Sales Gravy: Jeb Blount

Here’s a question that keeps salespeople up at night: How do you ask for more compensation when you’re getting competitive external job offers without sounding like you’re issuing an ultimatum? That’s the question posed by Brady from Arkansas. Brady’s been getting legitimate job offers from recruiters, and he’s wondering how to leverage these opportunities into better compensation at his current company without burning bridges or coming across as disloyal. If you’ve ever found yourself in this position, you know it’s a delicate dance. You want to be paid what you’re worth, but you also don’t want to destroy the relationships and goodwill you’ve built. So how do you navigate this conversation? The Right Way to Have the Conversation If you’re getting external job offers from legitimate companies with strong brands, the key is in how you frame the conversation with your boss. Here’s the approach: “I really like working here, and I want to stay at this company. I love it. But I’ve got another company out there that’s a good company. They’re a great brand, they’re well known, and they’re making this job offer to me at a significantly higher level of compensation. It’s hard for me to say no to that. I feel like I need to bring this to you before I make a decision because I like working here.” Notice what you’re NOT saying. You’re not walking in with an ultimatum saying, “If you don’t give me this, I’m leaving.” Instead, you’re saying, “I want to stay here. I like it here. I’m just in a situation where they’re offering me enough that it’s turning my head and I’m looking their way.” This approach keeps the door open for a productive conversation about what might be possible without threatening your current employer or damaging your relationship. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDppNt7jRsc When Loyalty Actually Matters Now, before you go schedule that meeting with your boss, you need to ask yourself a hard question: Do you owe this company some loyalty? If you were down on your luck, lost a job, and they came along and gave you something that saved you, you probably owe them some loyalty for that. Not forever, but there’s a little bit of honor in not just jumping to the next place immediately. You also need to think about your resume. If you’ve just got there and a year later you’re jumping to another place, that’s on your resume. And believe it or not, even in today’s world, that still means something. I won’t hire people who jump from job to job every year. I don’t care how good they are because they’re probably going to jump again. So think long term: Am I demonstrating to a future employer that I’m worth investing more money in? The answer is yes when you gave them three years of your life, performed at a really high level, and now you’re going to leverage that to go level up elsewhere. Speaking Your Boss’s Language Here’s what most salespeople get wrong when asking for more money: They forget to speak the language their boss understands. If you walk into your sales leader’s office and say, “I want to make more money,” you know what they’re going to tell you? “Go sell more.” And they’re right. If you’ve got a great compensation plan with no limit on how much commission you can make, the answer is simple: crank out more sales. So before you ask for more base salary, ask yourself: Do I have a limit on how much commission I can make? If the answer is no, then your first conversation should be about getting bigger opportunities. Try this approach: “I can sell. I’m hitting numbers, but I’m not making the money I want. What can you do to give me bigger accounts, bigger opportunities, bigger customers? Give me better leads. What can you do to get me in a situation where I can earn more?” This is speaking the boss’s language. You’re showing that you want to produce more, not just get paid more for the same work. If you get shut down in that situation, then you have another conversation. The Commission vs. Base Salary Play If you’re a baller and you’ve proven you can sell, here’s a move most salespeople never consider when negotiating compensation: Ask for a higher commission percentage instead of a higher base salary. I honestly don’t care about base. I think a base matters when you’re getting started, and it’s nice to have, but I would much rather have a higher commission percentage than a higher base. Here’s how you position it: “In the open market, I can take a similar job and make $400,000. I want to make the same thing here. Now there’s two ways we could do this. One is that you can increase my base salary. Two is you give me a higher commission rate, and I think the commission rate should be this. I think I’m worth that.” What you’re basically saying is that your cost of sales is going to be variable. They only pay you if you sell it, so their carrying costs stay the same. In my company, the people who don’t take a base salary make more than double in commission what people who do take a base salary bring home. There’s a massive difference because the people saying “pay me more commission” are saying “I’m willing to put skin in the game in order to make more.” Now, this doesn’t work if you’re at a massive company with a thousand salespeople and rigid HR policies. But if you work for a smaller organization where people can make decisions, have an honest conversation around this approach. You might even propose a tiered structure: “You can pay me your base commission on everything up to the quota you gave me. But once I cross that quota, I want my commission to roll up so that if I get over this number, the rate scales.” That’s a conversation most entrepreneurial leaders will entertain because it’s putting your money where your mouth is. What Money Can’t Buy Here’s the thing most people miss when they’re chasing the next big paycheck: There’s always money out there you can chase. You have an obligation to yourself and your family to make as much as you possibly can in sales. But there’s also the value of working in a place that values you. There’s more than just the money. There’s the freedom, the flexibility, and the opportunity to be part of something that gives you purpose. I had somebody come to me recently and ask this question, and I said, “This job that you’re moving to that’s going to pay you all this money, suddenly you’re going to have someone who’s micromanaging and telling you what to do every single day. In your current role, you’re not making as much money, but you call the shots on your day every single day. Nobody even messes with you. Are you willing to sign up for that?” They said their wife told them the exact same thing. Maybe that’s a sign that having the freedom and flexibility is more valuable than making a lot of money but being miserable because everything you do is being micromanaged. The Bottom Line When it’s time to ask for more money, remember these principles: Bring the conversation to your boss before making a decision. Frame it as wanting to stay, not threatening to leave. Consider what you owe in loyalty. If they gave you a chance when you needed one, factor that into your decision. Speak your boss’s language. Ask for bigger opportunities before asking for more base pay. Consider the commission play. If you’re confident in your abilities, asking for higher commission rates can be more lucrative than base salary increases when looking at total compensation. Weigh the intangibles. Money isn’t everything if you’re trading freedom and fulfillment for a micromanaged existence. The best compensation conversations happen when you approach them with confidence, gratitude, and a clear understanding of your value. That’s how you get paid what you’re worth without burning bridges along the way. Want to learn more about leveraging your personal brand to create more career opportunities? Check out Jeb’s newest book, The LinkedIn Edge, and discover how to turn your LinkedIn profile into a powerful career and sales tool.

