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Colleen breaks down why delayed gratification, internal locus of control, and assertiveness are the real drivers behind consistent pipeline movement. She also challenges sales leaders to rethink their hiring practices in an AI-driven world — because learning agility and teamwork are now non-negotiable.

🎟️ Grab your tickets for OutBound Conference

📖 Purchase Jeb Blount's new book, 90 Days to Level Up Your Sales Skills

📝 Download the FREE 25 Ways to Ask for an Appointment on a Cold Call

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📖 Purchase Jeb Blount's new book, 90 Days to Level Up Your Sales Skills

👉 Read the blog

📝 Download the FREE 25 Ways to Ask for an Appointment on a Cold Call

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📖 Purchase Jeb Blount's new book, 90 Days to Level Up Your Sales Skills

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📝 Download our FREE Prospecting Call Tracker Sheet

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📖 Purchase Jeb Blount's new book, 90 Days to Level Up Your Sales Skills

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☎️ Have a sales challenge you want Jeb to answer? Submit your question at salesgravy.com/ask, and you could be featured on the next Ask Jeb episode.

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In this episode of Ask Jeb on The Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount explains why Philip's problem is not a closing problem at all. It is a qualification problem that has to be solved at the very start of the sales process.

In this episode, Jeb covers:

• Why fast buyers and slow buyers require completely different sales approaches
• How to identify a seeker before you hand over your best leverage
• The investment principle and why multiple checkpoints close more deals than a single proposal
• How to test engagement at every stage so your pipeline only carries deals that are actually moving

If your deals are going quiet after you send proposals, this episode will change how you run your entire sales process.

Have a sales challenge you want Jeb to answer? Submit your question at salesgravy.com/ask and you could be featured on the next Ask Jeb episode.

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📚 Explore courses from Cheryl Parks on Sales Gravy University.

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They get into why cold outreach feels so painful and how LinkedIn changes that, the difference between fast and slow prospecting, and the LinkedIn outreach mistakes that are silently killing pipeline for sales teams everywhere. Jeb, Brynne, and Dr. Bizzi also break down what a good LinkedIn strategy looks like at the profile level, the message level, and the network level.

📚 Explore courses from Jeb & Brynne on Sales Gravy University.

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In this episode, Jeb breaks down the player-coach problem and why so many salespeople silently burn out trying to do both without ever having the right conversations with their leadership.

You will learn how to protect your prospecting time, how to talk to your organization about compensation and structure without issuing ultimatums, and why you have to set boundaries with yourself just as much as you set them with your company. Jeb also explains why hoping the situation will fix itself is not a strategy and what to do instead.

If you are in a role where your individual sales responsibilities and your leadership responsibilities are pulling you in two different directions, this episode is for you.

Have a question for Jeb? Submit it at salesgravy.com/ask and you could be on the show.

📚 Explore courses from Jeb Blount Jr. on Sales Gravy University.

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Caroline Cutter from Dayton, Ohio, calls in with a question a lot of sales professionals are wrestling with right now: how do you leverage AI efficiently without losing the human touch that actually closes deals?

Jeb's answer is going to challenge the way you think about technology in sales.

In this episode, Jeb breaks down the three types of salespeople in the AI era, and only one of them wins long-term. He explains why AI-generated emails are not just getting deleted; they are getting you blocked and costing you access to prospects permanently. He also shares how he personally uses AI to prepare faster, write smarter, and spend more time doing what only humans can do: connecting, reading the room, and building trust.

Here is the truth: AI is not going to kill sales. But it is absolutely going to punish mediocrity. The reps who survive and thrive will be the ones who use technology as a force multiplier without losing their humanity in the process.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why wisdom is scarce in a world of unlimited intelligence
• The three types of salespeople in the AI era and which one wins
• Why AI-blasted emails are burning lists and closing doors permanently
• How Jeb personally uses AI to prep, draft, and move faster without sacrificing quality
• Why right now is a boom time for in-person and phone prospecting
• How to use AI responsibly so it works for you, not against you

Have a question for Jeb? Submit it at salesgravy.com/ask, and you could be featured on a future episode.

📚 Explore courses from Brad Adams on Sales Gravy University.

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📚 Explore Dayna Williams' courses on Sales Gravy University.

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That was the challenge posed by Brittany, a sales rep watching her show rates crater quarter after quarter, on this week’s episode of Ask Jeb on The Sales Gravy Podcast featuring Will Frattini. Brittany was putting in the work, getting prospects to say yes on the phone, and then sitting alone on Zoom watching the clock tick. If you’ve been there, you know how demoralizing that is.

The first thing you need to understand is the math. The best show rate you can hope for on first-time appointments is about fifty percent. If you’re above that, keep riding it. But fifty percent is the benchmark. That means for every ten meetings you book, expect five no-shows. The fix isn’t magic. The fix is volume and process.

Stop Pushing People Into Meetings They Don’t Want

Before you even think about your confirmation sequence, go back and listen to your prospecting calls. Ask yourself honestly: did that prospect agree to meet because they were genuinely interested, or because you wore them down and they said yes to get off the phone?

If you’re so good at closing for the meeting that you’re talking people into it rather than compelling them, you’ve already lost. That’s not a show rate problem. That’s a buyer’s remorse problem. The prospect hangs up, questions their decision, and when Thursday rolls around they’ve convinced themselves they never really needed to meet in the first place. Strengthening your prospecting approach so that prospects are genuinely curious when they agree is the only real fix for that.

The Confirmation Process That Actually Works

Assuming you have a real reason to meet, the work doesn’t stop when they say yes. Here’s what actually stops prospects from ghosting.

Before you get off the phone, confirm the meeting out loud. Say it. “I’m looking forward to seeing you Thursday at two.” Get that verbal confirmation back. Then ask for their email address on the spot and send the calendar invite immediately. Do not wait. And when you title that invite, don’t put “Meeting with Will.” Put your name, your company, their name, their company, and what you’re meeting about. A prospect who sees a generic calendar placeholder will delete it without a second thought. A specific, descriptive invite looks like real business and that’s exactly the psychological signal you need to send.

The ten-and-two rule is worth using when you’re booking the meeting. Give two time options, not an open-ended “what works for you.” Something like: “I have Tuesday between ten and ten-thirty or Thursday around two. Does Thursday at two work?” Give a choice, take one away, let them pick. It creates agency and it creates commitment.

Stay Visible, Stay Relevant

Between the booking and the meeting, do not disappear. Send a short personalized video or email mid-week that reinforces why the meeting is worth their time. “I looked into your organization and I’m looking forward to learning more.” That’s it. No pitch. No agenda. Just warmth and presence. What you’re doing is building what I call the guilt asset. You’ve shown up. You’ve done the work. For most people, not showing up now would feel rude. You’ve made it harder for them to ghost you.

For high-stakes meetings, large accounts, or anything where you’re bringing additional executives, confirm directly. Call or email. The calculus changes when the cost of a no-show is high. But for a standard first-time appointment with a single stakeholder, skip the confirmation call because it hands them an easy exit. Instead, if you have their office number, call the night before after hours and leave a voicemail. Let them know you’re looking forward to it and you’ll see them tomorrow. Now they have to do the work to cancel, and most people simply won’t.

Keeping your pipeline full of qualified first-time appointments is the foundation. But turning booked meetings into actual conversations is where the money lives.

When They Still Don’t Show

You did everything right. They still ghosted. Now what?

Here’s the message: “Hey, I hope everything’s okay. I was on the meeting for about seven minutes. I’ve got time reserved Thursday and Friday morning between nine and ten. Just let me know if you’re okay, and if you don’t want to meet, I have really thick skin.” Keep it human. Keep it short.

Then, if they’re a real account worth pursuing, reach out to reschedule by suggesting the same time on the same day of the following week. They agreed to that slot once, which means it was likely open. Don’t make them think about a new time. Just reset the existing appointment.

Here’s the principle behind all of this: when you do the work, you own the moral high ground. And when you own the moral high ground, your prospect feels like they owe you. That means a higher probability they reset the meeting, and a much higher probability they actually show up next time. Treat them like a transaction and they’ll treat you the same way.

This is the system, the discipline, and the follow-through necessary to win. Not just activity for activity’s sake, but deliberate execution at every step of the process.

The Bottom Line

Stop blaming prospects ghosting you on bad luck. Most of the time it comes down to one of three things: you pushed someone into a meeting they weren’t sold on, you didn’t build enough relevance and visibility between the booking and the meeting, or you let the confirmation process fall apart. Fix those three things and your show rates will improve. Not to one hundred percent, because that’s not real life. But to a level where your pipeline starts working for you instead of against you.

Jeb and Will go even deeper on getting past the people standing between you and the deal. Watch their Reach Decision Makers Faster: Beating AI & Human Gatekeepers webinar and put these tactics to work today.

Today, I want to share a quick story about an unexpected moment of validation that I recently had, and the valuable lesson that every top sales producer needs to keep front of mind.

The Annual Sales Summit That Changed Everything

I have a client that I’ve worked with for several years now. Each month, I deliver virtual training workshops focused on different areas of sales. Some months our topic will be on prospecting best practices, and other months we may focus on things like sales negotiation skills or how to advance deals in the pipeline. These workshops are optional for the sales team to attend at this particular company.

So recently, I was invited to attend their annual sales summit. It was the first time that I’d be putting faces to names and shaking hands with the people who showed up to my sessions, month after month. It was a pretty big event. There were hundreds of members of the sales team from around the US.

After grabbing my badge at the registration desk, I walked towards the main event space, and the sound of hundreds of conversations filled the room. It was that feeling of energy and the buzz of excitement when you’re surrounded by people who are having fun together.

As I walked through the mingling crowds, I saw it. There was a giant board, I’m guessing about five feet tall, and at the top it read “Top Producers of the Year.”

Now, if you’re in sales, you know what these boards represent. It’s the ultimate recognition and a testament to your consistency, grit, and incredibly hard work.

I found myself looking through the photos and the names. These were my clients’ top producers, the ones who really earned their spot. And as I looked at each photo, a pattern started to emerge. I noticed a face that I recognized and then another. And then another.

I couldn’t help but start to smile as I kept scrolling through this list of the fifteen names on the wall. All but one of them were people who were showing up to the monthly workshops month after month. I was shocked. Not just proud, but genuinely humbled.

