Sales Gravy: Jeb Blount

Most salespeople lose a sales meeting before they ever open their mouth. They show up with decks of slides, lists of discovery questions, or AI-generated talking points, thinking preparation is about having more material. 

But while they’re busy organizing, their prospects are mentally checking out—and the meeting hasn’t even started.

Lee Salz, bestselling author and founder of Sales Architects, has observed this pattern for decades. “If you want to win more deals at the prices you want, you need a better first meeting strategy. Everyone says I want to win more deals, so they focus on closing at the end. But that’s not where the opportunities are. The opportunities to win more deals start in that first meeting.“

Ask any salesperson: “If a prospect agrees to meet with you, what do they get out of it?”

The response is usually stunned silence.

That silence reveals the problem. Too many sales professionals approach the first sales meeting with an extraction mindset, focused on what they can learn instead of what they can give.

Think about how you prepare. Do you make a list of questions to gather information? Do you pull together slides about your company, products, and clients? That might feel productive, but here’s what it communicates: This meeting is about me.

When prospects can’t see immediate value in the conversation, they resist. They may decline the meeting altogether, or worse—they show up already skeptical, arms crossed, counting down the minutes until they can escape.

Sales training has conditioned reps to believe that discovery meetings are the foundation of the sales process. In theory, this makes sense: You need information to qualify opportunities.

But here’s the problem—buyers don’t experience value when they educate you. They already have suppliers, vendors, and service providers. Another salesperson asking them to “tell me about your challenges” just feels like more work.

Worse, traditional discovery feels like an interrogation. You’re pulling data without leaving anything behind. And prospects are savvy enough to sense when you’re there to take rather than give.

You already know people buy on emotion and justify with logic. You’ve heard it in every sales book, every training, every keynote.

Walk into the average first meeting, and you’ll see the same setup: a rep armed with facts, features, processes, and pricing structures. All logic, zero emotion.

The result? Buyers nod politely, take notes, and then ghost you. Not because your product isn’t good enough, but because you failed to make them feel anything.

Your competitors who are consistently winning aren’t necessarily better at selling features. They’re better at weaving emotional connection into the very fabric of their meetings. They create trust, credibility, and resonance in the first 15 minutes.

High-performing sales professionals understand that every first meeting must accomplish three core objectives:

1. Meaningful Qualification: Determine whether this opportunity aligns with your ideal customer profile while also helping prospects better understand their situation. 
2. Clear Differentiation: Prospects need to understand what makes your approach unique, but not through feature comparisons. Real differentiation comes from your methodology, philosophy, and approach. Show them how you think about solving problems, not just what you sell.
3. Emotional Foundation: Establish the connection that energizes deals. This involves demonstrating genuine interest in their success while positioning yourself as a trusted advisor rather than just another vendor.

The outcome of the meeting is decided long before you show up. Top performers treat preparation like a competitive advantage. Here’s how to shift from extraction to consultation:

• Research industry challenges and company-specific developments that affect your prospect. 
• Prepare insights you can share that will make them smarter about their situation. 
• Come ready to give first, gather second.

• Open with a relevant insight or observation about their industry or situation. 
• Ask questions that help them think differently about their challenges rather than just documenting the current state. 
• Position yourself as someone who understands their world, not someone trying to learn about it.

• Continue the consultation with additional resources or insights that reference specific conversation points.
• Keep building the advisory relationship with value, not noise.

Everyone has experienced this scenario: working with a service provider who delivers exactly what they promised, on time and within budget. And yet, you didn’t hire them again. Why?

Because of how they made you feel from the first meeting to the end result.

You might deliver perfect presentations with all the right information, but if prospects feel interrogated, patronized, or undervalued during your interactions, they’ll find reasons to work with someone else.

The most successful salespeople understand this intuitively. They focus as much on how prospects feel during meetings as on what prospects learn during meetings.

Here’s the critical insight from Lee Salz’s observation: winning first meetings requires rewiring habits. Extraction is easy. Providing insight takes work.

You can continue treating sales meetings like data-gathering exercises, competing on features and price. Or you can step into the room as a trusted advisor who delivers insight, perspective, and immediate value.

Doing so shortens sales cycles, increases win rates, and builds pricing power. When prospects leave your meetings smarter about their situation, they’re eager to continue the conversation. When they leave feeling like a data source, they avoid follow-ups.

The difference between winning and losing is often decided in the first 15 minutes of your initial sales meeting.

Position yourself as a consultant, not just a salesperson. Bring insight, perspective, and tangible value from the first interaction. This choice determines whether you’re seen as just another vendor—or as someone worth premium pricing.

Your win rates—and your commission checks—depend on it.

If you want to take your sales discovery to the next level, you need to understand how different buyers think and make decisions. Download your free copy of the ACED Buyer Style Playbook and learn how to adapt your discovery approach to every buyer type.

You know AI is transforming sales, everyone’s talking about it, but you’re still staring at ChatGPT like it’s some mysterious black box, wondering what magical question you should type in first.

That’s the reality for most salespeople even now. They know they need to embrace AI, they’ve heard the success stories, but they’re paralyzed by the complexity and overwhelmed by the options.

If you’re nodding your head right now, you’re not alone. The biggest barrier to AI adoption isn’t technical—it’s mental. Salespeople are asking the wrong question entirely.

Most people approach AI like it’s some mystical oracle they need to appease with the perfect question. They think there’s some secret prompt that will unlock AI’s full potential, like finding the right combination to a safe.

They’re wrong. There is no perfect first question for AI.

The real problem isn’t what to ask—it’s how you’re thinking about the problem. Instead of asking “What should I ask AI?” you need to flip the script entirely.

Twenty minutes before recording our latest Ask Jeb episode, I was working on a new training program for Sales Gravy University. I had a slide deck and workbook that needed proofreading, and my first instinct was to think, “Who can I get to proofread this thing?”

That’s how most of us think: “How can someone else do this?” or “How can I get this done?”

But I caught myself and asked a different question: “How can AI do this?”

I uploaded the slide deck to AI and asked it to proofread for me. Fifteen seconds later, I had a response—not perfect, but a starting point. I refined my prompt, asking for typos organized slide by slide, and boom—seven minutes later, the entire deck was cleaned up.

What would have taken me 45 minutes and still resulted in missed errors was done in minutes, with better accuracy than I could achieve manually.

Will Frattini from ZoomInfo pointed out that “You already know how to use AI. You’ve been doing it for years.”

If you’ve ever asked Siri for directions, told Alexa to turn up the music, or typed a question into Google—congratulations, you’ve been using AI. The only difference now is the sophistication and power of what’s available.

The barrier isn’t technical competency. It’s the mental block of overthinking it.

You don’t need to understand large language models or machine learning algorithms. You just need to ask a question and hit enter. That’s it. That’s the profound simplicity everyone’s missing.

Stop thinking of yourself as someone who needs to learn AI. Start thinking of yourself as a conductor standing in front of a symphony orchestra.

You’ve got Claude for certain tasks, ChatGPT for others, ZoomInfo Copilot for prospecting intelligence, Gemini for research—each AI is like a different instrument in your orchestra. Your job isn’t to play every instrument; it’s to conduct them all to create something beautiful.

The apex predators in sales aren’t going to be the people who master one AI tool. They’re going to be the conductors who know when to use which AI for maximum impact, iterating and refining until they get exactly what they need.

This means developing your prospecting methodology becomes even more critical. You need to know what outcome you’re trying to achieve before you can direct your AI orchestra to help you get there.

Stop overthinking this. Here’s your action plan:

Step 1: Pick one AI tool you have access to right now. Your company probably already provides something. If not, start with ChatGPT, Claude, or any of the major platforms.

Step 2: Identify one recurring task that eats up your time. Email templates, research, call preparation—anything that’s necessary but not your highest value activity.

Step 3: Ask the AI how it can help with that specific task. Don’t ask what you should ask it. Tell it what you need done.

Step 4: When the first response isn’t perfect (and it won’t be), refine your request. Think of it like managing a new employee: give feedback, clarify expectations, iterate.

The key is starting with problems you actually have, not theoretical use cases you’ve read about online.

Remember my proofreading example? That’s not just about saving time—it’s about the multiplier effect of sales efficiency. When AI handles your routine tasks better and faster than you can, you free up cognitive bandwidth for the high-value activities that actually drive revenue.

Instead of spending 45 minutes proofreading, I can spend that time on strategic thinking, relationship building, or developing new programs. That’s the real power of AI in sales. It doesn’t replace what makes you valuable; it amplifies it.

Will shared a perfect example: He used ChatGPT to help organize his kids’ toys after a move. He just said “help me” and got a 20-minute action plan that would have taken him much longer to figure out himself.

That’s the sophistication we’re talking about. Not complex prompts or technical wizardry, just asking for help with real problems you need to solve.

The learning curve isn’t about mastering AI; it’s about remembering how to learn by doing instead of overthinking.

While your competitors are still debating what the perfect AI question should be, you can be building your conductor skills. Every day you wait is a day your competition might be getting ahead by simply starting.

The salespeople who embrace this mindset now—who start thinking “How can AI do this?” instead of “How can I do this?”—will have an insurmountable advantage in 12 months.

Stop waiting for someone to hand you the perfect AI playbook. The best way to learn is to start solving real problems with the tools available to you right now.

Change your question from “What should I ask AI?” to “How can AI help me with this specific thing I need to get done today?”

Then ask it, iterate, and watch your productivity soar.

That’s how you step into AI. Not with perfect questions, but with practical problems and the willingness to start conducting your own symphony.

Want to master AI in sales? Get The AI Edge for the complete blueprint on leveraging artificial intelligence to dominate your competition and accelerate your sales results.

Welcome to Grind Season. This week, we enter the most pivotal period of your entire sales year. From now until mid-December, how you choose to invest your limited time will determine whether you end your year strong, hit your income goals, make it to the winner’s circle at President’s Club, and start next year with a full pipeline OR wallow in mediocrity, miss your number, and damage your career. 

If you’re ahead of your goals, this is your time to build an insurmountable lead and give yourself an unfair advantage as you enter next year. Do not rest on your laurels and coast. Grind it out and build a massive pipeline for next year.

If you’re on track, this is your time to accelerate, finish strong, and propel yourself into the President’s Club. 

If you’re behind, this is the time to shift from being defense to offense.

Most salespeople who are going to miss their annual quota already know it by now. They can feel it. See it in their pipeline. Sense it in their gut.

But what separates winners from losers is that winners use this moment as a wake-up call, not a death sentence. 

Stop making excuses about market conditions, difficult prospects, or bad luck. Start taking complete ownership of your results and your future.

Stop thinking like someone who’s behind. Start thinking like someone who’s about to write their own sales comeback story. 

Your energy and confidence level will directly impact your results during Grind Season. If you show up defeated and desperate, prospects will sense it. If you show up confident and focused, prospects will respond in kind, and you will sell more.

But whatever your situation, this is not the time to coast. This is the time to get serious about finishing the year strong.

“Grind Season” is more than just a motivational catchphrase—it’s a winning mindset grounded in the unglamorous, but essential, embrace of this crucial period with intense focus, hard work, discipline, and consistent, intentional activity. 

It’s about ignoring distractions, drowning out the noise, being stingy with your time, and using every moment of your sales day to identify new opportunities and actively advance those deals through the pipeline.

This isn’t about activity for the sake of activity. It’s about deliberately and proactively getting back to the basics and fundamentals of prospecting and sales at a time in the sales year when it matters. 

Here’s the key gut-check question you must look into the mirror and answer right now: Where do you stand relative to your year-end number, and based on that answer, what will be your next move?

To fully answer that question, begin with a pipeline reality check. Your current quota attainment tells you where you’ve been. Your pipeline tells you where you’re going.

Far too many sales professionals look at their pipeline and see what they want to see, not what’s actually there. This is especially true at this time of year when we allow baggage from the first half of the year to remain in our pipeline, hoping that somehow we might close it. But here’s the deal, during Grind Season, hope is not a strategy. 

The truth is, those deals have been dead for a long time. The stakeholders are ghosting you; they never commit to next steps, and most haven’t returned your calls in months. In the words of Sales Gravy University trainer and author Kristie K. Jones, “stalled” is not a step in the sales process.  So start by getting brutally honest and ruthless with your current pipeline.

• First, clean house. Go through every opportunity and ask yourself: “If I had to bet my own money on whether this deal will close by the end of the year, would I take that bet?” If the answer is no, move it out of your active pipeline and replace it with something else. Stop lying to yourself and counting on it for this year’s numbers.
• Second, calculate your real pipeline coverage. Take your remaining quota and multiply it by four. That’s how much qualified pipeline you need to finish the year strong. And if you don’t have it, get fanatical about building it. 
• Third, assess your pipeline velocity. Get real about how long deals are actually taking to close. This number will tell you exactly when you need to get qualified opportunities into your pipeline to close them before the year ends. You should also use the assessment to find ways to increase velocity and shorten the sales cycle. 

Too many salespeople are trapped by hope. They hope that inbound leads will be enough, that a few referrals will carry them through, or that their existing accounts will magically deliver new opportunities.

Grind Season is the antidote to this passive approach. It demands a recommitment to consistent, high-impact Fanatical Prospecting. This means establishing non-negotiable, daily prospecting blocks with a focus on creating new opportunities with a vengeance.

The No. 1 reason for missing quota is an empty pipeline, and the No. 1 reason you have an empty pipeline is that you are not prospecting consistently, using every possible communication channel, every single day. 

Once an opportunity is in your pipeline, the Grind Season mindset dictates that you move it forward with intention and purpose. This means confidently asking for and securing clear and calendared next-step commitments in every sales conversation. This decisiveness prevents deals from stalling in the pipeline, which you cannot afford at this time of year.

Likewise, you cannot afford to waste time with uncommitted buyers or unqualified deals. Do not be afraid to ask tough questions and address objections directly, because this process eliminates tire-kickers and keeps your time and energy focused on truly qualified deals that you can close. 

Grind Season is hard. If you want to end your year strong, then you’ll have to embrace the suck and accept the discomfort that comes with hard work and running headlong into the grinder of daily rejection.

The essence of Grind Season is an unwavering commitment to outworking the competition. It’s about the mindset that no one will out-hustle you. 

For me, this means adopting a “blue-collar” approach to a “white-collar” profession—come in early, stay late, face adversity head-on, and always make one more call. Repeat this daily and you’ll gain a significant competitive advantage.

The clock is already ticking on Grind Season. It feels like you have time, but you don’t. End-of-year judgment day will be here sooner than you think. This short window of opportunity will close soon, so you have a choice to make right now.

You can keep going the way you have been and take what you get OR you can decide that this will be the most focused, disciplined, and productive period of your career.

The choice is yours. But whatever you choose, choose it now, because time is running out.

And remember, when you’re tired, worn out, and ready to go home, always make one more call. Because that one more call might be the one that saves your year.

Jeb Blount’s new book, The LinkedIn Edge, will give you almost superhuman prospecting powers that will explode your pipeline and your income. Get your copy today. 

Most salespeople waste their careers fighting over the same crowded prospects. Meanwhile, untapped markets are sitting in plain sight. These are the industries, segments, and territories your competitors don’t take seriously—or don’t even notice. They’re wide open, and they reward the salespeople willing to do the work.

On the Sales Gravy Podcast, I spoke with Nicholas Lalla, an economic development expert who helped bring more than $200 million of investment into a market everyone else had written off. His blueprint for revitalizing a forgotten city is the same framework you can use to uncover and dominate untapped markets in sales.

The best markets are often the ones no one is talking about. When the crowd decides a territory is “too small,” “too tough,” or “not worth the time,” they leave the door wide open. That’s where the opportunity lives.

And let’s be clear: An untapped market doesn’t have to mean a new zip code. It could be a niche industry your competitors dismiss, a customer population they ignore, or a vertical nobody’s paying attention to yet.

If you don’t know much about a market, chances are your competitors don’t either. That ignorance is your advantage—if you’re willing to dig in.

Most salespeople gamble on gut instinct when picking new markets. That’s why they waste time chasing “big name” logos that never buy, or avoiding prospects who look difficult but actually have massive potential.

Top performers take a different path. They go where the data points. Before committing to a market, study the numbers your competition ignores:

• Industry growth rates – Expanding sectors often fly under the radar.
• Investment flows – Follow where capital is going before sales catch up.
• Labor market trends – Job growth exposes emerging business needs.
• Government spending – Public dollars usually spark private demand.

Data doesn’t close deals. But it stacks the odds in your favor and ensures you’re hunting where opportunity actually exists.

Numbers tell you where to look. Conversations tell you what’s real. Don’t just study demographics—talk to 100 people tied to the market. Customers. Ex-customers. Prospects who should buy from you but don’t. Even suppliers and partners.

Ask them about their challenges, their frustrations, and the gaps they see. Don’t pitch—listen. By the time you’ve had 100 conversations, you’ll know more about that market than your competitors ever will. And you’ll have built a network of early relationships that pay off down the line.

The breakthrough comes when you stop looking for completely new industries and start examining adjacencies. Instead of jumping into foreign markets, identify prospects that connect to your existing expertise.

If you sell to manufacturing, explore adjacent industries like logistics or supply chain management. If you work in healthcare, consider medical device companies or pharmaceutical services.

Adjacent markets let you leverage existing knowledge while expanding into less competitive territory.

Most market expansion strategies fall apart because of a lack of focus. Salespeople chase every shiny opportunity and end up spread too thin. The result? Lots of motion, zero momentum.

Domination beats diversification. Pick three or four high-potential segments and go all-in. Pour your time, energy, and relationship capital into saturating those markets. That density builds brand recognition, referrals, and trust.

Scattershot prospecting creates exhaustion. Focused prospecting creates dominance.

Don’t ignore what already exists—leverage it. The most counterintuitive insight about untapped markets is that the best ones build on foundations you already have.

Your “legacy assets” might include:

• Current customer relationships that could expand into new product lines or referrals to adjacent industries.
• Industry expertise that applies to related markets you haven’t considered.
• Existing partnerships that could introduce you to unexplored segments.
• Geographic knowledge that gives you advantages in nearby territories.
• Technical skills that solve problems in unexpected industries.

Stop looking for completely greenfield opportunities. Start asking: “What do I already know that could apply somewhere else?”

The fastest path to market penetration often builds on existing strengths rather than starting from scratch.

Most reps make the mistake of focusing only on decision-makers. But ecosystems drive markets, not individuals.

The service tech fixing machines knows which plants are expanding. The HR manager sees where budgets are growing. The facilities lead knows who’s signing leases.

When you build relationships beyond decision-makers, entire communities can support your expansion.

This is the part most salespeople hate: Building market presence takes patience. It’s a long-term play, not a quick win.

But here’s the paradox: when you stop expecting overnight wins, the wins come faster. That’s because you start making the right investments—building relationships, educating buyers, and sticking with markets that others abandon too soon.

Compounding effort always beats chasing quick hits.

Untapped markets aren’t about chasing “new.” They’re about being first. Getting in early. Building relationships before anyone else does. 

Start with your own blank slate analysis. What markets do you dismiss without investigation? What adjacencies exist around your current success? Where could you concentrate effort instead of spreading it thin?

Your untapped territory is waiting for someone smart enough to find it. Stop fighting for scraps in oversaturated markets and start building your own $200 million opportunity.

Want to turn your new market insights into a prospecting machine? Download our Seven Steps to Building Effective Prospecting Sequences guide and learn how to build outreach that cuts through the noise in fresh territory.

Here’s a question that’ll keep you up at night: What do you do when you believe in “buy or die” but you’re terrified of ruining future opportunities with annoying prospecting sequences?

That’s exactly what Angie Anderson asked during a recent Ask Jeb session, and it’s a problem that’s plaguing salespeople everywhere. Angie subscribes to the “buy or die” mentality but doesn’t want to destroy her odds of winning in the future by becoming the prospect’s worst nightmare.

If you’re nodding your head right now, you’re not alone. The tension between persistent prospecting and respectful relationship building is one of the biggest challenges facing modern sales professionals, and getting it wrong costs you deals—both now and in the future.

Most salespeople completely misunderstand what “buy or die” actually means. They think it’s about hammering prospects until they crack, but that’s not persistence—that’s harassment.

Real “buy or die” mentality recognizes that the prospect is never not a prospect, but sometimes now is not the right time. The key is knowing when to push and when to pull back.

Your sequence length and touch frequency should be driven by one critical factor: deal complexity and account size.

Short Cycle Sales Need Short, Aggressive Sequences Run 10-14 touch sequences over 10-30 days with touchpoints every 2-3 days. These prospects have buying windows that are typically always open, and the stakes are relatively low.

Complex Accounts Require Long-Term Relationship Building For massive, high-value accounts, you could run sequences that extend up to two years. Touch them monthly or quarterly to stay top of mind, waiting for the right opportunity window to open.

The magic happens when you track meaningful engagement. In any properly executed sequence, 30-50% of prospects will give you some form of signal—yes, no, or even “go away.” All of these responses give you something to work with.

But here’s the critical part: When you get complete radio silence from the other 50%, you stop. Pull them out of your sequence, slot in fresh prospects, and circle back in 90 days or six months. You have infinite time to go after them—use it strategically.

This brings us to the second major challenge facing modern salespeople: crafting relevant messages that resonate with busy prospects.

James Baldwin perfectly captured this struggle when he asked about leveraging tools like ZoomInfo to create relevant messaging. He sees tons of information but doesn’t know what to use or how to use it effectively.

This is where most reps completely miss the mark, and it’s costing them relationships.

Want to know the fastest way to get permanently blocked? Send a message that screams “I know nothing about you or your business.”

This happened to me recently with a rep from a major software company. They did everything technically right—multi-channel approach, proper timing, professional voicemails—but they failed at the most critical element: relevance.

They prospected Sales Gravy without doing even basic research. My LinkedIn profile was right there. My content was everywhere. I’ve literally said thousands of times that if you mention my books when prospecting me, I’ll almost always respond. But they were too lazy to look.

That’s not persistence; that’s sales malpractice.

The problem isn’t lack of information—it’s information overwhelm. Modern tools give you access to massive amounts of data, but most reps freeze up trying to figure out what matters.

The solution is asking better questions of your data.

Instead of just building lists, use AI-powered tools to ask specific questions: “What are three conversation starters that would make this CEO interested in talking with us?” or “Based on recent hiring signals and earnings reports, which accounts are most likely to need our solution right now?”

The most insatiable human need is the need to feel important and significant. When you demonstrate that you invested even minimal time researching them, you instantly make them feel like they matter.

But here’s what separates elite performers from average reps: They use information to craft messages that feel personal and relevant without being creepy or overly familiar.

Consistent Value Without Seasonality: If you solve a real problem today, you probably solve that same problem every day of the year. Don’t abandon strong messaging just because they haven’t responded yet. Your value proposition doesn’t change based on their response timing.

Strategic Information Usage: Look for recent posts, company news, hiring patterns, or industry challenges that you can reference naturally. The goal isn’t to prove you stalked them—it’s to show you understand their world.

Response Readiness: The worst prospecting sin is getting engagement and then going dark. If someone takes time to respond to your outreach, respond quickly and meaningfully. This is where many reps completely drop the ball.

For Sequence Strategy:

• Map sequence length to deal complexity, not arbitrary timelines.
• Space touchpoints every 2-3 days maximum for executives.
• Track meaningful engagement signals, not just activity metrics.
• Build systematic re-engagement for non-responders after 90+ days.

For Research and Relevance:

• Spend 5 minutes minimum researching each high-value prospect.
• Use AI tools to generate conversation starters based on real data.
• Reference specific, recent information without being invasive.
• Focus on their business challenges, not personal details.

Here’s where it all comes together: The best prospecting sequences combine persistent methodology with relevant messaging. You’re not choosing between being persistent or being relevant—you’re doing both systematically.

Your sequences should maintain consistent value while incorporating fresh, relevant information at each touchpoint. This keeps you top of mind without feeling repetitive or generic.

Most competitors give up after 1-2 attempts with weak messaging. You’ll stand out by combining systematic prospecting with research-driven relevance over extended timelines.

The tools exist. The information is available. The frameworks are proven.

What separates winners from wannabes is execution discipline. Stop overthinking sequences and start working them systematically. Stop sending generic messages and start doing basic research.

Elite performers work smarter, with systems that balance persistence with respect and relevance with scalability.

That’s how you build sustainable sales success. That’s how you maintain “buy or die intensity” without burning bridges. And that’s how you turn prospecting from a numbers game into a relationship investment that pays dividends for years.

Effective prospecting sequences start with working the right opportunities. The LinkedIn Edge is the definitive guide to combining LinkedIn, AI, and proven outbound strategies to sell more, win more, and earn more. Get your copy today.

I had intended for this Money Monday to be something powerful, a new message that would get you fired up for this week and this season. But last week, while delivering training to an amazing group of young salespeople with wide-open minds, I learned that Charlie Kirk had been assassinated. It disturbed me deeply, and I feel compelled to deliver this message.

On Sept. 10, 2025, Charlie Kirk was fatally shot while addressing an audience at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. A young man, thirty-one years old with his whole life ahead of him, was killed for no other reason than someone disagreed with him.

After learning about the assassination, I found myself incredibly disturbed that a person in the public square could just be shot and killed like that—murdered right in front of everyone. So I did what I always do when I want to understand something: I started learning.

I watched hours and hours, dozens and dozens of Charlie Kirk’s videos to learn more about the man, his message, and why someone would think it would be okay to assassinate him. I still haven’t found the answer to that last question.

Before I go any further, let me be crystal clear: This is not a political message. This is not a religious message. It is about how we treat each other as human beings.

If you know me, if you’ve been to my events or training, you know I never talk about politics or religion. If you look at my social media feeds on any channel, you won’t find much that would help you understand what my politics or religion are.

Do I have convictions? Yes. Do I believe certain things? Yes. But they’re my beliefs, and I keep them to myself because my job is to train salespeople. I’m a sales author, trainer, expert, and consultant. That’s my lane.

I train salespeople no matter what they believe. I train salespeople no matter what their religion. I train salespeople and help salespeople no matter where they’re from or what their walk of life is.

I don’t care where you come from because my entire purpose, my reason for being on earth, is to help you sell more, help you gain confidence, and to help you with your biggest sales questions and challenges.

What I discovered in watching those videos was something that transcends political beliefs. Charlie Kirk’s example was his willingness to go sit down face-to-face with people who disagreed with him, sometimes vehemently, and just have a conversation. And do it respectfully.

I noticed something remarkable in his videos: More than once, he said, “You know what, I stand corrected.” Someone would come to him with a different set of facts, and he would say, “Okay, that sounds right. I agree with you.” In many cases, he would shake the person’s hand after a debate.

He was respectful. It was never about the person. It wasn’t personal. He didn’t hate the person. He had conversations about their ideas. How Charlie Kirk disagreed mattered.

That is what we need to get back to. Not someplace in the future—today, right now.

I watched his wife’s, Erica’s, message to the world, and I found myself on an airplane as a grown man with tears streaming down my face, trying not to let everyone see that I was crying. It was heartbreaking watching her pain.

She has two kids; they are one- and three-years-old. That assassin changed their lives forever.

I can’t imagine when one of them gets older and either finds the video of their daddy getting assassinated or someone puts it in front of them. If you step into that frame for just a moment with your human empathy, it will make you hurt.

Charlie’s children will be raised with stories instead of memories, photographs instead of laughter, and silence where their father’s voice should have guided and loved them.

Everywhere in our lives with other people, we have disagreement. Everywhere in our lives, we have conflict. It’s not just politics or religion. It’s not just philosophy.

We have this conflict in our families. We have this conflict at work. If you’re in sales, you know this because you’re always in conflict with other people at work. You know the internal sell is harder than the external sell. You know there are people inside your organization who just don’t believe the same things you believe.

The choice you make is this: You either push them aside, shun them, treat them like objects, choose to hate them—or you can make the choice to go sit down and have a conversation with them.

Here’s the thing about talking with people: While you’re talking with people, it’s hard to hate them while you’re standing in front of them. You can’t see them as less than human. You have to see them as another person. It’s just necessary to have that conversation.

Sometimes you can agree to disagree, but the act of sitting down and talking changes everything.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox said something profound after Charlie’s assassination: “Words are not violence. Violence is violence.”

He also said that social media is a cancer, and I partly agree with him. Social media has been huge for me as a businessperson. I use it all the time. I love LinkedIn; I even have a brand new book coming out on LinkedIn.

But social media becomes a cancer when, instead of stepping into our empathy and feeling what other people feel and looking at the world through their lens, we’re able to write the most horrific things about them. We’re able to create memes about a young man who was killed, who was assassinated in the public square.

When you’re celebrating someone else’s assassination on social media, it’s because you no longer see them as a human being. That’s when it becomes a cancer.

Governor Cox wasn’t sure whether Charlie Kirk’s assassination would be a pivot point that changes us. He said only history will reveal that. But he did say that each of us has a choice. We can make the choice to change how we disagree with each other, to change how we debate.

You have a choice. You can choose to disagree better.

The choice is that you can see people—whether you’re looking at them through the lens of social media, a TV screen, or a phone screen—and choose to step into their shoes and see them as a person. You can use your God-given empathy to take a moment and try to see their point of view.

You don’t have to agree with it, but you can still view things through their lens. And if you can see someone else’s point of view, there might be an opportunity to find common ground or compromise.

The thing I love about America is that we were founded on debate. America was founded on disagreement. Our entire system is built for us to have multiple sides coming together.

It works because we have all these different voices, and it’s messy because we don’t agree with each other. But the beautiful thing about that mess, the beautiful thing about all those people disagreeing, is that one side almost never gets all the power.

Our founding fathers understood that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Because we have all those dissenting voices, because we have to compromise we make progress.

In recent years though, an evil mindset has slowly creeped into society. “You don’t agree with me, therefore you’re bad, and bad people like you deserve to die.”

But when all those voices begin to debate and sit down and see each other as human beings, somewhere along the line we make small agreements that move us forward. As a country, we have consistently moved forward and gotten better over time because we disagree with each other.

Governor Cox said something I love. Put social media down. Put the phone down. Go out and touch some grass. Go hug someone. Tell them that you love them. Go sit down and talk with someone you don’t agree with. You might walk away and still disagree, but you can still have a meal together.

Back in college, when we were having debates—and when I was in college, you actually got to have debates with two sides—we would debate with each other in classrooms. We would debate our ideas all the way to the point where we basically had to shake hands and say we’re walking away. And then we would go hang out with each other.

We can do this. As human beings, we have the agency to make this choice. As long as we’re talking with people, as long as we’re connected with people, it’s easier to love and harder to hate.

This applies to every area of our lives, including our professional relationships. In sales, you’re constantly dealing with people who see things differently than you do. Prospects who have different priorities. Colleagues who have different approaches. Managers who have different expectations.

The principles that made Charlie Kirk effective in his debates are the same principles that make great salespeople:

• Listen first. Really listen to understand, not just to respond.
• Show respect for the person, even when you disagree with their position.
• Control your emotions. Focus on the making your case rather than making the other person wrong.
• Focus on ideas, not personalities. Attack the problem, not the person.
• Be willing to be wrong. Sometimes the other person has better information or a better perspective.
• Find common ground. Look for areas where you can agree before addressing areas where you differ.

Charlie Kirk was willing to engage respectfully with people who vehemently disagreed with him. He showed us that you can hold strong convictions while still treating others with dignity and respect.

His assassination was an attempt to silence that kind of civil discourse. The best way to honor his memory is to prove that assassination cannot silence the spirit of respectful disagreement that he embodied.