Is your sales strategy built around how buyers should behave—or how they actually behave?Imagine walking into a store and seeing a shirt for $50. Fine. Unremarkable. You might buy it, you might not.Now imagine seeing that same shirt with a tag that reads: $100 NOW $50. Suddenly, you’re interested. You found a deal. You beat the system. You’re a hero.Same price. Same shirt. Completely different emotional response.That psychological gap between logic and emotion cost JCPenney roughly $1 billion and offers one of the most important lessons in sales psychology you’ll ever learn: people don’t buy with logic—they buy with emotion and justify with logic later.The Fair and Square DisasterIn 2012, JCPenney hired Ron Johnson as CEO. Johnson was a retail rock star, the architect behind Apple Store’s legendary success. He walked into JCPenney and saw chaos: endless coupons, manufactured “original prices,” and constant sales cycles.His solution? Kill it all.Johnson launched “Fair and Square”—a radically transparent pricing model. No games. No coupons. No inflated prices marked down. Just one everyday low price on everything.That $100 shirt marked down to $50? Now it was simply $50. Honest. Logical. Clean.The market’s response was brutal. Within one year, sales dropped 25%. The company lost nearly $1 billion. Stock price went into freefall. Johnson was fired.What Johnson Got Wrong About Sales PsychologyJohnson made a catastrophic assumption: he believed customers were rational economic actors who would reward transparency and honesty.He was dead wrong.For decades, JCPenney’s customers had been playing a game. They clipped coupons, timed sales, scrutinized flyers, and planned shopping trips around promotions. The weekly coupon wasn’t just a discount—it was a ritual. Their insider advantage, their badge of savvy shopping honor.Johnson stripped away their emotional satisfaction and replaced it with sterile efficiency.Without the “$100 now $50” comparison, the flat $50 price lost all psychological weight. No thrill. No victory. No story to share. Same price. Different feeling.The Sales Psychology Principle You’re IgnoringLoss aversion is twice as powerful as gain motivation.Your prospects don’t just want to gain something—they want to feel like they won, like they’re in control, like they made a smart decision that will impress their boss.When you strip away their buying process, when you force them into your “more efficient” workflow without their input, they don’t see the gain. They experience loss. You’ve taken away their control, their ritual, their power, their role as the hero.In sales, that feeling is deadly.Your Customers Have Rituals TooThink about your best accounts. What do they actually value?It’s probably not your features or your ROI calculator.It’s the rep they’ve worked with for years. It’s the quarterly business review they rely on. It’s the reporting cadence that makes them look good internally. It’s the buying process that lets them feel competent and in control.That’s their ritual.When you try to “streamline” their process, when you push them toward a different point of contact, when you change the reporting structure they trust—you’re doing exactly what Ron Johnson did.You’re selling logic when they’re buying a feeling.Stop Leading With Features and BenefitsMost salespeople lose deals before they even start because they lead with logical arguments:“Our platform reduces processing time by 40%.”“We integrate with 200+ systems.”“Our customer support response time is under 2 hours.”All logical. All true. All useless if your buyer doesn’t feel something first.Your prospect doesn’t wake up excited about efficiency gains. They wake up stressed about looking good in front of their VP, avoiding mistakes, and maintaining control of their budget.Research is clear: emotional decisions get made first, then logic comes in to justify them.Your job isn’t to build a logical case. Your job is to help your buyer feel like a hero, then give them the logical ammunition to defend that emotional decision internally.How to Apply This Starting TodayIdentify Their RitualsWatch how your customers actually operate. Do they need three stakeholders in every meeting? Do they always loop in procurement at a specific stage? Do they have a preferred communication cadence?Don’t fight it. Work with it. Their process is their psychological anchor for stability.Frame the Win They Can OwnFrame your solution so the customer feels in control and gets the credit.Instead of: “Our platform will solve your problem.”Try: “This approach could help you demonstrate a 30% cost reduction in Q2—giving your team clear wins to share with leadership.”Make them the hero of their own story.Highlight Emotional Outcomes, Not Just Logical OnesDon’t just talk about what your product does. Talk about how it makes them feel.“You’ll have complete visibility so you’re never caught off guard in executive meetings.”“Your team will finally have the data they need to look proactive instead of reactive.”“You’ll be the person who solved the problem everyone else said was impossible.”Guide, Don’t ForceLead your prospects toward better outcomes without stripping away their sense of control.Instead of forcing a complete switch to your system, collaborate on how your solution enhances their existing trusted process. Make them feel like a collaborator, not a passenger.The TakeawayRon Johnson wasn’t wrong that consumers should prefer transparent, honest pricing. He wasn’t wrong that the coupon game was exhausting and complicated.He was wrong about what people actually buy.They buy feelings. Control. Victory. Status. The story they tell themselves about being smart.Your prospects are no different. They’re not buying your SaaS platform, your consulting services, or your enterprise solution. They’re buying the feeling of being competent, in control, and successful.The difference between average salespeople and top performers isn’t product knowledge or work ethic. It’s understanding the sales psychology behind how buyers actually make decisions.When you appeal to emotion first and back it up with logic second, you stop losing deals to “no decision” and start winning consistently.Because at the end of the day, sales isn’t about having the best product. It’s about making your customer feel like they made the best decision.Ready to master buyer psychology and close more deals? Download the ACED Buyer Style Playbook and discover how to match your sales approach to the four core buyer personalities. Stop selling logic. Start selling the way your customers actually buy.

How Do Top Performers Stay Motivated When Sales Gets Hard?You know the feeling when you close a big deal.The rush. The quiet satisfaction of updating your pipeline. Maybe a quick high-five with your manager.And then, almost immediately, it fades.You’re back to cold calls that go unanswered, emails that disappear into inboxes, and prospects who promised they were interested suddenly going silent. In sales, rejection isn’t a side effect of the job. It is the job.That reality is exactly why most people don’t last in sales. And it’s why the people who do last tend to get paid very well.Over the past quarter, we talked with some of the most consistent sales leaders in the business. Here are four moments from the Sales Gravy Podcast that reveal how top performers stay motivated and close more deals, even when the work feels heavy.Find Your Carrot and Make It SpecificWill Frattini, VP of Sales at ZoomInfo, keeps a small Christmas ornament on his desk. His daughter gave it to him when she was five.That ornament is his carrot.During a recent podcast conversation, Will explained that when sales gets hard, that ornament reminds him exactly why he keeps pushing. Not in an abstract or inspirational-poster way, but in a deeply personal one. It represents his family, his responsibility, and the future he’s building for them.That distinction matters.Many salespeople say they’re motivated by family, freedom, or financial security. Those values are real, but on their own, they’re often too broad to sustain sales motivation during a brutal stretch of rejection. When you’re fifty dials deep with no connects and another demo just canceled, vague motivation doesn’t hold up.Will doesn’t just think “my family.” He sees a moment, a memory, and a tangible reminder of what’s at stake. That specificity gives his motivation weight.Top performers anchor their sales motivation to something concrete and emotionally charged. A down payment they want to make by a certain date. A trip they want to take without checking their bank account. A milestone that matters beyond quota.The more specific the carrot, the more powerful it becomes when sales gets hard.How to define yours:Write down one specific outcome you want to achieve in the next six months. Not “hit quota,” but the real-world result that quota enables. A number. A purchase. An experience. Put it somewhere you’ll see it every day.Work With Customers Who Actually Value YouOne of the fastest ways to drain sales motivation is closing deals with customers who make you miserable.On an episode of Ask Jeb, Jeb broke down how companies grow faster by focusing on the right customers, not just more customers. When you’re behind on quota late in the year, it’s tempting to take anything that looks like revenue. Any company that shows interest. Any prospect willing to meet. You convince yourself that a deal is a deal.Then January arrives.That customer floods your team with support tickets, questions every invoice, demands exceptions, and slowly erodes the satisfaction of the win you celebrated just weeks earlier.Consistent performers learn to protect their energy. They get ruthless about fit. Not just company size or industry, but values.They ask questions like, “What do you value most in a partner?” and they listen carefully to the answer. Some buyers want constant responsiveness. Others value expert perspective and challenge. Some want efficiency and minimal interaction.None of those preferences are wrong. But only one aligns with how you actually sell.When sales gets hard, motivation comes easier when you’re pursuing customers who respect your approach instead of fighting it.How to clarify your ideal customer:Look at your three favorite customers. The ones your entire team enjoys working with. What do they share beyond surface-level traits? How did they behave during the buying process? Those patterns matter more than any firmographic filter.Slow Down Before You Create Your Own ProblemsWhen pressure builds, speed starts to feel productive. You rush contracts. You promise timelines without checking internally. You say yes to custom requirements because slowing down feels risky.On an episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount, Jr. shared one of the most painful stories