Now, I’d like to believe that our training played a part in their success. But the truth is, they earned it. Their spot on that board, their results, their massive recognition—it was a direct reflection of the continuous investments that they had been making in themselves. They didn’t wait to be great. They were proactively working on stepping up their skills one month at a time.

What You Need to Remember

Now, if you take one thing from this article, let it be this: top producers don’t wait for success. They prepare for it.

That board wasn’t just a list of the most talented sales reps. It was also a list of the most intentional. It was a direct consequence of four behaviors that they had displayed:

1. Showed up to the monthly workshops even though they were optional.
2. Asked hard questions in these workshops.
3. Applied new techniques and tools and put them into action immediately.
4. Treated sharpening their skills as a non-negotiable.

Here’s the truth: the person who dedicates one hour a week to getting better will always beat the person who’s naturally gifted but a little lazy. Intention beats talent every single time.

6 Best Practices to Inject Intention Into Your Week

So how do you inject that kind of intention into your own week? Here are six best practices to help you:

Show Up Before You Need To

These top sales reps on the board didn’t wait for their production to dip before they started investing in training. They were already winning, and they still kept showing up. Skill building is like compounding interest. Small, consistent investments create exponential returns.

Treat Sales Training Like a Workout

You don’t go to the gym once and expect to be in shape. You show up three times a week for a year. That’s how you need to approach your professional development. Consistency is greater than intensity. Every session you attend adds a new tool, a perspective, or an edge to sharpen your game.

Decide That You Are Always a Learner

The reps who excelled weren’t afraid to ask questions that other people might consider basic. They were seeking clarity, not just validation. Remember, ego is expensive. Curiosity is profitable. Never stop being the most curious person in the room.

Don’t Confuse Activity for Growth

Many sales reps are busy; they’re active. But how many are truly intentional about growth? Top producers set aside uninterrupted time for professional development even when their schedule is getting full. So block out time to get better, not just to do more.

Implement One Thing Immediately

After attending a workshop or even listening to a podcast episode, challenge yourself to pick one tactic to put into action within twenty-four hours. Knowledge is power. Implementation is what turns that knowledge into results.

Surround Yourself with Other Top Performers

It’s easy in sales to get frustrated when we lose a deal or when things are not going our way. By surrounding yourself with other top performers, you’re going to help lift yourself up in those moments when you need a little extra support and motivation.

Why This Moment Mattered

Seeing that board of top performers, that physical printed validation, it really struck me—the emotion of realizing that the reps who had quietly and consistently invested in themselves all year long, had literally risen to the top. It was a powerful moment and reminded me why not only I do the work that I do, but it also absolutely confirmed that top performers are the ones disciplined enough to invest in themselves.

I encourage you to commit to just one of these six tips that I shared today. Write it down and put it into action within twenty-four hours. Momentum doesn’t come from waiting. It comes from action.

—

The top performers on that board didn’t wait—they invested in training that got results. Explore my courses on Sales Gravy University and get the same strategies they used to reach the top.

On a recent Sales Gravy podcast, he broke down exactly how he did it. The surprising truth? It had almost nothing to do with the pitch itself.

“Your single biggest tools in your toolkit are going to be your eyes and ears,” Morgan said. “It’s about listening and seeing where your prospect is and what they really want. That might be different than the words they use.”

Consider this: only 7% of communication comes from actual words. Another 38% comes from tone, and the remaining 55% shows up in body language and nonverbal cues.

If you’re in high-ticket sales, you’re probably spending most of your time perfecting that 7%, while missing the other 93% of what your prospect is really telling you.

What You’re Missing in Every Conversation

Most salespeople obsess over crafting the perfect email. They rehearse their pitch until it’s flawless. They tweak their value proposition endlessly. All of that lives in the 7% of communication that comes from words.

Meanwhile, prospects are giving away everything you need to know through their tone, body language, and the questions they ask—or avoid.

Morgan learned this quickly when raising capital for a food tech startup. Different investors wanted completely different things, even when they all said they cared about “returns.”

• One investor cared deeply about sustainability and environmental impact.
• Another focused purely on velocity of capital and exit timelines.
• A third had unusual mandates that weren’t apparent until Morgan listened carefully in person.

“It all comes down to having a real understanding of the emotion that person’s feeling, the desired state of where they want to be,” Morgan explained. “Living in that reality of who they are and what they want.”

High-ticket sales often fall apart here. Salespeople treat follow-up like a broadcasting exercise: same message, same pitch, same value proposition to everyone because it’s “efficient.”

Efficiency without effectiveness is wasted motion.

The Language Barrier Costing You Deals

There’s a language of entrepreneurial speak, a language of corporate speak, and a completely different language people use at home. You might communicate seamlessly with colleagues, but explaining your day to your spouse can feel like speaking a foreign language.

The same disconnect happens between you and your prospects. Most sellers speak “sales language,” while their buyers speak business or personal language. Top salespeople code-switch naturally. They pick up on how prospects talk, the patterns they use, and the words that matter to them—and mirror that style back.

In high-ticket sales, you’re asking someone to make a significant investment. They need to feel understood before they’ll trust you with that decision.

Take an HR leader versus a marketing leader in the same organization:

• HR cares about employee retention, engagement, and compliance.
• Marketing focuses on campaign ROI, conversions, and brand lift.

The same pitch to both? One will check out halfway through the first sentence.

Understanding Their Desired State

Make the prospect the hero of the story. Put your ego aside. Stop thinking about your quota. Focus entirely on their desired outcome.

Morgan never leads with what Ocean Ridge Capital offers. He starts by understanding their situation:

• Are they trying to create passive cash flow?
• Looking for tax efficiency after selling a business?
• Building generational wealth for grandchildren?

Each scenario requires completely different emotional framing. A person focused on legacy thinks about family and long-term impact, while a recent entrepreneur selling for eight figures cares about protecting capital and deploying it efficiently. Same product, completely different language. Send the same follow-up email to both, and you’re solving the wrong problem for one of them.

How This Changes Your Follow-Up Strategy

Once you realize that 93% of your communication lives outside words, your follow-up strategy has to change. Morgan uses multiple channels:

• Video messages let him read facial expressions and body language.
• Phone calls provide tone, pacing, and emphasis that email strips away.
• Handwritten notes show he’s willing to slow down in a world that automates everything.
• Educational content positions him as a resource, not just a seller.

He runs A/B/C testing across messaging angles because he can’t assume he knows what a prospect wants. When someone doesn’t respond to initial outreach, he shifts to “passive value creation”—delivering insight, education, and context—while still prospecting actively through multiple channels.

Every touchpoint adds value. Every channel gives a new way to read the prospect, learn their language, and adjust.

What to Do on Your Very Next Call

Here’s your homework. Not next week. Not when you have time. On your very next sales call:

1. Spend five minutes reading the room before you pitch anything. Notice:
   • When their energy shifts.
   • Words they repeat.
   • Moments they lean in or check out.
2. Mirror it back. If they say, “We’re building something sustainable,” don’t respond with, “Our solution drives ROI.” Stay in their language. Stay in their world.
3. Try a different channel. Been emailing for weeks with no response? Pick up the phone. Send a 60-second video. Mail a personalized note.

The mechanics haven’t changed. You still need multiple touches. But if you ignore tone, body language, and emotional state, you’re having a completely different conversation than your prospect is.

Why This Approach Wins

High-ticket sales are about human connection more than polished words. Prospects respond to feeling understood, recognized, and respected. The words you say matter far less than how you convey empathy, awareness, and relevance.

Morgan’s results speak for themselves: reading the unspoken signals and adapting builds trust, shortens sales cycles, and secures investments that others can’t reach.

High-ticket sales aren’t only about what you say—they’re about what you see. Pay attention, and everything changes.

–

Take your follow-up strategy to the next level. Download the FREE ACED Buyer Style Playbook and learn how to read what your prospects really want.

That’s the challenge Ash from Chennai, India brought to me on a recent Ask Jeb episode. Ash works as a trader importing textile goods from Asian manufacturers and selling them into Spanish-speaking markets in South America and Spain. No proprietary product. No unique features. Pure commodity, all the way down.

And yet Ash is holding customers. Getting repeat orders. Building relationships across borders and languages. He just needed a framework to understand why it was working and how to make it work even harder.

The Trap Every Commodity Salesperson Falls Into

When everything looks the same, most salespeople default to one of two bad moves: race to the bottom on price, or get paralyzed trying to explain a value they can’t articulate.

Here is the brutal truth. Your buyer already knows the product is a commodity. They know they could go direct to the factory and cut you out entirely. They are not confused about that. What they are evaluating is whether the risk and hassle of cutting you out is worth the savings. Your job is to make sure the answer is always no.

That requires you to stop thinking about what your product does and start thinking about what YOU do.

Three Reasons Customers Keep Buying From Ash

When I asked Ash why his good customers keep coming back, he gave me three answers that every salesperson in a commodity business needs to write down.

You make it easy. Ash speaks Spanish. His customers speak Spanish. If they go direct to a Chinese or Vietnamese factory, they face language barriers, cultural friction, and communication breakdowns. Ash eliminates all of that. Business people will pay for less hassle. Time is money, and you are saving them both.

You are someone they like and trust. Ash follows up. He wishes customers a happy New Year. He remembers what matters to them. That is not fluff. That is relationship equity that compounds over time. When customers feel like they can trust you, when a familiar voice picks up the phone, they do not want to start over with a stranger.

You reduce financial risk. In Ash’s business, buyers put down a 20% deposit, sometimes a hundred thousand dollars or more, and pay the balance when the container arrives. The nightmare scenario is that container showing up full of the wrong product. Ash’s company has been operating for over 20 years. They do what they say they are going to do. That longevity is not just a stat. It is a security blanket.

The Power of the Micro Story

Knowing your value is half the battle. Being able to articulate it when a buyer pushes back on price is the other half.

Here is what I told Ash: You need stories. Not case studies. Not bullet points. Short, vivid, real stories that make the risk of cutting you out feel tangible.

Something like this: “I get it. You could go directly to the factory and save ten percent. Some of my customers tried that before working with me. One of them got a container full of product that was not what they ordered. It cost them more than they saved, and they had no one local, no one they trusted, to help them fix it. That is why they work with me now.”

That story is doing three things at once. It validates the buyer’s instinct to compare prices. It quantifies the real cost of the cheaper alternative. And it positions you as the solution to a problem they have not had yet but definitely do not want.