This is no longer about saying “This has no place in America.” It’s time for action. Go out there in the world. Find people you disagree with and be willing to sit down with them. Go out there and debate each other and disagree. But do it better. Our country, our communities, our families, and our workplaces depend on it.

What if one simple discovery question could close your next big deal?

Here’s the one I used: “Tell me what’s going on with your team?”

Then I shut up and listened. The buying committee talked, debated, and worked their way toward their own clarity. By the end of the call, they had essentially closed the deal for me. I barely said a word.

That’s not a fairy tale—it happened. And it proves why most sales discovery fails: reps focus on their checklist and pitch instead of helping the buyer gain clarity.

Dr. Lorenzo Bizzi joined The Sales Gravy Podcast and revealed a simple truth: Buyer uncertainty kills deals.

Traditional sales discovery often increases that uncertainty. Rigid qualifying questions, seller-centric agendas, and shallow data gathering make buyers feel misunderstood and cautious.

When you approach discovery this way, you’re eroding trust. Sure, buyers are evaluating your product—but they’re also evaluating whether you understand their world. And if you can’t help them gain clarity, even the best solution won’t move the deal forward.

The most effective influence tactic isn’t charm, rapport, or even product demos. It’s clearly displaying the arguments and reasons why your solution works for their specific situation.

But you can’t build rational arguments until you truly understand the problem. And you can’t understand the problem until you master deep discovery.

Deep discovery operates on two levels:

• The Organizational Level: What metrics matter to the company? What are the measurable business outcomes they’re trying to achieve? What’s the cost of inaction?
• The Individual Level: What’s at stake for each stakeholder personally? How will this decision impact their performance review, their standing with leadership, and their career trajectory?

Remember: Organizations don’t make decisions. People do.

The most powerful discovery conversations start with one well-crafted, open-ended question that invites the buyer to tell their story—not your story about how great your product is. 

The question I used—”Tell me what’s going on with your team?”—worked because it was:

• Open-ended, with no leading assumptions.
• Centered on their world, not my product.
• Neutral, without judgment or bias.
• Broad enough to go anywhere.

When you ask the right question and then listen, the buyer starts convincing themselves. They begin connecting the dots between their current situation and what they need to change. 

And here’s the key: If the buyer says it, it’s the truth. If you say it, you’re just another salesperson spinning a pitch.

Dr. Lorenzo Bizzi defines several types of empathy. But for salespeople, the distinction that matters is simple: affective empathy pulls you off course, while cognitive empathy keeps you sharp, connected, and in control.

Affective empathy—actually feeling what your buyers feel—will drain your energy and cloud your judgment. When they’re frustrated, you get frustrated. When they’re uncertain, you become uncertain.

Cognitive empathy is different. It’s the ability to recognize and understand what your buyer is feeling without taking it on yourself. You stay clear-headed and outcome-focused, while still connecting deeply with their situation. 

In discovery, cognitive empathy shows up in the emotional nuance most salespeople miss—a pause before they answer, a change in tone, or hesitation in their voice. That’s your cue to lean in, ask a clarifying question, and uncover what’s really driving their hesitation.

• “You paused when I asked about your current system. What’s on your mind?”
• “I heard some frustration in your voice when you mentioned the timeline. Help me understand what’s driving that.”

Deals get won in the emotional subtleties that surface-level discovery never uncovers.

Artificial intelligence is democratizing sales presentations. Everyone can now generate polished decks, sharp ROI models, and slick proposals. When everything looks perfect, how do buyers decide?

They choose the salesperson who understands them best. The one who helped them see their situation more clearly than they saw it themselves.

AI can’t replicate that. It can’t read the unspoken hesitation in a prospect’s voice or ask the follow-up question that unlocks the real issue. That’s human territory. And it’s where skilled discovery gives you the ultimate edge.

Here’s how to revolutionize your discovery process:

1. Start Broad, Then Narrow: Begin with one expansive question that invites storytelling. Let them paint the full picture before you start drilling down into specifics.
2. Listen for Stories, Not Data Points: People communicate in narratives, not bullet points. Pay attention to the story they’re telling and help them connect the dots.
3. Guide, Don’t Interrogate: Your job isn’t to extract information. It’s to help them organize their thoughts and gain clarity on their situation.
4. Follow the Energy: When you notice emotional shifts, that’s where the real information lives. Dig in instead of sticking to your script.
5. Reflect and Clarify: “Here’s what I’m hearing…” proves you’re listening and helps them hear their own story from a new perspective.

The future belongs to sellers who understand that sales discovery is about helping buyers gain the certainty they need to move forward with confidence, not checking boxes.

Master this approach, and buyers will thank you for helping them see their situation more clearly. And you’ll wonder why you ever thought you needed to talk so much to sell so much.

Stop interrogating. Start facilitating. The difference will transform your sales results—and how you think about selling.

The revolution starts with one question. What will yours be?

If you want to take your sales discovery to the next level, you need to understand how different buyers think and make decisions. Grab your free copy of the ACED Buyer Style Playbook and learn how to adapt your discovery approach to every buyer type.

Here’s a question that’ll make you rethink everything about sales performance: What happens when your team has all the skills, tools, and training they need, but they’re still underperforming because they can’t regulate their emotions under pressure?

That’s exactly what Natalie Brooks from Charlotte discovered when she noticed how drastically emotions were impacting her team’s performance during tough selling days. Meanwhile, salespeople like Jordan from San Diego are making decisions they later regret—pushing forward on deals they know are wrong just because they look good on paper.

If you’re nodding your head right now, you’re witnessing one of the most overlooked aspects of sales performance: emotional regulation. And it’s costing you deals, talent, and revenue.

Here’s the brutal truth: When you’re emotionally dysregulated or your nervous system is hijacked by stress, focusing on anything becomes nearly impossible. Your best discovery questions go out the window. Your qualifying discipline disappears. Your prospecting consistency evaporates.

Think about it. You can have the perfect sales process, but if your rep is in fight-or-flight mode from a string of rejections, they’re not executing that process effectively. They’re just going through the motions while their emotional state sabotages their performance.

This isn’t just about “feeling better.” This is about creating the mental and emotional foundation that allows elite sales performance to happen consistently.

The reason most sales organizations ignore emotional regulation is the same reason they obsess over talk time metrics—it’s easier to focus on activities than outcomes.

It’s much simpler to say “make more calls” than to create an environment where your team feels safe enough to regulate their emotions and perform at their peak. But here’s what happens when you ignore the emotional component of sales:

Your reps start making fear-based decisions. They chase deals they know are wrong fits because they’re afraid of having an empty pipeline. They avoid difficult conversations because rejection feels personal. They burn out because they’re running on adrenaline instead of sustainable energy.

Meanwhile, your top performers aren’t just skilled, they’ve learned to manage their emotional state in a way that supports peak performance.

Personal Regulation: The Foundation Everything starts with personal habits that support emotional stability. Your “why” becomes your anchor during tough moments. When you’re tired, exhausted, or questioning what you’re doing, that purpose pulls you through.

But purpose alone isn’t enough. Your daily habits outside of work create the foundation for emotional regulation at work. Sleep, nutrition, exercise, stress management—these aren’t “nice to haves.” They’re the infrastructure that supports your ability to stay sharp and focused when deals get challenging.

Team Regulation: Creating Safety As a leader, you have a responsibility to create psychological safety where your team can regulate together. This might look like mid-day resets where everyone takes a few deep breaths or does a quick activity to release tension from difficult calls.

The key is consistency. When emotional regulation becomes part of your team culture—not just something you talk about during tough times—it shows that peak performance includes emotional wellness.

Process Regulation: Trusting Your System Here’s where emotional regulation meets sales discipline. When you have clear qualifying standards and you trust your process, you don’t have to make emotional decisions about which deals to pursue.

Ultra-high performing salespeople show discipline by recognizing that they only have so many hours in the day. They create rules they can live by rather than relying on gut feelings in the moment. If a deal doesn’t cross their probability threshold, they walk away.

One of the most powerful forms of emotional regulation is learning to trust your instincts about deals, prospects, and opportunities. We’ve all had that immediate “no” feeling about something, but then overridden it because we wanted to please someone or didn’t want to let anyone down.

When you go against that inner guidance, you lose trust in yourself. And when the deal inevitably falls apart, you’re not mad at the situation—you’re mad at yourself for not listening to what you knew was true from the beginning.

Building confidence means having the courage to feel that feeling and move with it instantly. Every choice you make is a trade-off. The choice to work on a deal that’s not a strong fit is the choice to deal that is a fit on the backburner.

For Sales Leaders:

• Create daily opportunities for team emotional regulation, even if it’s just a few minutes of shared breathing or tension release.
• Implement sales coaching methodologies that address both the skill and emotional components of performance.
• Stop penalizing reps for walking away from low-probability deals when they’re following proper qualifying discipline.

For Sales Professionals:

• Define your deeper why beyond just quota achievement. What does success enable you to do or become?
• Master prospecting disciplines that keep your pipeline full so you can afford to walk away from poor-fit opportunities.
• Create qualifying thresholds that remove emotion from deal decisions.

For Everyone:

• Treat emotional regulation as seriously as any other sales skill, and recognize that it requires practice and consistency.
• Develop your Sales EQ alongside your technical sales abilities.
• Remember that emotion is just energy in motion. You can always redirect it toward your purpose.

Stop treating emotional regulation as a “soft skill” that’s separate from sales performance. Your ability to manage your emotional state under pressure directly impacts your ability to execute your sales process, make good decisions, and maintain the energy needed for consistent prospecting.

The best sales professionals are both skilled and emotionally regulated. They’ve created the internal infrastructure that allows their skills to show up consistently, regardless of external circumstances.

That’s how you build sustainable sales success. That’s how you maintain peak performance under pressure. And that’s how you create the mental and emotional foundation that turns good salespeople into elite performers.

Emotional regulation starts with working the right opportunities. The LinkedIn Edge is the definitive guide to combining LinkedIn, AI, and proven outbound strategies to sell more, win more, and earn more. Pre-order your copy today.

While your competitors are stuck in voicemail purgatory, a small group of top performers has unlocked a secret pipeline of qualified sales leads. They’ve discovered how to stop chasing and start attracting, all by generating warm leads through podcast interviews. Not by starting their own shows, but by treating every podcast appearance as a lead generation machine built on conversation and credibility.

As Molly Ruland, CEO of Heartcast Media, puts it, “You don’t need a hundred new clients tomorrow. Two people who really like you and understand your business talking about you in rooms you’re not in can change your pipeline.” 

This mindset shift transforms how you approach every conversation so that it compounds into trust, referrals, and revenue.

You’re sending out hundreds of emails, making dozens of cold calls, and hoping something sticks. It’s exhausting—and it rarely produces the kind of relationships that lead to real opportunities.

Your prospects don’t want to be sold to. They’re sick of transactional relationships. They want genuine conversations and solutions from people they trust. This is where most salespeople fail to find a qualified sales lead. They’re focused on the sale, not the connection. 

So what’s the alternative? It’s learning to treat every podcast appearance as more than just an interview. Done right, podcasts become a warm stage where you can demonstrate expertise, build credibility, and start relationships that turn into pipeline.

To make this work, you need a simple, repeatable system—a four-step process that transforms a single podcast conversation into a flow of qualified leads.

The process is about being smart, not getting famous. You don’t need to get on the biggest podcast in the world. You need to get on the right podcast.

The right podcast is where your ideal customer profile (ICP) is already gathered, listening, and learning. A show with 50 listeners who are all in your target market is a thousand times more valuable than a show with 50,000 listeners who will never buy from you.

How do you find the right podcasts? 

• Ask your best clients what they listen to. 
• Research key influencers in your space. 
• Look for shows that specifically address the problems you solve. 

Your goal is simple: Find and get on shows hosted by industry connectors, aggregators, and experts who have already earned the trust of your prospects. This allows you to skip the cold outreach and get a warm introduction to your next qualified sales lead.

Once you’ve identified your target shows, the next step is getting invited. This is a crucial moment. A generic email won’t cut it. You have to craft a message that offers value, not asks for a favor.

Your outreach needs to be personalized and direct. Don’t talk about how great you are. Talk about the host’s audience. Explain why your expertise, insights, or unique perspective will provide undeniable value to their listeners. Reference a specific episode or a past guest to prove you’ve done your homework.

And don’t limit yourself to email. LinkedIn is one of the most effective platforms for securing podcast invitations. Sending a thoughtful, personalized LinkedIn message—paired with a strong profile that showcases your expertise—positions you as a credible guest. When a host sees you consistently sharing relevant insights on LinkedIn, your ask feels natural instead of opportunistic.

When you offer to help them provide a great episode, you position yourself as a partner. You’re not begging for airtime. You’re offering a valuable conversation. This approach immediately sets you apart and begins the relationship-building process that is essential to finding a qualified sales lead.

The interview itself is not a sales call. Your goal is to be a helpful, insightful expert who provides value to the audience and, critically, to the host. The host is your most important qualified sales lead. They are the gateway to the audience you want to reach.

Your job is to actively listen, respond with your expertise, and share personal solutions to audience dilemmas.

• Listen: Pay attention to the host’s questions. They’re a direct line to what your target market cares about.
• Ask: Use the opportunity to ask them questions in return, such as “That’s a great point, what are you seeing as the biggest challenge with that for your listeners?” 
• Context: Share stories and examples that illustrate how you help clients solve problems. Never say, “My company does X.” Instead, say, “I recently worked with a client who faced that exact problem. Here’s how we helped them solve it.”

By the end of the conversation, you’ve built rapport, demonstrated your expertise, and learned more about the host’s business or industry. 

Most people get on a podcast, say thank you, and move on. They let the opportunity die. This is a fatal mistake. The post-interview period is your window to convert that connection into a qualified sales lead.

Your follow-up should be systematic and focused on providing continued value.

• Immediate Thank You: Within 24 hours, send a personal note mentioning a specific part of the conversation you appreciated.
• The Value-Add: A week or two later, send them a resource, article, or introduction that’s relevant to something they mentioned. This proves you were listening and keeps the relationship alive.
• The Referral Ask: Once the episode airs and you’ve shared it, ask for a warm introduction. Since they’ve seen your expertise firsthand, they are in the perfect position to make a powerful referral. 

The power of this strategy isn’t in a single transaction. It’s in the compounding effect.

Every interview builds your authority. You are no longer just a salesperson; you become a trusted expert and a connector in your industry.

Every host who interviews you becomes a potential referral source. They are constantly talking to people in your market and can become a powerful advocate for your business.

And here’s where LinkedIn supercharges the process: every podcast appearance adds depth to your digital footprint. When you share the episode, tag the host, and highlight insights from the conversation, you’re signaling to the LinkedIn algorithm who you are and who you serve. Over time, the platform begins showing you to more of the right people—the prospects, buyers, and decision-makers who match your ideal customer profile.

This isn’t just about closing one deal. It’s about building a sustainable, referral-based business that fuels your pipeline for years to come.

Most salespeople will keep fighting for attention. They’ll read this and call it “too much work.”

But a select few will embrace the power of conversation. They will turn every podcast interview into a powerful way to find a qualified sales lead. They’ll master the art of conversation, follow through with intention, and turn hosts into referral engines.

So here’s your choice: Keep spinning your wheels, or step onto the right stage and let the conversation do the heavy lifting.

If you’re ready to take this strategy even further, Jeb Blount’s new book The LinkedIn Edge gives you the playbook for turning every conversation—online or off—into a qualified sales lead. Buy your copy today and start building the kind of pipeline your competitors can’t touch.

A day in the life of a rep heading toward sales burnout: You wake up ready to crush your sales goals, skip breakfast to get an early jump on calls, grab fast food between appointments, and by 2 p.m., you’re mentally checked out, struggling to focus on that critical prospect meeting. 

That’s the reality facing Angela Mendez from Austin and Marcus Taylor from Denver. Angela’s crashing every afternoon when she skips meals or eats on the go. Marcus is burning out fast, juggling a packed pipeline and back-to-back Zoom meetings.

If you’re nodding your head right now, this article is your wake-up call. Because the energy crisis and burnout epidemic in sales isn’t just about being tired—it’s costing you deals, destroying your performance, and stealing your edge when you need it most.

Let’s start with the key facts of energy management: Your brain is an engine, and like any engine, it needs the right fuel to perform. When you skip meals or grab whatever’s convenient, you’re essentially putting sugar water in a Ferrari and wondering why it’s sputtering.

Here’s what happens when you don’t fuel properly: Your blood sugar crashes, your focus evaporates, and your personality literally changes. You become irritable, indecisive, and ineffective—exactly when you need to be sharp, confident, and persuasive.

The solution isn’t complicated, but it requires preparation and discipline.

Start with breakfast—period. This isn’t negotiable. You need something that gives you a slow burn: oatmeal with fruit, protein like eggs, something that keeps you steady until lunch. If you don’t eat protein in the morning, you’ll be hungry by 10 a.m. and making poor food choices.

Pack your day the night before. Get a cooler. Fill it with real food: apples and almond butter, walnuts, dried fruits without added sugar, vegetables and hummus. Keep fresh fruit and vegetable juices without added sugar in small bottles. This isn’t about being a health fanatic—it’s about maintaining peak performance when deals are on the line.

Here’s the game-changer: Don’t wait for fatigue or extreme hunger. Stay ahead of it. The moment you feel your energy dipping, that’s too late. You should be fueling consistently throughout the day, not rescuing yourself from a crash.

And here’s a pro tip that might sound simple but works: Carry apples everywhere. When you start getting hungry and your personality begins to shift, an apple gives you just enough sugar and energy without the crash that comes from processed snacks. It’s your emergency reset button.

Now let’s talk about Marcus’s burnout problem, because this one hits close to home for every salesperson drowning in Zoom fatigue and calendar chaos.

Being on camera wears you out way faster than face-to-face meetings. If you’re scheduling yourself back-to-back-to-back without recovery time, you’re your own worst enemy. There’s no formula that’s going to solve the problem of walking from one meeting directly into the next meeting into the next meeting. Your brain can’t handle it, and your performance will suffer.

Take control of your calendar. I know this sounds obvious, but how much of your scheduling nightmare did you do to yourself? How often do you say yes when you should say no? How many meetings do you accept because of FOMO—fear of missing out—when the meeting is actually superfluous?

Audit your last 30 days of meetings. Really look at them. How many could you have declined? How many were necessary for moving deals forward versus just making you feel busy and important?

Here’s what’s really happening: You’re filling your calendar to prove your value and demonstrate how busy you are. But a packed calendar isn’t a badge of honor—it’s a recipe for burnout and poor performance. It takes confidence and self-ownership to say, “I’m going to take these 30 minutes for myself because I am the priority.”

Build in real recovery time. You cannot go from Zoom meeting to Zoom meeting without breaks and expect to perform at your best. Schedule 15-minute buffers between calls. Take a walk, even if it’s just around the parking lot. Get human-to-human connection throughout the day—a phone call, an in-person conversation, anything that gives you that energetic feedback you can’t get through a screen.

The goal isn’t to fill every minute of your day. The goal is to be effective in the minutes that matter most. Sales professionals who master Fanatical Prospecting Bootcamp principles know that consistency and preparation beat frantic activity every time.

Here’s what Angela and Marcus—and maybe you—don’t realize: Poor energy management and burnout are deal killers.

When you’re running on empty, you make lazy prospecting calls. You skip the hard questions in discovery. You don’t push for commitments. You accept “think it over” instead of advancing the sale. You become reactive instead of proactive.

The ability to handle objections with confidence and maintain mental sharpness is a competitive advantage. When you’re energized and mentally sharp, you ask better questions, create urgency that moves deals forward, and close more effectively.

If you’re struggling with energy crashes like Angela:

Prepare the night before. Pack your cooler, plan your meals, set yourself up for success. Don’t leave nutrition to chance or convenience.

Eat protein in the morning. This isn’t about being perfect—it’s about being consistent. Find something that works and stick with it.

Stay ahead of hunger. Don’t wait for the crash. Fuel consistently throughout the day with real, whole foods.

If you’re burning out like Marcus:

Audit your calendar ruthlessly. How much of your scheduling problem is self-inflicted? Start saying no to meetings that don’t move deals forward.

Schedule recovery time. Build 15-minute buffers between meetings. Take walks. Get human connection. Treat recovery as seriously as you treat your prospect meetings.

Focus on effectiveness over activity. A packed calendar doesn’t equal productivity. Virtual Selling Skills training teaches that peak performance in remote sales requires both intense focus and intentional recovery between calls.

Your energy and mental state aren’t personal issues—they’re professional imperatives. When you’re running on empty or burning out, you’re not just hurting yourself, you’re hurting your prospects, your company, and your income.

The solution isn’t complicated: Fuel your body properly, control your calendar intentionally, and build recovery into your day. It’s about being disciplined enough to invest in the foundation that makes everything else possible.

Stop treating energy management and burnout prevention as luxuries. They’re the difference between good salespeople and great ones. They’re the difference between hitting your numbers and exceeding them.

Take control of your energy, and you’ll take control of your results.

Ready to develop the mental toughness and discipline that separates top performers from the rest? Explore Sales Gravy University’s comprehensive training programs and start leveling up your sales game.

Leadership is the single most important factor in a sales team’s success. You can have talented reps, strong products, and a solid sales process, but without effective leadership, performance stalls. As Duff Tucker, Sales Trainer, puts it on this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast:

“You have to model the behaviors that you want your team to live out. When you model those, you get a lot of credibility. You have respect. You have influence.”

In today’s hyper-competitive sales environment, your team has choices. Top performers can work anywhere. Average reps will coast if you let them. But the teams that consistently crush quotas, retain top talent, and create cultures where everyone wants to win all have one thing in common: a leader who has mastered the fundamental skills that turn potential into performance.

Here are five leadership skills every sales manager must master to drive their team to the next level. 

Sales teams don’t fail because of a lack of talent—they fail because of unclear expectations. Leadership starts with communication. If your reps don’t know exactly what you expect, how you measure success, or where they’re falling short, you’re setting them up to miss the mark.

Clarity means:

• Defining priorities: What activities matter most (calls, meetings, proposals) and why.
• Eliminating ambiguity: No mixed signals, no “read between the lines.”
• Giving feedback in real time: Don’t wait for quarterly reviews to correct course.

Practical tip: After every meeting, send a short recap of agreed actions and timelines. It reinforces expectations and removes excuses. Vague leadership creates vague results.

A sales leader isn’t just a scoreboard watcher. Your job is to give your team something bigger to aim at than just “hitting quota.” Without a clear vision, teams drift into reactive mode and lack initiative. People perform better when they’re chasing a clear, meaningful vision. 

Effective goal setting requires more than revenue targets. It’s about:

• Tying team goals to organizational strategy.
• Breaking big objectives into manageable activity benchmarks.
• Painting a picture of what winning looks like so reps can see themselves in it.

Practical tip: Start every month by walking your team through why their goals matter and how success impacts the company, the customer, and their own careers. When reps buy into the vision, they push harder to achieve it.

Micromanagers kill momentum. Coaches create it. Leadership in sales means shifting from telling people what to do to building people who can do it themselves.

Great sales coaching involves:

• Observation: Ride-alongs, call reviews, pipeline inspections.
• Targeted feedback: Specific, actionable, focused on behaviors, not personality.
• Development mindset: Every interaction is a teaching moment.

Practical tip: Block weekly one-on-one coaching sessions that focus on skills and pipeline health. Ask questions that uncover roadblocks instead of delivering lectures. Consistently coached reps outperform those left to figure it out alone.

Markets shift, customers evolve, and strategies that worked yesterday won’t guarantee tomorrow’s success. The best leaders view challenges as opportunities.

Adaptability looks like:

• Adjusting sales strategies with confidence.
• Staying ahead of industry trends, not reacting late.
• Modeling resilience when things don’t go according to plan.

Practical tip: Hold monthly “market pulse” sessions where you and your team discuss shifts in buyer behavior, competitor activity, and emerging tools. This keeps your team agile and ready to move, rather than stuck waiting for direction.

Leadership is about balance, not being a cheerleader or tyrant. The best sales managers enforce accountability while recognizing wins. Too much pressure without acknowledgment breeds burnout; too much recognition without accountability creates complacency.

Accountability means measuring results, holding reps responsible, and addressing performance gaps immediately. Recognition means calling out progress, effort, and achievement in ways that inspire.

Practical tip: Implement a simple framework: Inspect what you expect, and celebrate what you respect. Use weekly scorecards to track KPIs, then highlight one specific win for each rep in team meetings. This builds both discipline and morale.

Individually, each of these skills will make you a stronger manager. But when combined, they create a powerful leadership framework:

• Clear communication sets the direction.
• Goal setting gives your team purpose.
• Coaching builds their skills and confidence.
• Adaptability keeps them ahead of the curve.
• Accountability and recognition sustain performance.

When sales leaders integrate these disciplines, they build teams that execute consistently and, even under pressure, perform at the highest level.

Being a sales manager isn’t about hitting your own number anymore. It’s about multiplying results through your team. Your reps don’t need a boss. They need a leader who communicates clearly, sets a compelling vision, coaches consistently, adapts with confidence, and balances accountability with recognition.

Start small: Audit your leadership against these five skills. Where are you strong? Where are you slipping? Then pick one area to strengthen this quarter.

Because these five sales leadership skills can’t be faked. Either you live them out daily, or your team knows you’re just managing, not leading.

As a sales leader, one of your most powerful tools for boosting team performance is the strategic use of sales contests and incentives. In this micro-course, Jessica Stokes provides you with essential insights on how to design and implement effective sales competitions.

Here’s a question about sales territory disputes that’ll make your head spin: What do you do when overlapping territories and shared relationships turn your sales team into a collection of lone wolves fighting over who owns what?

That’s the exact predicament faced by Kayla Lujan, VP of Sales at Down to Earth Landscape and Irrigation, in Orlando, Florida. Her team manages defined territories, but their business model creates inevitable crossover with HOA managers who oversee multiple properties spanning across different reps’ territories.

As she put it: “I’ve really seen the team kind of lose focus on working as one or team selling and more of … a what’s mine versus working together.”

If you’re nodding your head right now, you’re not alone. Territory disputes are one of the most destructive forces in sales organizations, and they’re costing companies their collaborative culture and their best deals.

Salespeople are wired to win. And when territories overlap, that competitive drive turns inward, creating internal battles that hurt everyone.

I learned this lesson the hard way when I was a VP of sales managing local and regional account executives. We had big regional accounts sitting in local territories, and the fighting was relentless. Local reps would work around the system, hide opportunities, and go through back doors to protect “their” accounts.

The result? We lost major deals because the wrong person with insufficient skills was working them solo, or we’d win the business only to have explosive commission disputes after the fact.

But here’s what shocked me most: When we gave people the choice between money or credit on the ranking report, they fought harder over the credit than the commission. They’d forgo 100% money but wage war over who got recognition for closing the deal.

That tells you everything you need to know about sales psychology. It’s not just about money—it’s about winning, recognition, and status.

Territory disputes create uncomfortable team meetings and destroy your sales effectiveness in three critical ways:

Lost Deal Value: When the wrong rep works a deal alone because they’re protecting their turf, you lose the collective expertise that could close bigger opportunities.

Relationship Damage: Customers get confused when multiple reps approach them without coordination, making your organization look disorganized and unprofessional.

Top Performer Exodus: Your best salespeople get frustrated with the politics and infighting, leading them to seek opportunities at companies with better team cultures.

The companies that figure this out win big. The ones that don’t hemorrhage talent and revenue to organizations that actually know how to build high-performing sales teams.

For Kayla’s HOA challenge—and similar overlapping territory situations—here’s the framework that actually works:

Assign Relationship Ownership: The rep with the core relationship (the HOA headquarters contact) owns account retention and expansion. They’re responsible for keeping that account long-term and get compensated accordingly.

Create Local Opportunity Roles: Local reps in each territory focus on building relationships with on-site contacts—facility managers, groundskeepers, community center staff. They get compensated for new project acquisition and spot opportunities within their geographic area.

Implement Commission Pools: Instead of fighting over who gets what percentage, create a commission pool for each major account. The pool gets divided based on roles and contributions, not territorial claims.

Force Up-Front Agreements: Here’s the crucial part: Make involved parties agree on commission splits before any work begins. Post-deal disputes are exponentially harder to resolve than pre-deal agreements.

The hardest part of solving territory wars is the leadership mindset required to manage them effectively.

As I told Kayla, moving into VP-level roles means stepping into two worlds simultaneously. You need to be tactical enough to manage these day-to-day disputes, while being strategic enough to build systems that prevent them.

The tactical side requires you to be King Solomon when reps can’t agree, making decisions that nobody loves but everyone can live with. The strategic side means creating compensation structures and territory designs that naturally encourage collaboration.

But here’s what most new sales leaders miss: You’re not just managing sales processes anymore. You’re part of the executive team, and your territory decisions impact operations, finance, and overall business strategy. Your sales leadership needs to balance team dynamics with business objectives.

I tell my team constantly: “We win as a team.” And yes, fistfights still ensue. The phrase doesn’t magically solve territorial disputes, but it sets the expectation that collaboration is the standard, not the exception.

Leadership sometimes means repeating yourself until you’re blue in the face, then getting up and repeating yourself some more. The message needs to be consistent: Individual wins that hurt team performance are losses for everyone.

This requires recognizing and rewarding collaborative behavior publicly while addressing territorial behavior privately and directly. You can’t let territorial thinking fester because it spreads faster than good teamwork habits.

If you’re dealing with territory wars:

Audit Your Current Structure: Map out where overlaps occur and which accounts create the most disputes. These are your highest priority fixes.

Design Commission Pools: Create clear, written agreements about how shared opportunities will be compensated before deals begin.

Define Relationship Ownership: Establish who owns which relationships and what their responsibilities are for retention versus expansion.

Invest in Team Culture: Make collaboration a measured and rewarded behavior, not just something you talk about in meetings.

The companies that solve the territory puzzle don’t eliminate competition—they channel it toward the right targets. Instead of fighting each other, your team fights together to win more business and serve customers better.

That’s how you transform territorial lone wolves into a collaborative pack that dominates your market.

For more insights on building effective sales teams and leadership strategies, explore our sales management training programs on Sales Gravy University.

Sales activity is the lifeblood of your career. But for too many salespeople, it’s the very thing holding them back. You’re generating a ton of activity, your calendar is packed, your inbox is overflowing, and by the end of the day, you’re drained. 

But your numbers aren’t moving. You’re not gaining ground; you’re just driving in circles.

As Ron Karr, author of Velocity Mindset, says, the difference between amateurs and top performers isn’t how fast they move, but whether they’re moving with a clear, defined direction. The problem isn’t laziness. It’s that you’re mistaking motion for momentum. And that’s why you feel stuck.

Most salespeople today are trapped in a cycle of sales activity that leads nowhere. Instead of pursuing long-term, meaningful outcomes, they chase short-term wins: a quick meeting booked, a proposal sent, a Request for Proposal (RFP) answered.

But those wins don’t move the needle. They pull you onto a field controlled by competitors. You’re responding to bids, filling out forms, and competing on price. That’s not selling—it’s order-taking. And order-taking will keep you broke no matter how much activity you pile on.

Busyness isn’t just about wasted time. It’s about emotional avoidance. The reason you bury yourself in low-value sales activity is that it feels safe. These tasks create the illusion of productivity while shielding you from what you’re really afraid of: rejection.

Instead of calling the prospect who’s gone cold, you refresh your CRM. Rather then reaching out to the big account you’ve been circling, you tidy your inbox. Instead of pushing into a tough conversation, you polish the proposal one more time.

You’re not lazy. You’re working hard. But effort without purpose is like a car spinning its wheels in the mud. Lots of noise, lots of energy, but no forward motion. 

