes. You must protect your prime selling time at all costs. Time is your most precious resource. You cannot make more, add more, or find more. Do not allow it to be diluted by non-sales activities.  Time is the great equalizer. Every person on earth has exactly 24 hours each day. No more. The choices you make about how you invest your time, directly correlates to the sales outcomes you deliver.  Only 6 to 8 hours each day are available for sales activities, that is, prospecting, advancing pipeline opportunities, and closing. Your daily mission is to squeeze as much selling out of these Golden Hours as possible. Sales professionals who protect their prime selling time–the Golden Hours–will get ahead, stay ahead, and win while others lose.  Your most pressing challenge is keeping non-sales activities from interfering with your Golden Hours. This includes interruptions from customers who use you their Chief Problem Solver. When you make it easier for customers to help themselves, you’ll get more time back in your sales day for selling. Jennifer Smith is on a mission to help you protect your Golden Hours.  Try SCRIBE for free at: https://scribe.how/salesgravy with Promo Code – SALESGRAVY

Ever wondered how you can get the attention of that elusive prospect you’ve been chasing? You know the one. The big fish that is your ticket to President’s club a huge commission check. You know how to sell – that’s your job, after all – but getting CEOs and other VIPs to call you back is the tricky part. So what if that impossible-to-reach person weren’t so impossible to reach after all? Hall of fame-nominated marketer and Wall Street Journal cartoonist Stu Heinecke discovered that he could get past traditional gatekeepers and reach those elusive executives by thinking outside the box and using personalized approaches that he calls “contact campaigns”. On this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Fanatical Prospecting author Jeb Blount and Stu discuss creative ways to get meetings with anyone. You’ll learn that the secret is about being creative, thinking out of the box, demonstrating authenticity and sincerity, and having a little fun along the way. Get more meeting with effective Prospecting Sequences. Download our free how to guide here: https://salesgravy.com/seven-steps-prospecting-sequence-guide/

If you want to succeed at any job, make yourself invaluable. Go the extra mile; make them never be able to imagine what life without you there would be like. – Ross Mathews Selling in a crisis is tough. Losing your job during an economic downturn is worse. Now more than ever, you need your income. If you lose your job, there is a much higher probability that you will take a pay cut when you land your next one or end up in a role or company that you dislike.  No Mercy for Anchors The good news for you and sales professionals everywhere is that most organizations and their leaders are smart. They understand that in volatile times like this, they need productive salespeople more than ever. Businesses cannot survive without a steady stream of new sales and loyal customers.  The optimum word here is productive. In a recession, everything and everyone will be examined for its value. If you drain resources rather than generating sales and profits, you are gone. There is no mercy for anchors when the ship is sinking. How to Get Fired in a Crisis: Failure to prospect Low activity and productivity Lose customers Mediocre performance  Poor time management and organization Wasting resources Coasting along Quiet quitting Making excuses Surprising the boss with bad news Complaining Being difficult to work with The bottom line is, when your leadership team is faced with making decisions about sales force reductions, the dead wood gets cut first. Therefore you need to be indispensable to your boss and organization.  Excellence is a Choice Mediocrity, just like excellence, is a choice. Therefore, the most effective way to protect your job is to make the decision to be excellent. Here’s how you become indispensable and advance your career in a crisis: Get back to the basics Be fanatical about prospecting and fill your pipeline Sell better Retain your customers Contribute and be a team player Volunteer for projects and always offer to lend a hand Look for ways to add value Consistently ask the boss how you can help Come in early and stay late Give more effort Mentor struggling team members  Contribute in team meetings Attack the day with drive and optimism Be a beacon of light with your positive attitude Go the extra mile Change your way of thinking about work. Devote yourself to your company’s survival. Make a commitment to prove your worth to your boss, company, prospects, and customers every day. Be and become a person that your organization cannot live without. Going the Extra Mile  Going the extra mile is powerful in a world where mediocrity is the norm and most people won’t. These things may seem small, but in today’s world the majority of your competition fails in these obvious areas:  Showing up early for meetings and being prepared  Following up  Checking spelling and grammar on your emails and written documents Always looking, acting, and dressing like a professional Volunteering for special projects Coming in early and staying late Keeping your word  Doing more than is required Really listening to your prospects and looking for ways to solve their problems–regardless of the impact on your commission check  Taking personal responsibility to ensure that your support team follows through on their obligations  Telling the truth when you’ve made a mistake or cannot come through on a promise Constantly looking for ways to add value and do more A commitment to excellence in everything you do–even when no one is looking Being persistent and relentless Blocking your time and wading through a massive amount of rejection to find people who will buy from you At the end of the day, when you are exhausted, frustrated, and ready to quit, willing yourself to make one more call There are no traffic jams on the extra mile. When you are there, you will stand out and your career will flourish.  Jeb Blount’s NEW book Selling is a Crisis gives you the tactics and inspiration you need to stay motivated and increase sales in ant economy. Get it now on Amazon.