we heard this year. A $1.4 million deal with a pediatrics practice unraveled after someone rushed the process and placed the client into an early adopter program without a test environment. The result was catastrophic. The client’s live system crashed, HIPAA was violated, and the company lost not only the deal but $600,000 in annual recurring revenue.Top performers understand something most reps learn the hard way: smooth is fast.They build guardrails around high-risk moments. Before sending a contract, they align internally. Before committing to timelines, they check with the people who actually do the work.Slowing down at the right moments builds trust. It prevents chaos. And it preserves sales motivation by keeping you from spending the next quarter cleaning up mistakes made under pressure.How to build a slowdown system:Identify the three points in your sales process where you tend to rush. Proposals, negotiations, technical commitments. Create a short checklist for each and make it mandatory.Use AI to Think Faster, Not to Stop ThinkingSales demands constant context switching. Pipeline reviews. Prospect research. Discovery prep. Follow-up. Objection handling. The mental load adds up quickly.Victor Antonio recently shared an example of a window company using vision AI to diagnose broken window seals from photos. Instead of sending a technician, customers submit an image. The system verifies the issue, checks inventory, confirms warranty status, and schedules service automatically.AI hasn’t changed what strong salespeople do. It’s changed how quickly they get to the work that actually matters.Top performers use AI to handle tasks that drain energy but don’t require judgment. Research summaries. Organizing notes. Drafting frameworks. That speed preserves mental bandwidth for conversations, strategy, and relationship building.Used correctly, AI supports sales motivation by reducing friction, not replacing effort.How to use AI without dulling your edge:List the tasks you repeat weekly that consume time but not insight. Let AI handle those. Keep anything involving trust, nuance, or decision-making firmly in your hands.Why This Matters for Sales MotivationSales has always been hard. Cold calling was hard decades ago, and it’s still hard today. You still have to find people, start conversations, build trust, and ask for commitments.What separates average reps from consistent performers isn’t resilience alone. It’s structure.Top performers know exactly what they’re chasing and why it matters. They protect themselves from bad-fit customers. They slow down when it counts. And they use tools strategically to preserve energy for selling.They still get rejected. They still lose deals. They still have months where nothing goes right.But they don’t drift. They don’t panic. And they don’t quit when the work gets uncomfortable.That discipline is what sustains sales motivation long after the initial excitement wears off.If you want a clearer target to aim at when sales gets hard, download the FREE Sales Gravy Goal Guide. It will help you define the goals that actually keep you focused, disciplined, and motivated—especially when rejection starts piling up.

Here’s a problem that’ll make your head spin: What do you do when you can sell way more than your company can produce? That’s the question posed by Dylan Noah from Toronto. Dylan sells craft cider to bars and restaurants across his territory. He’s the only salesperson for a small producer, working with limited tools (no proper CRM), and here’s the kicker: he could sell a million dollars’ worth of product, but production isn’t enough to meet that demand. If you’re shaking your head thinking this is a champagne problem, you’re half right. But for Dylan, trying to hit his income goals through commissions, it’s a real constraint that’s costing him money every single day. The CRM Obsession Is a Distraction Let’s tackle the first issue head-on. Dylan is worried he doesn’t have the right CRM tools to manage his accounts and hit his numbers. Here’s the brutal truth: at one point in time, salespeople sold a lot of cider, beer, wine, liquor, and all kinds of other stuff without any CRM at all. They used index cards in a box. They had lists on paper. And they crushed it. You’re a small business with one salesperson working with 3,000 to 7,000 potential accounts in your territory. The last thing you should worry about right now is a $40,000 CRM system. Could you use automation for email sequences and promotions? Absolutely. Should you eventually invest in something like HubSpot or Pipedrive? Yes. But right now, what you need is a simple system to identify your best accounts and focus your time there. You’re not going to hit $1 million across 3,000 accounts. You’re going to hit it across 500 accounts that are the biggest restaurants and bars, where they like you, their customers like cider, and where you can create events and experiences that spike sales. Use a spreadsheet. Use index cards. Use whatever basic tool you’ve got right now. Create a 30-60-90 day system where you know who you’re calling on in the next 30 days, the next 60 days, and the next 90 days. Build a list of your top 250 accounts that buy the most from you. That’s where you live. Stop obsessing over tools you don’t have and start maximizing the opportunity in front of you. Scarcity Is Your Secret Weapon This brings us to the real issue: production capacity. Dylan can sell it, but his company can’t make enough of it. The bourbon distillers in America are dealing with this exact problem right now. They ramped up production years ago based on projected demand, and now they’re sitting on excess inventory that’s aging out. It’s a delicate balance, and if you make too much, it goes bad and you lose everything. Here’s what most salespeople don’t understand about scarcity: it’s actually a competitive advantage if you manage it right. When you have limited product, you’re always going to be in an ebb and flow situation. Sometimes you’ll have an abundance of one product type. Sometimes you’ll have high-demand products in short supply. The key is building a system that lets you move fast when opportunity strikes. This is where building buying profiles for every single customer becomes essential. You need to know which accounts buy which types of products, what their purchase patterns look like, and what their potential is (high, medium, or low). Think about it like your account coverage pyramid. When you have product available, you start at the top with your highest value accounts and work your way down. You’re not treating all 150 accounts the same. You’re prioritizing based on potential. When you have an abundance of one product type, you go directly to the customers who buy that product and say, “Hey, I’ve got product right now. Do you want to buy?” You can run specials. You can offer incentives (within legal limits). You move it fast. When your high-demand products come in, you call your best accounts first and say, “I’ve got ten cases of this. I’m calling you first. How many do you want?” Then you go down your list. Most of the time, you’ll sell out before you even leave your office. But if you’ve got 150 accounts and you’re treating them all the same, it gets overwhelming fast. Segment them. Prioritize them. Work them strategically. Making Your Number When You Can’t Control Supply The income issue is where this gets really interesting. Dylan wants to double his sales and earn more commissions, but he can’t because the company keeps running out of product. Here’s my take: if you’re supposed to sell $1.5 million but your company only produces $750,000 worth of product that you could sell, they should pay you for the $1.5 million. Production was the reason you couldn’t make your number, not your sales ability. Now, I know there are people in operations reading this who are going to say I’m full of it. But from a sales standpoint, if you’ve sold out of everything available, you’ve done your job. The constraint isn’t you, it’s production capacity. That’s a hard conversation to have with ownership, I get it. But here’s how you make that case: sell out of the other stuff that people don’t want as much. Figure out how to move all of it. Put yourself in a position where you own the moral high ground when it comes to sales performance. If you do that and they still can’t or won’t pay you for what you could have sold, then you’ve got a decision to make. But at least you’ll have learned how to sell in a resource-constrained environment, how to build relationships, how to manage your territory, and how to work a manual system. Those are skills that transfer to any sales role, especially ones that give you all the bells and whistles and unlimited product to sell. The Power of Old School Discipline Let’s go back to 1985 for a minute. In 1985, you would have had a Rolodex with tabs for H (high potential), M (medium potential), and L (low potential) accounts. When product came in, you’d open to H, pull out the cards, and start dialing. “I’ve got ten cases of your favorite cider. I’m calling you first. How many do you want?” If they don’t want any, click. Next card. By the time you hit the tenth account, you’re usually sold out. That’s the power of segmentation combined with discipline. Systems beat moods. Sequence beats sporadic effort. Process creates momentum. You don’t need fancy technology to do this. You need clear priorities, good segmentation, and the discipline to work your system consistently. The Bottom Line If you’re in Dylan’s situation with limited tools and limited product, here’s your game plan: Stop worrying about what you don’t have and focus on maximizing what you do have. Build a simple segmentation system using whatever tools are available. Create detailed buying profiles for all your accounts so you know exactly who to call when specific products become available. Work your account coverage pyramid from top to bottom, always prioritizing your highest value customers. Sell out of everything, even the less popular products, so you have leverage when talking to ownership about compensation. The reality is that most sales challenges aren’t about having the perfect tools or unlimited resources. They’re about having the discipline to work a proven system consistently, even when conditions aren’t ideal. That’s how you win in sales. That’s how you hit your numbers. And that’s how you build a foundation of skills that will serve you for your entire career, whether you stay in a resource-constrained environment or move to a role where the sky’s the limit. Ready to master the fundamentals of prospecting and account management? Check out Jeb Blount’s latest book with Brynne Tillman, The LinkedIn Edge, and learn how to build systematic, relationship-driven sales processes that work in any environment.