If you are newer to sales and do not have your own stories yet, go talk to your senior teammates. Read industry articles. Find examples of what goes wrong when buyers skip the middleman. Then make those stories part of your standard value conversation.

Not Every Buyer Is Your Buyer

This is the part that stings a little, but it is important. Some buyers are going to push back on your margins until the conversation goes nowhere. They will tell you the price they need, and if you cannot hit it, they will walk. That is okay.

What they are telling you is that they do not value what you bring to the table. They want the cheapest option, and that is a legitimate business decision. They are just not your customer.

Your job is not to convert every skeptic. Your job is to keep your pipeline full and find the buyers who genuinely value ease, safety, and responsiveness. Those are the ones who become long-term accounts. Those are the ones who, two or three years in, cannot imagine buying from anyone else.

Ash is already doing this well. He has visited customers in Mexico, Colombia, and Spain. He has done office meetings and factory tours. When a customer says yes to a visit, they are telling you something: you matter to us. That is what I call an engagement test, and Ash is passing it.

Your Value, Packaged Simply

In commodity sales, your pitch does not need to be complicated. It needs to be consistent. Here is how I would frame it every time a buyer pushes back:

I make this easy for you. I am responsive. And your money is safe with me.

Then back each of those up with a story.

That is the whole game. Not features. Not specs. You.

When you are tired and ready to wrap up the day, remember this: the prospecting you do today pays you for the next three months. Pick up the phone and make one more call. The buyers who value what you do are out there. Go find them.

Want to take this to the next level in person? Join Sales Gravy at one of our live events, where we work with sales professionals and leaders to build the skills, mindset, and habits that drive elite performance. See all upcoming events at salesgravy.com/live.

And they’re right. Sales requires relentless effort. You’ve got to make the calls, run the process, deal with internal roadblocks, handle piles of rejection, and show up every day with a smile on your face, ready to do it all over again.

But the dirty little secret is that plenty of salespeople push through the grind day after day and still don’t seem to get ahead. They put in the effort and work hard, but get nowhere. All grind, but little progress.

Here’s the truth they don’t always tell you: You can grind yourself into the ground and still fail if you don’t have the right mindset and belief system underpinning that effort.

To keep it real, I’m the person who shouts from the rooftops that you’ve got to “grind to shine.” I say that in my book Fanatical Prospecting. It’s printed on coffee mugs. I love that mantra because it’s about doing the things other people are unwilling to do.

But raw grind isn’t always enough. Sometimes, we need to pair grinding it out with tenacity.

Tenacity is a Sustainable Sales Trait

In sales, tenacity is a more sustainable trait than raw grind or pure persistence because tenacity combines persistent determination with process certainty and strategy.

Grind is about doing the daily, repetitive, rejection-dense work required for success, but it can quickly lead to frustration and burnout when it isn’t paired with enduring faith that the hard work is going to pay off. 

Tenacity, on the other hand, is grinding combined with the absolute certainty that what you expect to happen is eventually going to happen.

That’s the difference between the rep who grinds hard for a quarter, feels that they are getting nowhere, and burns out because they’re not seeing results, and the sales professional who consistently runs the sales playbook, without immediate evidence that it’s working, because they have faith that the process will eventually produce their desired outcomes.

Uncertainty Causes You to Constantly Change Your Approach

One big problem with grinding without certainty is that when results don’t show up on your impatient timeline, you start changing everything.

You make 100 calls this week using one approach. Next week, you try a different script. The week after that, you switch your targeting. Then you read an article about social selling and abandon cold calling altogether.

You’re working hard, but you’re also second-guessing every move. You change your messaging before you’ve run it long enough to know if it works. You abandon techniques after a handful of attempts. You skip or change steps in your company’s sales process after a couple of deals don’t go your way. 

When you put in massive effort, but spread that effort across ten different approaches instead of trusting the proven process and playbook long enough to let it produce results, you end up in an exhausting, demoralizing quagmire of chaos and eventually give up. 

The True Meaning of Process Certainty

When I say “certainty,” I’m not talking about positive thinking or affirmations or manifestation or any of that rah-rah motivational stuff.

Certainty in sales means knowing—not hoping, but knowing—that if you do the right things the right way for long enough, the outcomes are inevitable. That you get the Sales Gravy. 

That’s what allows tenacious salespeople to keep grinding when others quit. They’re not grinding on blind faith. They’re grinding on proven evidence that the process works. 

For example, in Fanatical Prospecting, I explain the 30 Day Rule, which states that the prospecting you do in any given 30 days tends to pay off over the next 90 days. 

The 30-day rule is always in play. It is proven. It is truth. But you’ll never see it work if your prospecting is sporadic rather than consistently executed every single day. 

The Three Types of Certainty that Power the Tenacity Engine

If you want to develop real tenacity—the kind that sustains you through tough markets, rough quarters, and slumps—you need to build certainty in three core areas.

1. Certainty in Your Value

You need conviction that what you’re selling genuinely improves your customers’ businesses in a meaningful way.

When you have that certainty, something shifts. You stop feeling like you’re bothering people or being pushy and start feeling like you are helping them. That you belong there. 

And buyers can feel this difference. They sense and respond to your confidence, enthusiasm, and passion for helping them. Which gives you even more certainty.

2. Certainty in Your Process

You need confidence that your sales process and playbook actually work. 

Most sellers have been provided a proven, repeatable approach to building pipeline, qualifying opportunities, running discovery, handling objections, building consensus, negotiating, and closing business. 

If you don’t have a process, read or listen to my books Fanatical Prospecting, The LinkedIn Edge, Sales EQ, Objections, Virtual Selling, and Inked. Collectively, these books give you a powerful playbook for success. 

But regardless of whether you get your playbook from your company or me, believing that it will work for you is a choice and mindset that only you can step into. 

If you are constantly second-guessing the process every time things don’t work out the way you want them to, you are doomed to frustration and failure. You’ll be a slave to flavor-of-the-day thinking and winging it from call to call and situation to situation.

But when you trust the process, you’ll be steady, consistent, and confident. And you’ll relax because you know that you won’t win every time, no one does, but over time, because your process is proven, win probability is in your favor. 

3. Certainty in Probability

This is the big one. You need certainty that the math works in your favor over time.

The simple truth is that sales is a numbers game played with human emotions. Not every call will book a meeting. Not every meeting will turn into an opportunity. Not every opportunity will close.

But if you control the inputs—activity level, message quality, process execution—the outputs become predictable and win probability bends in your favor. 

Ultra-high performers understand this at a bone-deep level. They know their numbers and conversion rates. This gives them certainty that the statistics are working in their favor. 

On the other hand, the reps who are winging it are sky high when something goes well and in the dumps when things don’t—without knowing what they did in either situation to affect the outcome. And it is on this emotional roller coaster where they eventually burn out and quit. 

Top performers never board this emotional roller coaster because they’re anchored to math, not mood.

How to Transform Sales Grind into Certainty-Fueled Tenacity

Maybe you’re thinking, “Jeb, this all sounds great, but how do I build this certainty that you speak of?”

Fair question. Here are four ways: 

Track Process Metrics, Not Just Outcomes

If you only measure outcomes—meetings set, deals closed, revenue generated—you’re going to struggle with certainty during the lag time between the grind and results.

So instead, track the inputs like calls, conversation ratios, meetings, next step advances, or proposals delivered.

When you measure the right activities, you can see progress and celebrate small wins even when results aren’t there yet. This builds certainty that the process is working, which sustains your effort through the gap.

Practice Until You Don’t Have to Think

Competence begets certainty. Competence comes from practice and repetition.

Role-play your cold calls. Rehearse your discovery questions. Murder-board your presentations. Practice, practice, practice your sales story, messaging, and handling objections. Record yourself doing it and watch it back.

When you’ve practiced something until it is pure muscle memory, you don’t get nervous when it matters. You don’t freeze up or get embarrassed when you fumble. You execute with relaxed confidence.

Emotionally Detach from Individual Deals

The fastest way to lose certainty is to attach your identity to one opportunity.

Tenacious sellers want to win every deal, but they don’t need to win every deal to feel okay about themselves. They treat each opportunity like one at-bat in a long season.

Emotional detachment isn’t indifference. It’s a form of professionalism. It’s caring about the outcome without being controlled by it.

Install a Mental Script for Rejection

When you get rejected, it hurts, and your brain immediately tries to explain why. When you are in pain, it is super easy to default to stories that weaken your mindset and belief system. You say things to yourself like, “I’m not good at this or this isn’t working.”

Tenacious sellers consciously replace that story with self-talk that maintains certainty. “Not now isn’t never.” “This is part of the math.” My inputs are correct, I executed my process, but this just wasn’t the right time for this buyer.”

This is how top salespeople think because they know that the greatest threat to tenacity isn’t the rejection, it’s the meaning you assign to the rejection.

Grinding Without Certainty is Just Another Form of Suffering

Sales will always be a grind. The calls don’t make themselves. The pipeline doesn’t fill itself. The deals don’t close themselves.

But grinding without certainty is just another form of suffering. It’s unsustainable. Eventually, you get frustrated, burn out, and give up.

Certainty doesn’t eliminate the hard work, but it does make the hard work sustainable.

So if you’re grinding right now and not seeing the results you want, don’t just grind harder. Build certainty.

Get clear on the value you deliver. Trust your process. Know your numbers. Track the inputs. Practice your craft. 

Because tenacity isn’t about being tougher than everyone else. It’s about being certain enough to keep going when everyone else quits.

And remember, when you are tired, worn down, and feel like you can’t take another objection, when all you want to do is quit and go home, always stop and make one more call. Because that one more call is the ultimate demonstration of your trust in the process.

Get your tickets today to OutBound – the world’s biggest, baddest sales and leadership training conference. Go to OutBoundConference.com

Most sales floors feel like number factories. Reps avoid their managers. One-on-ones get rescheduled. And everyone wonders why performance stays flat despite “investing in our people.”

Sales leaders say coaching matters. They talk about developing talent. Then they spend their days staring at dashboards and asking why the team isn’t getting better.

Real sales coaching looks nothing like what most organizations call coaching. And after watching Jason work, I’m reminded why so few leaders actually get this right.