Not all sales activity is created equal. Some actions produce a 10x return. Others are pure waste. Top performers know the difference—and ruthlessly prioritize the former.

Here are three high-leverage sales activities that separate pros from amateurs:

Your sales pipeline is the fuel tank for your career. If it’s empty, you’re not going anywhere. Prospecting isn’t a side task you do when you have extra time. It is the job.

That means making outbound calls, sending personalized emails, and using LinkedIn to connect with people who aren’t already in your orbit. Stop waiting for the phone to ring. Go make it ring.

Once you get a prospect’s attention, the goal isn’t to rattle off product features. It’s to have a value-driven conversation. That means asking discovery questions that uncover their goals, their pain points, and their motivations. It means showing up as an expert and positioning yourself as a trusted advisor, not another vendor.

When you consistently create conversations that center around the customer’s needs, you become indispensable. Prospects should feel like they’d be foolish not to work with you.

Not every opportunity deserves your time. Amateurs say yes to every opportunity and demo request. Top performers say no.

Qualify hard; disqualify fast. The hours you spend chasing a dead deal are hours you could invest in finding a stronger one. Being busy with the wrong opportunities makes you broke. Saying no to the wrong leads frees you up to say yes to the right ones.

Breaking the cycle of wasted sales activity requires intention and discipline. Here’s how to start:

For one week, track everything you do—calls, emails, meetings, busywork. At the end of the week, review your log and ask: Which of these activities directly moved a deal forward or created new pipeline?

Most of what you thought was productive won’t make the cut.

You would never cancel a meeting with your top client. Treat your most important sales activity—prospecting—the same way. Block it on your calendar as non-negotiable. Protect it from distractions. Turn off email, silence notifications, and shut your door.

This is your sacred time to build pipeline. Nothing else takes priority.

The best salespeople aren’t the ones who never get rejected. They’re the ones who get rejected the most—because they’re taking the most shots. Every no gets you closer to a yes. Every uncomfortable conversation sharpens your skills.

Once you accept rejection as the path to progress, the busywork loses its grip.

Sales activity alone doesn’t make you successful. Purposeful, high-leverage sales activity does.

Audit your work, protect your prospecting time, lean into rejection, and commit to the actions that actually build pipeline and close deals.

Stop being busy. Start being a top performer.

Ready to maximize your time? Check out this course on How to Calendar Your Sales Week on Sales Gravy University.

Here’s a question that’ll flip your understanding of cultural intelligence in sales upside down: How do you win over a room full of skeptical Spanish teenagers when you’re the obvious American outsider who barely speaks their language?

That’s exactly what Spencer Birmingham from Arkansas faced when he called into Ask Jeb. Fresh out of college with a marketing degree and an internship at International Paper under his belt, Spencer was heading to Spain for eight months as a language teaching assistant. His challenge? Figure out how to connect with Spanish students and “sell” them on American culture and the English language.

What started as a simple question about gaining cultural perspective turned into a must-listen discussion of the universal principles of influence—principles that work whether you’re closing deals in boardrooms or winning over teenagers in Spanish classrooms.

Spencer had already absorbed one of the key lessons from Sales EQ—the brown paper bag of bread story about understanding what matters to your prospect. But he was struggling to see how those principles would translate across cultural and language barriers.

Here’s the breakthrough: The five core decisions people make before they buy into you—Do I like you? Do you listen to me? Do you make me feel important? Do you get me? Do I trust and believe you?—are universal. They transcend language, culture, and geography.

Whether you’re selling software to executives in Atlanta or teaching English to teenagers in Madrid, every human being makes these same emotional decisions before they’ll open their hearts and minds to your message.

Most teachers (and salespeople) make the same fatal mistake: They walk in talking. They assume their job is to deliver information, share knowledge, and demonstrate expertise.

Wrong approach.

The secret weapon that works in every culture? Start by listening.

Instead of walking into that Spanish classroom and immediately launching into English lessons, what if Spencer started by asking questions: “Tell me something about yourself that not many people know. What are your biggest challenges with English? Why do you want to learn this language?”

This approach leverages what we know about human psychology in complex sales: When you listen first, you accomplish three critical things simultaneously.

First, you demonstrate likability through genuine interest. Second, you prove you’re actually listening—the foundation of all trust. Third, you make people feel important, which is the most insatiable human need.

Here’s where it gets fascinating. Spencer worried about the language barrier, but that’s actually his biggest opportunity.

The language that matters most isn’t Spanish or English—it’s the language of being a teenager in Spain. It’s the language of their challenges, their dreams, their world. When Spencer takes what they share about themselves and incorporates it into his lessons, suddenly he’s not the outsider trying to force American culture on them.

He becomes the person who gets them.

“Remember when you told me about your soccer tournament? Let’s practice describing that experience in English.” Suddenly, English isn’t a foreign concept—it’s a tool for expressing what matters to them.

This mirrors exactly what happens in complex sales. The most successful salespeople don’t speak the language of their product features—they speak the language of their prospect’s business challenges, industry pressures, and personal goals.

There’s a reason why building trust through active listening is foundational to every sales methodology: It’s the fastest way to move from outsider to trusted advisor.

Spanish teenagers, like buyers everywhere, are drowning in noise. Everyone’s talking at them—parents, teachers, social media. But how many people are actually listening to them?

When Spencer takes time to hear their stories, understand their challenges, and remember their dreams, he’s giving them something rare: the feeling that they matter. And when people feel like they matter to you, the law of reciprocity kicks in. They want to give something back.

At minimum, they’ll give him their attention. More likely, they’ll drop their emotional walls and give him a genuine chance.

Here’s the advanced play: Use their language to build the bridge to your world.

When Spencer discovers that Maria loves photography, he doesn’t just teach her photography vocabulary in English. He asks her to describe her favorite photo in Spanish first, then helps her translate that passion into English. Now English isn’t a foreign language—it’s a way to share her passion with a wider world.

This strategy works in sales too. The best salespeople don’t pitch their solution in business jargon. They take what the prospect cares about most and show how their solution helps them achieve those specific goals.

What Spencer doesn’t realize yet is that this eight-month experience will become the foundation of elite-level influence skills that will serve him throughout his entire sales career.

Every interaction in Spain—from family dinners to classroom conversations—becomes practice in reading people across cultural differences, adapting his communication style, and finding common ground with people who seem completely different from him.

These are the exact skills that separate good salespeople from great ones. The ability to walk into any room, with any group of people, and quickly build rapport and trust.

The final piece of Spencer’s success strategy: Genuine curiosity about others’ stories.

Whether it’s asking Spanish families about their traditions, learning from his students about their dreams, or understanding local customs, every conversation becomes an opportunity to practice the art of making others feel important.

Research on what makes listening truly effective shows this skill compounds. The more you practice being genuinely interested in others, the more natural it becomes. You develop the patience to calm your mind and step into someone else’s world—a skill that creates friends, builds trust, and opens doors everywhere you go.

Spencer’s heading to Spain thinking he needs to learn how to teach English. What he’ll actually learn is far more valuable: how to connect with anyone, anywhere, regardless of language or cultural barriers.

The principles of Sales EQ aren’t just for salespeople—they’re for anyone who wants to influence, connect, and make a difference in other people’s lives.

Whether you’re teaching teenagers in Spain or closing deals in corporate America, the fundamentals remain the same: Listen first, make people feel important, speak their language, and always remember that behind every interaction is a human being who wants to feel understood.

That’s how you win hearts. That’s how you create influence. And that’s how you turn any challenge into an opportunity for deeper connection.

Want to master the art of prospecting across every platform? Buy The LinkedIn Edge and discover how to turn social selling into systematic revenue generation with both fast outbound prospecting and relationship-building sequences that actually convert.

In today’s economy, being the account manager who keeps clients happy and renewals steady simply isn’t enough. Every budget line item is under the microscope. Customers want proof of ROI, so you have to show measurable value while driving growth.

Reva Pellerin, the #1 enterprise account manager at Vidyard, puts it bluntly: “If you simply renew your book of business at 100%, that’s not your target. Your target is to grow the customer base.”

The best account managers aren’t just order-takers. They’re hunters—finding new opportunities, building pipeline, and actively selling within their own territory. They expand their influence before competitors slip in.

So, how do you trade in your passive approach for a hunter’s mindset? 

Top account managers share one thing in common: they work their accounts daily. They’re intentional, consistent, and always looking for ways to help clients solve new problems. Here are three steps on how to adopt the same approach.

Prospecting isn’t just for new business reps—your current accounts are the richest hunting grounds you have. You already have access and credibility; now you need to leverage them. Even a 30-minute weekly block can uncover new revenue.

• Map the organization: Use tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator to map the client’s company beyond your primary contacts. Look for new hires, promotions, or departures. A new executive often means new initiatives and budgets, creating a prime opening for you. Set alerts so you’re the first to know.
• Search for adjacent pain points: Don’t just focus on the problems your solution already solves. Talk to your contact and ask them about what other departments are struggling with. A simple question like, “I’m curious, what’s the biggest challenge the operations team is facing this quarter?” can lead to an introduction to a new buyer and a new opportunity.
• Send targeted outreach: When you identify a new potential buyer, don’t cold call them. Send a personalized email referencing your existing relationship with their colleague and the value you’re already providing.
  • For example: “Hi [New Contact Name], your colleague [Existing Contact Name] and I have been working together to help their team achieve [Specific Result]. I wanted to see if the challenges you’re facing in [Their Department] are similar, as we might be able to help.”

Expansion sales aren’t about pushing more products—they’re about solving more of your customers’ problems. The best account managers think like consultants: they uncover needs, tailor solutions, and connect them to strategic objectives.

• Ask penetrating questions: Instead of asking, “Do you need more licenses?” try asking questions that reveal a need. For example:
  • “I know you’re focused on improving efficiency. Where are your biggest bottlenecks, and what’s the cost of those bottlenecks?”
  • “What’s the next big initiative you’re planning?”
  • “What are you under the most pressure to deliver this quarter?”
• Link to measurable outcomes. If your solution saves time, estimate the cost savings. If it improves output, quantify the gain. 
• Position the expansion as risk reduction. Many leaders will spend to avoid failure before they’ll spend to chase success. Show how the additional product or service reduces operational risk, customer churn, or missed revenue.
• Collaborate with your champions. Work with your existing advocates inside the account to co-create the expansion pitch. They know how decisions get made internally, and they can help you frame the opportunity in language that resonates with leadership.

Referrals are one of the most underused growth levers in account management. The key is asking at the right time—after you’ve delivered a clear, measurable win.

• Earn the right first. Advocacy follows impact. When you’ve helped your client hit a major milestone, save significant costs, or achieve a strategic goal, that’s your moment.
• Make it easy for them to say yes. Draft a short email or LinkedIn message they can forward. Give them a specific ask, like an introduction to someone in a similar role at another company.
  • Example: Hi [Peer’s Name], I thought you’d benefit from connecting with [Your Name]. They helped us achieve [Specific Result] and might be able to do something similar for you
• Offer value in return. If they introduce you to a peer, share insights, benchmarks, or make a connection they’ll value.
• Leverage public platforms. Encourage satisfied clients to share their success story on LinkedIn, in an industry forum, or in a peer review. These public endorsements carry significant weight with decision-makers you haven’t met yet.

To be a top-performing account manager, you must own your pipeline. This means you are responsible for filling it with new opportunities, not just waiting for them to appear. It’s a fundamental shift from service to sales.

By adopting the mindset of a hunter—prospecting within your accounts, actively seeking expansion sales, and leveraging your network for referrals—you’ll not only protect your current book of business, but you’ll also become an indispensable revenue driver for your company. 

Top account managers master every conversation. Download the free ACED Buyer Style Playbook to identify buyer styles fast and adapt your approach for maximum impact.

Overcoming call reluctance starts with understanding why even seasoned sales pros freeze up when it’s time to pick up the phone. They’re paralyzed by one simple fear: interrupting a prospect’s day.

That’s exactly what Kirk Roberts from Richmond, Virginia, brought to the table. Kirk’s problem wasn’t about not knowing what to say or how to pitch—it was the mental block around the very idea of interruption.

He hated being interrupted by low-quality sales calls himself. And even though 99% of the time prospects were receptive to his message, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being pushy just by dialing the phone.

Kirk’s got the skills. He knows what to say. His prospects love him once they’re talking. But every time he reaches for the phone, his stomach knots up. Sound familiar? If you’ve ever stared at your phone, finger hovering over the dial button, worried about being “that pushy salesperson,” you’re not alone.

Kirk’s challenge is rooted in something I call projection—deciding for your customer how they’ll feel before you’ve even spoken to them.

If you have a high level of empathy (and many great salespeople do), you naturally put yourself in the other person’s shoes. You think:

“I wouldn’t want to be interrupted, so they won’t either.”

Here’s the brutal truth: That empathy is killing your pipeline. Because you don’t actually know if your call will be an annoyance or the best thing to happen to them today.

I’ve bought plenty of products from salespeople who “interrupted” me, because their timing and message were right. That wouldn’t have happened if they’d let their fear of bothering me keep them from picking up the phone.

Nobody likes to be interrupted. But if you are going to interrupt, make it worth their time.

Think about it: Would you rather get a cold call from someone who clearly knows nothing about you, or from someone who’s done their homework and has a relevant, valuable reason for reaching out?

There are two ways to make your outreach relevant:

Do your research on the specific individual. Learn about their company, role, and current challenges. Use that to craft a tailored message that connects your solution directly to their world. This is essential for high-value, niche, or executive-level prospects.

Build messaging that resonates with a clearly defined group—people who share the same role, industry, geography, or problem set. It’s not as specific as personalized outreach, but it’s still relevant to most people in your target list.

Test it. If your calls fall flat, adjust the message until it clicks.

Here’s where most salespeople sabotage themselves: They spend their “prospecting time” researching LinkedIn profiles and crafting the perfect email instead of actually dialing.

Let me be clear: Research is not prospecting. Building messaging is not prospecting. Prospecting is picking up the phone and interrupting people. Everything else is prep work.

Block separate time for building your targeted or personalized messaging. Then protect your prospecting time like your mortgage payment depends on it—because it does.

Kirk’s empathy makes him a sales rockstar once he’s in conversation. But he was letting his concern for prospects’ feelings rob them of the chance to work with him. That’s not empathy—that’s selfish.

The shift is simple but not easy:

• You’re not interrupting to take from them, you’re interrupting to help them.
• You’ve earned the right to interrupt because you’ve done the work to make your outreach relevant.
• Missing a chance to help them because you didn’t call? That’s the real loss.

If you’re struggling like Kirk, here’s how to push past the hesitation:

1. Recognize Projection Catch yourself when you assume how a prospect will feel before you’ve even made the call.

2. Build Relevance First Create either personalized or targeted messaging that speaks directly to the prospect’s world.

3. Schedule Prep Time Separately Do research and message-building outside your prospecting block.

4. Make the Mindset Shift Every morning, before you start prospecting, tell yourself: “I interrupt people to help them.” The right message at the right time isn’t an interruption—it’s a gift. Master the psychology behind prospecting consistency with proven techniques.

5. Practice Until It’s Normal The more often you execute this process, the less emotional resistance you’ll feel.

Your empathy is one of your greatest sales assets, but only if you don’t let it paralyze you.

Yes, interruption is uncomfortable. But if you’ve done the work to make your outreach relevant, you’ve earned the right to make that call.

Stop deciding for your prospects in advance. Step into the conversation, bring value, and let them decide if it’s the right time.

Your prospects are out there right now, struggling with problems you can solve. They’re waiting for someone—someone like you—to reach out with the right solution at the right time.

Don’t let your fear of a five-second interruption rob them of months or years of better results. Learn the proven cure for prospecting paralysis that stops most salespeople.

Because the truth is, the opportunity they’ve been waiting for might be sitting on the other end of your “interruption.”

Ready to master virtual selling and remote prospecting? Check out Jeb’s Virtual Selling Skills Master Class for comprehensive virtual sales development.

In 1960, two brothers scraped together $900 and bought a failing pizzeria in Michigan, launching what would become a cautionary tale about sales incentive programs gone wrong. Within months, one brother traded his half of the business for a beat-up Volkswagen, leaving Tom Monaghan alone with his ambitions.

By 1965, with three stores under his belt, Tom faced a naming crisis. He couldn’t legally keep using the original name, DomiNick’s, so an employee suggested “Domino’s.” The logo? Three dots, one for each store. Tom figured he’d add a new dot for every location.

After opening store number five, he wisely reconsidered that plan.

Because what happened next wasn’t just growth—it was an explosion that would teach sales leaders everywhere a crucial lesson about the double-edged sword of powerful incentives.

Here’s what America looked like in the early 1980s: Microwave ovens were revolutionizing kitchens, Federal Express was making overnight delivery an expectation, and Americans weren’t just eating faster—they were living faster.

Domino’s fit perfectly into this new rhythm, but Tom Monaghan wanted more. In a move that bordered on dangerous, he made a promise so simple it would define the company for decades:

“Pizza Delivered in 30 Minutes or It’s Free.”

It wasn’t just about pizza. It was about certainty. And America bought it—literally.

Within a year, sales exploded. From 200 stores in 1978 to over 2,500 by 1985. Over 5,000 by 1989. Every store became a speed factory with slimmed-down menus, cookie-cutter layouts, and drivers who might as well have been sitting behind the wheel with engines already running.

Competitors couldn’t keep up. But here’s the brutal truth about speed: you don’t see the danger until it’s too late.

Here’s what every sales leader needs to understand: Powerful sales incentives, pushed too far, create unintended consequences that can destroy company culture. This principle, that when metrics become targets, they cease to be good metrics, would prove devastatingly true for Domino’s.

At first, the cracks were small. A delivery driver rolling a stop sign here, a speeding ticket there. But this wasn’t a system built to reward patience—it was built to reward speed at any cost.

Inside Domino’s stores, the pressure wasn’t subtle. Drivers were expected to race the clock. If they missed the 30-minute mark, some franchises made them pay for the order out of their own pockets. The message was clear: make it fast, or make it up yourself.

Rolling stops became running red lights. Neighborhood shortcuts turned into risky maneuvers through heavy traffic.

What customers didn’t see—and what Domino’s executives refused to acknowledge—was that they’d created a ticking time bomb. Speed wasn’t just a business model anymore; it had become a way of life that determined every employee’s behavior, and smart sales leaders understand this connection between incentives and culture.

By the late 1980s, insurance companies raised Domino’s premiums by 15-20 percent. Reports surfaced of accidents tied to delivery drivers rushing to meet the 30-minute window.

Then came the story that changed everything: A Domino’s driver in St. Louis ran a red light, colliding with another vehicle. Inside that car was Jean Kinder, whose life was permanently changed. The jury awarded her $78 million in punitive damages.

In 1993, Domino’s officially ended the 30-minute guarantee in the United States.

Here’s what most sales leaders get wrong about incentives: they don’t just shape what people do—they shape who people become.

Sound familiar? It should. Because this same pattern plays out in sales organizations every single day.

Take Wells Fargo’s aggressive cross-selling goals in the mid-2010s. Supervisors told bankers to open more accounts, sell more products, and hit quotas—or else. Employees did exactly what they were told, opening fake accounts and forging signatures. Wells Fargo didn’t create fraudsters; they created an incentive system that made fraud feel like survival.

There’s a name for this phenomenon: the Cobra Effect. When a metric becomes a target, it ceases to be a good metric.

Here are the warning signs your sales incentives need fixing—red flags that indicate you’re prioritizing activity over results, enabling ethical shortcuts, and creating feast-or-famine revenue patterns:

1. Team focuses on activity over outcomes – More calls and emails don’t matter if they’re not creating meaningful prospect conversations
2. Short-term wins at expense of customer relationships – Discounting heavily to hit monthly numbers while sacrificing long-term value
3. High turnover among top performers – Your best people leave because the system rewards the wrong behaviors
4. Ethical corners being cut to hit numbers – When quotas become more important than integrity
5. Feast-or-famine revenue patterns – Inconsistent results month to month because the focus is on quick fixes, not sustainable processes

The best compensation systems reward leading indicators and sustainable behaviors, not just outcomes. Domino’s learned this lesson the hard way, but they didn’t just bury their story—they changed course entirely. In the late 2000s, they made a stunning move, publicly admitting: “Our pizza isn’t very good.” They showed real customer complaints, took the hits, then got to work. Their stock climbed from $8 in 2008 to over $300 within a decade.

They learned to build better incentives that reward the right behaviors and align with long-term success.

Here’s how to build incentives that drive sustainable success:

Focus on Leading Indicators, Not Just Outcomes. Instead of only rewarding closed deals, reward the activities that create deals: thorough discovery calls, proper qualification, and relationship-building activities that compound over time.

Reward Quality Over Quantity. One well-qualified opportunity built through genuine relationship-building is worth more than ten tire-kickers. Incentivize salespeople to walk away from bad fits and invest time in prospects who match your ideal customer profile.

Align Short-Term Actions with Long-Term Goals. If customer retention is crucial to your business model, make sure your compensation plan doesn’t punish salespeople for taking time to ensure proper onboarding and implementation.

Build in Safety Valves. Create mechanisms to catch unintended consequences before they become systemic problems. Regular feedback loops and management oversight can prevent small cracks from becoming major fractures.

Make Values Visible in Your Metrics. If integrity, customer success, and teamwork matter, find ways to measure and reward these behaviors alongside revenue production.

Whether you’re running a sales team or delivering pizzas, the principle remains the same: if you want better results, build better incentives.

Your incentive system is either your greatest asset or your greatest liability. The choice is yours, but the consequences—good or bad—are inevitable.

As you design your next compensation plan or set your next team goals, remember the Domino’s dilemma. Speed without wisdom is just recklessness with a deadline.

The question isn’t whether your incentives will shape behavior—it’s whether they’ll shape it in the direction you actually want to go.

Don’t just move fast. Learn when to hit the brakes.

An important part of developing a high performing sales team and creating a collaborative work environment is hiring the right salespeople. Download our FREE Ultimate Sales Interview Guide and learn how to source, recruit, hire, and retain top sales talent.

The transition from closer to coach is where most new sales leaders struggle.

You’ve put in the work, made the calls, and closed the deals. Your numbers speak for themselves. You were the rainmaker. The top dog. The one everyone pointed to as the example of what a salesperson should be. Finally, you’ve earned the promotion you’ve been chasing: Sales Manager.

The very habits that made you successful as a top-performing rep (moving fast, working independently, and ignoring administrative tasks) can work against you in a leadership role. Your win column is no longer personal; it’s team-wide.

As Kyle Jager, founder of Vendi Consulting, states in this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, “If you’re transitioning from a sales or individual contributor into a leadership role, you probably are great at sales. But now you have to become a great leader. And that takes time. It takes practice, but it also takes some learning.”

Most new sales leaders crash and burn within their first 18 months. Not because they can’t sell, but because no one ever taught them how to lead.

They walk into the role thinking it’s just sales, but with a nicer title and better commission overrides.

So they default to what they know: chasing deals, staying in the weeds, and trying to be the hero.

But leadership isn’t about closing deals. It’s about developing people. And if you don’t make that shift fast, your team won’t follow—and your results will suffer.

As an individual contributor, you were the hero of your own story. Pipeline looking thin? Hit the phones harder. Deal stalling? Jump in and save it. Commission check light? Work more hours.

As a sales leader, your job is to make others the heroes of their stories. 

That means:

• Your success is now measured by your team’s results, not yours. You’re only as good as the people you lead.
• You have to develop people, not just manage numbers. Your weakest performer deserves as much attention as your top gun.
• You become a multiplier. One great salesperson affects one quota. One great sales leader affects ten quotas, twenty quotas, or more.

Coaching is not cheerleading. It’s not motivational speeches or rah-rah meetings. Real sales coaching is the systematic development of specific skills through observation, feedback, and practice.

You cannot coach what you cannot see. Get in the field with your people. Listen to their calls. Watch their presentations. Most new sales leaders avoid this because it’s time-intensive and uncomfortable. 

Establish a consistent coaching cadence. Hold weekly one-on-ones to dig into deals, metrics, and skills. 

Remember: your goal is not to create mini-versions of yourself. As a new sales leader, your goal is to help each salesperson become the best version of themselves.

As an individual contributor, you managed one pipeline. Now you’re responsible for multiple pipelines, and pipeline discipline becomes exponentially more critical.

Implement non-negotiable pipeline reviews. Weekly pipeline meetings should be sacred time where every opportunity gets analyzed.

Teach your team to be ruthless about pipeline hygiene. Dead deals must be purged. Stalled opportunities need action plans or elimination. Every deal in the pipeline should have a clear next step, decision-maker involvement, and a realistic close timeline.

Most importantly, never let your team’s pipeline run thin. When pipeline gets weak, panic sets in, and desperate salespeople make desperate decisions. 

Your success depends entirely on having the right people on your team. This means you must become obsessed with recruiting and hiring A-players.

Stop hiring people you like and start hiring people who can sell. Likability doesn’t close deals. Skills, drive, and coachability close deals.

Develop an interview process that focuses on past performance, not potential. Ask behavioral questions that reveal how candidates have handled specific sales situations. Check references religiously—mediocre salespeople often interview well but have questionable track records.

A bad hire costs you months of quota attainment, team morale, and your own credibility. Take hiring seriously or pay the price.

You can’t improve what you don’t measure—and you can’t lead without tracking what matters.

Focus on leading indicators, not lagging indicators. Revenue is a lagging indicator—it tells you what already happened. Activity metrics (calls made, emails sent, meetings scheduled) are leading indicators that predict future revenue.

Track these critical metrics religiously:

• Activity levels (calls, emails, social touches)
• Conversion rates at each stage of your sales process
• Average deal size and sales cycle length
• Pipeline velocity and win rates

Use these metrics to identify problems before they become crises and opportunities before your competition spots them.

Accountability is not punishment—it’s clarity. Your team needs to know exactly what’s expected, when it’s expected, and what happens if expectations aren’t met.

Establish clear performance standards and communicate them relentlessly. Your top performers want to know they’re winning, and your bottom performers need to know they’re losing.

Hold consistent performance reviews that focus on behaviors, not just results. A salesperson might miss quota due to external factors, but missing activity targets is entirely within their control.

Most importantly, follow through on consequences. Empty threats destroy credibility faster than no standards at all. As a new sales leader, clarity and consistency are your greatest leadership tools.

You can keep trying to be the best rep on your team—or you can become the leader your team needs. But you can’t be both.

This transition is hard. It demands new skills, new priorities, and a different definition of success. But if you commit to it, you’ll have the power to multiply your impact far beyond what any individual rep can do.

Your team is watching. Your company is counting on you. Are you ready to stop being the hero and start building heroes?

One of the hardest parts of sales leadership is coaching reps to make more effective outbound calls. In this Sales Gravy University course, you’ll learn a proven framework for call coaching that boosts rep performance, improves productivity, and drives more pipeline. 

Here’s a question that’ll drive you absolutely crazy: How do you sell professional services without giving away everything for free?

That’s the burning question from Laura and Adam, attorneys who are struggling with the classic professional services dilemma. Their intake team and attorneys want to showcase their expertise by giving away everything for free during sales conversations.

Meanwhile, they’re also trying to figure out what kind of salesperson they need to hire to sell high-value legal services effectively.

If you’re nodding your head right now, you’re not alone. This is the most common trap I see professional service providers fall into, and it’s bleeding them dry while their competitors who keep their mouths shut are crushing them in conversion rates.

Laura nailed it when she described their current approach as “professorial.” They show their talents and knowledge, thinking, “How can they not want to hire us because we’re so brilliant?”

But here’s the brutal, kick-you-in-the-gut truth: The more you teach on sales calls, the lower your closing ratio becomes. Period. No exceptions. The less information you give, the higher your closing ratio goes.

This isn’t just theory—it’s what I’ve learned from years of training consultants and professional service providers. When practitioners get on sales calls, it’s incredibly hard not to show all our cards or teach people during the conversation.

But you’re not running a free consultation. You’re running a sales process.

Here’s what Laura and Adam’s team needs to understand: Information is your leverage. Are you going to give your leverage away for free?

The key is teaching your intake team how to ask questions and bring the person through a process. You’re connecting with prospects, learning about them, getting them talking about their fears, helping them articulate what they want, and then building a quick value bridge to why they should sign with your firm.

Then—and only then—do you ask for the commitment.

When prospects start fishing for free legal advice, you shut it down fast with this exact response: “That’s a really, really good question. And that’s exactly why we need to get you booked with an attorney so that you can sit down with a professional who can walk you through that strategy. Let’s go ahead and get you signed up.”

When you’re selling high-value services instead of products, you need a special type of salesperson. Here are the three make-or-break qualities that will determine whether your hire is a rockstar or a disaster:

They Need to Be Street Smart – Not book-smart—street-smart. They need to think on their feet because you’ve got different types of people coming to you with different cases. If someone is used to just following a script, they’re not the right person for you.

High Emotional Intelligence with Outcome Drive – This is the tricky balance. They need high emotional intelligence to quickly connect with people and build relationships. But they also need enough outcome drive to ask for the commitment and not let people off the hook.

You’re essentially running a one-call close. A person comes in, you take them through the journey, and then you ask them to make a commitment. If they don’t commit on that call, your chances of signing them as a client go down exponentially over time.

The Goldilocks Zone – If you hire someone too far on the outcome-driven side, they’ll be pushy schmucks who pressure people, strongarm prospects, and destroy your reputation. You’ll end up with buyers’ remorse and angry clients.

If you hire someone too relationship-driven with too much empathy, they’ll have great conversations and make wonderful friends—but they won’t convert anybody into customers.

You need someone who can say with conviction and confidence: “Look, everything you’ve told me, we’re the right law firm for you. We need to go ahead and get this moving because you have a court date coming up, and we cannot afford for any more time to go by.”

Finding this balance isn’t guesswork. There are tools like the Sales Drive assessment that can help you identify whether candidates lean too far toward relationship-building or deal-closing. It won’t tell you someone is the greatest person in the world, but it will definitely tell you not to hire someone.

Use assessments to eliminate people more than to bring them in. If someone scores in a place you don’t want them to be, end the interview and keep moving. This is exactly what successful sales leaders do when hiring top performers.

The biggest challenge Laura and Adam face is breaking years of conditioning. Their attorneys and intake team have been trained to give strategy sessions as a differentiating factor. Their entire team is thinking, “How can we help without giving legal strategy?”

This is normal resistance. When you make changes in your organization, people are going to push back. You have to keep repeating your vision over and over until people start to believe and understand it. It’s not a switch you turn on overnight—it’s a process that takes months of consistent reinforcement.

Remember: Your expertise and knowledge are what clients pay for. When you give that away for free on sales calls, you’re devaluing your service and overwhelming prospects with information they can’t properly contextualize.

Instead, focus on understanding the problem and building trust. Get prospects to answer those five critical questions that determine whether they buy: Do I like you? Do you listen to me? Do you make me feel important? Do I trust you? Do I believe you?

When you focus on these fundamentals instead of showing off your knowledge, you’ll be amazed at how much your conversion rates improve.

If you’re selling professional services:

Reframe your sales conversations. You’re not there to teach—you’re there to identify problems and demonstrate that you’re the right solution.

Train your team on information control. Teach them how to acknowledge great questions while redirecting to the value of working with your firm.

Invest in the right salespeople. Use assessments and role-playing to find people who can balance relationship-building with outcome drive.

Prepare for resistance. Change is hard, and your team will push back. Stay committed to your vision and keep reinforcing the message.

Q: How do I train my team to stop giving away free advice?