While regret anchors you to past failures, reflection acts as a catalyst for future sales growth. This article and Sales Gravy Money Monday Podcast episode explores how to break the “if-only” loop and provides a step-by-step year-end debrief to help you extract lessons from your wins and losses, ensuring you start the new year with clarity and a proven system for success.Explore:How to get out of your regret loopThe power of reflectionHow reflection creates awarenessA system for achieving your sales goals7 Steps to year-end sales reflectionWays to Look Back at Your Sales YearFor me, the last two weeks of the year have always been the chance to pause, take a break from the grind of selling, and really think about what happened over the past year—the good, the bad, and the ugly.If you are anything like me and do the same, there are two ways to look back on your last twelve months. You can do so with regret or reflection.These two opposing lenses are vastly different in the way they affect your view of where you’ve been and where you are going.The Trouble With RegretLet’s start by unpacking regret.Some of you are already feeling regret about goals you missed, deals you lost, opportunities that slipped through your fingers, or the people in your life you may have let down.Regret is that feeling you get when you look back on something you did (or didn’t do) and wish you could change it.In many ways, regret is similar to worry, except it’s focused on the past instead of the future. Worry is about what might happen; regret is about what already happened. That’s a big distinction.Although you can turn worry into action and change the future, you cannot rewrite the past. No amount of regret changes history. All it does is create a feedback loop in your mind where you keep reliving your mistakes, misses, and failures over and over again.Why Sales Professionals Get Stuck in a Regret LoopI’ve observed so many people get stuck in this endless loop of regret. They keep lamenting, “If only I had . . .”“made that call.”“handled that prospect differently.”“taken that chance.”“been there or done that.”Those “if onlys” can paralyze you. They sap your energy, crush your confidence, and keep you from moving forward.On one hand, regret can push you to change—you don’t want to feel that kind of pain again, so you work hard to avoid repeating the same mistakes.On the other hand, regret can become a debilitating emotion that drags you into an exhausting and useless mental loop of “would’ve, could’ve, should’ve.”But no matter how many times you complete that loop, it doesn’t change the outcome. It becomes an emotional anchor that weighs you down as you start the new year.The Power of ReflectionReflection, on the other hand, is entirely different—and far more productive.When you reflect, you detach from your emotions with objectivity to look at your entire body of work from the past year.You’re asking the questions, “What went well? What didn’t go so well? What did I learn?”You consider the wins that made you proud and the moments you’d rather forget.You figure out why you won so you can repeat those winning behaviors.You extract value from the lessons of failure.Reflection isn’t about punishing yourself for what went wrong. It’s about gaining clarity on why it went wrong—and what you can do about it next time.How Reflection Creates AwarenessReflection also helps you find gratitude in unexpected places. Maybe there’s a hidden lesson in overcoming an obstacle, or perhaps you gained a new perspective because a challenging person came into your life.It’s important to realize that each decision you made over the past year shaped your present circumstances. But you are not defined by these circumstances, only by how you respond to them.Reflection creates awareness. Where there is awareness, there is the potential for change. Awareness is like the sun; anything it touches has a tendency to transform.The bottom line is that reflection is about learning, growing, and transforming. Regret is stagnation.Why Reflection Matters at Year-EndThe reason I’m talking about the impact of reflection as we close out this year is because, for most of us, the slate really does feel clean come January 1st. In the sales world, we get a brand-new quota and brand-new targets. There’s an air of possibility as we think:“This year is going to be different.“This year, I’m going to crush my numbers.”“Hit my income targets.”“Make it to President’s club.”“Get a promotion.”“Finally, close that dream account I’ve been chasing.”But if you don’t take a moment to reflect on what worked and what didn’t, you’re likely to find yourself repeating the same missteps. Reflection is like an internal debrief—a chance to say, “Here’s what happened, here’s why, and here’s how I’m going to fix it.”Why Clarity Arises From ReflectionLet me give you a personal example. A the beginning of last year, I set a goal for my sales training company, Sales Gravy. This was a big, bold, visionary goal that would transform our organization and ultimately double our sales.I proudly and confidently told my team that it was going to happen. And then, in an embarrassing crash and burn, I failed miserably.Certainly, I could have stewed in regret, beating myself up and allowing my self-talk to run wild about how I fell short. But that would have been a waste of time and energy.Instead, I chose reflection. I asked myself, “What happened and why didn’t I achieve this goal?” As I mulled over those questions, the answers came more clearly than I expected.One of the biggest insights I gained was that I’d set this big goal, but didn’t establish a system or plan to make it happen. You see, a goal without a system is basically just a wish—as they say, “hope is not a strategy.”Build a System that Supports Your GoalsIf, for example, you set a goal to prospect a hundred potential customers per week, but you haven’t built a disciplined daily routine, built targeted lists, set aside specific times for calls, and created accountability checkpoints, it’s not going to stick. Life will get in the way. Sooner or later, your big, bold goal gets overshadowed by a million other tasks. Without a system for achieving the goal, you quickly succumb to discipline fatigue.This is exactly why reflection can be your best friend at year’s end. It allows you to own your failures without letting them define you, and it helps you leverage your successes by pinpointing what you did right.Regret says: “You messed up. You’ll never fix this. It’s too late.”Reflection says: “You messed up. Now let’s find out why, learn from it, and do better next time.”How to Conduct a Year-End Sales ReflectionTo turn past performance into future growth, follow this 7-step systematic reflection process:Seek Silence: Carve out 30 minutes in a quiet environment without digital distractions to ensure deep focus.Audit the Timeline: Mentally journey through the year, month-by-month, starting from January, to recall specific goals and market conditions.Celebrate Wins: Identify specific deals and relationships that succeeded. Recognize the personal milestones that boosted your confidence.Isolate Winning Behaviors: Determine the exact habits and mindsets that led to your successes so you can turn them into repeatable systems.Analyze Failures Objectively: Pinpoint the goals that stayed out of reach. Ask “Why?” to uncover the root cause of the miss without self-judgment.Build Systems, Not Just Goals: Replace “hope-based” strategies with disciplined routines, targeted lists, and accountability checkpoints.Practice Gratitude: Identify the “silver linings” and lessons learned from challenges to maintain an optimistic outlook for the new sales season.Here’s the big takeaway: Regret is the enemy of progress; Reflection is the catalyst for growth.Get your New Year off to a winning start with Jeb Blount’s popular on-demand course: The Essentials of Setting Winning Goals

“You can’t be more committed to somebody’s success than they are.”That insight comes from Colleen Stanley, author of Be the Mentor Who Mattered, during a recent conversation on the Sales Gravy Podcast. It’s a simple statement that cuts through all the noise about mentorship and gets to the heart of why most mentoring relationships fail to deliver results.Sales professionals constantly talk about wanting mentors. They want access to someone who’s been there, done that, and can show them the shortcuts. But when they get that access, they squander it. They show up unprepared. They argue with advice. They never implement what they learn.On the flip side, experienced sales leaders say they want to give back and mentor the next generation. But they get burned out after investing time in people who don’t follow through. So they stop offering help altogether.The problem isn’t a lack of willing mentors or eager mentees.The problem is that nobody understands their role in making mentorship work.What Mentees Get Wrong About MentorshipMost people treat mentorship like a magic pill, assuming that simply being near someone successful will transfer that success to them. It doesn’t work that way.Getting real value from a mentor requires more than just showing up. You need to actively do the work that makes their guidance worthwhile. Start by focusing on these key actions:Ask DirectlyThe biggest barrier to mentorship isn’t that successful people won’t help you. It’s that you never ask.You assume they’re too busy, too important, or too far removed from your situation to care. You’re wrong on all three counts.Successful people got where they are because someone helped them along the way. Most of them want to pay that forward. But they’re not mind readers. If you want help, ask for it directly.Respect Their TimeWhen you do ask, come prepared.Don’t ask for “15 minutes to pick your brain.” That’s code for “I haven’t thought about what I actually need, so I’m going to waste your time figuring it out.”Instead, be specific.“I’m struggling with qualifying early in the sales process. Could you share how you approach qualification conversations?”Specific questions get specific answers. Vague requests get vague responses—or none at all.Do What They Tell You to DoThis is where most mentoring relationships die.You ask for advice. You get great guidance. Then you come back with a list of reasons why it won’t work for your situation.Stop that.If you’re going to ask someone for their expertise, try their approach before explaining why your situation is different. You’re there because they know more than you do. Acting like you know better defeats the entire purpose.Your mentor’s reward isn’t money or recognition. It’s watching you take their advice and succeed because of it.When you implement what they teach and come back with results, they’ll invest even more in your development. When you make excuses, they’ll move on.Take Tough Feedback Without Getting DefensiveNot every mentor has read the latest book on constructive feedback. Some of them are direct or blunt.Take it anyway.When someone cares enough about your success to tell you the truth—even when it’s uncomfortable—that’s a gift. Don’t reject it because it wasn’t wrapped perfectly.The best mentors don’t sugarcoat feedback because they respect you enough to be honest. They see potential in you that you can’t see yet, and they’re not going to let you waste it by staying comfortable.What Mentors Get Wrong About MentorshipIf you’re in a position to mentor others, you already know the frustration of investing in someone who doesn’t follow through.It’s exhausting. Eventually, you start to wonder if it’s worth your time at all.Before you close yourself off completely, it’s important to understand the common patterns that cause mentoring relationships to stall.Waiting for the Perfect MenteeThere is no perfect mentee.Everyone who asks for your help is going to be rough around the edges. They’ll make mistakes. They might waste some of your time.That’s the cost of mentoring.The real question isn’t whether someone is polished. It’s whether they’re committed.Are they showing up prepared?Are they implementing what you teach?Are they making progress, even if it’s slow?If the answer is yes, keep investing. If it’s no, redirect your energy elsewhere. Just don’t let one bad experience make you cynical about everyone.Trying to Control Their PathYour job as a mentor isn’t to create a clone of yourself.It’s to help someone develop their own approach using the principles that made you successful.They might take your advice and apply it differently. They might adapt it to their personality, their market, or their selling style.That’s not wrong. That’s the point.Stay unattached to the outcome. You can’t be more invested in their success than they are. Give them your best insights, support their growth, and let them own the results.Mentoring the Wrong PeopleNot everyone needs your specific expertise.Some people need tactical help with prospecting. Some need strategic guidance. Others need coaching on emotional intelligence.Look for the multipliers.Mentor people who will take what you teach them and use it to help others. When someone you mentor goes on to mentor others, your impact grows far beyond what you could achieve alone.That doesn’t mean only mentoring future executives. It means finding people who are genuinely committed to growth and generous enough to share what they learn.The Real Value of MentorshipMentorship isn’t a transaction.It’s not about what you can get from someone more successful or what you owe someone less experienced.It’s about creating a community where people help each other get better. Where progress matters more than perfection. Where tough feedback is welcomed because everyone knows it comes from a place of care.Having someone in your corner who believes in your potential—even when you don’t—can be the difference between quitting and breaking through.But that only works if both sides understand their role.Mentees must show up ready to learn and willing to act.Mentors must show up ready to tell the truth and willing to invest.Find the mentors who will challenge you. Be the mentor who changes someone else’s trajectory.Ready to take the next step in your development? Finding the right mentor or coach can transform your sales career—if you know what to look for. Learn how to identify the coach who’s right for you with our FREE How to Find the Right Coach for You Guide. 