Putting Aside Time Every Day to Prospect Will Keep Your Pipeline Full Kaizen is a theory that developed in Japan after World War II and revived the country, their spirit, and their commerce. It’s similar to what we call “feeding the pipeline,” and involves the art of cumulative prospecting. If you set aside time every day for prospecting, you will find a steady flow of success and less stress! I recently posted a podcast of my discussion with Kristin Austin, where we talked about the importance of perseverance in life and sales and how you can apply the same theory of continuously moving forward to finding satisfaction and success in both. Japan was in ruins after World War II, and the nation had the task of cleaning up the devastation and overcoming the hopelessness and helplessness that had taken hold. A movement developed that is now a part of their national ideation to this day. It’s called “Kaizen,” and is similar to what Kristin and I discussed. What is Kaizen? Kaizen in Japanese means “a change for continuous improvement.” In this case, it’s a business philosophy rooted in making small progress every day to improve your life and find success. Kaizen is based on the idea that it isn’t so much about the grand changes and ideas that we have; change is found in the small steps that add up to large-scale and lasting habits that lead to success. After hitting rock bottom, the Japanese realized that thinking about the gravity of the destruction and what they had to do to overcome it could become paralyzing. The same is true of sales. The enormity of hitting quota, closing a big sale, and feeding the pipeline can be overwhelming. This can put many salespeople in a state of paralysis where they miss the methodical and gradual steps to get there. Why the Kaizen Theory is the Key to Cumulative Prospecting After Kristin was in an accident that permanently altered her life, she had the choice to either give up and retire, or take small steps to get back to her career, pick up the business she had built, and do what she loved again. It initially seemed like a daunting task, so she took minuscule steps, as she called them. One was picking up the Fanatical Prospecting book to gain inspiration. Then every day, she would do one small thing that would bring her closer to her goal. She didn’t try to set the world on fire; she set out to make one small daily improvement toward rebuilding her life. Kristin emphasized, “If you are moving in the right direction even slightly, you are moving, which differs from being paralyzed.” Kaizen and the Pipeline In the podcast, we also discussed the notion of “feeding the pipeline.” The mistake I often see salespeople make is that they fill the pipeline by prospecting up front, but once the sales start coming in, they stop feeding it. They’re on a roll, so they aren’t paying attention to the fact that their pipeline is emptying. And when they do notice, they recognize that nothing is coming down the pipeline because it has gone dry. That puts them in a situation where they become desperate and focus on closing the sale, rather than solving the problems that their clients are having and making an improvement in their lives. Keeping Your Pipeline Flowing with the Philosophy of Kaizen So the key to being successful in prospecting is not letting your pipeline run dry. Let’s face it: not many people enjoy cold-calling others and asking them to buy something they may or may not want. However, that’s not what pipelining is. Filling your pipeline means seeking out those people who not only need your product or service; it means finding the people who would most benefit from what you’re offering. When you change your mindset from closing to helping, you increase your satisfaction, decrease your stress, and stop feeling the weight of paralyzing stress. By taking one small and continuous step every day, or putting aside time to prospect for just one hour a day, you will improve your career, your life, and feed your pipeline so that you can prevent it from running dry. Believe me, we have all been there, and that is not a great or inspirational place to be. Every Day, Make One Small and Continuous Change That Will Lead to Cumulative Prospecting I had many takeaways from my sit-down with Kristin, but the theory of Kaizen and the pipeline are especially important – not just for your success as a salesperson, but for your continual growth and satisfaction in your professional and personal career. “Prospecting is one thing that you have to do that most people don’t want to. When you fill up your pipeline, it frees you up to do a better job. Setting aside an hour every morning for prospecting, which I call the ‘chop the wood,’ has a cumulative impact because it begins to build up like compound interest. The moment you begin to stop prospecting is the moment your pipeline runs dry. The fuller the pipeline, the pickier you can be about your prospects. A little bit every day is all that you need.” – Jeb Blount Jeb Blount’s book, Fanatical Prospecting, gives salespeople, sales leaders, entrepreneurs, and executives a practical, eye-opening guide. It outlines the most important activity in sales and business development – prospecting. Download our free Fanatical Prospecting Book Club Guide HERE.