A: Focus on teaching them to ask questions and guide prospects through a process rather than providing solutions. Train them to redirect strategy questions to paid consultations using the exact script provided above.

Q: What qualities should I look for in a professional services salesperson?

A: Look for three key traits: intelligence to think on their feet, high emotional intelligence to build relationships quickly, and outcome drive to ask for commitments without hesitation. Use assessments to find the right balance.

Q: How do I balance relationship-building with closing in professional services?

A: Use tools like the Sales Drive assessment to find candidates who can connect with prospects while maintaining the confidence to ask for the sale. Avoid hiring people who are too relationship-focused or too pushy.

Selling professional services isn’t about proving how smart you are—it’s about proving you understand the client’s problem and can solve it effectively. Save your brilliance for after they’ve signed the contract and you’re getting paid for your expertise. Everything else is just expensive show-and-tell that’s bankrupting your firm.

That’s how you build a scalable professional services business. That’s how you stop giving away your most valuable asset for free. And that’s how you finally start converting your expertise into the revenue it deserves.

Ready to master the complete sales methodology that drives results? Check out our comprehensive sales training system at Sales Gravy.

If you’re only showing up in one place, you’re not showing up at all, which is why top sales reps are making multi-channel prospecting a priority and leveraging LinkedIn to get ahead.

 “The reality of buying and selling is that everyone has different preferences, and as a salesperson, we need to use as many tools as possible. If you are only making calls or sending emails, you’re missing [prospects] that don’t answer calls or reply to emails,” says Daniel Disney, one of the world’s leading social selling experts and founder of The Daily Sales.

In today’s sales landscape, understanding and navigating the “Prospecting Maze” is no longer optional—it’s essential.

The modern buyer isn’t linear. They don’t follow a step-by-step funnel. Instead, they’re zig-zagging across digital touchpoints: social feeds, emails, websites, calls, review sites, podcasts, webinars, and peer referrals.

A prospect might first see your company mentioned in a LinkedIn comment, hear about you from a colleague, get a cold call later that week, and convert after reading third-party reviews. 

This is where multi-channel outreach gives you a powerful edge. And in the world of B2B, LinkedIn often becomes your competitive advantage.

Among your core outreach tools—phone, email, social—LinkedIn stands out. It doesn’t replace cold calling. It reinforces it. Used strategically, it extends your credibility, warms up cold conversations, and drives responses other channels can’t.

Here’s what makes LinkedIn a powerhouse in your multi-channel approach:

• Professional Credibility: A strong LinkedIn presence builds instant trust. Prospects see who you are, what you’ve done, and how you show up in your industry.
• Deep Prospect Insights: LinkedIn offers unmatched visibility into a buyer’s job history, interests, content, and network. That context powers personalization that cuts through the noise.
• Soft-Touch Engagement: You don’t have to push. LinkedIn allows you to comment, share, and message in a way that builds rapport, without asking for time or commitment right away.
• Message Amplification: Your posts and interactions can reach 2nd- and 3rd-degree connections. That passive visibility compounds your prospecting efforts.

You don’t need to spend hours scrolling LinkedIn. In fact, you can see results in just 15 focused minutes a day — if you have a plan. That’s where the LINK Framework comes in. It’s a repeatable system for integrating LinkedIn with your outreach strategy and making every touchpoint count.

Your first call sets the tone. Before you pick up the phone, use LinkedIn to gather quick intelligence such as your prospect’s role, recent posts, company news, and shared connections.

Example Cold Call Opener:“Hi [Prospect Name], this is [Your Name] with [Your Company]. I’m calling because I saw [Your Company] recently [published an article on X / celebrated a milestone / hired new talent], and it made me think about how other leaders in [their industry] are grappling with [specific problem that your solution solves].”

Don’t silo your outreach. Each touch should build on the last, referencing LinkedIn in your emails, following up calls with connections, and weaving consistent messaging across every interaction.

Example Touch Pattern:

• Touch 1: Phone call + voicemail
• Touch 2: Immediately after your call, send a LinkedIn connection request
• Touch 3: Email referencing LinkedIn or voicemail
• Touch 4: Comment on their recent post or share a relevant industry article
• Touch 5: Second phone call
• Touch 6: LinkedIn message with relevant insight or asset

Your prospects see who shows up. Stay in their world by regularly interacting with their content. These light-touch engagements—liking, commenting, sharing insights—build rapport without adding pressure.

Tip: Set a recurring 10-minute calendar block to engage with your top 10 prospects on LinkedIn.

Use your CRM to track every interaction—calls, messages, connection requests, replies. Patterns will emerge. You’ll spot which combinations generate conversations and which fall flat.

Test Everything: Does your sequence perform better when you start with a call and follow with LinkedIn? Or when you comment on a post first, then email? Track it. Adjust. Repeat.

A cybersecurity rep at a mid-sized B2B firm had been struggling to break through to CISOs. Cold emails were getting buried. So she shifted her approach:

• Started with a cold call, referencing a recent industry breach.
• Sent a LinkedIn connection request after leaving a voicemail.
• Followed up with a short voice note and a message on LinkedIn linking to a third-party security report.
• Closed with a personalized email linking her solution to specific compliance gaps on their roadmap.

In three weeks, she landed meetings with five accounts that had gone dark for months.

The difference? Each channel reinforced the others. 

You’re not just cold calling. You’re not just emailing. You’re not just commenting on LinkedIn. You’re doing all of it—strategically and consistently.

The goal isn’t to become a social media expert. It’s to use LinkedIn as efficiently as you use your phone or CRM.

Block 15 minutes on your calendar today. Use it to research, connect, and engage with high-value prospects. In 30 days, you won’t just have more conversations—you’ll have a sustainable system that shortens your sales cycle, fills your pipeline, and opens doors your competitors can’t.

If you want to unlock LinkedIn’s true selling power and learn the real-world strategy that led to a million-dollar deal, then check out this micro-course from Daniel Disney.

Should you use sales scripts to close more deals?

That’s the question I get from salespeople who are struggling to hit their numbers and looking for that magic bullet that’ll transform their results overnight. They want to know if there’s a perfect set of words that’ll make prospects say yes every time.

Here’s my answer: No. Not just no, but hell no.

If you’re using scripts, you’re using a crutch that’s actually crippling your ability to build the one thing that closes deals: trust. And worse, you’re hiding behind that crutch instead of developing the real skills that separate elite performers from the pack.

I get why scripts feel appealing. When you’re new to sales or struggling with consistency, having something to fall back on feels safe. Scripts promise to eliminate the fear of not knowing what to say next.

But here’s the problem: That safety is an illusion.

When you rely on a script, you’re outsourcing your brain to someone else’s process. You stop listening to what your prospect is actually saying because you’re too busy figuring out what line comes next. You lose your ability to respond authentically to their real concerns, fears, and motivations.

Scripts turn you into a talking brochure instead of a trusted advisor. And prospects can smell it from a mile away.

Think about the last time someone called you reading from a script. You knew within 30 seconds, didn’t you? That robotic cadence, the inability to deviate when you asked a question, the way they plowed ahead regardless of your responses.

How much did you trust that person? How likely were you to do business with them?

Scripts don’t just fail to help you, they actively hurt your results.

They Kill Your Authenticity – The moment you start reading lines, you stop being yourself. Your natural charisma disappears behind memorized words.

They Prevent Real Listening – When you’re focused on delivering your next line perfectly, you’re not truly hearing what your prospect is telling you. You miss the real concerns hiding behind their surface objections.

They Make You Predictable – Every other salesperson calling your prospect is probably using the same script. When you sound like everyone else, you become a commodity that competes on price, not value.

They Create Dependency – The more you rely on scripts, the less you develop your own skills. Instead of learning to think on your feet and handle objections naturally, you become dependent on having the “right” words handed to you.

The best salespeople I know don’t use scripts. They use frameworks—a structure that preserves authenticity while ensuring they cover all the bases.

Here’s the framework that works:

1. Connect First Start every conversation by building genuine rapport. Not with scripted small talk, but with authentic curiosity about who they are and what they do.
2. Unpack Their Fears Early Most salespeople wait until the end to handle objections. Elite performers get them on the table immediately. “Tell me about a bad experience you’ve had with contractors before.” “What are you most worried about with this decision?” You can’t script these conversations because every prospect’s fears are different.
3. Understand Their Motivation Why are they really doing this? What’s the trigger event that brought you together? What happens if they don’t solve this problem? These insights come from skilled questioning and active listening, not memorized presentations.
4. Explore Their Desired Outcome Get them talking about their aspirations. What does success look like? When prospects paint their own picture of a better future, they’re selling themselves.
5. Make Recommendations Like a Consultant When you’ve truly listened and understood their situation, making recommendations becomes natural. You tie everything back to what they told you: “You mentioned you’re worried about quality. Here’s how we handle that.”

Here’s what I learned from watching top performers: They don’t use scripts, but they do ask for the sale on every qualified call.

At the end of the conversation, after they’ve connected, explored fears, understood motivations, and made recommendations, they say something like: “Based on everything you’ve told me, it sounds like it makes sense for us to move forward. Let’s get this scheduled.”

No pressure. No manipulation. Just a logical next step in a collaborative process.

And when prospects say they need to think about it? The response isn’t a scripted objection-handling sequence. It’s authentic curiosity: “That makes sense—this is a big decision. What’s worrying you?”

Then they listen to the real concern and address it directly. Not with a canned response, but with genuine problem-solving.

If you’ve been using scripts and want to develop real skills, here’s your roadmap:

Start with frameworks, not words. Know the process you want to follow in every conversation, but let your natural personality deliver the content.

Practice authentic discovery. Get comfortable with follow-up questions. “Tell me more about that.” “What does that look like?” “How is that impacting you?”

Build your objection-handling skills. Learn to unpack the real concerns behind common objections. Often, “I need to think about it” means “I don’t trust you yet” – and that’s something you can address through better relationship building, not scripted rebuttals.

Study your best conversations. What questions led to breakthroughs? How did you handle concerns? Turn these insights into your personal framework.

Measure what matters. Track your conversion rates, not your script delivery. How many first appointments turn into second appointments? These metrics reveal the real impact of trust-based selling.

The most successful salespeople have the discipline to follow proven processes while maintaining complete authenticity in how they execute them.

They always start conversations the same way—with genuine curiosity. They always explore fears and motivations before making recommendations. They always ask for the business at the end of qualified conversations.

But they never sound scripted doing it. They sound like consultants who care about solving problems, not vendors who care about making quotas.

This is pure Fanatical Prospecting in action: Success isn’t about having the perfect words—it’s about having the discipline to execute a proven process with authenticity and skill.

Here’s the truth that script-dependent salespeople don’t want to hear: Developing authentic sales skills takes work. It requires you to get comfortable with uncertainty, to think on your feet, to genuinely care about your prospects’ outcomes.

But that’s also your competitive advantage.

While your competitors are reading the same scripts to the same prospects, you’re having real conversations that build real trust. While they’re sounding like every other salesperson, you’re standing out as someone worth listening to.

Scripts might feel like the easy path, but they’re actually the hardest way to build a successful sales career. They cap your potential, limit your authenticity, and make you dependent on others for your success.

Stop hiding behind scripts that make you sound like everyone else. Your prospects can tell the difference between authentic consultation and robotic presentation—and they’re making buying decisions based on that difference.

Scripts are a crutch that prevent you from developing the skills that actually close deals: the ability to build rapport, unpack concerns, understand motivations, and respond authentically to what prospects actually need.

The best salespeople don’t need scripts because they’ve developed the confidence to have real conversations that build real trust. They know their process inside and out, but they execute it with their own personality and authentic concern for their prospects’ success.

That’s how you build a championship sales career. That’s how you develop unshakeable confidence. And that’s how you stop losing deals to competitors who understand what really drives buying decisions: trust, not perfect pitch delivery.

Ready to ditch the scripts and develop real sales skills? Download our FREE A.C.E.D. Buyer Style Playbook to understand how to connect with buyers based on their communication style.

You know the feeling. You’re mid-pitch, and you watch your prospect’s eyes glaze over—their mind somewhere else entirely. It’s exhausting, demoralizing, and it’s killing your close rate.

But what if you didn’t have to push so hard? What if you could create the kind of pull where prospects actually leaned in and said, “How do I get started?”

In this episode of the Sales Gravy podcast, high-performance coach Kristin Andree shared her perspective: “If we put ourselves out there and let people know who we’re looking for and be excited about it and excited about helping them, we attract them.”

The difference between top performers and everyone else isn’t talent—it’s their prospecting approach. Elite salespeople don’t convince prospects to buy. They make prospects want to buy. 

If you feel like you’re always running uphill, you’re not imagining it. Most salespeople are stuck in a reactive mindset—constantly pursuing leads who haven’t shown real interest.

This is where the exhaustion creeps in. You follow up relentlessly, only to get ignored. You worry about being too aggressive. Your outreach starts to feel desperate instead of helpful.

Prospects can feel that energy shift. When you’re trying to close anyone, instead of helping the right ones, you come across as transactional. You sound like a pitch, not a person. You become just another vendor fighting for attention and pricing leverage.

Attraction in sales is about relevance and resonance. You stop pushing your solution on people who don’t care and start showing up in a way that makes the right people take notice.

That’s the core of value-based selling. It’s not about feature dumps, aggressive closes, or chasing “maybe” prospects. It’s about clearly communicating how your solution solves urgent problems, accelerates outcomes, and makes your buyer’s life easier or better.

When done right, it flips the dynamic entirely. You move from interrupting to inviting. From being just another sales rep to someone your prospect actually wants to hear from.

Here’s how to put that into action:

Before you ever think about pitching, dedicate time to genuinely understanding your prospect’s world. Research their industry, their company, and their specific role. 

Ask insightful, open-ended questions that uncover their true challenges, not just surface-level issues. Listen for the underlying pain, unspoken frustrations, and desired outcomes. When you truly listen, you gather the knowledge to position yourself not as a salesperson, but as an informed resource.

• Imagine a software sales rep for a project management tool. Instead of immediately launching into features, they might start by asking, “What are the biggest bottlenecks your team faces in project delivery right now?” As the prospect describes disorganized communication or missed deadlines, the rep then offers to share a related article. This positions the rep as knowledgeable and helpful, building rapport and trust before ever mentioning their product.

You don’t need to be an influencer to build credibility. Every rep can become a curator of insight—and that’s often more valuable than always trying to create original content.

• Share relevant articles: Find industry news, research, or thought leadership pieces that address your ideal client’s pain points and share them on LinkedIn with your own insightful commentary.
• LinkedIn Posts & Videos: Craft short, valuable posts offering tips, insights, or asking thought-provoking questions related to your niche. Short video tips addressing common challenges can be very impactful.
• Intelligent Commentary: Engage thoughtfully in industry discussions online. Your informed perspective demonstrates expertise and attracts like-minded professionals.

Every time you share something helpful, you reinforce your value. Prospects start to see you not just as a seller, but as someone they can trust to make sense of a noisy market.

In an era of skepticism, what others say about you and your solution carries far more weight than what you can say yourself. 

• Case Studies: Detail how you’ve helped similar clients overcome challenges and achieve specific, measurable results. Focus on the transformation, not just the transaction.
• Testimonials: Collect and share strong, specific testimonials that highlight the benefits and outcomes your clients experienced. Video testimonials are especially compelling.
• Success Stories: Weave anecdotes into your conversations that illustrate how you’ve guided others to success.

This strategy is the bedrock of value-based selling. It requires a fundamental shift from a transactional mindset to one of a problem-solving partner.

• Diagnosis Before Prescription: Just as a doctor diagnoses before prescribing, your role is to understand the prospect’s “ailment” before offering “medicine.”
• Focus on Outcomes: Instead of talking about features, translate them into benefits and tangible outcomes. How will your solution make their life easier, save them money, increase revenue, or reduce risk?
• Tailored Value Proposition: Every prospect is unique. Your value proposition should be meticulously crafted to address their specific challenges and help them achieve their particular goals. This personalization demonstrates true understanding and investment in their success.

When you do this consistently, prospects start to see you as someone who understands their business—not someone who’s just trying to make a sale.

Sales doesn’t have to feel like chasing. When you shift from pushing your solution to attracting the right buyers through value, you stand out.

You earn trust before the first pitch. You show up differently—more prepared, more confident, more credible. And your prospects respond in kind.

This isn’t about waiting around for leads to magically appear. It’s about positioning yourself in a way that invites them in.

Stop convincing. Start connecting. And watch what happens.

Download this FREE A.C.E.D. Buyer Style Playbook to help you build deeper emotional connections when you interact with buyers and stakeholders based on who they are, not who you are.

Here’s a scenario that’ll hit close to home: What do you do when you were crushing your numbers just months ago, but now you can’t seem to close anything and your confidence is in the gutter?

That’s exactly what happened to Dhruv, a business development rep from Saint Louis. After figuring out his rhythm in Q1 and hitting strong performance numbers, he found himself in a two-month slump with low attainment and shattered confidence.

If you’re nodding your head right now, you’re not alone. Every sales professional faces these valleys, and how you respond determines whether you bounce back stronger or spiral further down.

Dhruv’s story reveals a pattern I see constantly in sales organizations. After a strong Q1, he got comfortable. His dials dropped. He thought he had it all figured out. Sound familiar?

Here’s the brutal truth: Success without discipline is temporary. The moment you stop following the process that got you there, you’re setting yourself up for a fall.

When things started going sideways in April, Dhruv did what most salespeople do—he panicked. He started questioning everything, looking for new scripts on LinkedIn, using AI to find the “perfect” approach. Everything except the one thing that would actually help: going back to basics.

I told Dhruv about John Smoltz, the Cy Young Award-winning pitcher who spoke at an event I attended. Smoltz explained that when baseball players get into a slump, they start changing everything—looking for magic pills, new techniques, secret solutions.

But here’s what champions do differently: They go back to the fundamentals.

Take Kobe Bryant. Every morning at 4 AM, he’d spend three to four hours working on the same basic skills he learned as a kid. The fundamentals that made him great in the first place.

The same principle applies to fanatical prospecting. When you’re in a slump, you don’t need new techniques—you need to execute the proven process with precision and discipline.

When your confidence is shaken, outcome goals become your enemy. Focusing on “I need to close three deals this week” when you’re struggling just adds pressure and anxiety.

Instead, shift to process goals:

• How many calls will you make today?
• Are you using your five-step framework consistently?
• Are you delivering your ledge statements with conviction?
• Are you following up with discipline?

I shared with Dhruv my own experience from when I was 24 and going through a terrible quarter. I was so down I didn’t want to come to work. Here’s how I climbed out:

I started with 10-minute call blocks. Call for 10 minutes, then read three pages of an inspirational sales book as a reward. Rinse and repeat.

Within 30 days, I was performing well. Within 90 days, I was the number one rep in my region.

The key wasn’t finding a secret technique. It was trusting the process in shorter, manageable increments.

Dhruv’s slump coincided with companies pulling back on spending. But here’s what most reps get wrong: When markets tighten, you need to make more calls, not fewer.

The prospects with budget and urgency are still out there, they’re just harder to find. That means more activity, not less. More discipline, not shortcuts.

This is exactly what I cover in Selling in a Crisis—when economic conditions get tough, the fundamentals become even more critical.

If you’re in a confidence slump right now, here’s your roadmap back:

Stop Looking for Magic Solutions Get off LinkedIn. Stop asking AI for the perfect script. The answer isn’t out there—it’s in the process you already know works.

Break It Down When confidence is low, work in shorter blocks. Fifteen-minute call sessions with quick wins and self-recognition for executing the process correctly.

Focus on the Process Track your activities, not just your outcomes. How many dials? How many conversations? How many discovery questions asked? Celebrate the process execution.

Get Back to Your Routine Just like my golf recovery story, when things go sideways, don’t change everything—get back to your proven routine and rhythm.

Double Down on Activity If the market is tighter, you need more activity to find the same opportunities. More calls, more emails, more touchpoints.

Here’s what I told Dhruv, and what I’m telling you: I can’t give you confidence. Confidence comes from the inside, not from the outside.

Yes, success builds confidence. But when you’re not getting external validation, the only place confidence comes from is your commitment to the process.

Every time you make that call when you don’t feel like it, every time you follow the script when you want to wing it, every time you push through the discomfort—that’s where real confidence is built.

Your slump isn’t permanent. Your confidence crisis isn’t career-ending. But your response determines everything.

Stop looking for shortcuts. Stop changing what already worked. Trust the process that got you there in the first place, and execute it with the discipline of a champion.

Remember: The fundamentals never fail—we just fail to execute them consistently.

Get back to basics. Trust the process. Make the calls.

That’s how you build lasting confidence. That’s how you turn slumps into comebacks. And that’s how you develop into an elite sales professional who can weather any storm.

Ready to master the fundamentals that build unshakeable confidence? Check out our comprehensive prospecting and pipeline management training to develop the skills and mindset of elite performers.

Will AI steal your sales team’s jobs?

It’s the question haunting every sales floor conversation and keeping leaders up at night. But here’s the crucial insight: The biggest threat to your team’s sales careers lies in misinterpreting AI’s role.

While the debate rages over robots replacing salespeople, forward-thinking organizations are already embracing “Agentic AI.” This isn’t your typical automation that just speeds up email sequences. It’s a completely different approach that turns AI into your sales team’s secret weapon, not their replacement.

The companies getting this right aren’t asking “How do we cut costs with AI?” They’re asking, “How do we make our best salespeople unstoppable?” The answer is reshaping the entire profession, and it’s happening faster than you think.

Most sales leaders think AI is about efficiency, and they’re wrong. They think teams will only send more emails, make more calls, and process more leads. That’s old-school automation thinking, not agentic AI

Agentic AI refers to artificial intelligence systems that can independently make choices and take actions while working toward complicated objectives—all without needing constant human oversight or guidance.

As Outreach CEO Abhijit Mitra puts it: Agentic AI engines focus on giving salespeople tools that enhance their strengths and simplify their daily tasks.

Agentic AI enhances human judgment. Instead of automating relationships, it deepens them. Your top performers are successful because they make better decisions, read situations more accurately, and build stronger connections.

Agentic AI amplifies gives your salespeople superhuman pattern recognition, instant access to contextual insights, and the ability to predict customer needs before prospects even realize them. Your best rep’s intuition, backed by AI’s analytical power, becomes an unstoppable combination.

Too many organizations buy the same generic solution their competitors are using and wonder why they’re not seeing breakthrough results.

Your sales process, market, and customers are unique. Your AI should be, too.

Despite often being an expensive investment, custom AI solutions adapt to your specific industry terminology, recognize your unique buying patterns, and align with your particular sales methodology.

If your team can’t find ways to use generative AI effectively, then they need to read The AI Edge by best-selling author Jeb Blount. If they still struggle to use generative AI effectively, it might be time to invest in custom AI that captures and amplifies your unique competitive advantages.

Before you get excited about AI magic, be warned: Most AI implementations fail spectacularly. Not because the technology is flawed, but because companies skip the unglamorous groundwork.

Your AI is only as good as your data. Garbage in, garbage out is both a tech cliché and the undeniable reason your CRM feels like a digital junk drawer and your sales forecasts are glorified guesswork.

Companies that invest in data cleanup before implementing AI see immediate, measurable improvements. It’s more than removing duplicate contacts. It’s about creating a foundation where AI can learn meaningful patterns about your customers, your market, and your sales process.

Poor data quality limits AI performance and makes it downright dangerous. When AI systems learn from incomplete or incorrect data, they amplify those errors across your entire sales process. Your reps start making decisions based on flawed insights, potentially damaging customer relationships and missing opportunities.

The lesson? AI transformation is a data governance initiative. Get it right, and everything else becomes possible.

Picture this: You announce your AI initiative in Monday’s sales meeting. Instead of excitement, you’re met with crossed arms, skeptical looks, and the kind of silence that screams “we’re updating our résumés tonight.”

Your top performer, Linda, who’s been crushing quota for three years, is wondering if a machine will soon do her job better. Your veteran rep, Mike, who built his career on relationship-building and gut instinct, feels like you’re asking him to trust a calculator over his 20 years of experience. Your newer reps are caught between fear and curiosity. Will AI help them catch up faster, or will it expose their inexperience?

This emotional rollercoaster isn’t unique to your team. It’s happening in sales organizations everywhere, and it’s completely normal. Your people are worried and questioning their professional identity and future security.

As a sales leader, you need to address these emotional barriers to AI adoption. Your team needs to feel safe to experiment, fail, and learn. This means creating an environment where questions are welcomed, mistakes are learning opportunities, and success is celebrated publicly.

Start with transparency. Share your vision for how AI will enhance their roles, not replace them. Be specific about what AI will handle (data analysis, pattern recognition, administrative tasks) and what humans will still own (relationship building, creative problem-solving, strategic thinking).

Be clear about expectations. Yes, they’ll need to develop new skills. Yes, they’ll need to adapt their approaches. But emphasize that this evolution actually elevates the profession by allowing them to focus on high-value activities that directly impact customer success.

AI will fundamentally reshape what it means to be a salesperson. This transformation won’t happen overnight, but it will be profound. The administrative and analytical aspects of sales will increasingly be handled by AI, freeing your team to focus on relationship building, strategic thinking, and creative problem-solving.

Your salespeople will spend more time on high-value activities that directly impact customer success, like understanding complex business challenges, crafting tailored solutions, and building long-term partnerships.

This AI evolution requires continuous learning and skill development. Your sales professionals will need to become more comfortable with data interpretation, more sophisticated in their use of technology, and more strategic in their approach to customer relationships.

Successful AI implementation requires a strategic approach. Here’s your roadmap for getting it right:

• Audit your current data quality across all systems (CRM, marketing automation, customer service)
• Identify your top 3 sales performance metrics that AI could impact
• Survey your team anonymously about their AI concerns and expectations
• Benchmark your current sales process efficiency and effectiveness

• Launch a data cleanup initiative with clear ownership and deadlines
• Standardize contact fields, deal stages, and activity tracking
• Integrate data sources into a unified view

• Define your specific AI use cases (lead scoring, conversation analysis, forecasting)
• Evaluate vendors based on customization capabilities, not just features
• Run pilot tests with 2-3 solutions using real data
• Negotiate contracts that include extensive customization and training

• Start with your most AI-curious reps, not necessarily your top performers
• Implement in one specific area (prospecting, deal progression, or customer expansion)
• Create daily feedback loops to capture what’s working and what isn’t
• Document concrete wins and share them with the broader team

AI won’t replace salespeople who master it. It’ll replace salespeople who don’t.

If you stall debating whether AI is worth the investment, your competitors will build an unfair advantage. Their reps will close deals faster, predict customer needs with scary accuracy, and cultivate relationships that your team can’t match.

The sales leaders who embrace human-AI collaboration will dominate their markets. The ones who wait will spend the next five years playing catch-up.

The best AI tips and tactics are inside best-selling author Jeb Blount’s The AI Edge. Pick it up today.

How can one comp plan mistake sabotage your sales team before they even start? 

That’s the challenge facing Adam and Laura from the Rossen Law Firm in Florida. After attending one of our Dallas workshops, they made the bold decision to transition to a non-attorney sales team. Six weeks later, they’re all in on the strategy but hitting a wall on one critical issue: compensation structure.

The problem? Like most law firms making this transition, they’re stuck in the traditional legal mindset when it comes to paying salespeople. They can’t pay direct commissions because of fee-splitting regulations, but they’re struggling to create a compensation plan that motivates high performance.

If you’re nodding your head right now, you’re not alone. This is the No. 1 stumbling block I see when law firms try to build professional sales teams, and it’s costing them their best talent before they even get started.

Most law firms approach sales compensation like they’re hiring another paralegal instead of recognizing they’re building a revenue-generating machine.

The traditional legal industry operates on billable hours, retainers, and partnership tracks. But sales? Sales is about results, motivation, and creating an environment where top performers want to stay and mediocre performers either level up or leave.

When you try to force a square peg (sales compensation) into a round hole (traditional legal compensation), you get exactly what Adam and Laura discovered: confusion, frustration, and the risk of incentivizing the wrong behaviors.

Before you start cursing the legal profession’s restrictions on fee-splitting, let me share something that might surprise you: This limitation can force you to build a better compensation structure than most sales organizations.

Here’s why: Instead of lazy commission-based thinking, you’re forced to get creative with performance bonuses tied to specific outcomes. This means you can build a compensation plan that rewards the behaviors you actually want, not just the easy stuff.

The key is shifting from a commission mindset to a performance bonus mindset. This isn’t just semantic; it’s a fundamental change in how you think about motivating your sales team. This approach requires strong leadership fundamentals, which is why understanding how to create a sales accountability culture becomes critical to your success.

When I work with law firms on this challenge, I recommend a three-layer approach that satisfies legal requirements while creating real motivation:

This is your foundation. Pay a competitive salary that attracts superstar talent. Why? Because when you pay superstar wages, you can hold people accountable for superstar performance without them saying “you’re not incentivizing me for that.”

If most of your comp is salary, you can explain expectations clearly and apply leadership, motivation, and inspiration to get people to do the hard things without getting paid extra for everything.

Focus on activity-based goals that drive results:

• Follow-up completion rates
• Number of qualified calls taken
• Conversion rates from initial contact to consultation
• Client onboarding task completion

These should be measured monthly because salespeople need tighter timelines to stay motivated. The fundamentals of effective follow-up and systematic prospecting become crucial here. This is where mastering fanatical prospecting principles makes the difference between good and great performance.

This is where you create real ownership mentality:

• Quarterly team goals: Total new clients signed above baseline
• Annual firm goals: Overall revenue growth and profitability targets

Everyone participates in firm-level success, making your sales team feel like partners in growth, not just employees grinding for a paycheck.

Here’s where most law firms mess up: They create a compensation plan without thinking through the unintended consequences. Since you’re lawyers, you’re better equipped than most industries to do this right.

Sit down and scenario plan every possible worst-case behavior:

• What if they rush through calls to hit quantity goals?
• What if they only focus on easy cases and ignore complex ones?
• What if they oversell and create client satisfaction issues?
• What if they start competing against one another instead of collaborating?

For each scenario, ask: “Are we willing to accept this risk?” If not, adjust the plan. If yes, commit to coaching against those behaviors through leadership, not just compensation design.

Don’t underestimate the power of recognition, trophies, and status. Some of your best performers will work harder for public recognition than for an extra $500 bonus.

Consider creating:

• Monthly recognition programs
• Quarterly awards ceremonies
• Annual top performer retreats
• Public acknowledgment in firm communications

You’d be amazed how people will work for a trophy or recognition when combined with fair monetary compensation.

The biggest mistake I see law firms make is overthinking this to the point of paralysis. You’ll never solve for every scenario upfront, and that’s okay.

Here’s your action plan:

1. Start with a solid base salary that attracts quality talent
2. Add simple, measurable monthly bonuses tied to key activities
3. Layer in team and firm bonuses for broader ownership
4. Plan for quarterly reviews to adjust based on what you learn
5. Watch for unintended behaviors and coach through them

Remember: You can’t legislate perfect behavior through compensation alone. The best compensation plans create motivation, while good leadership creates the culture that sustains high performance.

This compensation challenge is really about something bigger: building a professional sales culture within a legal framework. When you get this right, you’re building a revenue engine that respects your profession’s ethics while driving sustainable growth.

The firms that figure this out survive the transition to non-attorney sales teams, and they dominate their markets while maintaining the professional standards that make great law firms great.

Ready to build a high-performance sales team that works within legal industry constraints? Get access to our complete Sales Gravy University training platform with courses specifically designed for professional services firms and sales leadership development.

How many times do you actually attempt to reach out to a prospect before you give up?