What Sales Coaching Actually Looks Like

Jason told me about one of his reps who started missing quota. Here’s what usually happens: Manager pulls up the CRM, points at red pipeline metrics, asks what happened. The conversation goes nowhere. Rep gets defensive, makes excuses, promises to work harder. Nothing changes.

Jason took a different approach. He asked about his rep’s life. Turned out he was stressed about buying his first house. That weight was bleeding into his work, affecting his confidence on calls, making him hesitant to push for commitments.

So Jason got into the field with him. He listened to calls. He rode along on appointments. He watched where deals were actually stalling. Then they debriefed what he observed. “Here’s what happens when pricing comes up.” “Let’s tighten how you handle that objection.” Zero mention of quota or pipeline metrics.

The rep turned it around because someone cared enough to understand what was broken and help him fix it.

That’s what coaching looks like. Managers react to outcomes they can’t change. Coaches focus on behaviors that create future outcomes.

Why Most Leaders Don’t Coach

The biggest barrier isn’t that leaders don’t want to coach. Most genuinely do. The problem is they don’t know what they’re looking for because they never see their reps in action.

Think about last week. How many discovery calls did you listen to? How many demos did you observe? How many customer meetings did you attend just to watch your rep work?

If the answer is zero, you’re coaching from spreadsheets instead of reality. You’re looking at lag indicators (closed deals, pipeline value, activity counts) and trying to diagnose skill gaps without ever seeing the skills in action.

Jason blocks time every week to observe his reps. He’s not there to supervise them or take over calls. Just to watch. Then the coaching becomes specific. He can say, “when that prospect brought up budget concerns, you deflected instead of asking questions,” instead of just “you need to handle objections better.”

You can’t coach what you don’t see. 

The second barrier is culture. In typical organizations, admitting weakness feels dangerous. You’re supposed to be confident, crushing it, always having answers. So problems stay hidden until they show up in the numbers.

By then, it’s too late to coach. You’re in damage control.

Creating an Environment Where Problems Surface Early

Jason builds what he calls a “safe space” for his team. When a rep is struggling, he starts the conversation with curiosity instead of judgment. He asks open questions about what they’re experiencing, where they’re getting stuck, what feels hard right now.

When reps admit struggles, he treats it as useful information, not a character flaw. A rep says, “I’m nervous on C-suite calls,” and Jason’s response is “okay, let’s work on that,” not “you shouldn’t be nervous.”

Then he follows through. If someone admits they’re stuck, he actually helps them. He role-plays the situation. He rides along on the next similar call. He provides tools and frameworks. The rep sees that honesty led to help, not punishment.

Over time, reps learn that surfacing problems early gets them solved. Hiding problems just makes things worse. So they start talking about what’s actually happening instead of pretending everything is fine while their numbers slide.

The first time someone admits a weakness and you respond with frustration, you train the entire team to stay quiet. Managers say they want transparency. Few consistently reward it.

How to Actually Build a Coaching Culture

If you want to coach instead of manage, you have to make developing people the primary job. 

Jason is clear that his main responsibility is making his reps better. Everything else supports that goal. Pipeline reviews and forecasting matter, but they exist to serve sales coaching, not the other way around.

Protecting coaching time is non-negotiable. One hour per rep per week, minimum. When conflicts come up, the internal meeting gets moved, not the coaching session.

Getting better at coaching matters too. Most of us got promoted because we were individual contributors. Nobody taught us how to develop other people. So we replicate whatever leadership we experienced, which is usually mediocre.

Your reps practice selling every day. You should practice coaching. Role-play difficult conversations with your peers. Practice giving feedback. Work on observation skills. Treat coaching like the professional skill it is.

And you have to measure what matters. If you only track team revenue, you’ll optimize for short-term numbers at the expense of development. Start measuring coaching conversations. Track whether your reps are improving on specific skills. Monitor how long it takes new hires to ramp.

When I walked through Ramsey Solutions that day, I could feel the difference. Reps weren’t avoiding their leader. Retention was better. Performance was compounding over time instead of bouncing around based on whoever happened to be hot that quarter.

What Happens Next

Look at your calendar from last week. How much time did you spend observing your reps versus reviewing their numbers? How many true coaching conversations did you have versus pipeline reviews?

If that ratio doesn’t reflect what you say your priorities are, you’ve found the gap.

Your reps don’t need another dashboard. They need a leader who sees the work, understands where it’s breaking down, and knows how to help them improve.

Sales coaching isn’t reacting to results. It’s shaping the behaviors that create them. The question is whether you’re willing to make that your real job.

—

Ready to build a stronger sales team? Download our FREE Small Business Guide to Sales Training and get the framework for developing high-performing reps.

That is the challenge Jeff Velez brought to a recent episode of Ask Jeb. Jeff works in the real estate services industry, where referrals from agents, brokers, and affiliates drive most of the business. Retention matters. Relationships matter. But because there is always natural attrition, his team has drifted into full farmer mode.

If you are shaking your head right now, you are not alone. This is one of the most common and most dangerous patterns I see in sales organizations today.

The Farmer Mentality Is Killing Your Pipeline

Your book of business is shrinking a little bit every single day. Accounts churn. Contacts leave. Referral partners move on. If your team is not consistently bringing in new logos, you are not standing still. You are moving backward.

The reason salespeople drift into pure farming mode is just pure human nature. The bigger a rep’s book gets, the more comfortable they become. They are making money. Things are fine. Why grind through cold calls and new outreach when warm conversations with happy clients feel so much easier?

And here is the other thing: calling invisible strangers is hard. The people in your existing accounts are happy to hear from you. The people you are prospecting to are not. That gap in friction is exactly why reps gravitate toward the path of least resistance every single time.

The solution is not to yell at your salespeople. This is a leadership problem, not a salesperson problem. If you want your team to prospect, you have to build a system and a culture that makes prospecting non-negotiable. That starts with you.

Leaders Are Repeaters

If you want your team to prospect, you have to talk about it constantly. Every team meeting. Every one-on-one. Every morning huddle. Leaders are repeaters. You set the tone by what you say, what you measure, what you celebrate, and how you show up.

That means when someone brings in a new logo, you ring the bell louder for that than you do for an account renewal. Renewals matter. High margin, great for the business. But if you want prospecting behavior, you have to reward and celebrate prospecting outcomes. Make sure you are not accidentally incentivizing people to farm existing account growth rather than hunt new business. That is a trap I have walked into with more organizations than I can count.

You also need to take the guesswork out of who your team should be calling. Sales leaders who expect their reps to build their own prospecting lists and figure out their own targeting are setting their people up to fail. Build the list. Point them in the right direction. Get them in position to win. Then run prospecting blocks together. And I mean together. Do not send your team to the phones and retreat to your office. Lead from the front.

Split the Job When You Can

One of the hardest things about managing a referral-driven or relationship-heavy business is that you need people who can both hunt and farm. And the honest truth is that most people are not equally gifted at both. Hunters tend to get new business but sometimes burn relationships. Farmers build and maintain accounts beautifully but stop hunting the moment their book is comfortable.

If your business can afford it, split the role. Have dedicated hunters focused on new logo creation. Have dedicated farmers or account managers focused on retention and expansion. Most small and mid-size organizations cannot do this fully, which means your leaders have to work twice as hard to build systems that force both behaviors.

When you cannot split the job, you have to build structure into the day. Block time every morning specifically for new logo prospecting. It does not have to be a huge window. An hour. Two hours. But it has to be protected, consistent, and non-negotiable. And the leaders have to be visibly engaged in it, not hiding behind their screens while their people make calls. That single behavior sends more of a message than any speech ever will.

This Is a Long Game

Here is what I told Jeff, and what I will tell you: do not expect this to change overnight. Cultural shifts in sales organizations are slow and painful. You will have reps who resist. You will have leaders who get uncomfortable holding people accountable because they do not want the friction.

Push through it anyway. Stake it in the ground. If you stay consistent in your messaging, your structure, and your expectations, you will start to see movement in twelve to eighteen months. New business will start coming in. Your team will start to feel the momentum. And that momentum builds on itself.

I am dealing with this in my own organization right now. We got comfortable with our existing customers and pulled back on new outreach. The book feels fine until the day it does not, and by then you have already lost ground you cannot easily recover. A shrinking book is not sustainable. Full stop.

Your Action Plan

If you are a sales leader:

Reset the expectation now. Make it clear that prospecting for new logos is part of the job description, not optional. Put it in writing. Talk about it constantly.

Fix your compensation structure. If you are paying higher on renewals than on new business, fix that. You are paying for the behavior you are getting.

Run prospecting blocks with your team. Not near your team. With your team. Lead from the front.

Give them the list. Stop expecting reps to research, target, and build their own outreach pipeline. That is a leadership function.

Celebrate new logos loudly. Ring the bell. Make it a bigger deal than anything else you celebrate.

If you are a sales rep:

Do not wait for your leader to force you. The reps who prospect consistently, even when their book is comfortable, are the ones who build the most durable careers.

Treat your book like a leaky bucket. Something is always draining out. Your job is to fill it back up, every single day.

Pick up the phone. Calling strangers is uncomfortable. Do it anyway. That discomfort is exactly what separates average reps from elite ones.

The message is simple. A book of business that is not growing is a book of business that is dying. This is who we are. This is what we do. We prospect, every day, without exception.

Want to take this to the next level in person? Join Sales Gravy at one of our live events, where we work with sales professionals and leaders to build the skills, mindset, and habits that drive elite performance. See all upcoming events at salesgravy.com/live.

Think about it. A whole lot of salespeople are good people. They’re polite, fun to be around, and are good conversationalists. They are good at building relationships and getting along with people.

They’re the type of people that buyers say they like.

The problem is, those buyers who say that they like them often don’t buy from them. They stall. Ghost. Go dark and say things like, “Let’s circle back next quarter.” But they don’t pull the trigger on purchases.

When push comes to shove, they justify not buying with words like, “We really liked you and thought you had a great presentation, but in the end decided to go in a different direction.”

The truth is that they went in that direction not because of the relationship (they truly liked you). Not because your product isn’t competitive or that your solution wasn’t a fit (they were). And not because they thought your intentions were bad (you wanted the best for them).

They decided not to do business with you because dealing with you over the course of the buying process was too much work. And by the way, buyers don’t experience your good intentions. They experience your process.

So today, I’m going to give you a wake-up call and a fix. Because in the age of AI, people expect seamless, frictionless buying experiences. And they compare you—consciously or not—to the easiest experience they’ve had anywhere. Not just to your competitors.