“Life is short. Hug the people that you love and make sure that they know you love them without hesitation. Anything can happen to anyone, at any time. We all live with this concept that we are safe if we can control everything, but sometimes the Universe has different plans. That applies to sales too. Sometimes you think you have a sale in the bag and it all falls apart without anything that you have done. You have to roll with it and keep on keeping on.” – Kristen Austin When Kristin Austin was hit by a car, her world fell apart. On this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast she shares how she climbed out of a deep hole to resurrect her business and life, one prospecting call at a time. There is no doubt that we all find ourselves hitting roadblocks that seem impossible to overcome. If you are in that situation, Kristin’s story is sure to inspire you to take action and get past whatever is holding you back. You’ll learn how to get back up when life knocks you down. Life Knocks Kristen Down Kristin Austin was hit by a vehicle in May 2018. After regaining consciousness, she began two-years of recovery. This required her to rebuild her life from the ground up.  Kristin owned a business for over ten years that was rooted in marketing and sales; she was a university instructor, a wife, and a mother – and suddenly it all stopped. She was forced to put things in place to keep her business running in her absence and focus on the basics of relearning how to be Kristin. Kristen Gets Back Up Forced to stay home and slow her pace, she decided to go back to the basics. Her mission was to get out of her own head and figure out how to get back to the life she left behind out of necessity. The Fanatical Prospecting Book awakened her spirit because it put her back into a mindset of figuring out a plan about what she had to do, how she was going to do it, and how to get back out there. Throughout her life, Kristin was a salesperson, starting early as a child selling watermelon on Bondi Beach, and moving on to ultimately being a pharmaceutical rep. The message from Fanatical Prospecting that inspired Kristin was, “If you do the work, the sales gods will reward you.” Once she read that phrase, she immediately got onto LinkedIn and posted about it. And the same day, people responded by coming out of the woodwork to inspire her with words of encouragement to get back up and do what she did best: SELL.  The More You Prospecting, The Luckier You Get At her lowest, Kristen stuck in her house recovering, feeling worthless, insecure, and shut down. Then the pandemic presented a surprise opportunity when Kristin took over as head of sales with a new company. There was still the negative self-talk and insecurity. She focused an important lesson from Fanatical Prospecting: “The more you prospect, the luckier you get.” This inspired her to keep moving forward.  Some days were really hard, and others were like shooting fish in a barrel – but above all, she was back in the game and this gave her life purpose. Put in the Work Kristen’s story teaches us that when life knocks you down, you can get back up. You just have to put in the work. We can all become paralyzed with fear, negativity, and hopelessness – but the trick is to move forward. Kristin, even at her lowest, found the faith to know that if you continue trudging ahead, things will change. “Nothing happens until you move. Nothing happens until someone sells something. The big lesson I learned is that you have to do something. If what you are currently doing isn’t working, then do something else. Don’t keep doing the same old thing.” When Kristin hit rock-bottom, she turned to Sales Gravy University, knowing that it might be a small step to go back to the basics, but it was a step nonetheless. If things weren’t converting on a daily basis, she had to take a breath and not freak out. Kristin developed the faith to believe that as long as she was moving forward, opportunities would convert – and they did. If you do the right things consistently, a little bit every day, you are going to win. To learn more about Sales Gravy University go to https://learn.salesgravy.com

Are you willing to do whatever it takes to reach your goals and dreams, build your business, climb the sales leaderboard at your company, or bounce back from failure? Lot’s of people have dreams but few actually grind it out and turn those dreams into reality. The good news is that you can defy the odds to get everything that you want in business and in life if you are willing to do whatever it takes. On this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount and Brandon Bornancin dive into what it really means to be willing to do what ever it takes. No matter who you are or where you come from, your education, or your network, you can create the life you want and build the business you’ve only dreamed about. Brandon’s journey is all the proof you need. He graduated college flat broke. He started a business that was an epic failure. Then he turned it all around – before he was 30 – closing over $100 million in sales for Google and IBM and founding two multimillion-dollar companies, the second named “LinkedIn’s Top 50 Startups.” How did he do it? By doing Whatever It Takes. Listen above or watch the video below: Download a free chapter of Jeb Blount’s brand new book Selling the Price Increase here: https://salesgravy.com/selling-the-price-increase-free/

On this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast Jeb Blount, Jr sits down with author Andy Paul to discuss what it means to Sell Without Selling Out. Together they discuss why it is so important to make selling more human. You’ll learn that persuasion is not a sales skill. Instead it is a blunt instrument of last resort that sellers use when they don’t know how to influence the choices buyers make. Get a leg up on your sales career with our free sales training resources. Check them out here: https://salesgravy.com/resources/

Video messaging is hot and it is a core component of effective prospecting sequences because it works! At Sales Gravy we love using video messages to grab the attention of prospects. Our favorite tool for sending those messages is Vidyard. That’s why we were thrilled when Vidyard CEO and Co-Founder, Michael Litt agreed to sit down with Jeb Blount, Jr. on the Sales Gravy Podcast to discuss the future of video messaging. If you are the kind of person that likes to be on the leading edge of sales technology and techniques, you will love this episode!