On the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jessica Stokes calls out a common sales reality when prospecting:

“We all know the average salesperson typically stops after three, maybe four attempts before moving on. We assume they’re not interested. We want to find a juicier lead.”

This common behavior defines The 3-Call Fallacy—the flawed belief that if someone doesn’t respond after a few tries, they’re not interested. It’s where you probably tap out and tell yourself you’ve done enough.

You haven’t. Persistence is key. 

The premature retreat from prospecting isn’t about laziness; it’s rooted in fundamental misconceptions and fear.

The most common excuse? “I don’t want to be a pest.” 

You leave a voicemail, send an email, maybe try LinkedIn, and then you back off. You tell yourself you’re giving them space.

But your prospect doesn’t remember you.

When you’re looking at your CRM thinking, “This is my sixth attempt—I’m going to tick this guy off,” your prospect likely has no idea who you are. To them, today’s call feels like the first time you’ve reached out.

Spacing out your touchpoints destroys any traction you might have built. Waiting a week—or worse, a month—between messages forces you to restart every time. That familiar name? Forgotten. That compelling message? Gone.

Momentum is built with consistency. Familiarity breeds trust, but only if you stay in front of them long enough to become familiar.

The fix? Being fanatical about sequencing. 

It’s about consistent, well-timed, multi-channel outreach that keeps your message fresh and front of mind.

1. Stay Consistent: Don’t let more than a few days pass between touchpoints. Regular rhythm creates recall. Think of it like a steady drumbeat—not a one-time boom.
2. Use Multiple Channels: Your prospect may ignore emails but answer LinkedIn. Or they may screen unknown numbers but reply to a personalized video. Use all the tools available:
   • Phone calls
   • Emails
   • LinkedIn messages
   • Video messages
   • Direct mail (for high-value prospects)
3. Track Your True Attempt Rate: Most reps overestimate their persistence. Implement a rigorous tracking system, whether in your CRM or a simple spreadsheet, to log every single touchpoint.
4. Reframe Your Mindset: You’re not bothering people—you’re offering help. If you believe in your product and know it can solve their problems, persistent outreach is a service, not a nuisance.

Ready to put this into action? Take 20-50 leads and run a sequence over the next 30-45 days. Make contact attempts every few days using multiple channels. Track your progress.

You’ll likely discover:

• Responses after 8, 10, even 12 attempts.
• Prospects saying things like “I’m glad you reached out again” or “I was thinking about calling you back.”
• Booked appointments you never would have gotten with the traditional 3-call approach.

This is where self-sabotage shows up. Let’s break down the common excuses:

1. “I don’t want to be annoying.” Your prospect deleted your voicemail in 10 seconds. They’re not sitting there with a map of all your attempts, getting angrier with each one.
2. “If they were interested, they would have called back.” People are busy. Interest doesn’t always translate to immediate action. 
3. “I need to focus on warmer leads.” Every lead starts cold. The difference between a cold lead and a warm lead is often just consistent, value-driven follow-up. You make them warm.

Just like you can’t run a 10K after one day of training, you can’t expect immediate results from prospecting. It’s a cumulative effort that builds momentum over time.

Start Small: Don’t try to overhaul your entire prospecting approach overnight. Pick 20 leads and build a 30-45 day sequence. Master this small batch, then scale up.

Use Your CRM: If it’s not tracked, it didn’t happen. Consistent CRM usage is non-negotiable for understanding your efforts and optimizing your results. Over time, the data will show you patterns about when prospects typically engage.

Get Comfortable with “No”: “No” isn’t failure. “No, not now,” “No, we’re under contract,” or “No, budget’s tight” are all valuable intel. A clear no means you can move on clean—or set a strategic follow-up for the future.

While your competitors are giving up after a few attempts, you can be the persistent professional who stays in front of prospects until they engage. 

Your prospect’s lack of immediate response isn’t personal rejection—it’s just bad timing. Your job is to be there when the timing improves.

Stop making excuses. Stop being afraid of annoying people. Start being fanatical about your follow-up.

Take your prospecting sequences to the next level, set more appointments, build deeper relationships, and close more deals with the techniques in our FREE guide, How many times do you actually attempt to reach out to a prospect before you give up?

On the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jessica Stokes calls out a common sales reality when prospecting:

“We all know the average salesperson typically stops after three, maybe four attempts before moving on. We assume they’re not interested. We want to find a juicier lead.”

This common behavior defines The 3-Call Fallacy—the flawed belief that if someone doesn’t respond after a few tries, they’re not interested. It’s where you probably tap out and tell yourself you’ve done enough.

You haven’t. Persistence is key. 

The premature retreat from prospecting isn’t about laziness; it’s rooted in fundamental misconceptions and fear.

The most common excuse? “I don’t want to be a pest.” 

You leave a voicemail, send an email, maybe try LinkedIn, and then you back off. You tell yourself you’re giving them space.

But your prospect doesn’t remember you.

When you’re looking at your CRM thinking, “This is my sixth attempt—I’m going to tick this guy off,” your prospect likely has no idea who you are. To them, today’s call feels like the first time you’ve reached out.

Spacing out your touchpoints destroys any traction you might have built. Waiting a week—or worse, a month—between messages forces you to restart every time. That familiar name? Forgotten. That compelling message? Gone.

Momentum is built with consistency. Familiarity breeds trust, but only if you stay in front of them long enough to become familiar.

The fix? Being fanatical about sequencing. 

It’s about consistent, well-timed, multi-channel outreach that keeps your message fresh and front of mind.

1. Stay Consistent: Don’t let more than a few days pass between touchpoints. Regular rhythm creates recall. Think of it like a steady drumbeat—not a one-time boom.
2. Use Multiple Channels: Your prospect may ignore emails but answer LinkedIn. Or they may screen unknown numbers but reply to a personalized video. Use all the tools available:
   • Phone calls
   • Emails
   • LinkedIn messages
   • Video messages
   • Direct mail (for high-value prospects)
3. Track Your True Attempt Rate: Most reps overestimate their persistence. Implement a rigorous tracking system, whether in your CRM or a simple spreadsheet, to log every single touchpoint.
4. Reframe Your Mindset: You’re not bothering people—you’re offering help. If you believe in your product and know it can solve their problems, persistent outreach is a service, not a nuisance.

Ready to put this into action? Take 20-50 leads and run a sequence over the next 30-45 days. Make contact attempts every few days using multiple channels. Track your progress.

You’ll likely discover:

• Responses after 8, 10, even 12 attempts.
• Prospects saying things like “I’m glad you reached out again” or “I was thinking about calling you back.”
• Booked appointments you never would have gotten with the traditional 3-call approach.

This is where self-sabotage shows up. Let’s break down the common excuses:

1. “I don’t want to be annoying.” Your prospect deleted your voicemail in 10 seconds. They’re not sitting there with a map of all your attempts, getting angrier with each one.
2. “If they were interested, they would have called back.” People are busy. Interest doesn’t always translate to immediate action. 
3. “I need to focus on warmer leads.” Every lead starts cold. The difference between a cold lead and a warm lead is often just consistent, value-driven follow-up. You make them warm.

Just like you can’t run a 10K after one day of training, you can’t expect immediate results from prospecting. It’s a cumulative effort that builds momentum over time.

Start Small: Don’t try to overhaul your entire prospecting approach overnight. Pick 20 leads and build a 30-45 day sequence. Master this small batch, then scale up.

Use Your CRM: If it’s not tracked, it didn’t happen. Consistent CRM usage is non-negotiable for understanding your efforts and optimizing your results. Over time, the data will show you patterns about when prospects typically engage.

Get Comfortable with “No”: “No” isn’t failure. “No, not now,” “No, we’re under contract,” or “No, budget’s tight” are all valuable intel. A clear no means you can move on clean—or set a strategic follow-up for the future.

While your competitors are giving up after a few attempts, you can be the persistent professional who stays in front of prospects until they engage. 

Your prospect’s lack of immediate response isn’t personal rejection—it’s just bad timing. Your job is to be there when the timing improves.

Stop making excuses. Stop being afraid of annoying people. Start being fanatical about your follow-up.

Take your prospecting sequences to the next level, set more appointments, build deeper relationships, and close more deals with the techniques in our FREE guide, The Seven Steps To Building Effective Prospecting Sequences.

Here’s the hard truth about social media for sales: You’re already behind, and it’s going to be a grind.

That’s the reality Margarita from Dallas discovered when she called into our podcast. She’s a seasoned realtor with 20+ years of experience, built her entire business on referrals and warm market relationships, and suddenly realized she needs to master social media to stay competitive.

Sound familiar? You’re not alone if you’re staring at this digital mountain wondering how the hell you’re going to climb it.

But what makes Margarita’s situation even more challenging and why her story matters to every sales professional reading is this: She’s trying to compress 20 years of relationship building into a social media strategy that can compete with people who’ve been doing this for decades.

Remember the first time you saw Tom Cruise in a movie? For me, it was Risky Business, some kid dancing around in his underwear. He wasn’t the “last movie star” then. He was just another actor trying to make it.

But here’s the thing: Today, if you saw Tom Cruise walking down the street, you’d lose your mind. You’d want selfies, autographs, the whole nine yards. Why? Because over decades, he created millions of micro-interactions that built trust, familiarity, and fandom.

That’s exactly what you need to do on social media. You need to create fans of YOU.

The problem is that most sales professionals want to skip the relationship-building phase and jump straight to the closing phase. They want to post a few listing videos and magically generate leads. That’s not how it works.

Here’s the part that’s going to hurt: You need to post every single day. Not when you feel like it. Not when you have something “good” to share. Every. Single. Day.

When you first start, your content is going to suck. Your first TikTok video? Three people will watch it. Your first Instagram post? Crickets. Your first LinkedIn article? Your mom and your real estate buddy will like it.

I know because I’ve been there. We’ve all been there. The algorithms don’t care about your feelings—they care about consistency.

Think about it this way: You’re not just competing with other sales professionals for attention. You’re competing with Netflix, YouTube, TikTok, and every other form of entertainment for your prospects’ eyeballs. The only way to win that battle is to show up relentlessly until people start recognizing your name and face.

When you think about social media as a sales professional, you need to separate it into two distinct buckets:

Bucket 1: Marketing and Brand Building This is about name recognition, familiarity, and staying top-of-mind. When people in your market are ready to buy or sell, your name should be the first one they think of. This bucket is about volume, consistency, and building your personal brand.

Bucket 2: Direct Lead Generation This is about watching what prospects are doing, engaging with them directly, and converting social interactions into sales conversations. This bucket is about quality, relationship building, and moving people from digital relationships to actual appointments.

Most people focus entirely on Bucket 1 and wonder why they’re not getting leads. Others focus only on Bucket 2 and wonder why their content isn’t reaching anyone. You need both working in harmony.

Here’s what you need to post consistently:

Original Content: This is your unique perspective, your experience, your stories. If you’re a 20-year veteran like Margarita, you have war stories that new agents don’t. You’ve survived market crashes, interest rate spikes, and industry changes. Share that wisdom.

Curated Content: Find industry articles, market reports, and news relevant to your prospects. But don’t just share them—add your own insight. Become an expert by building on other people’s content.

Engagement Content: This is where most people fail. They post and ghost. They put content out there and disappear. Social media is called “social” for a reason. When people comment, respond. When they share, acknowledge it. When they ask questions, answer them.

The magic happens in the comments section, not in the original post.

Let me be straight with you: Social media for sales professionals is a freaking grind. It’s hard. It’s exhausting. Every day you’re trying to figure out what to post, how to engage, what to say.

You can use AI to help generate ideas and even draft content, but you still need to show up, be authentic, and put in the work. There’s no shortcut, no hack, no magic bullet.

But here’s the good news: If you’re established in your field like Margarita, you have a massive advantage. You already know how to build relationships, ask questions, and solve problems. You already understand your clients’ pain points and concerns.

Social media is just a new channel for doing what you already do well.

Don’t expect miracles in the first month. Or the second. Or even the third.

You’re looking at 6 to 18 months of consistent effort before you see real traction. That’s not because social media doesn’t work. It’s because trust takes time to build, and the algorithms need time to understand who you are and who your content should reach.

During those first six months, you’re going to want to quit. You’re going to post something you think is brilliant and get zero engagement. You’re going to see competitors getting more likes and followers and wonder what you’re doing wrong.

That’s normal. That’s the price of admission. That’s what separates the professionals from the wannabes.

Here’s where social media integrates with everything else you’re already doing. Remember, nothing is dead in sales. Cold calling works, door knocking works, referrals work, and social media works. The key is building a complete system where all these channels work together.

Your social media presence should feed your email newsletter, which should drive people to your website, which should capture leads for your CRM, which should trigger your follow-up sequences. It’s all connected.

If you’re not already building an email list from your social media followers, you’re missing a huge opportunity. Social media platforms come and go, but your email list is an asset you own forever.

Don’t get caught up in follower counts and likes. Those are vanity metrics that make you feel good but don’t necessarily drive revenue.

Instead, focus on:

• Engagement Rate: Are people actually interacting with your content?
• Direct Messages: Are prospects reaching out to you directly?
• Appointment Requests: Are social interactions converting to sales conversations?
• Email Signups: Are people joining your newsletter or downloading your resources?

Remember: You don’t need thousands of followers to build a successful business. You need the right followers who are actually in your market and ready to buy or sell.

If you’re ready to build your social media presence, here’s your action plan:

Week 1-2: Choose your platforms. Don’t try to be everywhere. Pick 2-3 platforms where your ideal clients actually spend time.

Week 3-4: Create your content calendar. Plan 30 days of posts mixing original content, curated content, and engagement prompts.

Month 2: Start posting consistently. Track your engagement and adjust your strategy based on what resonates.

Month 3-6: Double down on what works. Analyze your top-performing content and create more of it.

Throughout this process, remember that your goal isn’t to become an influencer. You want to become the go-to expert in your market. Focus on providing value, answering questions, and building relationships one post at a time.

Here’s what I love about professionals like Margarita: They understand that social media isn’t replacing traditional prospecting—it’s enhancing it.

Cold calling isn’t dead. Door knocking isn’t dead. Referrals aren’t dead. But social media allows you to warm up cold prospects, stay connected with past clients, and build relationships at scale.

The most successful sales professionals I know use social media as part of their complete prospecting system. They’re not abandoning what works. They’re just adding new tools to their toolkit.

Social media success in sales isn’t about going viral or becoming internet famous. It’s about building a systematic approach to digital relationship building that compounds over time.

It’s about showing up consistently, providing value relentlessly, and converting digital interactions into real conversations that lead to closed deals.

The professionals who understand that social media should be treated like the long-term relationship-building tool it is will have a massive competitive advantage over those who are still trying to figure out how to “hack” the algorithms.

There are no shortcuts. There are no hacks. There’s just showing up, every single day, and doing the work.

The question is: Are you ready to start grinding?

Want to dive deeper into using social media specifically for real estate sales? Check out How to Sell Real Estate (and Almost Anything Else) with TikTok & Instagram at Sales Gravy University—the exact course mentioned in this episode that teaches you how to leverage social platforms for real estate success.

You think you’re being helpful. Your clients think you’re being annoying.

Early in his career, Justin Goldstein learned this lesson the hard way. He admits, “I thought that picking up the phone and calling a client to talk about almost everything was the right way to go. I personally hate communicating over email. I’d rather just talk to you and figure it out.” 

The reality hit hard: clients viewed his frequent outreach as a burden rather than a benefit. Weekly update calls meant to show dedication became time-wasters in clients’ minds. Daily email updates intended to demonstrate thoroughness turned into inbox clutter.

This scenario plays out in sales organizations everywhere. Well-meaning professionals mistake quantity for quality, frequency for value, and availability for service excellence.

The key to avoiding this trap isn’t about reading minds; it’s about understanding communication preferences. As Justin puts it, “You really have to understand what makes your clients tick, and you have to understand the nuances of how they work.”

This means recognizing that being understanding matters more than simply being helpful. Your client might prefer monthly check-ins over weekly ones, or end-of-week summaries instead of daily updates. They might prefer text over calls, or structured emails over casual conversations.

The biggest mistake most sales professionals make is assuming their communication style is universal. It isn’t. Effective communication emphasizes understanding and adapting to individual client needs.

Here are the warning signs your communication style might be pushing prospects away:

• Response Time Changes: If a prospect who used to respond quickly starts taking longer or giving shorter replies, you might be overwhelming them.
• Meeting Resistance: Clients rescheduling frequently or suggesting less frequent meetings signal communication fatigue.
• Email Behavior: Prospects responding to every third email instead of each one indicates your messages lack sufficient value or arrive too frequently.
• Energy Shifts: Noticeably decreased enthusiasm in client responses means it’s time to reassess your approach immediately.

Instead of guessing what works, use this framework to optimize your communication:

1. Ask Direct Questions Early

During your initial meetings, ask prospects about their preferred communication style:

• “What’s the best way to keep you updated on progress?”
• “How often would you like to connect during this process?”
• “Do you prefer calls, emails, or something else for routine updates?”

1. Start Conservative, Then Adjust

It’s easier to increase communication frequency than to dial it back after you’ve been labeled “high maintenance.” Begin with less frequent touchpoints and let the client guide you toward more contact if they want it. 

1. Make Every Interaction Count

When you reach out, ensure it delivers value. Random check-ins and meaningless updates train clients to ignore your communications. Each email, call, or message should serve a clear purpose and advance the relationship or project.

Focus on quality over quantity. One valuable update weekly beats five pointless check-ins that add no value to the client relationship.

1. Establish Communication Boundaries

Be explicit about when you’ll reach out proactively versus when they should contact you. For example: “I’ll send you a brief update every Friday afternoon, but please reach out immediately if any urgent questions come up.” 

Clear boundaries create mutual respect and prevent communication chaos that frustrates both parties.

Getting client communication right builds trust. When clients see that you respect their time and communication preferences, they’re more likely to:

• Respond quickly when you do reach out because they know it matters.
• Refer you to other prospects.
• Renew or expand their relationship with you.
• Give you honest feedback when issues arise.

These outcomes directly impact your bottom line and long-term career success.

Successful sales professionals recognize that communication preferences vary dramatically across client types:

• Busy Executives managing multiple initiatives don’t want weekly strategy calls. They prefer concise summaries and action-oriented updates that respect their limited time.
• Detail-Oriented Managers might appreciate more frequent updates but want structured, organized information that helps them track progress systematically.
• Entrepreneurs often prefer everything condensed into single weekly summaries that cover all relevant points without requiring multiple interactions.

The key is matching your communication style to their working style, not your personal preferences.

As Justin learned, dialing back communication frequency doesn’t mean caring less about clients. It means caring enough to communicate in ways that work best for them, not you.

Start by auditing your current communication patterns. Are you adding value with each interaction, or just maintaining visibility? 

Master this balance, and you’ll discover that less truly can be more—more trust, more engagement, and ultimately, more closed deals.

Download this FREE A.C.E.D. Buyer Style Playbook to help you build deeper emotional connections when you interact with buyers and stakeholders based on who they are–not who you are.

Here’s a question that’ll keep you up at night: What do you do when your emotions are sabotaging your sales performance?

That’s the exact challenge posed by Kurt O’Donnell and the sales team from Joyland Roofing in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. They’re crushing it—doing $10 million in revenue with individual reps generating $2 million each—but they identified a critical weakness that could derail their ambitious goal of hitting $100 million in 10 years.

Kurt put it perfectly: “We need to actually learn how to read ourselves better and just be consistent. Emotionally consistent, even when everything else can heave around us. How do I show up at the door and be that consultant… and not just kind of be desperate because I had a few bad calls?”

If you’re nodding your head right now, you’re not alone. Emotional inconsistency is the silent killer of sales careers, and it’s costing top performers millions in lost revenue.

Most sales training focuses on techniques, scripts, and closing strategies. But here’s the brutal truth: Your emotional state in the moment of truth determines your success more than any other factor.

Think about it. You can have the perfect pitch, flawless product knowledge, and ironclad objection handling skills, but if you walk into that appointment carrying the baggage from your last three rejections, you’re dead in the water before you even ring the doorbell.

Your prospects don’t know about your bad morning. They don’t care that the last homeowner beat you up on price or that your competitor just undercut you again. All they know is the energy you bring to their front door—and that energy determines whether they trust you enough to invite you in.

The first skill every elite salesperson must master is emotional compartmentalization. Here’s how to think about it:

That homeowner you’re about to meet? This is the only conversation they’re having with your company today. They don’t know about your other appointments, your wins, your losses, or your quota pressure. To them, you represent their entire experience with your organization.

More importantly, their home is their biggest asset—the most valuable thing in their life. When they’re considering a roof replacement or new windows, they’re not just buying a product; they’re making an emotional decision about protecting what matters most to them.

Their emotional experience with you is more predictive of the outcome than any other variable. People buy you first, then they buy your product. They buy you because they feel like you care about them, that you listen to them, that you understand them, and that they can trust you.

That doesn’t happen if you show up desperate, distracted, or carrying emotional baggage from previous calls.

The difference between average performers and elite closers comes down to one thing: focus.

Average performers obsess over outcome goals. They walk up to the door thinking, “I need to close this deal.” When they’ve had a few bad calls, they skip the relationship-building and go straight to pitch mode because they’re desperate for a win.

Elite performers focus on process goals. They have a systematic approach: “I’m going to greet them this way, connect like this, ask these discovery questions, present like this, and ask for the business using this method.” They trust the process because they know it works.

When you focus on running your process perfectly, you give yourself the highest probability of getting the desired outcome. Sometimes the putts go in, sometimes they don’t—but you ran the process every time.

As one wise salesperson once said: “If you try to control the outcome, you’re not going to get the outcome you’re looking for. If you trust the process and trust yourself, you’re typically going to get the outcome you’re looking for.”

Here’s a practical question: What’s coming out of the speakers in your truck between appointments?

If you’re listening to the news, you’re filling your mind with negativity. If you’re listening to sports radio while thinking about your next call, your focus is scattered. But if you’re listening to sales training content, motivational audiobooks, or fanatical prospecting techniques, you’re programming your mind for success.

Your drive time between appointments is prime real estate for mental conditioning. Use it to stay focused, positive, and sharp.

The conversation happening in your head determines everything. When you mess up a call or get rejected, what are you saying to yourself?

Most salespeople spiral into negative self-talk: “I’m terrible at this. I can’t close anything. This customer was never going to buy anyway. Maybe I’m not cut out for sales.”

Elite performers catch themselves in that spiral and flip the script: “I can do this. I’m getting better every day. That last call was just practice for this next one. I’m going to slow down, stick to my process, and deliver value.”

It sounds simple, but changing your internal dialogue is one of the most powerful performance improvements you can make. Your mind believes what you tell it—so tell it something that serves your success.

When all else fails, phone a friend. Having teammates you can call between appointments to reset your mindset isn’t weakness—it’s professional. The best sales organizations create cultures where reps lift each other up instead of competing against each other.

Build relationships with colleagues who can talk you off the ledge when you’re spiraling. Sometimes all it takes is hearing someone say, “You’ve got this. That last call doesn’t define you. Go show them what you’re made of.”

Your goal is to become the Scottie Scheffler of your industry—calm, cool, and consistent regardless of what’s happening around you. That doesn’t mean you don’t feel emotions; it means you don’t let those emotions dictate your performance.

Every appointment is a fresh start. Every prospect deserves your best self. Every interaction is an opportunity to demonstrate the professionalism and expertise that separates you from your competition.

When you master emotional consistency, everything else becomes easier. Your objection handling improves because you’re not defensive. Your closing gets stronger because you’re confident rather than desperate. Your relationships deepen because you’re genuinely focused on serving your prospect rather than serving your quota.

If you’re ready to stop letting your emotions sabotage your sales performance:

Develop your reset routine. What will you do between every call to clear your head and refocus? Make it systematic and stick to it religiously.

Master compartmentalization. Each prospect gets a fresh, fully-engaged version of you. Their experience with you is their entire experience with your company.

Focus on process, not outcomes. Perfect your sales methodology and trust it to deliver results over time.

Control your inputs. What you listen to, read, and consume between calls directly impacts your mindset and performance.

Build your support network. Identify colleagues who can help you reset when you’re struggling.

Monitor your self-talk. Catch negative spirals early and redirect them toward confidence and competence.

Your technical skills might get you in the door, but your emotional state determines whether you walk out with a signed contract.

Master your inner game, and your outer results will follow. Stay emotionally consistent, trust your process, and watch your closing ratio soar.

That’s how you build a championship sales career. That’s how you dominate your market. And that’s how you turn emotional intelligence into competitive advantage.

Jeb Blount’s bestselling book Sales EQ: How Ultra High Performers Leverage Sales-Specific Emotional Intelligence to Close the Complex Deal helps guide salespeople through the many hurdles that many struggle with in building authentic relationships with prospects. Download our free Sales EQ Book Club Guide HERE.

The second quarter of 2025 delivered some incredible conversations on the Sales Gravy podcast. From discipline strategies that separate winners from wannabes to the psychology of selling that most reps completely miss, here are the five most powerful insights that can transform your sales results immediately.

The Problem: Most sales reps get discouraged when they don’t book meetings, causing them to change their approach daily.

The Solution: Cynthia Handal, who runs high-performing BDR teams, revealed her game-changing mindset shift: “The outcome isn’t to book a meeting. The outcome is to do the three hours of work.”

Her approach is deceptively simple but incredibly powerful:

• Time block your prospecting activities (she does 9 AM to 12 PM daily).
• Set a timer and don’t stop until the time is complete.
• Focus on controlling what you can control—the work itself.
• Trust that results will follow consistent activity.

This eliminates the emotional rollercoaster of good days and bad days. When you focus on process over outcomes, you build the discipline that creates sustainable success.

The Problem: Most salespeople chase prospects desperately, making them less attractive.

The Solution: Mike Maples Jr., a Silicon Valley VC and former software entrepreneur, uses a counterintuitive approach to actively trying to disqualify prospects.

The “go for the no” technique works like this:

• Start conversations by suggesting you might not be the right fit
• Use body language that shows you’re willing to walk away
• Make prospects convince you they need your solution
• Qualify out aggressively those who don’t value your advantage

This approach leverages the psychological principle that people want what they can’t have. When you’re not desperate, you become magnetic. 

The Problem: Five sales reps with five different value propositions confuse customers and create internal friction. They need to be unified.

The Solution: Lisa Dennis discusses that messaging alignment must extend beyond just the sales team to the entire organization.

Her process includes:

• Involving the whole company in messaging rollouts, not just sales
• Ensuring customer success and support teams understand the same value propositions
• Providing discovery questions and conversation frameworks to salespeople
• Creating organizational congruence from marketing through delivery

When everyone in your organization tells the same story, customers experience consistency at every touchpoint. This builds trust and reduces friction throughout the customer journey.

The Problem: Salespeople focus on features and benefits while underestimating the value of trust.

The Solution: Yoram Solomon’s research that people will pay an average of 29.6% more to buy from someone they trust versus someone they don’t know (not someone they distrust—just someone neutral).

The trust-building behaviors that matter most:

• Listening instead of pitching
• Showing genuine care for the customer’s situation
• Being attentive and present during conversations
• Making and keeping promises consistently

Trust is worth dollars.

The Problem: Most businesses stay stuck in six figures because they’re fundamentally undercharging for their service.

The Solution: David Neagle, who has helped countless entrepreneurs break through seven figures, says the issue is usually mathematical, not motivational.

His tips for confidently pricing right:

• Stop comparing yourself to the average—compare to the top performers
• Charge based on results delivered, not time spent
• Ask yourself: “If they get the same result, why can’t I charge the same price?”
• Actually ask for the sale at your true value

As David puts it: “It’s hard to do $50,000 a month if you’re selling your service for $1,000 a pop.” You can’t hustle your way to seven figures if you’re selling dollars for fifty cents.

These insights are practical strategies being used by top performers right now. The difference between successful salespeople and everyone else isn’t talent or luck. It’s implementing systems that work consistently.

Pick one of these strategies and commit to implementing it this week. Maybe it’s time-blocking your prospecting like Cynthia, practicing the takeaway technique like Mike, or finally having that pricing conversation like David suggests.

Remember: people pay more for trust, and the harder you work, the luckier you get. When you’re tired and ready to go home, make one more call.

For more spot-on sales insights, listen to the Sales Gravy Podcast, Ask Jeb, and Money Monday, every week on SalesGravy.com.

Here’s a question that’ll make your blood boil: Why do most sales leaders spend their pipeline reviews asking about dollar amounts and close dates while completely ignoring whether their reps actually have real deals?

That’s the brutal reality I see in sales organizations every single day. Leaders are obsessing over MEDIC, BANT, and other qualification frameworks while their pipelines are stuffed with dead deals that will never close.

Meanwhile, their forecasts are consistently wrong, deals keep getting pushed, and reps are burning time on opportunities that died months ago.

If you’re nodding your head right now, you’re not alone. Focusing on surface-level qualification instead of true deal engagement is one of the most backward approaches to pipeline management I see today, and it’s costing companies millions in missed forecasts.

Remember when everyone thought MEDIC and BANT were the holy grail of qualification? Sales leaders everywhere started drilling reps on budgets, authority, need, and timing like they were conducting a police interrogation.

But here’s what actually happens: Reps learn to check the boxes without understanding whether they have a real deal.

They’ll tell you they’ve qualified the budget, but they’re talking to someone who has to “go talk to the boss.” They’ll say there’s urgency and timing, but the prospect is waiting to hire an executive in a completely different department before making a decision.

Traditional qualification frameworks are the opposite of real pipeline inspection. They’re vanity metrics disguised as sales rigor.

Here’s the brutal truth: You can have a deal that checks every qualification box and still have a 2% chance of closing. Meanwhile, a deal that looks “unqualified” on paper might be ready to close tomorrow because the right stakeholders are engaged and moving forward.

The reason most sales leaders run terrible pipeline reviews is because it’s easy. It requires zero investment in actual deal coaching, stakeholder analysis, or strategic thinking.

Think about it: It’s much easier to ask, “What’s the budget?” than it is to dig into whether the decision-maker actually sees value in solving this problem.

But here’s what happens when you manage this way: You end up with pipelines full of zombie deals that look good on paper but will never close.

Your reps get comfortable keeping deals in the pipeline because they’ve “qualified” them. Your forecasts become fiction because you’re counting revenue from prospects who aren’t actually buying.

Instead of obsessing over qualification checklists, elite sales leaders focus on the one metric that actually predicts deal success: What’s the next step?

This isn’t just another question—it’s the ultimate deal quality detector. Here’s why:

1. Dead deals have no next steps. When a rep says, “They’re going on vacation, so I’ll call them in a few weeks,” that deal is dead. When they say, “They told me to call back in a month,” that’s not a pipeline deal—that’s a prospect.
2. Real deals have committed next steps. When a rep says, “We’re doing a technical demo with their IT team on Friday, and the CFO specifically asked to see ROI projections by Tuesday,” that’s a deal with momentum.
3. Engaged prospects match your effort. If you’re doing all the work—sending proposals, scheduling calls, following up—while they’re giving you vague responses, you don’t have a deal. You have a prospect who’s being polite.

When I’m inspecting pipeline quality, I use a simple three-question framework that reveals everything:

This is the deal-killer question. If there’s no specific, committed next step with a date and stakeholders involved, the deal is stalled or dead. Period.

In my experience selling sales training, if I’m talking to an influencer instead of the person with the money, the probability of closing is about 2%. The person with the budget doesn’t see training as valuable unless it was their idea.

This applies to every industry. You need to know: Are you talking to someone who can say yes, or someone who can only say no?