How Salespeople Become Friction for Buyers

Let me paint you a picture.

A buyer sits through a discovery call. You’re friendly. You build rapport. You ask good questions, and they ask hard questions. You end the call with, “Thank you for your time today. I’ll get with my team and send over answers to your questions.”

They say okay, and you end the call.

A week goes by, and they don’t hear from you because you moved on to the next thing on your list and forgot to follow up with your team and them.

Finally, after a week and a half, they remind you that you haven’t provided any answers to their questions.

Embarrassed, you jump on it and send over the answers. But it’s not your best work because you were under the gun and moving too fast.

Three days later, you email: “Hey! Just checking in. Wanted to see if I answered your questions.”

The buyer is busy. They’ve got a million things going on, and they’re irritated because you didn’t give them the complete answers they were looking for. And now your email is another item piled onto their overflowing plate.

They don’t respond. So you send another email: “Bumping this to the top of your inbox.” (Trust me, overwhelmed people just love it when you bump stuff to the top of their inbox.) You create even more irritation.

Then you call and leave a voicemail: “Just following up on the answers I sent you.”

You’re thinking: I’m being persistent. I’m doing my job.

They’re thinking: You made me follow up on you to get the answers I needed, then you failed to give me what I want, and now this is suddenly urgent.

From their perspective, no matter how nice you’ve been, you are friction. Your delay slowed down their decision-making process, the conversation was left open-ended, and now all they have are loose ends, and you’re driving them nuts.

The Hard Truth About Relationships in the Age of AI

Here’s the brutal truth: Relationships are vitally important. Trust matters. But relationships only carry you so far if buying from you isn’t easy or pleasurable.

You can be likable and still be a drag. You can be “a great person” and still be the person the buyer avoids—because every step with you along the decision-making process comes with friction.

And the thing about friction is that it shows up in small ways that feel normal to you but are exhausting to your buyer. Here are just a few examples:

• Meetings that end with no decision map or next steps
• Follow-up messages that add no new value
• Slow answers to simple questions
• Stakeholders have to push you
• The buyer is repeating the same story over and over because you are not listening and taking notes
• Your failure to follow through when you say you will
• Proposals that are generic marketing documents rather than valuable insight, value bridges, and recommendations

AI Just Set the NEW B2B Sales Bar

This problem is getting worse right now because of AI. And I don’t mean this in some hypey, “AI is changing everything” way.

I mean, AI is retraining buyers. Buyers are being conditioned to expect frictionless experiences: instant answers, clear options, smart recommendations, and smooth paths from questions to answers to decisions.

So when they hit your sales process, and it feels like walking through mud, they notice. They may not say it out loud, but their behavior says it for them. They stall faster. They ghost faster. They lose patience faster.

This is a big part of what I talk about in my bestselling book, The AI Edge. Your edge isn’t that you use AI to crank out more activity. Your edge is that you understand the expectation shift and use AI to help you reach that new bar.

In the age of AI, the new bar is FASTER with less FRICTION. For this reason, you need to combine your gift for connecting with people and developing relationships with leveraging AI to:

• make progress faster, follow up faster
• answer questions and provide clarity faster
• give insight faster
• understand your buyers’ organizations and problems faster
• deliver proposals and recommendations faster
• help your buyers feel trust and certainty faster.

All with less friction for your buyers.

How to Conduct a Sales Friction Audit

To gain insight into how buyers may view you, take a hard look in the mirror and run a Sales Friction Audit. This takes five minutes, and it will tell you exactly what’s killing your deals.

Score yourself 1 to 5 on these seven areas:

• Clarity: After every interaction, does the buyer know exactly what happens next?
• Speed: Do you respond at the speed of the buyer’s curiosity or the speed of your internal process?
• Effort: Are you reducing the buyer’s workload or adding to it?
• Progress: Do your meetings create decisions and movement, or just conversation?
• Packaging: Do you make it easy for the buyer to share your insights, information, and recommendations internally to their team?
• Certainty: Do you reduce uncertainty and risk, or do you create more?
• Reliability: Do you do what you say, when you say, without reminders?

Now, after you add this all up, if you don’t like the number, don’t get defensive. Change your mindset.

Because the fix is simple: Stop trying to be liked and start making it easier to work with you. Because if you are just friction with a friendly face, in today’s marketplace, you are going to get crushed by competitors who are friendly, competent, fast, and frictionless.

But I want to be crystal clear: Frictionless doesn’t mean spineless. It doesn’t mean you turn into a people-pleasing slave to your buyer’s every whim. It certainly doesn’t mean handing out discounts like candy to make buyers happy.

It means you run a sales process with structure, discipline, and competence, and that you understand that the buying experience and how you sell matter more than what you sell.

Two Easy-to-Implement Ideas for Eliminating Friction in Your Sales Process

Here are two easy actions you can implement immediately to reduce friction in your sales process.

End Every Meeting with a Map and Next-Step Commitment

The map is clear on who does what, by when, and what done looks like.

Too many sales calls end with vague commitments. “I’ll send you some information.” “Let’s reconnect next week.” “Think about it and let me know.”

That’s not a map or a next step. Those loose ends are friction.

A map sounds like this: “Here’s what happens next. I’m going to send you a detailed proposal by Wednesday at noon. You’re going to review it with your team on Friday. We’ll reconvene on Monday at 2 PM to give it a thumbs up or thumbs down. Will this work for you?”

A map is clear, specific, and has no ambiguity. You are leading the process and driving it forward to a conclusion.

Turn Proposals into Recommendations

Don’t dump choices on the buyer and say, “Let me know what you think.” Give options AND your recommended path.

“Based on what you’ve told me, here are three options. Option A is the safe play. It has the lowest risk but only a moderate impact. Option B is my recommendation because it solves your core problem and gives you room to scale. Option C is the aggressive play. It’s also a higher investment with the highest potential return and the highest risk. Here’s why I’m recommending Option B . . .”

In a world filled with uncertainty, your confident, assertive, expert advice reduces friction and helps your buyer make faster decisions.

How AI Can Give You the Edge for Removing Friction

Now here’s where AI comes in. If we’re honest, most sellers use AI to write emails. That’s fine, but it’s not the edge.

The edge is using AI to remove friction for the buyer and to shorten the distance from interest to decision.

• Generate decision-ready call recaps: outcomes, risks, open items, next steps, deadlines
• Speed up the process of understanding your buyer’s organization and beef up your industry-specific business acumen
• Create a one-page business case that the buyer can forward internally, along with stakeholder-specific FAQs
• Record your meetings so that you never forget anything the stakeholders tell you and use those recordings to speed up the process of crafting personalized proposals and expert recommendations.

Wake Up B2B Salespeople. The World Has Changed.

The bottom line is that the relationships you build are crucial but not enough, because people do business with people they like, trust, and who remove friction from the buying process. They reward sellers who engineer a buying experience that feels seamless.

But if you are just friction with a friendly face and buying from you feels like a slog, buyers will do what people always do when something feels too onerous. They’ll avoid it, delay it, or take the path of least resistance and buy from your competitor.

The world has changed. Buyers have been retrained by frictionless experiences everywhere else in their lives. And they’re bringing those expectations to you.

So be the seller who’s both likable and easy, who builds relationships and eliminates friction, who uses AI not to spam harder but to sell better. That’s the AI Edge.

And remember, when you are tired, worn down, and feel like you can’t take another objection, when all you want to do is quit and go home, always stop and make one more call.

His focus locked on the pitbull. The stereotype. The threat.

Meanwhile, the Chihuahua circled behind him and jumped up, latching onto him right between the legs while his partner stood there laughing.

We assign horns and halos fast. Brad learned that lesson with dogs. You learn it every time a prospect shuts down before you finish your introduction.

Horns mean danger. Hurtful. Someone here to take from me.

Halo means safe. Helpful. On my side.

Over 25 years of getting people to confess to federal crimes, Brad discovered something powerful: the same instincts that get hardened criminals to talk work in conference rooms. The techniques that break through with people who have every reason to lie also work on prospects who have every reason to brush you off.

Because in both environments, trust determines everything.

Why Building Trust With Prospects Is Harder Than You Think

Your brain’s been running this horns-and-halos program for 300,000 years. When something rustled in the bushes, you made a split-second decision: climb a tree or fight. That quick judgment kept you alive.

The moment you walk into a prospect meeting, their brain assigns you horns automatically. You are the salesperson. The interruption. The person asking for their budget. In their mind, you represent risk before you ever speak.

It happens on cold calls. You say, “Hi, this is…” and they are already calculating how to end the conversation. On discovery calls. In demos. At conferences when you introduce yourself. Every single time.

You are fighting ancient wiring every time you engage a buyer. So what can you control? The first 90 seconds.

How to Build Trust in the First 90 Seconds

We remember first impressions and last impressions. In most meetings, it begins and ends with a handshake.

Brad puts antiperspirant on his right hand. He warms his hands before entering a room. He holds eye contact for one second. Faces the person straight on. Slows his pace. Lowers his tone.

It sounds mechanical. But every one of these micro-decisions either confirms horns or begins to build a halo.

Wet handshake? You’re nervous, unprepared, not confident in what you’re selling.

Avoiding eye contact? You’re hiding something or you don’t believe in your own pitch.

Talking too fast? You’re trying to get something past them before they catch on.

When you control these variables, people’s guard comes down faster. You’re giving their brain evidence that maybe, just maybe, you’re not the threat they assumed you were.

The Trust-Building Technique Most Salespeople Get Wrong

Brad would sit across from murder suspects and open with one line: “I need you to help me understand.”

Humans are hardwired to explain. When you position yourself as the learner, something shifts. They become the expert. Their guard drops. They start talking.

Most salespeople walk in ready to educate. Your deck. Your case studies. Your demo. You’re there to prove you know their problems better than they do.

Sometimes that works. But think about what it communicates: “I already know what’s wrong with your business. I just need you to agree with me and sign here.”

Instead, try:

• “Walk me through what happens when your team processes a new order.”
• “Help me understand how you’re handling onboarding right now.”
• “What’s your biggest bottleneck?”

Invert the dynamic. You’re not there to impress them. You’re there to learn from them. Once buyers start explaining their world, they reveal what matters.

The workaround their team built. The spreadsheet that breaks every month. The process leadership thinks is automated but is completely manual.