Here’s a truth that’ll make you uncomfortable: Getting rejected isn’t the real problem. The real problem is that you’re not doing the work up front to lower the probability of rejection in the first place. That’s the insight that hit when Wendy Ramirez, a leading Mexican sales expert and author of Lo que nadie habla de las ventas: Estrategias para no ser llamarada de petate or What Nobody Talks About in Sales: Strategies to Avoid Being a Flash in the Pan, joined this week’s episode about handling rejection on Ask Jeb on The Sales Gravy Podcast. After forty years in sales, I was rejected yesterday, I’ll get rejected tomorrow, and I’ve been rejected so many times that I almost don’t even feel it anymore. But that doesn’t mean you can just “let it roll off your back” as some sales trainers tell you. If you’re struggling with rejection, you’re not alone. And more importantly, you’re not broken. There’s a biological reason it hurts so badly, and there are concrete techniques you can use to handle it. The Biology of Rejection: Why Your Brain Is Working Against You Here’s what most sales trainers won’t tell you: Rejection is supposed to hurt. It’s baked into your DNA. Forty thousand years ago, human beings lived in small groups around campfires. If you got kicked out of the group and walked away from that campfire into the dark, you were in danger. You were part of the food chain. There were things out there hunting you, rival tribes fighting over scarce resources, and being alone meant you probably weren’t going to pass on your genes. So human beings who avoided rejection were more likely to survive. This fear of rejection became an evolutionary advantage, and it’s still with us today. That’s why selling is so hard. It’s why most people don’t want to go into sales. Walk into the accounting department and ask if anyone wants to make cold calls with you. They’re going to look at you like you’ve got four heads because nobody wants to be in a profession where you have to do something that unnatural. This avoidance of rejection serves us really well for most of our life. You need to get along with your family, your coworkers, and other people in the world. Knowing where the line is that would get you rejected is super important to being able to work as a team. But in sales? It’s killing your performance. The Truth About Objections: You’re Creating Them When people reject you or give you an objection, what they’re expressing is their fear. They’re expressing their fear of moving forward, their fear of change, their fear about whether or not you’ll do what you say you’re going to do. And here’s the brutal part: Most of the time, you created that fear. The easiest way to deal with an objection is to do good discovery and do a good job in the selling process. When salespeople make the mistake of not doing any discovery, they don’t have any ammunition. So the rejection sounds like this: “Your price is too high.” That’s the only way a person really knows how to explain it. If they don’t like you, they’ll say, “We need to go think about this.” Think about it this way. If you do a great job of building the relationship, asking questions, listening, getting all of their pain and aspirations on the table, and then telling their story back to them in the context of how you can help them solve their problems, then you’ve earned the right to ask them. When you ask, and they give you an objection, you know what to do because you already have that information. You’re just bringing back and putting on the table the things that they already told you. The worst rejections I’ve gotten? They’re usually when I lost a deal because I didn’t do discovery. And then I found out after the fact that I missed something I shouldn’t have missed. It’s not so much the rejection that hurts. It’s the shame and the gut punch that I didn’t do my job as a salesperson, and therefore, I created the environment that made that objection so big that I couldn’t get past it because I had no information to work with. The Ledge Technique: Your Magic Quarter Second Let’s get practical. You’re on a prospecting call, you’re engaging another person, and they hit you with an objection that feels like rejection. What do you do? Use a technique called the ledge. Neuroscientists would call it the magic quarter second that allows your executive brain (your prefrontal cortex) to get in control of your emotional brain (your limbic system) and that little structure inside your brain called the amygdala that triggers the fight or flight response. The ledge is just something you’ve memorized that you say automatically whenever you get that particular objection. The thing about prospecting objections is that we know every potential one. They’re not surprising. People are going to say, “I don’t have any time,” “I’m not interested,” “I’m already working with someone,” “Your prices are too high,” “This is not a good time for me,” “I’m not the right person.” So if someone says, “I’m too busy right now,” I just say, “I figured you would be. And that’s exactly why I called.” That’s all I say. The reason I have that memorized is because when they say that, rather than getting consumed by the fight or flight response, I know exactly what to say. In that magic quarter second, my brain that’s smart takes over and says, “This is not a threat. This is just a person who says they don’t have enough time right now, and you know exactly how to handle it.” Relating: The Slower Form of the Ledge If you’re in a slower type of objection (let’s say you’re asking someone to buy from you), use a form of the ledge by relating with them. When someone gives you an objection, they’re expecting conflict because we’re just human beings. If I tell you no, I’m expecting you to come back at me. So they give you the objection and they’re ready for it. If you punch back, they’re going to punch back. Everybody loses. But instead, if you relate to them, you lower the temperature. You get on their side of the table. You show empathy without agreeing with them. Here’s what that sounds like in practice: Someone says, “This is more than I wanted to pay.” You could say, “Well, look, it’s really not that expensive, and you’re going to get so much out of it.” Or you could say, “I totally get where you’re coming from. It sounds to me like you’re someone who makes really good decisions with their money.” You’re not agreeing that the price is too high. You’re agreeing that they’re a person who makes good decisions with their money. You’re lowering the conflict level and increasing the collaborative level. You’re diffusing them and breaking their pattern. Then you can go into, “When you say it’s a little bit more than you wanted to pay, how do you mean? What does that mean to you?” But you always start with relating to them. The One Basic Truth About Objections Here’s something you need to understand: In every sales conversation, while facing every objection, it is the human being who has the greatest emotional discipline that is most likely to have control over the conversation. And if you control the conversation, you can handle the objection. This is called relaxed assertive confidence. When you demonstrate this behavior, it almost acts like a magnet. People lean into you. And emotionally (because emotions are contagious), it causes them to respond in kind. When you come off as relaxed and confident, suddenly they lower their conflict level and they become more confident in you as well. There’s nothing that handles objections better than pure old confidence. Persistence Always Finds a Way to Win Let me leave you with this: Persistence always finds a way to win. Always. In the US, 44 percent of salespeople only face rejection once before they give up. 78 percent give up after asking twice. 91 percent give up after asking only four times. But on average, it takes eight asks to get someone to say yes to you. So think about that. The statistics are in your favor. The more you’re persistent, the more you keep asking, the more likely you’re going to get what you want. The more you face rejection, the more likely you’re going to get what you want. The inspirational part? Doing that is really hard. It takes discipline, and discipline is defined as sacrificing what you want now for what you want most. The easiest, fastest way to put on that emotional armor and dive into objections and rejections is to know exactly what it is that you want. So that in that moment when your brain is saying to you, “Run, don’t do this, don’t face it,” you remember that on the other side of that rejection is the one thing that you want more than anything else in the world. And you’re willing to go through it, around it, under it. No matter what it takes. You’re willing to do whatever it takes to get that thing that you want. That’s when rejection stops being the problem and starts being just another step in your process. Ready to transform your prospecting approach and fill your pipeline? Grab a copy of The LinkedIn Edge, Jeb’s latest book on combining LinkedIn, AI, and proven outbound strategies to sell more and close bigger deals.