Real buyers show up to demos. They bring their team to meetings. They respond to your emails. They give you the information you need to build proposals.

If you’re doing all the heavy lifting while they’re giving you crickets, you’re not in a sales process—you’re in a procurement process where you’re getting used for free consulting.

Here’s where most companies completely lose the plot: They forecast based on sales stages instead of actual deal probability.

They say if you’re in discovery, it’s 40% probable. If you’re doing a demo, it’s 60% probable. This is pure fantasy.

Just because you’re 60% of the way through your sales process doesn’t mean there’s a 60% chance the deal will close in this quarter. It might mean you’re 60% of the way to getting rejected.

Real probability is collaborative. After inspecting next steps, stakeholder engagement, and competitive positioning, you sit down with your rep and ask: “Based on everything we know, what’s the real probability this closes in the next 90 days?”

Maybe it’s 80% because all the stakeholders are engaged and there’s a signed agreement on next steps. Maybe it’s 10% because they’re not returning calls and keep pushing meetings.

The key is that it’s based on deal reality, not process stages.

This approach requires one thing most sales leaders aren’t willing to give: actual leadership.

You can’t just look at dashboards and ask surface-level questions. You have to:

1. Run regular pipeline reviews where you dig into deal strategy, not just deal status.
2. Coach on next steps constantly—not just in formal meetings, but in hallway conversations and phone call debriefs.
3. Push deals forward or pull them back based on real engagement, not wishful thinking.
4. Force decisions on dead deals. Sometimes you have to tell your rep: “Take this out of the pipeline. Turn it into a prospect. Come back to it later. But stop using this as an excuse not to go find real deals.”

The best sales organizations don’t manage hope—they manage reality.

They know the difference between a qualified prospect and an engaged buyer. They measure deal momentum, not process completion. They forecast based on stakeholder commitment, not stage progression.

That’s how you build accurate forecasts. That’s how you develop elite sales judgment. And that’s how you stop wasting time on deals that were never going to close in the first place.

Your pipeline isn’t a parking lot for prospects who might buy someday. It’s a commitment engine for deals that are moving toward a close.

Start inspecting what actually matters, and watch your forecast accuracy—and your revenue—transform.

Learn how to ensure that you have enough pipe to make your number with this simple sales pipeline reality check technique in this microbite course: How to Give Your Pipeline a Reality Check.

Ben Hogan, who was arguably the greatest ball striker the game of golf has ever known, taught that if you wanted to improve your swing you should focus on the cause rather than the result. 

This was good advice for golfers and brilliant advice for sales professionals. Because in sales, if you want to sell more it pays to become obsessed over your behaviors, techniques and processes rather than your outcomes. 

Most salespeople are focused on winning or losing individual deals. They get emotionally wrapped up in every prospect, every conversation, every close attempt. When they win, they’re on top of the world. When they lose, they’re devastated.

But top performers? They think completely differently. They’re not obsessed with any single deal. They’re obsessed with the process that creates consistent results over time.

This mindset shift is the difference between feast-or-famine selling and predictable, sustainable success.

Here’s what happens when you’re obsessed with outcomes instead of process:

Every deal, every month, every quarter becomes life or death. You put all your emotional energy into individual prospects and hitting numbers, which clouds your judgment and makes you act desperate.

You take rejection personally. When someone says no, it’s not just a business decision – it feels like a personal attack on your worth as a salesperson.

You make poor decisions under pressure. When you need a deal to close to hit your number, you start discounting too early, chasing bad prospects, or making promises you can’t keep.

Your performance becomes inconsistent. You have great months followed by terrible months because you’re riding the emotional roller coaster of individual wins and losses.

You burn out faster. The constant emotional highs and lows are exhausting and unsustainable.

Process goals are different. They focus on the activities and behaviors you can directly control, not the outcomes that depend on factors outside your influence.

Instead of “I need to close three deals this month,” a process goal is “I will make 50 prospecting calls every day.”

Instead of “I have to win the Johnson account,” it’s “I will have four meaningful touch points with stakeholders at Johnson this week.”

Instead of “I need to hit 120% of quota,” it’s “I will follow my proven sales methodology on every single opportunity.”

Process goals put you in control. You can’t control whether a prospect buys, but you can control how many prospects you contact, how well you qualify them, and how consistently you follow your process.

Create predictable results. When you focus on the right activities consistently, the outcomes take care of themselves. It’s like compound interest – small, consistent actions create massive results over time.

Reduce emotional volatility. You’re not devastated by individual losses because you know that if you stick to your process, the wins will come.

Improve decision-making. When you’re not desperate for any particular deal, you make better strategic decisions about where to invest your time and energy.

Build confidence. Every day you hit your process goals, you build momentum and confidence, regardless of whether deals close that day.

Create sustainable habits. Process goals turn success behaviors into automatic habits rather than things you do when you feel motivated.

Here’s why process goals work: Sales is a numbers game, but most people focus on the wrong numbers.

Average performers focus on:

• How many deals they close
• The size of individual deals
• Their closing percentage on active opportunities

Top performers focus on:

• How many new prospects they contact daily
• How many discovery calls they conduct weekly
• How many proposals they deliver monthly
• How consistently they follow up with existing prospects

The difference is control. You can’t control whether someone buys today, but you can control how many people you talk to today.

Notice how none of these process goals depend on prospects saying yes. They’re all activities you can control through discipline and effort.

Daily Process Goals:

• Make 30 prospecting calls before 10 AM
• Send 15 personalized LinkedIn messages
• Follow up with 10 existing prospects
• Update CRM for every interaction

Weekly Process Goals:

• Conduct 8 discovery calls
• Deliver 3 proposals or presentations
• Schedule 5 demos or next-step meetings
• Have 2 conversations with existing customers

Monthly Process Goals:

• Add 50 new qualified prospects to pipeline
• Complete needs analysis on 20 opportunities
• Present to 10 decision-making teams
• Ask for referrals from 15 customers

When you focus on process goals consistently, something magical happens: the compound effect kicks in.

If you make 30 prospecting calls every day, that’s 150 calls per week, 600 per month, 7,200 per year. Even with low conversion rates, that volume creates massive pipeline.

When you follow up consistently with every prospect using a proven sequence, your closing percentage improves dramatically over time.

By asking every customer for referrals using a systematic approach, your prospecting gets easier and more effective.

Process goals create a flywheel effect where each activity makes the next activity more effective.

This doesn’t mean outcomes don’t matter. Of course they do. You still need to hit your quota and close deals.

But here’s the key: When you focus obsessively on the right processes, the outcomes become predictable byproducts rather than uncertain hopes.

Top performers track outcomes to measure the effectiveness of their process, not to determine their self-worth or emotional state.

If outcomes aren’t meeting expectations, they adjust their process, not their emotional investment in individual deals.

One of the biggest benefits of process goals is the emotional freedom they create.

When your identity and confidence are tied to activities you control rather than outcomes you don’t, rejection stops hurting. “No” becomes another data point that helps you improve your process.

You can walk away from bad deals because you’re not desperate for any individual outcome. Your pipeline is constantly full because you’re always feeding it.

You sleep better at night because you know that if you executed your process well today, you’re moving toward your goals regardless of what happened in any specific conversation.

Process goals require patience and faith. You might make 30 calls today and not close anything. But if you make 30 calls every day for six months, you will close deals.

Average performers want immediate gratification. They want every call to turn into a meeting, every meeting to turn into a proposal, every proposal to turn into a close.

Top performers understand that sales is a long-term game where consistent process execution creates inevitable success.

Your brain will resist process goals because they’re not as emotionally exciting as big outcome goals. Closing a million-dollar deal feels better than making 30 prospecting calls.

But remember: The calls create the deals. The process creates the outcomes. The activities create the results.

Top performers get excited about process goals because they understand that controlling the process is how you control your destiny in sales.

The next time you catch yourself getting emotionally invested in whether a particular prospect buys or not, stop and redirect your focus to your process.

Ask yourself: “Did I execute my process perfectly with this prospect? Did I ask the right questions, follow the right methodology, and advance the opportunity appropriately?”

If the answer is yes, then you’ve succeeded regardless of the outcome. If the answer is no, then you have something specific to improve for next time.

Your job isn’t to close every deal. Your job is to execute your process so well and so consistently that closing deals becomes an inevitable byproduct.

As the great Ben Hogan said, focus on the cause and the results will follow. 

And remember, when it’s time to go home, always make one more call. Because that one more call is a process goal you can control, and it might just be the one that changes everything.

What if you could reduce cold calling while increasing your pipeline? What if you could become a lead magnet that compelled more prospects to reach out to you? What if you could leverage AI + LinkedIn to sell more than you’ve ever imagined possible?

Well, “what if” is here in my brand new book: The LinkedIn Edge: New Sales Strategies for Unleashing the Power of LinkedIn + AI to Cold Call Less and Sell More

You know the drill. The quota clock is ticking, the pressure is mounting, and there’s that relentless urge for a quick win. Every sales professional has felt that impulse to rush the process, to push for the immediate “yes,” because, well, the numbers demand it.

But here’s the tough question you need to ask yourself: What if that very pressure is actively sabotaging your long-term success? What if chasing the fast buck is actually costing you the lucrative, lasting relationships that define an elite sales career and build a lasting book of business?

As Sales Gravy Podcast guest Steve Pyfrom puts it: “Building relationships takes time and sales, teams need desperately to get off of this short-term win dynamic. The goal is long-term revenue for your company, lifetime value for the end user.” 

Focusing solely on the quick sale burns through pipeline leads faster than you can replace them, leaving you on a perpetual hamster wheel of prospecting just to stay afloat. It’s time to talk about the long game, because building real relationships is where sustainable revenue lives.

Let’s talk numbers. According to SimplicityDX, customer acquisition costs have increased by 222% over the last eight years, while customer lifetime value has remained flat. It’s getting harder and more expensive to find new customers, making the ones you have incredibly valuable.

Yet most salespeople treat customers like one-time transactions. They close the deal, celebrate briefly, then immediately move on to the next prospect. This approach is financial suicide.

Customers who feel rushed through the buying process rarely become loyal advocates. When a customer feels pressured into a decision or perceives the sale as purely transactional, their loyalty is paper-thin. They’re constantly looking for better deals, questioning their purchase decision, and jumping ship when problems arise.

When a customer churns, you lose all potential referrals, upsells, and cross-sells they could have generated. You’re back to square one, hunting for new prospects to replace the revenue you just lost, all while acquisition costs keep climbing.

Most salespeople think selling is about convincing, but selling is about connecting.

When you rush a prospect, you’re telling them their decision-making process doesn’t matter. You’re saying your timeline is more important than their comfort level. 

Real relationships are built on trust, and trust takes time. Think about your personal life. Your closest friends aren’t the people who tried to fast-track the process. They’re the ones who showed up consistently, listened without an agenda, and proved their reliability over time.

The same principle applies in sales. The prospects who become your biggest advocates aren’t the ones you pressured into a quick yes. They’re the ones who felt heard, understood, and genuinely cared for throughout the entire process.

Consider Mary, a software sales rep who was in competition with 2 other software vendors for a deal with a manufacturing company. Mary’s competitors immediately launched into aggressive pitches and discount offers to David, the CFO, hoping to close the deal quickly.

Mary took a different approach. Instead of pitching, she spent two months understanding David’s cash flow challenges and upcoming board presentation needs. She shared relevant case studies, introduced him to a supply chain consultant, and helped him think through his decision criteria. She never once mentioned her software.

When David’s team raised concerns about implementation timelines during their evaluation, Mary’s competitors pushed back, insisting their solution was simple to deploy. Mary listened, then connected David with a similar CFO who had successfully managed a comparable rollout. That conversation addressed David’s real concerns and kept Mary’s solution in contention.

Eight months later, David bought Mary’s $180,000 three-year contract. More importantly, he became her biggest advocate, introducing her to his former colleague, his brother-in-law in logistics, and even bringing her to present at his industry association.

That single relationship has now generated millions in revenue across multiple deals—all because Mary chose to consult rather than convince.

While her competitors chased quick wins, Mary built a referral engine that continues to compound. The consultative approach saved her from losing the deal and created a decade of sustainable revenue.

In sales, the fastest way to lose a deal is to act desperate to win it. When you focus on serving the customer’s needs rather than your own quota, you increase your chances of closing that deal and build the foundation for a referral-driven career.

Ready to make the shift? Here’s your roadmap:

Week 1: Audit your current pipeline. Identify five prospects you’ve been pushing too hard. Reach out with something valuable, but send it with no pitch attached. Just help them solve a problem.

Week 2: Research 10 prospects you want to target. Find three meaningful insights about each company. Reach out with personalized messages that reference these insights.

Week 3: Set up “no-ask” meetings with existing prospects. Your only agenda is understanding their business better. Come prepared with thoughtful questions, not sales materials.

Week 4: Create a follow-up system for staying in touch with prospects who aren’t ready to buy. Send monthly check-ins with industry insights, relevant articles, or useful introductions.

In a world where everyone is trying to close faster, your competitive advantage lies in slowing down. While your competitors are burning through leads with aggressive tactics, you’ll be building a sustainable pipeline of high-value, long-term relationships.

Your prospects remember the rep who listened. Who showed up with solutions, not pitches. Who cared about their success, not commission checks.

Be the rep who gets the referrals, the repeat business, and the career everyone envies.

Tap into the secrets of becoming a client’s trusted advisor with this Sales Gravy University course.

That’s the question every sales leader, CEO, and HR department is wrestling with as AI tools flood the market with promises to automate everything from prospecting to closing deals.

Meanwhile, salespeople are panicking, wondering if their jobs are about to disappear to some algorithm that can write emails faster than they can type “Dear Valued Customer.”

If you’re losing sleep over this, take a deep breath. The fear is real, but it’s also completely misplaced.

Here’s the brutal truth: AI isn’t going to replace you. But salespeople who understand how to leverage AI absolutely will replace those who don’t.

Remember when email prospecting worked? When a well-crafted subject line could get you a meeting, and personalization meant more than just mail-merging someone’s first name?

Those days are over, and AI killed them in about nine months.

Here’s what happened: Marketing departments discovered they could use AI to blast out thousands of “personalized” emails that sounded human but weren’t. They could fake voicemails using voice cloning technology. They could create sales sequences that felt authentic but were completely artificial.

The result? Complete market saturation with fake outreach that destroyed trust across every communication channel.

Here’s what these AI-obsessed companies don’t understand: People have an incredibly sophisticated BS detector. We can sense inauthenticity from a mile away, even when the technology is nearly perfect.

When you receive an email that sounds too polished, too perfect, or follows a pattern you’ve seen before, your brain immediately flags it as fake. When you hear a voicemail that sounds just slightly off—even if you can’t pinpoint why—you delete it.

But here’s the real killer: Once people realize you were too lazy to write your own email or leave your own voicemail, they lose all respect for you. They think, “If this salesperson can’t be bothered to put in the effort to reach out to me personally, then why would I want to do business with them?”

This is where the magic happens, and it’s where your competitive edge lies.

AI can write emails. It can analyze data. It can even fake phone calls (poorly). But it cannot engage in real-time, empathetic, synchronous conversation with another human being.

It can’t read micro-expressions during a video call. It can’t pick up on the subtle hesitation in someone’s voice that signals an unspoken objection. It can’t pivot in real-time when the conversation takes an unexpected turn.

Most importantly, it can’t build the kind of authentic human connection that makes people want to buy from you instead of your competitor.

Smart salespeople aren’t running from AI—they’re running toward it—but they’re using it as a tool to make themselves better, faster, and stronger, not as a replacement for actual selling skills.

Here’s where AI excels in sales:

1. Research and Preparation: AI can analyze a prospect’s 10-K filing, research their competitors, and create discovery questions in minutes instead of hours. It can build detailed company profiles and identify potential pain points before you ever pick up the phone.
2. Data Organization and Analysis: That timeline your manager needs for a customer service issue? AI can pull data from your CRM, email, and support tickets to create a comprehensive summary in seconds instead of the hours it would take you to compile it manually.
3. Writing Enhancement: Most salespeople aren’t great writers. Don’t shoot the messenger. AI can help you craft better emails, proposals, and follow-up messages, but only if you edit them, personalize them, and make them authentically yours.
4. The Holy Grail: Intelligent Prospecting Lists: The biggest opportunity is using AI to build high-quality prospecting lists.

Imagine walking into the office and having AI present you with a list of prospects who are in a buying window. They’re not random companies that fit your ICP, but organizations where multiple signals indicate they’re ready to buy what you’re selling.

AI can analyze intent data, website traffic, job postings, financial reports, and social media activity to identify these opportunities. It can cross-reference all this disparate information and say, “Here are the 20 people you need to call today, because they have the highest probability of converting to pipeline.”

When AI handles the research, data analysis, and list building, you’re free to focus on having meaningful conversations that create value and build relationships.

This means mastering:

• Discovery skills that uncover real business problems
• Listening techniques that make prospects feel heard and understood
• Questioning frameworks that advance the sales process
• Objection handling that addresses concerns without being pushy
• Closing skills that create urgency and commitment

These are the skills that will separate top performers from everyone else in an AI-dominated world.

• Stop buying into the “AI will replace salespeople” hype from software vendors trying to sell you their latest bot.
• Invest in AI tools that enhance your team’s capabilities rather than replace their human interactions.
• Focus on training your reps to have better conversations, not just more conversations.
• Use AI for research and organization, but never for actual prospect outreach.

• Learn to use AI as your research assistant and writing coach, not your replacement.
• Never let AI write emails or make calls on your behalf. People will know, and they’ll hate it.
• Double down on developing your conversation skills, empathy, and relationship-building abilities.
• Remember the Golden Rule: Never trust, always verify. AI will lie to you, so double check everything.

In a world where everything can be faked, the only thing that’s real is authentic human conversation. It’s your competitive edge, your job security, and how you win in the age of AI.

The future belongs to salespeople who can leverage artificial intelligence to become more effective while never losing the human touch that makes people want to buy from them.

That’s how you build relationships that last. That’s how you create value that can’t be commoditized. And that’s how you ensure AI works for you instead of against you.

Want to learn more about how AI can lift you over your competition? Read Jeb Blount’s The AI Edge for more tools and tips.

Is there such a thing as natural sales talent? Are top-level sales professionals born that way? Do they possess a gift from God that powers their ability to close sales? On this Money Monday, I answer these age-old questions.

When I was 9 years old, after going to the Masters tournament with my Dad, I cut a limb that was shaped like a golf club from a tree, dug holes all over our backyard, and started playing “backyard golf” with a wiffle ball. 

I loved my little backyard golf course and played every day after school. One day though, my Dad, who had been watching me, said, “Why don’t we just go play real golf?”

My dad didn’t know anything about golf. He didn’t grow up playing. But we went down to Walmart, bought some cheap golf clubs, and started chasing little white balls. 

We played at a legendary course in Augusta called The Patch—a municipal course with hard dirt fairways and patchy greens but a super fun place to learn the game. Our game was terrible, and we never practiced or took a lesson. But I loved going out with my dad to the course, and we had fun!

In high school, I started playing on the golf team. That might have been a turning point for my game if we’d had a real coach, but instead we had a math teacher who did not play golf assigned to babysit us. So, we were on our own, but we had fun. Those years playing on my high school golf team were a blast!

In college, I continued to play golf for recreation—usually with my fraternity brothers. Golf was about going out, telling jokes, and drinking a lot of beer. I have so many fun memories from those days.  

After getting out of college, I continued to play—mostly in business situations—and that’s when golf stopped being fun. I would golf with clients and peers who were so much better than me. It didn’t make sense that they could hit the ball so well and I could not. 

I would go out to the range and practice until my arms hurt, but I never got any better. It never occurred to me to take a lesson. 

By my mid-30s I was so frustrated with golf that I started to believe something that would haunt me for the next 20 years: I convinced myself that people who could play golf well were just naturally gifted. And because I wasn’t naturally gifted, I would never be good at golf.

So I quit.

For two decades, I didn’t pick up a golf club.

If you have read my books and listened to my podcasts you know that I’m a big horse person. I’ve been involved in equestrian sports since I was a kid. I’ve had formal coaching and training with horses. On horseback, I thought I was naturally gifted. I believed it was something that God had imbued in me. So I forgot about golf and poured my time and energy into horses.

Eventually, though, my son got older and started playing golf. And being an equestrian at my age became more and more dangerous. A bad day on a horse means you’re in the hospital in traction. A bad day on the golf course means you go to soothe your wounds with a cold beer in the clubhouse.

So I picked up the sticks again.

But this time, I sought out a golf coach. A pro who could help me learn how to play the game. 

Starting over has been hard. It is difficult to learn new skills. But with lessons, I’ve gotten better. In fact, last week I shot my lowest score ever.

Over the past two years of working on my golf game, I’ve come to realize how much the story that I kept telling myself about not being naturally talented hurt me and how much it stole from my life. That story cost me 20 years of enjoyment of a game I loved.

The difference between my success with horses and my failure with golf wasn’t natural talent. It was coaching and instruction. 

Once you stop believing that you have to be naturally gifted in order to do anything well, you open your mind to new possibilities and amazing things happen for you. 

For example, a couple of weeks ago, my good friend Mike Weinberg sent me a book called Putting Out of Your Mind. I read it and started putting those lessons into practice on the green.

Over the next round that I played, I took 10 putts off my game. Ten putts! Just from the lessons I learned in that book.

I’ve gotten better because I have a different mindset. I changed the way I look at the game because I changed the way I look at myself. Rather than believing I’m not naturally gifted, I started to believe that through coaching, reading, training, learning, and focus, I could get better. And I have. 

The irony of all of this is that I’m a sales trainer and coach who for years has said emphatically that salespeople are not born, they are made. 

I’ve written 17 books on the subject including my latest book The LinkedIn Edge. People who read my books, attend Sales Gravy training, and put the techniques they learn into practice get better and sell more.  

Yet it’s not uncommon for me to be working with leaders who hire a young rep, stick them in the field or put them on the phones, and then when this inexperienced rep somehow doesn’t display natural intuition or natural ability to sell, they begin doubting whether this person is a good fit for their team.

When I sit down with these leaders, I ask them: “How would the rep know what they’re doing wrong if you never taught them how to do it right? How are they going to change what they cannot see if you don’t provide any coaching or feedback?”

Just yesterday, as an illustration, I was out at the range working on my swing. The PGA professional I take lessons from stopped by where I was hitting. He gave me one small tip about where my club face was on the swing plane, and I immediately started hitting better. 

That had nothing to do with natural ability and everything to do with someone teaching me technique. I couldn’t see what I was doing wrong. But with a coach holding a mirror up to my swing, I could. 

Here’s the truth: There is no such thing as natural sales talent. 

What we call “natural talent” is usually just someone who had good coaching, learned the right techniques, or developed good habits through trial and error. But none of it is innate. None of it is genetic. None of it is a gift from above.

Earlier in my sales career, I had great training and a coach who invested in me. I read every sales book I could get my hands on and listened to sales training programs in my car. I ran the sales process and leveraged the techniques I was taught. That’s how I became the top sales rep in my company and was always at the top of the leader board. It had nothing to do with natural talent. 

If you are a leader who believes that somehow people are naturally gifted to sell, then you’re always going to have lower-performing salespeople because you will not invest in training and coaching them. 

Should you believe this as a salesperson, you’re never going to focus on making yourself better because why do so when you think you don’t have natural sales talent.

But the truth is, you can learn how to sell. Everybody can.

You can learn the skills and exactly how to run the sales process. If you come to a Fanatical Prospecting Bootcamp with me, I can teach you how to make a cold call that will get you results – how to ask better questions, overcome objections, present, close and negotiate. 

Being great at sales has nothing to do with “natural sales talent,” whether you’re an introvert or extrovert, or whether you have “the gift of gab.” It has everything to do with mastering techniques and process.

Just like golf, sales success comes down to several learnable components:

Fundamentals: In golf, it’s your grip, stance, swing mechanics, and course management. In sales, it’s your prospecting discipline, discovery and communication skills, closing techniques and sales strategy. 

Mental Game: In golf, it’s focus, staying calm under pressure. In sales, it’s managing rejection, maintaining confidence, and staying true to the process.

Practice: In golf, it’s hours on the range and playing rounds. In sales, it’s role-playing, getting reps on sales calls, and continuously honing your skills.

Coaching: In golf, it’s working with a pro who can see what you can’t see. In sales, it’s having mentors, managers, and trainers who can guide your development.

Continuous Learning: In golf, it’s studying the game, reading books, and learning from better players. In sales, it’s consuming sales content, attending training, and learning from top performers.

None of these components require natural sales talent. They all require commitment, practice, and the right instruction.

The belief in natural talent is not just wrong. It holds people from reaching their potential, pursuing their goals, and doing things that give them joy. 

You don’t have to be naturally gifted to be great at sales. Rather, you need to be willing to learn, practice, and get better every day.

Looking back now, having re-discovered my love for golf and that I can actually improve, I have deep regret for all those years I could have been playing a game that brings me so much joy because I believed I didn’t have the natural talent.

Don’t let the same thing happen to you. Do not allow limiting beliefs prevent you from achieving the success you’re capable of or waste years believing you’re not cut out for golf, sales or anything else in life when all you really need is proper coaching and training.

If you are finally ready to break through and get better Sales Gravy has a plan for you. Start learning new skills on Sales Gravy University or working one to one with a master Is there such a thing as natural sales talent? Are top-level sales professionals born that way? Do they possess a gift from God that powers their ability to close sales? On this Money Monday, I answer these age-old questions.

When I was 9 years old, after going to the Masters tournament with my Dad, I cut a limb that was shaped like a golf club from a tree, dug holes all over our backyard, and started playing “backyard golf” with a wiffle ball. 

I loved my little backyard golf course and played every day after school. One day though, my Dad, who had been watching me, said, “Why don’t we just go play real golf?”

My dad didn’t know anything about golf. He didn’t grow up playing. But we went down to Walmart, bought some cheap golf clubs, and started chasing little white balls. 

We played at a legendary course in Augusta called The Patch—a municipal course with hard dirt fairways and patchy greens but a super fun place to learn the game. Our game was terrible, and we never practiced or took a lesson. But I loved going out with my dad to the course, and we had fun!

In high school, I started playing on the golf team. That might have been a turning point for my game if we’d had a real coach, but instead we had a math teacher who did not play golf assigned to babysit us. So, we were on our own, but we had fun. Those years playing on my high school golf team were a blast!

In college, I continued to play golf for recreation—usually with my fraternity brothers. Golf was about going out, telling jokes, and drinking a lot of beer. I have so many fun memories from those days.  

After getting out of college, I continued to play—mostly in business situations—and that’s when golf stopped being fun. I would golf with clients and peers who were so much better than me. It didn’t make sense that they could hit the ball so well and I could not. 

I would go out to the range and practice until my arms hurt, but I never got any better. It never occurred to me to take a lesson. 

By my mid-30s I was so frustrated with golf that I started to believe something that would haunt me for the next 20 years: I convinced myself that people who could play golf well were just naturally gifted. And because I wasn’t naturally gifted, I would never be good at golf.

So I quit.

For two decades, I didn’t pick up a golf club.

If you have read my books and listened to my podcasts you know that I’m a big horse person. I’ve been involved in equestrian sports since I was a kid. I’ve had formal coaching and training with horses. On horseback, I thought I was naturally gifted. I believed it was something that God had imbued in me. So I forgot about golf and poured my time and energy into horses.

Eventually, though, my son got older and started playing golf. And being an equestrian at my age became more and more dangerous. A bad day on a horse means you’re in the hospital in traction. A bad day on the golf course means you go to soothe your wounds with a cold beer in the clubhouse.

So I picked up the sticks again.

But this time, I sought out a golf coach. A pro who could help me learn how to play the game. 

Starting over has been hard. It is difficult to learn new skills. But with lessons, I’ve gotten better. In fact, last week I shot my lowest score ever.

Over the past two years of working on my golf game, I’ve come to realize how much the story that I kept telling myself about not being naturally talented hurt me and how much it stole from my life. That story cost me 20 years of enjoyment of a game I loved.

The difference between my success with horses and my failure with golf wasn’t natural talent. It was coaching and instruction. 

Once you stop believing that you have to be naturally gifted in order to do anything well, you open your mind to new possibilities and amazing things happen for you. 

For example, a couple of weeks ago, my good friend Mike Weinberg sent me a book called Putting Out of Your Mind. I read it and started putting those lessons into practice on the green.

Over the next round that I played, I took 10 putts off my game. Ten putts! Just from the lessons I learned in that book.

I’ve gotten better because I have a different mindset. I changed the way I look at the game because I changed the way I look at myself. Rather than believing I’m not naturally gifted, I started to believe that through coaching, reading, training, learning, and focus, I could get better. And I have. 

The irony of all of this is that I’m a sales trainer and coach who for years has said emphatically that salespeople are not born, they are made. 

I’ve written 17 books on the subject including my latest book The LinkedIn Edge. People who read my books, attend Sales Gravy training, and put the techniques they learn into practice get better and sell more.  

Yet it’s not uncommon for me to be working with leaders who hire a young rep, stick them in the field or put them on the phones, and then when this inexperienced rep somehow doesn’t display natural intuition or natural ability to sell, they begin doubting whether this person is a good fit for their team.

When I sit down with these leaders, I ask them: “How would the rep know what they’re doing wrong if you never taught them how to do it right? How are they going to change what they cannot see if you don’t provide any coaching or feedback?”

Just yesterday, as an illustration, I was out at the range working on my swing. The PGA professional I take lessons from stopped by where I was hitting. He gave me one small tip about where my club face was on the swing plane, and I immediately started hitting better. 

That had nothing to do with natural ability and everything to do with someone teaching me technique. I couldn’t see what I was doing wrong. But with a coach holding a mirror up to my swing, I could. 

Here’s the truth: There is no such thing as natural sales talent. 

What we call “natural talent” is usually just someone who had good coaching, learned the right techniques, or developed good habits through trial and error. But none of it is innate. None of it is genetic. None of it is a gift from above.

Earlier in my sales career, I had great training and a coach who invested in me. I read every sales book I could get my hands on and listened to sales training programs in my car. I ran the sales process and leveraged the techniques I was taught. That’s how I became the top sales rep in my company and was always at the top of the leader board. It had nothing to do with natural talent. 

If you are a leader who believes that somehow people are naturally gifted to sell, then you’re always going to have lower-performing salespeople because you will not invest in training and coaching them. 

Should you believe this as a salesperson, you’re never going to focus on making yourself better because why do so when you think you don’t have natural sales talent.

But the truth is, you can learn how to sell. Everybody can.

You can learn the skills and exactly how to run the sales process. If you come to a Fanatical Prospecting Bootcamp with me, I can teach you how to make a cold call that will get you results – how to ask better questions, overcome objections, present, close and negotiate. 

Being great at sales has nothing to do with “natural sales talent,” whether you’re an introvert or extrovert, or whether you have “the gift of gab.” It has everything to do with mastering techniques and process.

Just like golf, sales success comes down to several learnable components:

Fundamentals: In golf, it’s your grip, stance, swing mechanics, and course management. In sales, it’s your prospecting discipline, discovery and communication skills, closing techniques and sales strategy. 

Mental Game: In golf, it’s focus, staying calm under pressure. In sales, it’s managing rejection, maintaining confidence, and staying true to the process.

Practice: In golf, it’s hours on the range and playing rounds. In sales, it’s role-playing, getting reps on sales calls, and continuously honing your skills.

Coaching: In golf, it’s working with a pro who can see what you can’t see. In sales, it’s having mentors, managers, and trainers who can guide your development.