That’s the information that moves your deal forward.

How to Build Rapport Before the Real Conversation Starts

Before interrogating two suspects, Brad bought them food. Popeyes for one. McDonald’s for the other. Twenty-two dollars total.

The next day, the woman’s on a jail call: “Yeah, they got me with the McDonald’s. That’s why I confessed.”

It was not about the food. It was about comfort. Lowering the guard. Creating what Brad calls a confessional environment where people feel safe telling the truth.

You’re probably not buying prospects lunch before your first call. But the principle still applies.

Show up five minutes early so they don’t feel rushed. Ask about their weekend before diving into business. Acknowledge that you know their time is valuable. Turn your camera off if they seem uncomfortable on video. Send the agenda beforehand so there are no surprises.

These are small friction eliminators. They signal: I’m not here to ambush you. I’m not trying to catch you off guard. We’re having a conversation, not a pitch.

The prospect who feels safe tells you what’s really going on. The prospect who feels ambushed gives you the corporate line and ends the call early.

What Happens When You Actually Build Trust With Buyers

When buyers move you from horns to halo, everything changes.

They stop filtering their answers. They tell you what keeps them up at night. They admit where the process breaks. They share internal pressure you would never see in a polished demo.

I’ve watched this play out hundreds of times. The rep who asks better questions closes more deals than the rep with the better demo. The rep who makes prospects comfortable gets to real problems faster than the rep with the perfect pitch.

Brad spent 25 years getting people to confess to federal crimes. He still warms up his hands before handshakes. Still slows his speech. Still positions himself as someone who needs to learn.

Why? Because building trust isn’t about personality or natural charisma. It’s about technique. These methods work because they’re based on how humans actually operate, not how we wish they operated.

And when buyers tell you the truth, you can actually help them.

—

Download our free Sales EQ Book Club Guide to master the emotional intelligence skills that help you read prospects and close more deals.

I was speaking to a group of students and marketing professionals at BYU-Idaho recently, and this question came up in a great way. We were talking about what actually drives buying decisions, and I shared something I believe with every fiber of my being: your prospect’s emotional experience with you as they walk through their decision journey is a more consistent predictor of outcome than any other variable.

Read that again. Their emotional experience. Not your features. Not your price. Not your killer deck.

People are asking five questions as they go through a decision to buy:

1. Do I like you?
2. Do you listen to me?
3. Do you make me feel important?
4. Do you understand me?
5. Can I trust you?

If you can get to yes on all five, you win. And the micro behaviors below are exactly how you do it.

Micro Behavior #1: Read the Room

Authenticity without respect for your audience is arrogance.

I know that sounds blunt, but I mean it. I see salespeople all the time who show up however they want to show up, dressed however they feel like dressing, presenting however they feel comfortable, and then wonder why the deal stalled. Being “authentic” does not mean ignoring your buyer. It means showing up for your buyer.

When I was in outside sales doing field work, I had clothes hanging in my car on a hanger. If I was walking into a company where everyone wore suits, I put on a jacket and a tie. If I was walking into a manufacturing plant full of people in polo shirts, I changed in the parking lot. When I sold in Clemson, South Carolina, I wore a Tiger tie. I’m a Georgia Bulldog, but I was in their house. Showing up in Clemson with a Dawgs tie would have cost me the deal before I ever opened my mouth.

Reading the room is not fake. It is the highest form of respect you can show another person. It says: I see you. I came prepared for you. You matter to me.

That one shift, from showing up for yourself to showing up for your buyer, will change your results immediately.

Micro Behavior #2: Shut Up and Listen

This is the easiest and fastest way to be likable on the planet, and most salespeople still will not do it.

When you give another human being your full, undivided attention and actually listen to them, they fall in love with you. I am not exaggerating. I said this to the students at BYU-Idaho and I will say it here: if you just listen to people, they will do almost anything you ask them to do.

Why? Because the most insatiable human need is the need to feel important. To feel like you matter. And when you give someone your full attention, you are filling that need in a way that almost nobody else in their life is willing to do.

The mechanics are simple. Ask a great question. Then shut up. Resist every urge to jump in, interject, or start mentally composing your response while they are still talking. Just listen.

The reason this is hard is that when our mouth is not moving, we do not feel important. We feel like we are losing ground. We feel like silence is weakness. It is not. Silence and attention are your greatest sales weapons.

Micro Behavior #3: Tell Them Their Own Story Back to Them

This one is where everything clicks together.

Once you have listened, here is what you do when you open your mouth: tell them the story they just told you, back to them, in the context of how you can help them.

Let me say that one more time because it is that important.

When words come out of your mouth, you should be telling your prospect the story they just told you about themselves and their situation, framed around how you can solve their problem. That is it. That is the whole game.

This answers the question every buyer is silently asking: “Does this person actually understand me?” And even if you do not get every detail right, if they can see you are genuinely trying to understand, they will still feel it. They will still think: this person cares about me.

When you can read the room, listen without an agenda, and reflect their story back to them in a way that connects to your solution, you have answered yes to four of those five buying questions before you ever ask for anything.

One More Thing: The Pipe Is Life

I was asked at the end of that BYU-Idaho session: “If you could leave us with one thing, what would it be?”

My answer was immediate. The pipe is life.

It does not matter how likable you are. It does not matter how well you listen. It does not matter if you have mastered every micro behavior in this post. If you do not have a pipeline, none of it matters. The number one reason salespeople fail is an empty pipeline. And the number one reason pipelines are empty is that salespeople stop doing the prospecting work every single day.

Especially on the days you are tired. Especially at the end of the day when you just want to go home. Feed the pipe. Pick up the phone. Make one more call.

Join Sales Gravy at our next live workshop event. These are high-energy, immersive experiences built to sharpen your mindset, your skills, and your pipeline. Get the details and register at salesgravy.com/live.

Macaroni was stung by a bee, and she reacted by bucking. I couldn’t hang on, and I landed hard on my back. It knocked the breath out of me. I gasped for air. Then, as I finally caught my breath, I started bawling at the shock of being involuntarily dismounted. 

My mom caught the pony, led her back over to me, and gently told me to dust myself off and get back on. But by this time, I was sobbing the way kids do when they’ve cried so hard that they can’t stop. 

Failure is Just a Bruise

I shook my head and refused to get back on the pony. My mother tried her best to calm me down and reason with me, but I still refused to get back on. 

Then she took a different tactic and got tough. Her stern, direct tone of voice made it clear that she was not asking me to get back on the pony—she was telling me. That’s what I remember the most because my mom had never talked to me like that before and has rarely ever used that tone and directness since. 

“Get up, and get back on that pony now!” she admonished. 

She was unmovable. Like Teflon. My tears and pleading made no difference. I knew I had no choice, so I stood up, shaking. Still trying to catch my breath, she helped me get back on the pony. 

Right there in the riding ring, at six years old, I experienced one of the most pivotal lessons of my life. My mother taught me that failure is just a bruise, not a tattoo. 

She wasn’t being cruel; she was being protective—protective of my future self, the one who might otherwise have carried an irrational fear of horses, or an ingrained habit of backing down at the first taste of adversity into the rest of my life.

She knew that if she had let me off the hook and let me walk away from that pony, there was a good chance that I’d never get back on again. That the fear I felt when I landed on my back in the sand would grow and gain a life of its own. That I would vow to never let the pain and embarrassment of falling off happen to me again, and with that, my brush with failure would become permanent. 

Failure Can’t Really Bite You

The truth is, failure is usually a short-lived event. Yes, it’s jarring, unexpected, and can momentarily knock the breath out of you. But it doesn’t have to be the defining chapter of your story. 

That’s what my mother understood so well in that riding ring. She insisted that I face my fear, effectively telling me, “Hey, the worst part’s over. Now that you’ve experienced fear and failure, get back on and prove to yourself you can handle it.” 

Because once you push through that initial sting, you discover that the fear can’t really bite you unless you give it teeth in your own mind. 

When Failure Becomes Permanent

For far too many people, though, the pain of failure does become permanent. Instead of allowing themselves a moment to dust off and try again, they walk away in defeat—often without fully grasping the long-term impact of that decision. 

Rather than letting the bruise fade, they opt to memorialize failure in their minds, assigning it more meaning than it deserves. They replay the embarrassment and pain over and over, until it becomes an unspoken vow: “Never again.” 

And in that single choice, a brief setback can morph into a defining moment in which they forfeit the chance to learn, grow, and eventually experience the sweetness of victory.

Think about how this scenario plays out in everyday life. Maybe you dream of learning a new skill—painting, playing guitar, writing a book, starting a podcast—but in your first attempt, you falter or feel foolish. Rather than chalking it up to “beginner’s missteps,” you decide: “I’m terrible at this; I’ll never try again.”

And that small bruise becomes a tattoo right there, on the spot. You miss out on the personal growth, the fun, and potentially incredible experiences you would have discovered if you’d simply dusted yourself off and tried again.

Sales is a Tapestry of Failure

In sales, this avoidance of failure is just as prevalent, if not more so, because the stakes often involve your income or your reputation at work. 

One day, you run a sales call that goes terribly off the rails—the prospect is disinterested, you get flustered, or you stumble on a key question. You come away feeling embarrassed, incompetent, maybe even humiliated if it happened in front of your sales manager. 

That single negative experience can color your perception of future calls. You avoid that type of call, that kind of prospect, or that particular approach. You remember that unpleasant feeling so vividly that you decide it’s “safer” never to try again. 

So many sales reps finally gain the courage to cold call a C-level executive at a high-value prospect. Then freeze when they get a hard objection, leaving them feeling small and insecure. Instead of analyzing what went wrong, adjusting their approach, and trying again, they vow, “I’m never calling anyone that high up again.” 

And while that might spare them from momentary embarrassment and discomfort, the long-term consequences are enormous. Their pipeline shrinks and income tanks because they’re playing it safe. And, ultimately, their career crashes because they’re afraid to push outside of their comfort zone.

Sales Failure: Where the Bruise Can Really Hurt

Sales can be bruising. Each rejection takes a piece out of you and can feel like a blow to your self-worth. It’s easy to internalize it. Over time, a string of “no’s” can erode your confidence, making the idea of picking up the phone and calling prospects feel daunting.