If you’ve been looking for a way to hit or exceed your annual quota, qualify for President’s Club, or simply earn a bigger paycheck or bonus, focusing on helping business owners reduce their tax burden by investing in your product, service, or software in the final weeks of the year can give you the edge you need to get more sales closed.Business Owners are Motivated to Reduce TaxesIn the United States, there are millions of SMBs, and the vast majority of these businesses are what we call pass-through organizations for tax purposes. This means that the owners or partners in these businesses report the profits on their personal tax filings.Unlike big companies, small companies don’t have the luxury of rolling profits over to the next year. So whatever they made this year, they have to pay taxes on.As the calendar winds down, business owners are often motivated to invest in products, services, and software solutions in order to reduce taxable income.In other words, if a business has shown strong profits throughout the year, its owners might be keen to spend some of that money on improving their operations, expanding their capabilities, or streamlining their processes—right now—rather than hand over a large chunk of their profits to Uncle Sam come tax season.Business Owners Hate Paying TaxesTo understand why this year-end period is so critical, let’s get into the mindset of a small or medium-sized business owner.Unlike large enterprises with multiple departments and complex accounting strategies, SMB owners are often personally invested in the company’s financial results because those results are essentially their income. It’s how they pay their mortgage and put food on the table.For this reason, they watch their revenue and expenses closely. As the year comes to an end, they’re looking at their bottom line and thinking about the upcoming tax bill.For many of these business owners, profit is a double-edged sword. Don’t get me wrong, they want to make a profit. But at some point, too much profit triggers a much higher tax bill.If there is one thing I know about small and medium-sized business owners, it’s that they hate taxes. They are always looking for ways to legally minimize their tax liability.One easy and productive way to do this is to make fully or partially depreciable investments in the business before December 31st. That could mean buying new equipment, software, training packages, or services that will not only improve the business long-term but also reduce taxable income for the current year.An Urgent Need to SpendAs a salesperson, the key takeaway here is that your prospects have a natural, time-bound incentive to spend. If you can position your product or service as the right investment at the right time, you might find it easier to close those deals that seemed just out of reach during the rest of the year.And by the way, if you are dealing with decision-makers who are pushing off decisions to next year, this is a great way to get past that objection.Framing Your Business CaseI want to be clear, though, that most businesses are not going to spend money for the sake of spending money. Savvy business owners want to reduce taxes and do the right thing for their company.Therefore, you can’t just be transactional. You still must follow the sales process and build a bridge to the value of tax savings AND business improvement when making your business case.It’s all about framing your product or service as a strategic investment rather than a mere expense.For example:If you sell software tools that improve operational efficiency, make the case for how your solution will help them save on labor costs, reduce errors, and streamline workflows.If you’re selling advertising, highlight how a year-end launch of a new campaign will lead to immediate results that set the stage for a strong Q1.If you sell capital equipment, walk them through how the new equipment will make them more productive and help them expand their business in the new year.The key is to connect the value of your offering directly to the timing. Consider messaging like:“This is an opportune moment to upgrade your systems, so you’ll enter the new year with a competitive edge and potentially lower your tax liabilities this season.”“By getting your campaign locked in before the year closes, you can reap immediate tax benefits while ensuring your advertising starts generating leads in January when you need them the most.”“If we get the equipment ordered now, it will be delivered in Q1, giving you plenty of time to get a high ROI next year.”When you can tie the ROI of your product to both tangible improvements and the financial perks of year-end spending, the business case becomes much more compelling, and you will sell more.Tailor Your ApproachWhile the end-of-year tax incentive is a common denominator, not every SMB is identical. Some might be profitable but cash-constrained, while others have capital burning a hole in their pockets. Some may be in sectors that had a booming year, while others are just recovering from a difficult market.The more you understand the unique challenges and goals of each prospect you’re targeting, the better you can tailor your approach.Before you pick up the phone, walk through their door, or send an email, do some research. Check out their recent announcements, whether they’re hiring or expanding. Look into trends in their industry.Understanding these nuances will help you fine-tune your messaging. If you know a business is tight on cash, emphasize flexible payment plans or financing options. If the business is flush with profit, reinforce the immediate tax advantage and the strategic value of reinvesting those funds.Empathy and relevance are your allies here. Show that you understand their position and that your solution aligns perfectly with their current goals. That personal touch, combined with the natural urgency of year-end, is a powerful recipe for closing the deal.Lead With Urgency: Clear, Direct, CompellingI don’t want to sweep under the rug how important timing and urgency are with this tactic. While you don’t want to be completely transactional, you do want to be direct.As we approach the end of the year, many SMB owners have a long to-do list: Finalizing paperwork, inventory checks, reviewing vendor contracts, preparing for holiday promotions, and on and on. They’re busy. They have limited time to spend on sales pitches. This means your outreach needs to be respectful of their schedule and also clear, direct, and compelling.Say right away: “I’m reaching out before the year ends because I have a solution that can help you maximize your tax benefits this year and help you grow your business next year.”Being direct and to the point respects their time and sets the context immediately. If you need more help with direct and to-the-point messaging, grab your copy of my book, Fanatical Prospecting, and review Because Statements.It’s crucial that you create and maintain a sense of urgency. Not the aggressive, pushy kind, but a natural urgency rooted in a real calendar event: The year-end.The clock is ticking, and if they don’t make their purchase by December 31st, they will miss out on the potential tax advantages. This deadline isn’t artificial—it’s a reality. Use it to frame your conversations. Urgency helps prospects prioritize your offer over other distractions in their busy schedule.Handling ObjectionsYou might encounter objections like: “We’re too busy to consider new solutions right now,” or “We don’t have enough budget.”In