Continuous Learning: In golf, it’s studying the game, reading books, and learning from better players. In sales, it’s consuming sales content, attending training, and learning from top performers.

None of these components require natural sales talent. They all require commitment, practice, and the right instruction.

The belief in natural talent is not just wrong. It holds people from reaching their potential, pursuing their goals, and doing things that give them joy. 

You don’t have to be naturally gifted to be great at sales. Rather, you need to be willing to learn, practice, and get better every day.

Looking back now, having re-discovered my love for golf and that I can actually improve, I have deep regret for all those years I could have been playing a game that brings me so much joy because I believed I didn’t have the natural talent.

Don’t let the same thing happen to you. Do not allow limiting beliefs prevent you from achieving the success you’re capable of or waste years believing you’re not cut out for golf, sales or anything else in life when all you really need is proper coaching and training.

If you are finally ready to break through and get better, Sales Gravy has a plan for you. Start learning new skills on Sales Gravy University or working one to one with a master Sales Gravy Coach.

“I can’t do that.”

How many times have you said those four words when facing a challenging sales situation? It could be picking up the phone to make that intimidating cold call. It could be asking for the close with a high-value prospect. 

If you say ‘I can’t do that,’ guess what? You’re absolutely right. You won’t.

But here’s what’s surprising: The solution is simpler than you think. 

Thirty years ago, sales coach Steve Chandler heard a client say those familiar words: “I don’t think I could ever do that.” His response was four words that initially sounded absurd.

 “Then don’t be you.”

When Richard Fenton, co-author of “Go for No!,” first heard this concept, he had two immediate reactions: “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” followed quickly by “That’s the most profound thing I’ve ever heard.”

Think about it. When someone says they can’t speak in front of a thousand people, what’s the typical advice? “Just be natural. Just be yourself.” But if they’re someone who freezes up in front of crowds, why would they want to be that person in that moment?

Although you can’t magically become a new person, you do have the power to choose which aspect of yourself shows up in any given situation.

Elite athletes and performers often adopt different personas to enhance their performance.

When the game was on the line, Kobe Bryant would mentally shift into his Black Mamba persona, accessing a level of confidence and killer instinct that separated him from other players. 

“The Black Mamba is something I created to get through the lowest points,” Bryant explained. “It’s a mindset, a way of approaching challenges.”

Beyoncé morphs into “Sasha Fierce” on stage—a fearless, magnetic performer—but off stage, Beyoncé describes herself as naturally shy and introverted.

Strategic identity shifting is the ability to step into a role that’s equipped for the task at hand. 

Ready to make it happen? Here’s your simple framework:

1. Identify Your Limitation

What specific sales activity makes you feel uncomfortable or incapable? Be precise. Instead of “I’m bad at sales,” identify exactly when you struggle: “I freeze up when asking for referrals from satisfied customers.”

1. Design Your Persona

Who would you need to be to excel in that situation? Create a specific identity, such as The Referral Request Professional, who understands that satisfied customers want to help others access the same value they received.

1. Make the Switch

Before entering a sales situation that makes you nervous, consciously transition into your character. Use mental preparation (visualizing success), physical cues (changing your posture, adjusting your voice), or even simple props (a specific piece of clothing or accessory).

The beauty of the “don’t be you” approach is that you’re not manufacturing a fake personality. You’re accessing different facets of who you already are or who you can become. 

Here are some examples of identities to cultivate in sales:

When you need to make prospecting calls, don’t be the version of you who worries about interrupting people or who fears rejection. Instead, become the professional who understands that you’re offering solutions to real problems. Lead with confident conviction—like you’re doing them a favor by calling. Channel the mindset of a sales rep who is genuinely excited about helping prospects discover opportunities they didn’t know existed.

Before each calling session, take just two minutes. Visualize this persona. How do they talk? What’s their vibe? How do they sit? Then step into that identity.

When it’s time to close the deal, don’t get stuck in the part of you that feels pushy or uncomfortable with money conversations. Become the trusted advisor who recognizes that not asking for commitment is failing your prospect. This persona understands closing is the natural conclusion of a value-driven conversation.

Next time you go to close, adopt the stance of someone who never apologizes for requesting a decision.

At industry events or sales conferences, don’t be the version of you who feels intimidated by successful executives or worried about seeming too eager. Transform into the business professional who understands that networking is about mutual value creation, not self-promotion.

Adopt a persona who approaches high-level contacts with genuine curiosity about their challenges and an authentic interest in how you might collaborate or assist them.

When you consciously adopt a different persona, you’re permitting yourself to act outside your typical behavioral patterns. 

This phenomenon works because your brain doesn’t distinguish between “real” confidence and “performed” confidence in the moment. When you act confidently, your nervous system responds as if you are actually confident, helping you navigate difficult moments.

Adopting an alter ego is a practice backed by research. Columbia Business School studies suggest that people who adopt professional personas report higher confidence levels and better performance outcomes in challenging situations.

Each successful interaction while in your sales persona creates a feedback loop of confidence. When you close a deal you thought was out of reach or handle an objection with unexpected finesse, your brain files away these experiences as evidence of your capabilities. 

The impostor syndrome that once whispered “you’re not cut out for this” gets quieter with every win.

Over time, the gap between your “regular” self and your “performance” self narrows. The behaviors, thought patterns, and confidence levels that once felt like acting become easier to access. 

The next time you catch yourself saying “I can’t do that,” remember Steve Chandler’s four-word revolution: “Then don’t be you.”

The most successful salespeople refuse to let their insecurities drive them. They step into whoever they need to be, make the call, close the deal, and prove that their current limitations don’t define their future possibilities.

The world doesn’t need another hesitant sales rep. It needs the best version of you. That confident sales professional already exists inside you. It’s time to transform.

Find more ways to improve your sales process and crush your quota at Sales Gravy University.

Here’s a question that exposes one of the most dangerous myths in modern sales: How do you set the right pipeline creation target to consistently hit quota?

That’s exactly what Maryellen Soriano from New Jersey asked when she called into Ask Jeb. After crushing 134% of quota in her first year selling EdTech solutions—transitioning from owning her own childcare center to selling back into that same industry—she was being told she needed 11X pipeline to maintain her success.

If that number made you cringe, you’re not alone. The obsession with pipeline multipliers is creating more problems than it’s solving, and it’s time we had an honest conversation about what actually drives predictable revenue.

Most sales teams are drowning in fake pipeline, and it’s destroying their ability to forecast accurately. Leadership teams, especially in tech companies, consistently miss their numbers quarter after quarter because they’re obsessed with one question: “How much pipeline do we have?”

The real question should be: “How clean is our pipeline?”

Would you rather have 11X pipeline filled with lottery tickets, or 2X pipeline packed with qualified buyers? The answer should be obvious, but somehow we keep chasing vanity metrics instead of focusing on what converts.

Here’s the brutal truth: All pipeline opportunities are not equal.

There are two ways to approach pipeline creation, and only one of them actually works consistently.

Don’t worry about how big your pipeline is. Worry about how much prospecting you’re doing, and run on a daily cadence of prospecting that maxes out the time you can spend every single day.

Prospect every day, every day, every day.

I have a block of time every morning for prospecting. Then I’m prospecting during any gap during the day. If there’s time between meetings, I’m doing outreach. Every single day I’m prospecting to the very max that I have time to prospect.

When you do this, you don’t have to worry about pipeline size because it takes care of itself. You never get on the desperation roller coaster because you never stop feeding the machine.

This is where leadership teams fixate on having “5X pipeline” or “11X pipeline” because they think more is better. The problem? As soon as reps think they have “enough” pipeline, they quit prospecting. Then reality hits when half those opportunities were pipe dreams.

If you want to look at pipeline like science rather than hope, you need to understand the Law of Replacement: You need to replace opportunities in your pipeline at a rate that is equal to or greater than your closing ratio.

Let me give you a real example of how this works. In a previous role, I had my numbers dialed in perfectly:

• I knew I needed 10 first-time appointments every week
• About 50% would move to follow-up appointments (5 deals)
• I’d close about 20% of those follow-ups (1 deal per week)
• It took me about 20 prospecting touches to generate 2 first-time appointments

Working backwards from one closed deal per week, I knew exactly what I needed to produce in terms of prospecting activity and first-time appointments to feed my pipeline consistently.

If I didn’t replace the deals that fell out every single week, I’d eventually end up with nothing.

Here’s where most organizations get it completely wrong. They’re stuffing their CRM with anything that moves and calling it “pipeline.”

A real pipeline opportunity requires a conversation. It’s not a form fill or a marketing lead or something someone else talked to and dumped in your CRM. You need to have qualified it yourself and made a decision that it belongs in your pipeline.

At Sales Gravy, we generate more than a thousand leads per month. Most of those don’t go directly into the pipe because nobody had a conversation with them. They go to the sales team for vetting and qualifying first.

The only leads that go straight into the pipeline are our “hot” leads. People who come in saying, “I have 30 salespeople and I need Fanatical Prospecting training right now.” Those people have pre-qualified themselves, and we close about 90% of them.

If you’re running win rates against junk that marketing stuffed into your pipeline, those numbers are meaningless. Your win rate should be calculated against deals you sent written offers to buy.

Here’s how I define a real win rate: Number of deals closed divided by number of proposals given.

Until you give someone a proposal, you haven’t asked them to buy. Everything before that is just conversation.

When you’re ready to get scientific about your pipeline, here’s the formula:

Look at your pipeline on a 60-90 day rolling period, depending on your sales cycle. Don’t try to forecast a year out if your deals close in 60 days.

Every opportunity needs an accurate revenue number. Don’t inflate deals to hit your multiplier target—that’s just lying to yourself.

Your CRM stages are fiction. A deal in “discovery” isn’t automatically 50% likely to close. Look at the evidence for each individual deal and assign probability based on what you actually know about their buying process, budget, and timeline.

Take your pipeline revenue and multiply by the probability of each deal closing. That’s your real forecast for the period.

Get disciplined about this process, and you’ll find you can predict your results with scary accuracy.

Here’s what separates elite performers like Maryellen from everyone else: They maximize their prospecting time every single day, regardless of how their pipeline looks.

When you hit 134% of quota, nobody cares what your pipeline multiplier was. They care about results.

The most effective approach is simple:

• Block time every morning for prospecting.
• Fill gaps throughout the day with outreach.
• Follow your proven process religiously.
• Never stop feeding the machine.

Most sales teams are playing games with their pipeline instead of focusing on what actually matters. They’re:

• Stuffing CRMs with unqualified leads to hit multiplier targets
• Chasing deals that were never real opportunities
• “Checking in” on pipe dreams instead of prospecting for new business
• Missing forecasts because their pipeline was built on hope, not evidence

If you’re a sales rep:

1. Maximize daily prospecting time regardless of current pipeline size.
2. Know your real closing ratios based on actual proposals, not marketing leads.
3. Be ruthless about qualification before putting deals in your pipeline.
4. Track what matters: first-time appointments, conversion rates, and revenue per proposal.

If you’re a sales leader:

1. Stop obsessing over pipeline multipliers and start focusing on pipeline quality.
2. Don’t let marketing stuff your CRM with unqualified leads that skew your metrics.
3. Coach reps on qualification standards rather than just demanding more pipeline.
4. Measure probability by deal evidence, not by arbitrary stage percentages.

Pipeline multipliers are vanity metrics that create false confidence and poor forecasting. Clean pipeline built through daily prospecting discipline and rigorous qualification creates predictable revenue.

The Law of Replacement isn’t just a concept—it’s your lifeline. Master it, and you’ll never worry about pipeline size again. Ignore it, and you’ll ride the desperation roller coaster every quarter.

Your commission check doesn’t care about your pipeline multiplier. It only cares about one thing: Did you close the deal or didn’t you?

The next time someone asks about your pipeline, don’t tell them how big it is. Tell them how clean it is. Because clean pipelines close deals, and dirty pipelines just create false hope.

Learn the keys to developing a Fanatical Prospecting Mindset in Jeb Blount’s course: Fanatical Prospecting Essentials

Have you ever been working on a deal where you had this feeling, this intuition, this Spidey sense—something in the back of your mind telling you that this wasn’t going to close? That you were going to waste your time?

Maybe you had one of the stakeholders who was against you—an enemy. There was a naysayer who kept calling you out. Perhaps the stakeholders weren’t engaged, or the incumbent vendor was so integrated into the organization that it would be very difficult to displace them.

Whatever the case, you knew in the back of your mind that you weren’t going to close the deal. But you kept working on it anyway. You rode that puppy to the ocean floor like the Titanic that it was.

If you’ve done this, and I know you have, take heart because we’ve all been there. We’ve all had these situations, and we’ve later regretted them. 

One of the traits of Ultra-High Performers that has always been true is that they’re very quick to walk away from a deal they can’t close—a deal where they’ve concluded that the probability of winning is so low it doesn’t meet their threshold.

The reason Ultra-High Performers walk away from deals like this is simple: They know that the greatest waste of their time is investing it with the wrong prospect. The time they invest in a prospect that’s not going to close is money down the drain, because it’s time they can’t focus on a deal that will close.

But average salespeople? They hang on—hoping against hope that somehow, miraculously, things will turn around.

In sales, awareness matters. You must always know where the exit is.

There are two primary reasons why salespeople work on deals that are never going to close. Understanding these reasons is the first step to avoiding the trap.

Too often, qualifying is treated like a one-and-done activity. We qualify the opportunity against our ICP. We qualify the numbers, budget, timing, urgency, and whether we’re talking to a decision-maker with buying authority. 

These are all quantifiable metrics that we can measure and check off our list. 

But Ultra-High Performers take qualifying to the next level. Rather than making it a quick process, they understand that qualifying is never done. It’s an ongoing process of awareness that keeps you tethered to reality in every deal.

And their top qualifier, once they’ve checked off the must-haves, is engagement.

Are the stakeholders engaged? Are they leaning in? Are they matching your effort, answering questions, and working collaboratively with you?

It’s okay that there are some stakeholders who may be naysayers. That’s normal in complex deals. But if you’ve got stakeholders who are enemies—people who are actively working against you—then your deal might be a bridge too far. 

Engagement is my No. 1 qualifier. I’m constantly asking questions and giving stakeholders things to do to see whether or not they’re engaged. If they’re not engaged, I walk away because lack of engagement is a clear signal that you are not going to close the deal. 

This brings us to the second reason salespeople stay in bad deals—desperation born from an empty pipeline.

On Friday, Dennis J. Walker, who is a benefits consultant with USI, posted something on LinkedIn that perfectly captures this dynamic. Here’s exactly what he wrote:

Jeb Blount regularly states that you can’t be delusional about your pipe, your prospects, your efforts, etc and be successful as a salesperson.

This week one of the larger deals in my pipe definitely didn’t progress the way I wanted- and it turns out one of the executives is what I call a “deal enemy” – he was actively working against me and my team.

The last two meetings I’ve had with him tipped me off this could be the case; this week we had an incident that indicated he was actively working against us.

Because my pipe is full?

I can walk away from this (probably very bad) deal at a dysfunctional company and not worry about hitting my sales goal.

With their current leadership, they’ll be a terrible client.

Helping them will be painful.

And I know I can help them with creativity, doing things differently, and giving them a lot of what they want and have at better pricing and higher quality.

But I’m not freaking out.

Because I have 15 other prospects, three that are advancing well, and about a dozen additional companies with buying windows later this year or early next.

When your pipeline is thin, every prospect feels like life or death, leading to poor decisions and desperate behavior. You cling to bad deals because they’re all you have.

When you’re desperate, you get delusional. And when you get delusional, you lose perspective. You become unable to see the truth, so you keep working on a deal that’s never going to close—even though your intuition and everyone around one are telling you to walk away. 

What strikes me most about Dennis’ story is the psychological shift that happens when you’re selling from a position of abundance versus scarcity.

A robust sales pipeline is about more than numbers—it’s about the freedom to make better decisions. 

When you invest in building a pipeline, if you’re prospecting every single day, if you’re out there talking with people—knocking on doors, picking up the phone, working LinkedIn, doing the hard work of filling your funnel—then when you get that Spidey sense that you should be walking away from a deal, it’s a lot easier to find the exit.

It’s a lot easier to pull out of that deal because you know you have lots of other options. You gain clarity. You can see the situation for what it really is instead of what you desperately need it to be.

How many of us have stayed in toxic sales situations simply because we didn’t have better options lined up? Whether you’re in sales, consulting, or running your own business, this principle applies universally.

A strong pipeline helps you maintain your standards and allows you to focus on clients who truly value what you bring to the table.

So what are the warning signs that you should be looking for? When should your internal alarm bells start going off?

Lack of Engagement: Stakeholders aren’t returning calls promptly, they’re not asking questions, they’re not doing the homework you give them. They’re treating you like a vendor, not a partner.

Internal Politics: You discover there are significant internal battles you weren’t aware of, or you realize you’re being used as leverage against an incumbent or preferred vendor.

Moving Goalposts: Requirements keep changing, timelines keep shifting, and new stakeholders keep appearing who weren’t a part of the original process.

Budget Issues: The budget that was “approved” suddenly needs “additional review,” or you’re being asked to match prices that seem unrealistically low.

Decision-Making Dysfunction: The decision-making process is unclear, constantly changing, or involves people who refuse to meet with you.

Your Gut: Sometimes you just know. That intuition, that Spidey sense—don’t ignore it. Your subconscious is picking up on signals your conscious mind hasn’t fully processed yet.

Take a look at the deals you’re working on right now. If you’re working on an opportunity that everything inside you says is not going to close, if the people around you are telling you it’s not going to close, maybe it’s time to pick up your sticks and walk away.

And if you don’t feel like you have the ability to walk away, perhaps it’s time to take a deeper, harder look at your pipeline and decide whether prospecting is your issue—not the fact that you’ve got bad deals in your pipe.

Remember, in complex deals, situation awareness matters. You must always know where the exit is. And the best exit strategy is having so many options that walking away from bad deals becomes easy.

Top sales pros don’t just know where the exit is, and they’re not afraid to use it.

Hear more about how Ultra-High Performers sniff out bad deals on the Sales Gravy Podcast.

Your sales team just closed a $50K deal. Marketing takes credit because the prospect downloaded three whitepapers. Sales takes credit because they nurtured the relationship for six months. Meanwhile, you’re wondering why this kind of success feels so random—and why similar prospects are slipping away.

Companies with misaligned sales and marketing teams waste more leads and see annual revenue decline. But businesses that achieve true alignment? They close more deals and grow revenue faster year-over-year.

The difference isn’t talent, budget, or market conditions. It’s whether your marketing and sales teams are pulling in the same direction or accidentally sabotaging each other.

The consequences of misalignment between sales and marketing are significant. One common side effect is sales teams complaining about the quality of leads generated by marketing, often dismissing them as “bad leads.” 

Another issue is messaging. Marketing can be blind to the value propositions that are working for sales if they do not understand the sellers’ pitches and approach to closing deals. Their messaging is stale and ineffectual, completely disconnected from where sellers are finding success.

When marketing and sales have different metrics or goals, it leads to a breakdown in communication and a lack of shared understanding. That misalignment hampers productivity, damaging morale and impacting your bottom line.

The most important aspect that sales and marketing need to align on is the customer journey. This involves mapping out every touchpoint—from initial awareness to final purchase to customer retention. 

Map the customer journey together—then act on it. This shared blueprint reveals exactly when prospects are ready for direct outreach versus when they need more nurturing.

The payoff is immediate: Marketing delivers leads at peak readiness, while sales focuses their time on prospects most likely to convert. When both teams operate from the same customer journey map, handoffs become seamless and conversion rates climb.

Every sales professional understands that the path to a closed deal is rarely a straight line. It’s often a zig-zag through questions, doubts, and hesitations from prospects.

Marketing’s role is to help develop messaging and collateral assets that help the sales team deal with these objections. This includes essential resources like case studies, white papers, product demonstrations, and ROI calculators. With the support of marketing materials, sellers have the resources to back up their pitch, highlight benefits, and keep buyers engaged.

Most teams fail to communicate. Marketing creates polished but generic materials that sales doesn’t know exist. Sales knows which objections are the hardest to overcome but doesn’t have specific collateral to counter them.

The winning approach: Sales documents the top 5 objections that derail deals, complete with context about when and why they surface. Marketing then builds laser-focused tools to address these concerns. Think comparison sheets for “your competitor is cheaper,” implementation timelines for “this seems too complex,” or peer testimonials for “we’re not sure this works in our industry.”

Close the loop: Sales reports back on which materials move deals forward and which fall flat. Marketing iterates based on real-world results. This feedback cycle shifts objection-handling from guesswork into a refined system that consistently converts hesitation into confidence.

How can businesses foster a stronger cohesion between sales and marketing? Here are six key strategies:

Sales and marketing should work together to define common objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs). 

Action item: Schedule a joint planning session within the next 2 weeks to agree on 3-5 shared KPIs, such as the conversion rate from marketing qualified leads (MQLs) to sales qualified leads (SQLs).

Regular communication is essential. Sales and marketing teams should meet frequently to share insights, discuss challenges, and provide feedback. 

Action item: Institute weekly 30-minute alignment calls where sales shares feedback on lead quality and marketing reports on campaign performance.

Sales and marketing must collaborate to create a comprehensive map that outlines every touchpoint and identifies opportunities for engagement. 

Action item: Schedule monthly journey-mapping sessions where both teams review touchpoint data, identify gaps, and agree on lead scoring criteria. 

Define the expectations and responsibilities of both sales and marketing. Outline lead qualification criteria, follow-up procedures, and other key processes to ensure clarity and accountability. 

Action item: Document and get both teams to agree on what constitutes a qualified lead, response timeframes, and follow-up requirements.

When sales and marketing think alike, they can work together to deliver a seamless and consistent journey, building trust and loyalty. 

Action item: Implement a monthly “customer journey audit” where one team member from sales and one from marketing jointly follow up with 3 customers who purchased in the last 90 days to identify friction points, unexpected value drivers, and missed opportunities in their buying experience, then present joint recommendations.

Start today with building the roadmap: shared goals, open communication, unified customer journeys, and collaborative objection-handling.

The choice is clear. Continue operating with sales and marketing working separately or unite them into a revenue-generating machine.

Learn more about uniting sales and marking, tackling objections, and skyrocketing your revenue by taking sales training courses through Sales Gravy University.

Here’s a question that’ll make your head spin: What do you do when your top performer is crushing quota but not hitting a required talk time KPI?

That’s the question posed by Josh Robich and Josh Nelson from Nashville. Josh Nelson ranked 18th out of 130 reps in his first full year at a new company, but he was consistently falling short of the company’s sacred talk time metric of 3 hours per day, averaging only 2.5 hours instead.

Meanwhile, his company is obsessed with using talk time as its primary KPI to measure sales effectiveness.

If you’re shaking your head right now, you’re not alone. Obsessing over the talk time KPI rather than actual sales outcomes is one of the most backward approaches to sales management I see today, and it’s costing companies their best talent.

Remember the movie Moneyball? Billy Beane revolutionized baseball by focusing on on-base percentage instead of traditional stats that looked impressive but didn’t correlate with winning games. He found a metric that predicted success.

Talk time is the opposite of Moneyball. It’s a vanity metric that makes leaders feel like they’re managing performance when all they are really doing is measuring noise.

Here’s the brutal truth: Talk time means absolutely nothing if it doesn’t drive revenue. It means nothing if the conversations are shallow, non-productive, or a poor buying experience.

You can have reps talking for 4 hours a day who are dead last on your ranking report, while someone like Josh is closing deals left and right with only 2.5 hours of phone time. Which one would you rather have on your team?

The reason companies fixate on vanity metrics like talk time is because it’s easy. It requires zero investment in actual coaching, observation, or skill development.

Think about it: It’s much easier to look at a dashboard and say, “You need to talk more,” than it is to actually listen to calls, analyze technique, and provide meaningful feedback on discovery questions, objection handling, or closing skills.

But here’s what happens when you manage this way: You drive away your best performers and enable your worst ones.

Your top performers get frustrated because they’re being penalized for efficiency. Your bottom performers get comfortable because they can hit their talk time numbers while producing nothing of value.

Instead of obsessing over how long reps are talking, and other vanity KPIs, smart sales leaders focus on outcome-driven metrics that actually correlate with sales performance and closing deals.

How many new conversations is each rep having? In sales, FTAs are your Moneyball. If a rep isn’t setting enough first-time appointments, they are sub-optimizing their sales potential.

What percentage of first-time appointments convert to second appointments? This tells you everything about relationship building, discovery skills, and value articulation. If Josh is converting at a higher rate with less talk time, he’s simply more effective per conversation.

How many scheduled appointments actually happen? This reveals qualification skills, the ability to create urgency and commitment, and the quality of prospecting conversations.

How quickly are deals moving through your sales process? This shows you who’s truly building momentum versus who’s just having long conversations that stall deals in the pipeline.

The ultimate sales efficiency KPI is who is generating the most revenue per hour of phone time.

When you shift your focus to outcome metrics, everything changes. Instead of telling reps to “talk more,” you can provide specific, actionable coaching:

For the rep who has great first-time appointment numbers but poor conversion rates: Focus on discovery questions, relationship building, and value articulation.

For the rep with high talk time but low revenue: They’re probably becoming friends instead of salespeople. Coach them on advancing the sale and creating urgency.

For the efficient closer like Josh: Analyze their process and see where small improvements could yield massive results. Maybe 10 more minutes per call to deepen discovery could move them from 18th to No. 1.

Here’s what I loved about Josh’s situation: His mentor noted that Josh “literally follows the script” and holds up the paper saying, “It says it right here, so I do it.”

That’s the power of a repeatable, proven process. While other reps with more talk time were struggling because they didn’t follow the system, Josh was winning because he had the discipline to execute consistently.

This is pure Fanatical Prospecting in action: Success isn’t about working harder or longer—it’s about working the system with precision and discipline.

Don’t misunderstand me—quality conversations absolutely matter. You don’t want reps burning through leads with transactional, 2-minute calls. But you also can’t let “quality” become an excuse for inefficiency.

The sweet spot is having enough conversations to fill your pipeline while making each conversation count. Use talk time as one data point among many, not as your primary success metric.

If someone has extremely low talk time (say, 1 hour per day) and poor conversion rates, they’re probably rushing through calls. If someone has extremely high talk time but poor results, they’re probably avoiding the hard parts of selling—like asking for the appointment or creating urgency.

If you’re a sales leader:

1. Audit your current metrics. What are you measuring, and does it correlate with revenue?
2. Implement outcome-based KPIs. Track first-time appointments, conversion rates, and show rates alongside talk time.
3. Invest in call coaching. Listen to your reps’ calls and provide specific feedback on technique, not just effort.
4. Stop penalizing efficiency. If someone is hitting their numbers with less talk time, study their process instead of criticizing their hours.

If you’re a sales rep:

1. Self-coach relentlessly. Track your own ratios and identify where small improvements could yield big results.
2. Follow your process religiously. Like Josh, have the discipline to execute your proven system consistently.
3. Focus on effectiveness, not activity. Your job isn’t to clock hours—it’s to move deals forward with purpose.

Stop being a slave to lazy metrics. Talk time might feel like objective measurement, but it’s actually just noise disguised as data.

The best sales organizations measure what matters: conversations that convert, relationships that advance, and revenue that compounds.

That’s how you build a championship sales team. That’s how you develop elite performers. And that’s how you stop losing your best people to companies that understand what really drives results.

Learn how to boost performance and retain top talent with practical strength-based coaching strategies.

If you are spending more time staring at your windshield instead of looking into your customers’ eyes, you are doing field sales wrong. 

Over the past couple of years, there’s been a resurgence in field sales. Businesses everywhere are adding field salespeople and sending representatives out into the territory to meet with customers face-to-face. 

And for good reason—human beings buy from human beings. The most powerful way to anchor relationships, solve problems, and sell more is to get in front of your customers.

With AI creating so much noise in the system, it’s getting harder to prospect via email and social media. Going out and knocking on doors has become an easier way to connect with people, build relationships, and open up opportunities in your pipeline. 

And the good news, at least for now, is that prospects are happy to see field sales pros and inviting them in to their businesses and homes. 

But with the resurgence of outside sales comes an age-old problem: Field salespeople have got to travel to get to customers. And here’s the brutal reality—the single greatest waste of time for field sales professionals is staring at a windshield.

On this Money Monday segment of the Sales Gravy Podcast I’m going to teach you exactly how to minimize windshield time and maximize face time. Because at the end of the day, you don’t get paid to drive. You get paid to sell.

Too many reps delude themselves into believing that driving from one place to another is “working.”

Let’s get something straight: Driving is not an accomplishment. I don’t care if you put 100 miles on your vehicle in a day. That doesn’t mean you accomplished anything meaningful. It just means you drove from one place to the next, burning dinosaurs and wasting time.

I see this all the time. Reps will drive to one customer, then drive all the way across their territory to another customer, instead of concentrating their work in a single geographic area. 

They’ll dead-head out to an appointment, then drive all the way back to the office, passing up dozens of prospects they could have walked into along the way.

Don’t confuse activity with productivity.  Just because you drove all over creation, that doesn’t mean you had a productive day. 

Your job is to be in front of customers, not behind a steering wheel. Every minute you spend staring at your windshield is a minute you’re not building relationships, solving problems, putting new opportunities in the pipe or closing deals.

Let me put this in perspective with some simple math that will blow your mind.

Let’s say you’re a typical field sales rep working in a moderate-sized territory. You make 5 customer visits per day, and between poor route planning and territory management, you spend an average of 45 minutes driving between each appointment. That’s 3 hours and 45 minutes of windshield time daily.

Over a 5-day work week, that’s 18 hours and 45 minutes of non-productive driving time. That’s nearly half of your work week spent accomplishing absolutely nothing.

Now, let’s say you tighten up your territory management and reduce that drive time to 20 minutes between appointments through better planning. You’re now down to 1 hour and 40 minutes of windshield time daily, or 8 hours and 20 minutes weekly.

You just freed up more than 10 hours per week. That’s enough time for 15 to 20 additional customer visits or prospect calls. Over a month, that’s 60-80 more customer touchpoints. Over a year, that’s 720-960 additional opportunities to build relationships and generate revenue.

The reps who figure out how to minimize windshield time don’t just have better work-life balance—they absolutely dominate their territories and blow past their quotas while their competitors are still driving around wastefully.

This is why the first rule of field sales is getting your territory mapped, segmented, and planned to reduce drive time. 

I remember when I started out in field sales that the first thing my sales manager, a guy named Bob Blackwell, did was sit down with me and help me map my territory into daily quadrants where I’d be working on specific days of the week. 

He said if it’s Monday and you are in your Thursday quadrant, you better have a damn good reason. 

At the time, I didn’t understand exactly what we were doing but soon it made sense. By concentrating my focus each day in a tighter geographic area I wasted less time and made a lot more money. It was a lesson I never forgot. 

Start by printing out a map and grabbing a sharpie. 

Monday might be the northeast quadrant. Tuesday, the southeast. Wednesday, the southwest. Thursday, the northwest. Friday could be your flex day for special situations or your highest-priority accounts regardless of location.

Keep that map visible where you can see it. 

The tighter your route planning, the more selling time you create and the less windshield time you waste.

Yes, you will get off track from time to time. That’s the real world. But because you have built a set of tracks, when you get off, you’ll know where to get back on. 

Then use the hub-and-spoke model to maximize your time in each geographic area.

It works like this: Once you have an appointment booked on your calendar, use your CRM and mapping tools to pre-plan and route five additional drop-ins or door swings around that appointment. 

This will both increase the number of prospecting calls you make each day, and help you avoid the temptation to just head back to the office after your appointment.  