Our minds can often be drama queens. When something painful happens, we cling to that memory and replay it, each time piling on new layers of negativity—“I can’t believe I said that,” “What was I thinking,” “I’m so stupid.” In reality, the prospect might barely remember it or might even respect your courage. But to you, it’s all-consuming.

But remember, a “no” in sales is rarely personal. Often, it’s circumstantial—maybe the prospect is having a bad day, or their budget cycle doesn’t align with your proposal, or they had a negative experience with a different vendor and brought that baggage with them into your presentation. 

The more you detach your self-worth from the outcome, the less likely you are to see these “no’s” as permanent markers of failure. Instead, you’ll shift your mindset. You begin to view failure as data that you can use to gain insight into how to improve. You start to treat each rejection as a chance to refine your approach.

Success Stories are Forged in Failure

The true success stories in sales almost always come from people who learned to pick themselves up, analyze the failure, and adapt. They didn’t let the fear of failure overshadow their potential for greatness.  

The best salespeople—and frankly, the happiest people—know that failure is inevitable. Rather than avoiding it, they embrace it. They feel the pain just like anyone else, but recognize that bruises eventually fade. You just have to keep moving forward in order to heal.

At the end of the day, resilience in the face of failure is a choice. It doesn’t always feel like one, especially in the raw moments right after you’ve messed up, taken a big hit, or find yourself on your back in the dirt. 

But as soon as you reclaim your power to stand up, brush off the dust, and climb back on—whether it’s a literal or figurative pony—you’ll find your perspective shifting. Failure no longer holds you hostage. It becomes a footnote in a broader story of your determination and personal growth.

Failure is Only Final If You Make That Choice

So, the next time you bomb a sales call, lose a deal you thought was a lock, get yelled at on a cold call, or face an embarrassing situation in front of your peers, remember: you get to choose. Will this be just a bruise, or will you sear it into your psyche, turning it into a tattoo of permanent self-doubt? 

My challenge to you this week is when things go wrong, to look up and get up. Get back on the phone. Set another meeting. Propose the next big idea. Trust yourself to learn, adapt, and keep going. Will yourself to stop and make one more call. 

Because failure is only final if you decide to never get back on that pony again.

If you haven’t grabbed our FREE guide, 25 Ways to Ask for an Appointment on a Cold Call, download it now at salesgravy.com/cold-calling-guide/.

Marcus Chan, CEO of Venli Consulting and recent guest on the Sales Gravy podcast, learned to sell in the trenches of commoditized selling: uniforms, facility services, telecom. Industries where you’re locked in multi-year contract cycles, competing against five other vendors who offer the exact same thing, and selling at two to three times the market price.

“In order to get really, really good at selling in the commoditized market, where price seems to be the only factor… you have to learn how to get really good at the sales process,” Chan explains. “You have to be able to take someone who has what I call a latent pain—pain they don’t realize—get them to active and create urgency to move.”

No flash. No sizzle. Just selling.

And that’s exactly why it works.

The First-to-Market Delusion

Chan was talking with a client recently. They’ve closed $5 million in revenue in 12 months. Apple, Fortune 500 companies, massive wins. They’re first to market in a brand new category. Zero competitors.

Their sales team is flying high.

“That’s fantastic,” he told them. “Now what’s your plan for when competitors show up in three years?”

Silence.

Here’s what happens: you get drunk on the product. You don’t have to build real sales skills because the product does the heavy lifting. Then the market matures. Competitors launch. Your “unique” features become nothing new.

Most teams operate under the belief that they’re different. They talk about their proprietary technology, their best-in-class service, and their innovative approach. Meanwhile, buyers are looking at five vendors saying the exact same things.

This isn’t just true for uniforms and telecom. It’s true for SaaS, consulting, financial services. Any market that’s been around longer than 18 months gets commoditized fast.

The question isn’t whether you’re in a commoditized market. The question is whether you know how to sell when you are.

What Commoditized Selling Actually Teaches You

When Chan was selling uniforms at three times the competitor’s price to buyers locked into five-year contracts with other vendors, he had nothing to lean on except process.

He couldn’t say, “Look at this cool new feature.” The uniforms were uniforms. Same fabric. Same colors. Same everything.

He had to learn three skills most salespeople never develop:

1. Moving buyers from latent pain to active pain. Most buyers don’t think they have a problem. They’re comfortable. They’re “fine” with their current vendor. Your job is to help them realize what they’re losing by staying put, and make it real enough that they care.
2. Creating urgency when the status quo is locked in. When a buyer is in year three of a five-year contract, there’s zero natural urgency. You have to create it. You have to make the pain of waiting worse than the pain of switching.
3. Navigating complex, multi-stakeholder sales cycles without a product demo to fall back on. You need the operations manager, the finance team, and the C-suite to all agree that switching vendors is worth the headache. And you need to do it without any bells and whistles to distract them from the hard questions.

The Hidden Advantage Nobody Talks About

Mastering commoditized selling makes everything else easier.

Learn to sell uniforms at a premium price, and differentiated products become simple. The hard skills transfer—objection handling, stakeholder navigation, urgency creation.

But the real value is that your process becomes your product.

In commoditized markets, you compete on how you sell. Your discovery process. Your ability to diagnose the real problem. Your consultative approach. The way you make the buyer feel heard and understood.

That’s what buyers remember and what separates you from the five other vendors in their inbox.

Stop Hiding Behind Your Product

Chan sees it all the time with sales teams from “sexy” industries. They lead with features because they can. They lean on their demo because it works. They let the product do the selling.

Until it doesn’t.

Because eventually, every market commoditizes. Your competitor launches the same feature. Buyers stop caring about your “innovative solution” and start asking about price.

The salespeople who win in commoditized markets win because of process, not product. They’ve mastered diagnosis, urgency, and navigating complexity when there’s nothing shiny to distract the buyer.

A Commoditized Market Is the Best Sales Training Ground

If you’re selling in a commoditized market right now, congratulations. You’re getting an education most salespeople never get—how to compete when you’re “just another vendor,” how to create value when the product doesn’t, how to win on process instead of features.

Sell commodities at premium prices to buyers locked into competitor contracts, and you can sell anything. Master the fundamentals where there are no shortcuts, and those fundamentals become automatic.

Move to a market with actual differentiation, and you don’t just have a good product—you have a good product and the skills to sell it.

Winning in Commoditized Selling

The best training ground for sales isn’t the hottest SaaS company or the coolest startup. It’s the “boring,” commoditized industries where the product doesn’t do the work for you. Where you have to diagnose the problem, create urgency, and navigate complexity without flash to hide behind.

The skills you build when nothing else can save you? Those are the skills that make you unstoppable everywhere else.

—

If you want to sharpen the fundamentals that win in any market, start with prospecting. Download the free Seven Steps Prospecting Sequence Guide and build a process that creates urgency and fills your pipeline on purpose.

That’s the challenge facing Rick VanNess from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Rick co-founded a company that helps healthcare providers collect on older insurance claims (the ones sitting out 45-90 days that billing departments struggle to get paid). His team augments existing billing operations rather than replacing them.

But here’s the problem: The second Rick mentions what he does, billing directors immediately think “outsourcing” and shut down the conversation. They’ve either had bad experiences with outsourcing or they’re terrified of losing their jobs to a vendor that promises to do it all.

If you’ve ever been stereotyped, dismissed, or written off before you could even explain what you actually do, you know exactly how frustrating this is. And it’s costing you deals.

The Fatal Mistake: Arguing Instead of Agreeing

When a prospect says “We already have billing” or “We don’t outsource,” most salespeople instinctively go into argument mode. They try to explain how they’re different, how they’re not really outsourcing, how their service is special.

This is exactly the wrong move.

Here’s the brutal truth: When you argue with a prospect’s reflexive response, you’re fighting against their primary concern. For a billing director, that concern isn’t whether you can help them. It’s whether you’re going to cost them their job.

Think about that for a second. You’re calling someone whose entire world revolves around protecting their position, especially in an age where AI and automation are threatening white-collar jobs left and right. Their antenna is already up. They’re listening for any reason to say no.

So when you argue with their objection, you’re actually validating their fear. You’re making them dig in deeper.

The Power of the Ledge-Disrupt-Ask Framework

Instead of arguing, try this: Agree with them.

When Rick hears “We already do billing” or “We don’t outsource,” here’s what I told him to say:

“That’s perfect, because none of my customers do outsourcing. They all have internal billing departments. What we do is complement what they’re already doing by picking up the really hard things like collecting on insurance claims that have been sitting for 45 to 90 days and getting them paid faster.”

Notice what’s happening here? You’re using the Ledge framework that top performers use to handle objections:

Ledge: A simple statement that settles your brain and lowers tension (“That’s perfect…”)

Disrupt: Pattern interrupt that reframes the conversation (“…because none of my customers do outsourcing”)

Ask: Move toward a meeting (“Wouldn’t it make sense for us to take a few minutes to see if this could help you?”)

You’re not fighting them. You’re joining them on their side of the table, then pivoting to the real problem you solve.

Lead With the Problem, Not Your Solution

Here’s another critical mistake Rick was making: He was leading with his pricing model (“no risk to you, you don’t pay until we collect”).

While this might sound like a great selling point to you, to a prospect it sounds like every other too-good-to-be-true pitch they’ve heard. It creates skepticism rather than interest.

Instead, focus obsessively on the problem you solve. For Rick’s business, that’s the money sitting in accounts receivable that billing departments are too busy to collect. According to industry data, many practices have millions sitting out there at 45+ days.

That’s pure profit that’s not in the business. That’s real money being left on the table.

When you frame your prospecting messaging around the problem rather than your solution mechanics, you create curiosity and urgency. Save the pricing conversation for when you’re actually negotiating an agreement.

The Multi-Level Prospecting Strategy

One of the most powerful insights from my conversation with Rick was this: Don’t limit yourself to just one contact at the organization.

Rick was focusing solely on billing directors and managers because they’d at least give him 15 seconds. But there’s a better approach.

Go bottom-up and top-down simultaneously:

Bottom-up: Call claims adjusters and billing clerks. They don’t care what you’re selling. But they’ll tell you exactly what’s broken in their organization. Ask questions like “How much money do you have sitting out there over 45 days that you’re struggling to collect?” These narrators give you the stories and data points you need.

Top-down: Use that intelligence to reach the CFO. Now you’re not pitching a service. You’re providing insight about their business: “I spoke with your team and discovered you have $5 million in receivables sitting at 45+ days. Here’s how we help organizations like yours collect 80% of that money 40% faster.”