these cases, it’s wise to highlight the cost-saving and tax benefits again. Stress that investing now can actually put them in a better position financially. Remind them that waiting until next year could mean missing out on an opportunity to reduce this year’s taxable income.If time is an issue, propose a quick and efficient implementation plan. Show them that you can be agile and help them integrate the solution without massive downtime.If budget is a concern, consider promotions, discounts, or favorable financing terms. Sometimes, offering a small year-end incentive can tip the scales in your favor.The Five Keys to Selling More to SMBs at the End of the YearSMBs have a natural incentive to invest before year-end: They want to reduce their taxable income and set themselves up for a strong next year.Frame your product as a strategic investment: Highlight the value, ROI, and tax benefits that come with a year-end purchase.Avoid being transactional: Follow the sales process and position yourself as a partner who can help them navigate this critical period.Tailor your approach to each SMB’s situation: Research their needs and adjust your prospecting message accordingly, showing empathy and relevance.Create urgency with a real deadline: The calendar itself is your ally; emphasize that the benefits come from acting before December 31st.Here’s the deal, though: Do not wait. Start this process now. The low-hanging fruit is out there, but it will rot on the vine if you fail to pick before the sand runs out of the hourglass this year.Check out the BRAND NEW Jeb Blount Ultimate Sales Success Box Set. It’s the perfect gift for the sales professional in your life!

Is Your LinkedIn Personal Branding Built for Buyers or Bystanders?“Respectfully, you are not my audience.”Performance coach Giselle Ugarte said that on a recent episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, and it might be the most liberating thing you’ll hear about LinkedIn personal branding this year.Because somewhere between building your profile and hitting publish on that post, you’ve started making decisions based on what your college roommate might think. Or your former boss. Or yes, your mom.The hard truth? None of them are writing you commission checks.The Real Reason Your LinkedIn Personal Branding Falls FlatYou’ve heard “be authentic” and “show up as yourself” so often that the advice has lost all meaning. So you end up in a strange middle ground where you’re not polished enough to impress executives and not human enough to connect with actual buyers.Your LinkedIn personal branding suffers because you’re creating content for ghosts. People who will never hire you, never refer you, never sign a contract. You’re worried about the wrong audience, and that hesitation shows up in every word you type.Think about the last post you almost published but didn’t. What stopped you? Probably not a legitimate business concern. More likely, you had a flash of “what will people think?” and that voice didn’t belong to your ideal client. It belonged to someone in your network who wouldn’t buy from you if you were the last salesperson on earth.Who Your LinkedIn Content Is Really ForYour LinkedIn personal branding should speak to three groups: Current clients Prospective clients People who can refer you to clientsThat’s it. Everyone else is background noise.When you post about closing a tough deal, your brother who works in IT might think you’re bragging. Your client, who fought through the same challenge, is nodding in agreement.When you share a lesson from a deal that went sideways, your high school friend might wonder why you’re airing dirty laundry. Your prospect is realizing you understand their world.The disconnect happens because you’re trying to serve two masters. You want to build real relationships with buyers while also maintaining some imaginary professional image for people who have zero impact on your business.The Transform 20: LinkedIn Personal Branding That Actually WorksIf you’re going to shift your LinkedIn personal branding from performative to productive, you need a system. Not another “post three times a week” generic advice pile, but something that forces you to focus on real humans instead of vanity metrics.Giselle’s practical framework, Transform 20, breaks down into four daily actions, each designed to build actual relationships:Connect with 5 new people.Not random connections. People you met this week, people on your calendar, people who recognize your face. Every request should feel familiar to them.Send 5 meaningful messages.Check in. Reference something personal. End with a question. “Let me know” is where leads go to die. Meaningful DMs teach the algorithm who matters to you — and who should see your content.Leave 5 meaningful comments.Two to three sentences. Add context. Reintroduce yourself if needed. A thoughtful comment builds more trust than another like or emoji ever will.Record 5 one-to-one videos.Sixty seconds or less. “Hey, I was thinking about you because…” It’s a pattern interrupt in an inbox full of text and one of the fastest ways to stand out. This is where confidence compounds.Twenty actions. Most people won’t do it because it feels like work. But if you woke up to 20 qualified leads tomorrow, would that change your business? That’s what you’re building here.What Your LinkedIn Profile Should Actually ShowBuyers want to know you’re a real person. That you have a family, hobbies, interests, failures, and lessons. That you care about something besides your quota.If you blur your Zoom background because you think it’s more professional, you’re missing an opportunity. Let them see the bookshelf, the Peloton, the framed photo. These details give people something to ask about and a reason to remember you.The same goes for your LinkedIn headline. Yes, include your title. But also include the detail that creates connection. “Mom of four,” or “Proud Michigan alum,” or whatever matters to you and might matter to them. Make it easier for people to find common ground with you.Stop Creating Content for People Who Will Never BuyYou already know who matters: current clients, prospective clients, and people who can refer you to clients.Your former colleague who always has something snarky to say about your posts? They’ve never sent you a referral. Your friend from college who thinks sales is beneath them? They’re not signing contracts. Your family member who wants you to be more buttoned up? They’re not in your market.Have the clarity to know that you can’t build an effective LinkedIn personal branding presence while trying to please everyone. You’ll end up pleasing no one, least of all the people who could actually benefit from working with you.You cannot build effective LinkedIn personal branding while trying to please people who don’t impact your business.Before you write that post or record that video, remind yourself: someone would be lucky to hear from me today. You have something valuable to offer — and the courage to show up as a real human.The salespeople winning on LinkedIn aren’t the most polished. They’re the most human. They make it easier for the right people to decide they want to work with them.Send the videos. Start the conversations. Show up as the person your clients actually want to buy from. That’s how you win on LinkedIn — and everywhere else.Want the full LinkedIn playbook? Buy The LinkedIn Edge by Jeb Blount and Brynne Tillman. It’s packed with non-negotiables that will turn your profile into a pipeline-building machine.