You’ll increase your productivity further with the practice of T-Calling. 

As you walk into or out of those pre-planned prospecting calls, look to your left, look to your right, and look behind you, then knock on those doors, too. 

Walk in. Introduce yourself. Build relationships. You’re already ther—you’ve already invested the windshield time to get to that location. Maximize your return on that investment.

Think about it, with this methodology you can easily make an additional 10 to 15 additional prospecting touches after each scheduled appointment. It’s how you squeeze every ounce of productivity out of your sales day. 

Territory planning also helps you make better decisions about responding to customer requests. 

If a customer calls on Tuesday needing help, rather than dropping everything and driving all the way to their location, assess whether it’s truly an emergency or if it can wait until you’re in that part of your territory on Thursday.

Learn to say, “I’ll be in your area Thursday morning. Can I schedule some time with you then?” Most requests that feel urgent really aren’t. Don’t let poor planning by others derail your territory strategy.

When you do need to leave one part of your territory to handle a high-priority customer, don’t dead-head straight back to your office or home base. Look left, look right, and look behind you to make additional calls in that immediate area before you leave.

No matter how well you plan, you’re still going to spend time behind the wheel. So here’s the critical question: When you’re driving between accounts, what’s coming through your speakers?

Is it lifting you up, making you better, helping you make more money—or is it tearing you down?

Top performers attend  Automobile University. Instead of listening to news or sports radio that usually puts you in a negative mindset, they’re listening to audiobooks, training courses, and business podcasts.

The compound effect of consistently investing in yourself during windshield time is enormous. 

If you spend just 60 minutes a day listening to educational content in your car while you are driving , that’s 5 hours per week, 20 hours per month, 240 hours per year of professional development. 

That’s the equivalent of 6 full work weeks of training annually—just from your drive time. 

When you’re always learning, you improve your skills, build stronger business acumen, stay current with industry trends, and develop a competitive edge over reps who waste their windshield time listening to talk radio.

Most importantly, consistent learning maintains a stronger belief system and winning attitude. You arrive at each appointment energized and confident, instead of drained and negative.

Here’s what I want you to do this week to transform your territory productivity:

Step 1: Audit Your Current Windshield Time: For the next week, track exactly how much time you spend driving. Calculate the total hours you spend behind the wheel. I guarantee the number will shock you.

Step 2: Map Your Territory into Quadrants: Get out a map or use Google Maps to divide your territory into logical geographic sections. Assign each section to specific days of the week and commit to staying in your designated areas except when absolutely necessary.

Step 3: Plan Routes in Advance: Every evening or first thing each morning, use your CRM and mapping tools to plan your most efficient route through your designated quadrant. No more winging it.

Step 4: Implement Hub and Spoke Planning: For every scheduled appointment, pre-plan five additional stops in that immediate area. Turn single appointments into territory blitzes.

Step 5: Create Your Learning Playlist: Download 3 audiobooks, subscribe to 5 relevant podcasts, and enroll in at least 1 audio training course. Build your Automobile University curriculum. By the way, the new re-mastered audiobook version of my international best selling book Sales EQ was just released, so perhaps that might be one of your first choices. 

Step 6: Track Your Progress Keep a log of time saved by staying in quadrants, what you’re learning during drive time, and how it’s impacting your performance. When you get off track—and you will—commit to getting right back on your plan.

Remember, in field sales, time is literally money. Every minute you waste staring at your windshield is money out of your pocket. But every minute you invest in smart territory planning and continuous learning is an investment in your success.

The field sales professionals who master territory management don’t just sell more—they work smarter, reduce stress, and create more time for the things that matter outside of work.

Stop staring at your windshield and start looking into your customers’ eyes. That’s where the money is.

And remember, when you’ve been out in the field all day, knocking on doors, and you are ready to quit and go home, always stop and make one more call. 

Maximize drive time for learning by listening to Sales Gravy Audio Courses.

AI isn’t here to replace you; it’s here to boost your game. Used wisely, AI can be your secret weapon.

AI is everywhere: in social selling, content creation, automation, to say the least. Here’s the double-edged sword: If you’re trying to outsource everything to AI, you won’t last. If you’re stuck in the old ways, refusing to adapt, you’ll get left behind.

Top performers are integrating AI into their workflows to make their human skills even sharper. They know AI is the edge they need to rise above the competition.

Think about how much sales time you burn on necessary tasks that don’t drive revenue, like data entry and research. That’s where AI shines. It handles the repetitive work faster and more accurately than you ever could. Feed it your ideal customer profile, and  you can have a filtered list of prospects before you even finish your coffee.

AI can analyze thousands of LinkedIn profiles in minutes to identify prospects who match your best customers’ characteristics. It can scrape company websites, news articles, and financial reports to give you conversation starters that actually matter. While you’re having one discovery call, AI can prep intel for your next five meetings.

Consider email outreach. Instead of sending generic templates, AI can help personalize messages at scale using real company data—recent funding rounds, leadership changes, and industry challenges. All this results in open rates that don’t make you cringe and response rates that actually justify your time investment.

The mistake most sales reps make is thinking AI means “set it and forget it.” That’s plain wrong. The winners are using AI as a research assistant, not a replacement for judgment. They’re feeding it context, reviewing its output, and adding the human insight that turns data into deals.

The best use AI to identify patterns in their closed-won deals, then apply those insights to current opportunities. They analyze which messaging resonates with different buyer personas, then craft more targeted outreach. They’re not working harder; they’re leveraging better intelligence.

Take objection handling. AI can analyze your call recordings to identify the most common pushback you’re getting, then help you develop stronger responses. It can even suggest which case studies or references would be most compelling for specific prospect types. It’s taking your experience and making it work for you at warp speed.

Wait until you see what’s on the docket for AI advancements: AI agents that anticipate what you need before you even ask. 

What if your follow-up email was already drafted after a call, incorporating specific points from the conversation? Your proposal includes ROI calculations tailored to their business model, all generated from publicly available data about their company.

AI will soon do more than respond to prompts; it will proactively support your sales process. It’ll flag when a deal is stalling based on engagement patterns. It’ll suggest the optimal time to follow up based on the prospect’s communication preferences. It’ll even coach you on your delivery by analyzing successful calls from top performers.

That’s why the time to adopt is now. Don’t let AI’s growth outpace your own knowledge of how to use it. Stay on top of new systems and improvements.

But here’s what AI will never recognize: the moment in a sale when a prospect’s voice changes and you know they’re really interested. It doesn’t have the ability to read between the lines of what someone isn’t saying. It lacks the intuition that tells you to pivot your pitch mid-conversation because you’ve spotted a better angle.

AI can’t build genuine rapport. It can’t adapt to the subtle cues that tell you someone’s ready to buy or needs more nurturing. It can’t handle the complex, nuanced objections that require empathy and creative problem-solving. These uniquely human skills become more valuable, not less, in an AI-enhanced world.

The most successful salespeople will be those who use AI to eliminate the mundane so they can focus entirely on these high-value human interactions. They’ll show up to every conversation better prepared, with more relevant insights, and more time to actually listen.

Look, change is uncomfortable. You might be hesitant to shift your workflow, adopt new tools, or rethink how you sell. But the market won’t wait for you to feel ready. The time to start is now.

Start small. Pick one area where you’re spending too much time on low-value tasks. Find an AI tool that addresses that specific area and test it for a month.

Don’t let AI make you less human. AI can’t replace emotional intelligence, creativity, or the gut instinct you’ve developed from years in the field. But it can help you perform at your peak. It can make you faster, more focused, and more effective.

So don’t fear it. Use it. Make AI your co-pilot. Let it handle the grunt work while you focus on the thing that actually closes deals: building genuine relationships. Stay curious; start experimenting. Keep the heart of your sales process with you, exactly where it belongs.

Want to learn more about how AI can lift you over your competition? Read Jeb Blount’s The AI Edge for more tools and tips.

If you’re in field sales, you know the reality: You spend hours every week sitting behind the windshield, staring at traffic that’s moving at the speed of molasses. Whether you’re dealing with Atlanta’s notorious I-285 parking lot or any other major city’s rush hour nightmare, that windshield time is either making you better or making you bitter.

Recently on the Ask Jeb segment of the Sales Gravy podcast, Jacob Kimrey asked about helping his field sales team maximize their productivity while stuck in traffic. But here’s the thing—this advice isn’t just for managers to give their reps. It’s for YOU, the field rep, to take control of your own success.

Let me tell you how to turn those frustrating hours in traffic into your secret weapon.

First, let’s get something straight: Driving is not an accomplishment. I don’t care if you put 200 miles on your car today—that doesn’t mean you accomplished anything meaningful for your business.

Too many field reps confuse activity with productivity. They think that because they drove all over creation, they had a productive day. Wrong.

The goal is to minimize your windshield time and maximize your face-to-face time. But when you ARE stuck in traffic, you better make damn sure you’re using that time to get better.

Before we talk about maximizing windshield time, let’s talk about minimizing it through smart territory planning.

Map your territory into quadrants: Monday territory, Tuesday territory, Wednesday territory, Thursday territory, and Friday territory. If you’re supposed to be in your Monday quadrant but you’re driving to your Friday area, you better have a damn good reason.

When you’re planning your field time:

• Group your appointments geographically: Don’t hopscotch all over your territory in one day.
• Plan your route in advance: Use your CRM to map out the most efficient route.
• Use the T-calling technique: When you arrive somewhere for an appointment, look left, look right, look behind you—can you make additional calls in that immediate area?

The tighter your route planning, the more selling time you create and the less windshield time you waste.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting. That windshield time can actually become prospecting time—if you do it safely and legally.

There are apps and dialers that let you load phone numbers and dial hands-free while you’re stuck in traffic. You can also set up your phone so contact numbers are easily accessible with voice commands.

Safety first: Only do this when you’re completely stopped in traffic or pulled over. Never compromise safety for a sales call.

Hands-free follow-up calls: Use voice-to-text features to send follow-up messages to prospects or customers.

Planning calls: Call ahead to confirm appointments or reschedule meetings.

Customer check-ins: Those relationship-building calls that keep you top-of-mind with existing customers.

The key is preparation. Have your call lists ready, know who you’re calling and why, and keep it simple and safe.

Today’s smartphones have incredible voice capabilities that field reps should be leveraging:

• Voice-to-text for quick CRM updates
• Voice memos to capture important thoughts or follow-up reminders
• Hands-free scheduling and calendar management
• Voice-activated research on prospects or companies

Learn to use these tools, and you’ll be amazed how much more productive your windshield time becomes.

The number one thing you should be doing while stuck in traffic is attending what the great Zig Ziglar called “Automobile University.”

When you’re sitting in your car, staring at brake lights, what’s coming through your speakers? Is it the news (which will just make you angry)? Music (which won’t make you any money)? Or are you investing in content that makes you better at your job?

Here’s your Automobile University curriculum:

Sales audiobooks: There are hundreds of excellent sales books available in audio format. Start with the classics and work your way through modern sales methodology.

Podcasts: The Sales Gravy podcast runs three days a week. That’s hours of free sales training every week. But don’t stop there—find other quality sales and business podcasts that challenge your thinking.

Audio courses: We’ve created specific audio courses on Sales Gravy University designed for people exactly like you who spend time in their cars. Push a button and learn while you drive.

Industry-specific content: Listen to podcasts and audiobooks specific to your industry. The more you understand your prospects’ world, the better conversations you’ll have.

Here’s what most reps don’t understand: The compound effect of consistently investing in yourself during windshield time is enormous.

If you spend just 30 minutes a day listening to sales training content, that’s 2.5 hours per week, 10 hours per month, 120 hours per year of professional development. That’s the equivalent of three full work weeks of training annually—just from your commute time.

Elite athletes in the business world constantly invest in themselves. We’re in skill positions. The better your skills, the better your results. When you’re always learning, you:

• Have better conversations with prospects
• Ask more insightful questions
• Think more strategically about your territory
• Stay current with industry trends
• Develop a competitive edge over reps who waste their windshield time

The difference between successful field reps and mediocre ones often comes down to how they use their “dead time.”

Traffic jams are going to happen. Construction zones are unavoidable. Rush hour is inevitable. You can either let these situations frustrate you, or you can turn them into opportunities to get better.

Make Automobile University a non-negotiable part of your daily routine. Every time you get in your car, something educational should be playing through those speakers.

Starting tomorrow:

1. Audit your current windshield time habits: What are you listening to right now? Is it making you better or just killing time?
2. Create your learning playlist: Download sales audiobooks, subscribe to relevant podcasts, sign up for audio courses.
3. Plan your territory more efficiently: Map out your weekly quadrants and commit to staying in your designated areas.
4. Set up hands-free prospecting tools: Research safe, legal ways to make calls from the road.
5. Track your progress: Keep a log of what you’re learning and how it’s impacting your performance.

Your competition is sitting in the same traffic you are, listening to music or complaining about their day. While they’re wasting time, you’ll be getting better, smarter, and more prepared for every sales conversation.

Turn that windshield time into your competitive advantage. Your future self—and your bank account—will thank you.

Ready to maximize your learning time? Check out Sales Gravy University for audio courses designed specifically for reps on the road.

Most value propositions stink. They’re boring, generic, feature-heavy garbage that make buyers’ eyes glaze over. And the worst part? Most salespeople don’t even realize their value proposition messaging is hurting them.

On this week’s Sales Gravy Podcast, Lisa Dennis breaks down her process for building value propositions that actually work—the kind that grab buyers by the heart and don’t let go. But before we get to the solution, let’s talk about why most value propositions fail miserably.

Here’s the fundamental problem with 90% of value propositions: They’re all about you.

“We’re the industry leader with cutting-edge technology and award-winning customer service that delivers best-in-class solutions…”

Blah, blah, blah. 

Do you hear that sound? That’s the sound of your prospect mentally checking out.

Here’s a hard truth about human nature: Nobody cares about you. They care about themselves.

Every buyer wants to talk about their problems, their challenges, their goals, and their pain points.

When you launch into your pitch about incredible features and market-leading capabilities, your buyer is silently thinking, “What does this mean for me?” And if you don’t answer that question immediately, you’ve lost them.

Your value proposition isn’t a corporate brochure. It’s not a marketing slick. It’s the value-bridge between what you do and what they need. 

If it’s a monologue about you, your company, and your product features you’ve lost the game before kickoff.

What to do instead: Make your value proposition a laser-focused spotlight on them. Start with their problem, not your solution. Lead with their pain, not your product.

Most value propositions include phrases like “industry leader,” “best-in-class,” “cutting-edge,” or “world-class customer service.”

“We’re a one-stop shop with purpose-built solutions that increase efficiency and decrease costs.”

Really? And I suppose your competitors specialize in decreasing efficiency and increasing costs?

These phrases and buzzwords make you sound exactly like every other salesperson who’s ever walked through your prospect’s door: boring. 

Here’s the brutal truth: If your competitor could copy and paste your value proposition and use it for their company, it’s not a value proposition—it’s forgettable noise.

What to do instead: Get specific. Use numbers. Use their language, not yours. Instead of “increase efficiency,” say “reduce your monthly reporting time from 40 hours to 4 hours.” Instead of “industry leader,” show them exactly how you’re different and why that difference matters to them.

Most salespeople build their value propositions standing in their own shoes rather than those of their buyers.

If you don’t know what keeps your prospects awake at 3 AM, if you don’t understand their specific challenges, and if you haven’t talked to real customers about why they bought from you (or didn’t), then your value proposition is built on sand. Guesswork rather than research.

What to do instead: Talk to three groups of people and gain insight through their lens.

• Your Lovers: These are your raving fans. What do they say about you when you’re not in the room? What specific problem did you solve that made them heroes in their organization?
• Your Likers: These are satisfied customers who aren’t writing love letters about you. What almost made them choose your competitor? What reservations did they have?
• Your Haters: These are the tough conversations. The prospects who chose someone else or the customers who fired you. Why? What did they feel you were missing?

This insight helps you shape your messaging so that it connects with the buying motivators of potential customers.

Now that we’ve covered why most value propositions fail, let’s talk about how to build one that wins deals.

Your value proposition should begin with their problem, not your product. 

Here’s the formula:

“For [specific type of customer] who [specific problem/challenge], [your company] provides [specific solution] that [specific, measurable benefit].”

Vague value propositions are worthless. Don’t say you “increase efficiency”—say you “reduce month-end close time from 15 days to 3 days.” Don’t claim you’re the “industry leader”—prove it with specific, verifiable metrics.

Stop using your internal jargon and corporate-speak. Use the exact words your prospects use to describe their problems. If they say they’re “drowning in manual processes,” don’t translate that to “seeking automation solutions.” Use their words.

Every claim in your value proposition should be provable. Can a third party verify what you’re saying? Do you have case studies, testimonials, or data to back it up? If not, cut it out.

People buy from people. Your value proposition can’t be purely clinical and business-focused. Acknowledge the human element. What does success look like for the individual making this decision? How will solving this problem make their life better?

Your differentiators are proof points that you’re uniquely qualified to solve your prospect’s specific problem.

Ask yourself:

• What can we do that competitors literally cannot do?
• Where are we measurably better than alternatives?
• What gaps do we fill that others leave open?

If your “differentiator” could apply to any company in your industry, it’s table stakes rather than a true competitive edge.

Building an effective value proposition isn’t about clever wordsmithing or marketing magic. It’s about doing the hard work of truly understanding your buyers and then articulating—in their language—exactly how you solve their unique challenges better than anyone else.

Most salespeople won’t do this work because it’s difficult and uncomfortable. They’d rather stick with generic, safe language that offends no one and excites no one.

But if you’re willing to have the tough conversations, do the real research, and build a value proposition that’s genuinely focused on your buyers’ needs, you’ll gain a massive competitive advantage.

Because while your competitors are still talking about their “industry-leading, best-in-class solutions,” you’ll be speaking your prospect’s language with a value proposition that compels them to engage and buy.

Learn how to build buyer-centric value propositions that resonate, differentiate, and drive sales, using Lisa Dennis’ proven framework that transforms your messaging into a deal-winning asset. Check out her sales training course Value Propositions That Sell

Jon Buehler from Jacksonville asks: “How do you maintain the consistency and intensity with prospecting? I find myself doing these sprints to get momentum, but struggle to keep that momentum going for long, sustained periods of time.”

Jon’s question gets to the heart of one of the most significant challenges in sales: maintaining disciplined, consistent, daily prospecting over the long haul. It’s a challenge that plagues even experienced sales professionals.

In this Ask Jeb article and Sales Gravy Podcast, I dig into why this happens and how to fix it.

Prospecting is the lifeblood of sales success, yet it’s the activity most salespeople hate and avoid. This creates a dangerous pattern I call the “desperation rollercoaster”—a cycle that wreaks havoc on your results, your mental health, and ultimately your career.

Here’s how it works: You prospect hard for a while, fill your pipeline, and start closing deals. Life is good. Then you get busy servicing those new clients and tell yourself you’ve “earned a break” from prospecting. Your prospecting activity slows down or stops entirely.

Fast forward 30-90 days, and suddenly your pipeline is dry. Panic sets in. Your manager is breathing down your neck. Your commission checks shrink. Only then do you rediscover your “motivation” to prospect.

And the cycle repeats. Up and down. Feast and famine. This isn’t a strategy; it’s a recipe for burnout and inconsistent performance.

The desperation rollercoaster creates damage far beyond just an empty pipeline. When you’re desperate for deals, everything about your sales approach deteriorates:

• You become pushy and pitchy instead of consultative
• You come across as desperate and insecure
• You focus exclusively on what YOU need, not what the PROSPECT needs
• Your discovery questions become shallow
• You skip crucial steps in your sales process
• You discount aggressively because you have no leverage
• Your negotiation and closing skills deteriorate

In short, when you’re desperate for deals, you sell terribly. Inconsistent prospecting doesn’t just hurt your pipeline—it undermines your entire sales approach.

In Fanatical Prospecting, I discuss the “30-Day Rule”: The prospecting you do in this 30-day period will pay off in the next 90 days.

This rule explains why inconsistent prospecting is so dangerous. When you take even a single day off from prospecting, it creates a hole in your pipeline 30-90 days from now. Take a week off, and you create a significant gap. Take a month off, and you essentially guarantee a sales crisis in your near future.

Understanding this principle makes it crystal clear why consistency trumps intensity every time. I’d rather see you make 20 prospecting calls every day for a month than 100 calls in a single day and nothing for the rest of the month.

So how do you maintain your prospecting discipline when motivation inevitably fades? I use the “Pain and Pull” method.

When I don’t feel like prospecting (and yes, even after decades in sales, I still have those days), I vividly picture what will happen if I skip it:

• The stress of an empty pipeline 60 days from now
• The uncomfortable conversation with my team
• The hit to my income and reputation
• The desperation that will undermine my sales approach

By focusing on the pain I’ll experience in the future if I skip prospecting today, I create immediate motivation to pick up the phone.

My friend Victor Antonio calls this “the big pull,” connecting your daily prospecting discipline to your most important goals and aspirations.

Nobody wakes up excited to make cold calls. But many people wake up excited about buying their dream home, sending their kids to college, or achieving financial independence.

When prospecting feels hard, don’t focus on the calls. Focus on what those calls will create in your life. What’s on the other side of those dials that makes them worth doing?

• Is it the vacation you’re saving for?
• The home you want to buy?
• The financial security you’re building?
• The career advancement you’re pursuing?

As I often say, the only thing that matters in prospecting is how bad you want it. Not how bad you want to prospect (no one wants that), but how bad you want what prospecting will give you.

Beyond motivation, the ultimate solution is to make prospecting a non-negotiable habit—something you do automatically without requiring willpower or motivation.

James Clear’s excellent book Atomic Habits provides a framework for this approach. The key is shifting from outcome-based habits (“I need to make 20 calls today.”) to identity-based habits (“I am the kind of salesperson who prospects every day, no matter what”).

When prospecting becomes part of your identity—something you simply do because it’s who you are—consistency becomes much easier to maintain.

Here are some practical steps to build this habit:

1. Schedule prospecting blocks early in your day – before distractions and fatigue set in
2. Make it ridiculously easy to start – commit to just 5 calls to overcome initial resistance
3. Create an environment that eliminates distractions – turn off notifications, close unnecessary tabs
4. Track your activity religiously – what gets measured gets managed
5. Celebrate small wins – reward yourself for consistency, not just outcomes

Prospecting is like rent; it’s due every single day. Your income, your confidence, and your future pipeline are paid for in advance with consistent daily activity.

The next time you feel like skipping your call block, remember this: The salespeople who win are the ones who prospect when it’s inconvenient, when it’s uncomfortable, and when no one is watching.

When you’re tired, when you’ve given everything you’ve got, and when you’re tempted to call it a day, make one more call. That’s where the difference between average and extraordinary happens.

Because in the end, your success in sales isn’t determined by what you do occasionally. It’s determined by what you do consistently.

Learn the keys to developing a Fanatical Prospecting Mindset in Jeb Blount’s course: Fanatical Prospecting Essentials

On Sunday, Scottie Scheffler won the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. Looking at the final scoreboard, his five-stroke victory seemed like total domination. But I was there on the ground, and what I saw wasn’t domination. It was something far more valuable for you as a sales professional and has everything to do with success.

What I witnessed was a master class in mental resilience. And in this Sales Gravy podcast and article, I’m going to break down exactly how Scheffler’s approach to adversity can transform your sales results.

Quail Hollow is beautiful, but make no mistake—this course has teeth. It chewed up and spit out many of the world’s best golfers without an ounce of remorse.

Just ask Bryson DeChambeau, who on Saturday watched his lead evaporate on the “Green Mile” – the brutal final three holes of the course. Or ask Jon Rahm, who briefly held the lead on Sunday before plummeting to eighth place after getting absolutely bitten by those same closing holes.

If you just looked at Scheffler’s final score, you’d think he cruised through effortlessly. But that’s not even close to what happened. It was a grind—every single hole, every single shot.

Scheffler came into Sunday with a five-stroke cushion, but by the front nine, he had completely lost that lead. Let that sink in for a second. The world’s best golfer, playing his best golf all season, watched his commanding lead completely vanish.

For most players, that would have been it. Game over. The spiral begins. The tournament slips away.

But not for Scottie Scheffler.

There’s one statistic from the tournament that explains everything – and it’s a metric that should become your new obsession as a sales professional. It’s called the “bounce-back percentage.”

The bounce-back percentage measures how often a player makes a birdie or better immediately following a bogey or worse. In other words, how often do you recover from failure and immediately create success?

For the entire field at Quail Hollow, the average bounce-back percentage was 17.4%.

For Scottie Scheffler? An astonishing 62.5%.

Think about what this means. When the average player faced adversity, they bounced back less than one time in five. But Scheffler? He transformed failure into immediate success more than three out of every five times.

That is massive mental resilience. It’s the difference between holding a trophy and watching someone else hold it. It’s the difference between being number one in the world and being just another talented pro. And it’s absolutely the difference between sales mediocrity and sales excellence.

So why am I talking about golf statistics on a sales podcast? Because the bounce-back percentage is the perfect analogy for what makes or breaks a sales career.

I’ve got news for you—bad stuff is going to happen in your sales career. You’re going to fail, lose, and face adversity. That’s not a possibility—it’s a guarantee.

You’re going to have situations where everything seemed perfect, and then the deal falls apart. Sometimes it’s your fault. Sometimes it’s not.

Maybe the champion of your deal suddenly gets fired or leaves the company. Maybe a competitor swoops in at the last minute with a ridiculous offer. Maybe your prospect ghosts you after six months of work.

Each day you’re going to run into situations when you’re prospecting where someone slams the phone in your ear, and then you’ve got to immediately turn around and make the next call. There will be days where nothing goes right and everyone says no.

Your ability to bounce back doesn’t just influence your success – it defines who you are as a sales professional. It is the key to winning. Full stop.

When I’m hiring salespeople, one of the things I’m measuring for is optimism. It’s essentially Ted Lasso’s goldfish paradigm—the ability to forget fast.

On the show, Lasso asks his players:“You know what the happiest animal on Earth is? It’s a goldfish. You know why? It’s got a 10-second memory. Be a goldfish.”

Being a “goldfish” is about letting go of mistakes, setbacks, or negative moments quickly—just like a goldfish forgets almost instantly.

If something bad happens to a pessimistic person, rather than forgetting, they believe something bad is going to happen again. Their mind starts spinning a story: “This always happens to me.” “I knew this wouldn’t work out.” “Nobody wants to talk to me today.”

What you think is often what you become. When you dwell on negative outcomes, you invite more of them into your life. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that crushes your results.

But optimistic people? They forget fast. They get a “no” and immediately think, “Great! My next ‘yes’ must be right around the corner.” That’s the definition of optimism in sales—the unshakable belief that success is just one more attempt away.

Competitiveness is equally crucial. When competitors get knocked down, they don’t stay down. They get back up, and when they do, they’re not defeated—they’re fired up. They use that emotion, that drive, to propel themselves to win the next time.

I see too many salespeople these days start a downward spiral after a single setback. It’s no different than what happens to amateur golfers on the course. You have one bad shot, which leads to another bad shot, which leads to a bad decision, which leads to another bad shot. Pretty soon, you’re ready to throw your clubs in the pond and call it a day.

That spiral will kill your sales career faster than any market downturn or tough competitor ever could.

So how do you build this mental resilience? How do you develop your bounce back muscle? I’ve got several strategies that have worked for me and for the top-performing sales professionals I’ve coached.

The first key is having a specific bounce-back routine—a set of actions you take immediately after facing rejection or adversity.

My sales bounce-back routine is different from my golf bounce-back routine. In sales, when something knocks me back, I often step away briefly and read a passage from a book I keep nearby. I deliberately put something positive into my mind to redirect my thinking. Sometimes it’s listening to a specific podcast or audio clip that I know will shift my mindset.

The key is that I don’t leave my mental recovery to chance. I have a deliberate, planned response to adversity that I’ve practiced so many times it becomes automatic.

What’s your bounce-back routine? If you don’t have one, create one today. Maybe it’s taking three deep breaths, saying a specific affirmation, or reviewing your biggest sales wins. Whatever it is, make it concrete and practice it until it becomes second nature.

One of the biggest killers of bounce-back ability is letting your mind drift away from the present moment. When something goes wrong, most people immediately do one of two things—they dwell on the past or they worry about the future.

Dwelling on the past is pointless. You can’t change what’s already happened. Getting caught up in replaying the failure, the rejection, or the mistake only ensures you’ll bring that negative energy into your next interaction.

Equally dangerous is projecting into the future, worrying about what might happen. “What if I never close another deal this month?” “What if my pipeline dries up?” “What if I miss quota again?”

The only thing that’s real is the present moment. The only thing you can control is your next action.

When I’m on the golf course and hit a bad shot, I remind myself to stay present. “This shot. This moment.” Then I refocus and execute. The same principle applies perfectly to sales.

After a tough call, don’t ruminate. Reset. Focus only on the next call, the next conversation, the next opportunity. Nothing else matters.

This is counterintuitive for many people, but the more adversity you face, the better you get at handling it. I call this “obstacle immunity.”

Top performers don’t avoid difficult situations; they seek them out, knowing that each challenge strengthens their resilience muscle. Think of it like weight training. The resistance isn’t your enemy; it’s the very thing making you stronger.

Make more prospecting calls than required. Have the tough conversations others avoid. Pursue the challenging deals others shy away from. Each time you face resistance and push through, you’re building your bounce-back capability.

The salespeople who avoid discomfort to protect their egos are the same ones who crumble when inevitable challenges arise. They haven’t built their obstacle immunity.

Scottie Scheffler hasn’t won all those tournaments because he’s never faced adversity. He’s won because he’s faced so much adversity that he’s developed immunity to its effects.

You’re talking to yourself all day long. The question is: What are you saying?

Are you telling yourself you’re going to win or you’re going to lose? Are you feeding yourself excuses or solutions? Are you reinforcing resilience or fragility?

If you watched coverage of the PGA Championship, you saw plenty of players have emotional meltdowns after bad shots. Remember Shane Lowry’s explosion? Those emotional outbursts might feel cathartic in the moment, but they rarely improve performance.

Notice that Scheffler doesn’t have those explosions. He stays remarkably calm, even when things aren’t going his way. He’s mastered his self-talk.

After a setback, he doesn’t tell himself a story about how unfair it is or how he’s losing his edge. He tells himself he has the ability to bounce back. He teaches his mind to believe it, and then he actualizes it.

Your self-talk creates your reality in sales. Monitor it ruthlessly. Replace destructive narratives with empowering ones. Tell yourself you’re the kind of person who thrives under pressure and bounces back stronger after rejection.

At the end of the day, Scottie Scheffler is the PGA Champion and the number one golfer in the world not because he never faces adversity, but because he’s mastered the art of bouncing back from it.

He’s a walking example of how to manage disruptive emotions, control your actions and reactions, maintain a winning mindset, and transform setbacks into comebacks.

The sales profession will test your resilience every single day. There’s no escaping the challenges, the rejection, the unexpected obstacles. But like Scheffler, you can develop the mental toughness to not just survive those challenges, but to use them as fuel for your success.

Your bounce-back percentage might be the most important sales metric you’re not tracking. Start today. Build that mental resilience. Watch your results transform.

Remember, in both golf and sales, it’s not about avoiding the rough patches—it’s about how quickly and effectively you play your way out of them.

Want more help to build your bounce back muscle and mental resilience? Check out Perform on the X. This brilliant on-demand course, from former Navy Seal Stephen Drum, teaches you Navy Seal tactics for performing at your best, in high-stakes situations, when everything is on the line.