Here’s the scenario that’s playing out in sales organizations everywhere right now: Your team fought through a brutal first half of the year, rallied momentum in the second half, crushed their numbers, and now they’re ready to coast through December. That’s the exact situation Kyle Begbie, a regional sales director at Fuse HR Solutions in Ontario, Canada, brought to this week’s Ask Jeb. His team overcame massive market disruption, economic headwinds, and buyer hesitation to finish the year strong. Now he’s facing the most dangerous challenge of all: keeping that momentum alive through the holidays and into January. If you’re nodding your head right now, you’re not alone. This is the point in the year where sales teams either set themselves up for a championship quarter or dig themselves into a hole that takes months to climb out of. The Holiday Momentum Trap Here’s what happened to Kyle’s team, and it’s probably happening to yours too: They worked incredibly hard through disruption and uncertainty. They pushed through discouragement when buyers were putting deals on hold. They ground it out for months to get back on track. And now they’re exhausted. The holidays are here. Christmas music is playing. Everyone wants to take their foot off the accelerator and coast a little bit. This is why December and January are the most dangerous months for sales professionals. Here’s the deal: Nothing really changed in the market from the first half of the year to the second half. Kyle’s team faced the exact same headwinds, the same economic conditions, the same buyer concerns. The only thing that changed was what they believed. Once they believed they could win, they kept winning. And once buyers realized nothing was going to change and all of this was permanent, they got on with business. But here’s the problem: If you take your foot off the accelerator now, you’re going to pay for it in January and February. That’s not motivation speak. That’s math. The 30-Day Rule Will Make or Break Your Q1 The 30-day rule is simple: The prospecting you do in any given 30-day period pays off over the next 90 days. This is especially true in industries like staffing, but it applies to every sales role. If your team takes December off and doesn’t prospect, you’re going to have a catastrophic January and February. It’s that simple. So the number one thing you need to do as a sales leader right now is get structure around prospecting. Every morning, your team needs to run their call blocks. They need to run their sequences. They need to go through the entire process, and that cannot stop. The only way you’re going to lead this is from the front. Whether your team is dispersed or in the office, you need to be running prospecting blocks with them every single day all the way through the holidays. If you do that, you’re going to be golden. Close What’s Closable Before January 1 The second critical action is closing every deal in your pipeline that’s actually closable right now. Your customers are thinking they have time. Your salespeople are thinking they have time. Nobody’s pushing anybody. But here’s the reality: If those deals roll over past Christmas into the New Year, the likelihood of closing them is almost zero. You’re essentially starting all over again. Sit down with all your salespeople right now and walk through their pipeline. Identify every single deal where everything is lined up. Fit, budget, need, authority. Everything’s qualified. The only thing keeping you from closing is they haven’t said yes yet. Get in the middle of those deals and find a way to get them closed. That gives you momentum going into the new year. December feels great. And in staffing or any service business, those December closes become revenue in January, February, and March, which takes massive pressure off your team. Set Your Team Up for Success in January This is a critical time to start thinking about setting yourself up for success in the new year. While everyone else is checking out, you should be: Building targeted prospect lists for Q1. Identify your ideal prospects for January, February, and March right now so you can hit the ground running. Cleaning up your CRM. Get your data organized. Update records. Remove garbage. Make sure your team has clean, actionable information when they come back. Revisiting close-lost deals from earlier in the year. Especially deals from the first half of 2025 where buyers were hesitating or went with a competitor. Maybe the grass wasn’t greener. Maybe they still have the same problems. Build those lists now so you can attack them hard in January. Following up on qualified leads that stalled. There are good leads sitting in your system that were qualified but couldn’t move because of timing or market conditions. Gather those up and get lists together for your team. What you’re doing here is acting like a coach getting your players in position to win. Because here’s what happens if you don’t: You come off the holidays, get into the first part of the year, and watch your sales team waste the first two weeks of January walking around in a daze, not knowing what to do. You want to make sure that the first Monday of the new year, you’re running prospecting blocks, talking to customers, and working deals. Not figuring out what you should be doing. The Power of Celebration and Storytelling The last piece of maintaining momentum is taking time to celebrate what your team accomplished. Sit down with your team and tell them the story of what they did this year. Make sure they understand the lesson: When they shifted their mindset, they changed their game. That’s what happened. Tell them they did a great job. Make sure they’re taking time for their family and having fun. Help them manage their time so they can do both. But fill up their hearts with confidence and belief that they can do anything. Because here’s the truth: Nothing changed this year except for them. And if that’s true, then nothing can stop them next year either. It doesn’t matter what happens in the marketplace. Even if we go into a recession, people are still hiring. The money is still there. It’s just that more people are chasing it. Teach your team that it doesn’t make a difference what happens. The economy can fall apart, but they’re good enough to go find where the money is and take it. Because while everyone else is sitting around telling themselves what they can’t do, your team is telling themselves what they can do. That’s how you carry momentum. That’s how you avoid the January hole. And that’s how you build a championship sales team. Ready to take your sales game to the next level? Check out The LinkedIn Edge to learn how to leverage the world’s most powerful B2B social selling platform to fill your pipeline, build relationships, and close more deals.