Middle-out: Armed with data from below and endorsement from above, the billing director conversation becomes completely different. You’re not a threat. You’re a resource.

This is straight from the Sales EQ playbook: Read the room, understand everyone’s motivations, and position yourself as the person who makes everyone’s life better, not worse.

Stand in Their Shoes

The breakthrough moment in any prospecting challenge comes when you stop thinking about your message from your perspective and start viewing the world through your prospect’s lens.

When you call a billing director, their number one job is to protect their position. When you call a CFO, their primary concern is whether this conversation is worth their time. When you call someone lower in the organization, they’re just trying to get through their day without more headaches.

Your job isn’t to convince them you’re different. Your job is to meet them where they are, validate their concerns, and then show them how what you do makes their specific situation better.

That’s how you stop getting objections and start closing.

The Bottom Line

Stop fighting your prospects’ reflexive objections. When they say “We already have that” or “We don’t need outsourcing,” the worst thing you can do is argue with them.

Instead, agree with them. Everyone you work with already has that. Then pivot to the gap you fill and the problem you solve.

Save your solution mechanics for later. Lead with problems, not pricing. And remember: The best salespeople aren’t the ones who argue the hardest. They’re the ones who listen the deepest and position themselves on the same side of the table as their prospects.

That’s how you break through buyer resistance. That’s how you build trust. And that’s how you win deals others walk away from.

Want to master the art of breaking through buyer resistance? Join us at Outbound 2026 in Las Vegas this November, where we’ll be diving deep into strategies for overcoming objections, building rapport, and closing more deals. Learn more and grab your ticket at salesgravy.com/live.

That’s exactly how your prospects feel when you make yourself the star of the conversation.

What Is Sales Main Character Syndrome?

Sales main character syndrome is when you position yourself as the hero instead of your prospect. You see it everywhere:

On the phone: You launch into a five-minute pitch about your company history before asking a single question.

In email: You send giant blocks of text about features without mentioning their actual problems.

On LinkedIn: Your connect request immediately hits them with “Here’s my product, here’s my calendar link, let’s meet.”

No matter the channel, it all leads back to the same place: your product, your company, your agenda.

Prospects don’t care about your product yet. They care about their problems, their goals, and what’s at stake in their world. When you make it all about you, you trigger resistance. Buyers feel sold to instead of collaborated with. And that leads to ghosting, objections, and stalled deals.

Nobody wants to sit through a feature dump. People need relevance. They want to feel heard and know you actually get them.

The Real Cost of Sales Main Character Syndrome

Sales main character syndrome has consequences that will wreck your quota.

1. Prospects disengage. When you focus on yourself and your product instead of the buyer and their needs, they tune out. Calls feel like lectures. Emails read like brochures. Messages get deleted without a response. Lose their attention, and you’ve lost your shot.
2. You miss the real opportunities. By making the interaction about yourself, you fail to ask the right questions. You don’t hear what’s actually going on in their world. You can’t identify the true pain points, the real goals, or what’s actually motivating them. So you pitch solutions that don’t align with what they need. You waste discovery time chasing the wrong problems.
3. Destroy trust before it’s built. Your prospects stop seeing you as a helpful guide. Instead, you’re just another salesperson pushing a product. Without trust, everything gets harder and long-term relationships become impossible.

The cost is too high. So how do you flip the script?

The Mindset Shift: From Hero to Trusted Guide

Your job is to be a trusted guide, not the hero. Think Yoda, not Luke Skywalker.

Your prospect is the hero of their own story. They’re the ones facing the challenge, making the decision, and living with the outcome. 

When prospects feel like the main character, they engage more. They open up. They trust you. And trust moves deals forward.

Here’s a simple three-step framework you can use in every conversation.

Step #1: Change Your “I” to “Why”

Stop starting conversations with:

• “I want to show you…”
• “I’d love to introduce…”
• “I think you’ll like…”

Your buyers don’t care about your “I.” They care about their “why.”

Why should this matter to them? Why is it relevant right now? Why does it solve a problem they’re actually facing?

Lead with “why,” and the focus shifts from your agenda to their reality. You’ll stop sounding like a salesperson and start being seen as someone who understands their world.

Before: “I’d love to show you our new platform and walk you through all the features we’ve built.”

After: “Companies in your industry are losing 20% of their pipeline to manual data entry errors. Here’s how to fix that.”

One is about you. The other is about them.

Step #2: Define What You Solve, Not What You Sell

Most salespeople can rattle off what they sell. A platform. A service. A software solution. That’s not what your buyer cares about.

Buyers don’t wake up thinking, “I need a new vendor today.” They wake up thinking, “I need to fix this problem that’s making my life harder.”

When you define the problem you solve instead of the product you sell, you build immediate value. You position yourself as a partner in their success, not just another pitch in their inbox.

Product-focused: “We’re a sales engagement platform with email sequencing, call tracking, and analytics.”

Problem-focused: “We help sales teams stop losing deals to slow follow-up and inconsistent outreach.”

Stop leading with what you sell and start leading with what you solve. Conversations convert faster when prospects see themselves in the problem you’re addressing.

Step #3: Listen to Hear, Not to Respond

The biggest mistake in sales? Listening just long enough to jump in with your answer.

Most reps wait for their turn to talk. They’re mentally preparing the pitch while the buyer is still speaking. It feels efficient. It’s actually ineffective.

Listening to hear means shutting up long enough to understand. You catch the nuance. You pick up on the emotion. You uncover the hidden pain points that competitors miss because they’re too busy pitching.

Slow down. Tune in. Let your buyer feel heard. That’s when trust starts to build and when real opportunity opens up.

Your Challenge: Put It Into Practice This Week

The shift from sales main character syndrome to trusted guide isn’t complicated. But it does require awareness and intention. You have to catch yourself when you’re about to launch into your standard pitch. Pause and ask, “Am I making this about me or about them?”

Your prospect is the hero. Your job is to guide them to success. Make it about them. Lead with relevance. Listen deeply. Watch what happens when you get this right.

Because the most successful salespeople aren’t trying to be impressive. They’re trying to be useful.

Make your prospect the main character in every conversation. Do it consistently, and you won’t have to chase attention. You’ll earn it.

—

Stop getting tuned out. Download the Free ACED Buyer Style Playbook and learn how to speak your buyer’s language.

The merchant was furious because he’d been promised high-grade copper, but the final product was subpar. That angry customer complaint is now sitting in the British Museum, 4,000 years later. The tablet reads: “What do you take me for? That you treat someone like me with such contempt?”

If you think dealing with issues in the sales process is a modern problem, you’re off by about four millennia.

Sales Hustle Is Ancient

We talk about sales like it’s a modern corporate invention. CRMs and automated sequences are new, but the art of the deal and dealing with angry customers? That’s been around since humans started trading.

The copper merchant in 1750 BCE wasn’t just selling copper. He was managing client expectations, handling logistics, and clearly failing at quality control. The core practices of B2B sales—promise, delivery, and relationship management—haven’t changed.

1600s: Sales Becomes a Profession

Fast forward to 1600, and you see the founding of the East India Trading Companies. They were some of the first corporations that allowed people to buy shares in a business.

One of the East India Trading Companies was owned by “the 17 gentlemen”—a group of wealthy investors who funded global trade expeditions. They kept spices like nutmeg, pepper, and cinnamon flowing across continents. The spices were so valuable that they were practically currency.

This was B2B sales at scale. Shareholders’ expected returns. Merchants negotiated deals across continents. The stakes were massive, and so were the profits.

This era established something critical to modern sellers: the separation between ownership and operation. The 17 gentlemen didn’t sail the ships or negotiate every spice deal. They hired people to do it. Sales stopped being a personal trade and became a repeatable profession with accountability structures built in.

1851: Visibility and Competition Arrive

The Great Exhibition in London in 1851 was the world’s first massive B2B trade show in sales history. Thousands of exhibitors. Hundreds of thousands of attendees. A giant glass building called the Crystal Palace.

Nearly 200 years later, sales pros still pack convention centers, set up booths, and fight to stand out in a sea of competitors.

This is where B2B sales became visible. You weren’t just competing against one or two local merchants anymore. You were standing next to dozens of alternatives, all promising similar value. Differentiation became mandatory.

Following up meant writing a letter and waiting weeks for a response. Today, if you’re not following up within 24 hours, you’re losing to competitors who are.

1957: Reach and Leverage Scale Up

The first inside sales team was formed at a company called Dial America in 1957. Before that, if you wanted to sell, you hit the road. Door-to-door, city-to-city, face-to-face. Every single deal required physical presence.

The telephone changed everything. Suddenly, salespeople could work virtually, reach more prospects, and close deals without leaving the office. One seller could now have 20 conversations in a day instead of three. The math of sales productivity fundamentally shifted.

Fast forward to today, and inside sales is the dominant model. The tools have evolved—Zoom calls, screen shares, digital demos—but the core principle remains: you don’t need to be in the same room to build trust and close deals.

From Stone Tablets to Instant Messages: Why Speed Matters Now

Think about the effort that the merchant put into carving his complaint into stone. He didn’t fire off a quick email. He didn’t leave a one-star Google review. He created a permanent record that would outlive both him and the seller by thousands of years.

Today, complaints are easy. Maybe too easy. A customer can blast you on LinkedIn, tank your review scores, or CC your entire executive team on an email thread—all before lunch. 

Every major shift in B2B sales increased speed. Trade shows multiplied visibility. Telephones let sellers reach 20 prospects a day instead of three. Email collapsed follow-up from weeks to hours. Social media made reputation instant and permanent.

In 1750 BCE, you had time to respond. Now, you have hours—maybe minutes. Each acceleration rewarded the sellers who could execute fast without sacrificing quality. The ones who couldn’t keep up disappeared.

Why This Timeline Matters More Than You Think

We’re in another massive shift in sales history. AI, automation, predictive analytics—the pace is relentless. It’s easy to think everything has changed. Zoom out 4,000 years, and the pattern emerges: speed accelerates, but the core practices stay the same.

So the next time you get a harsh email from a customer, remember that stone tablet. You don’t have to worry about your failure being displayed in a museum 4,000 years from now. But you do have to worry about your reputation spreading across the internet in hours.

The tools change, the pace accelerates, but the rule is simple: earn trust, deliver value, and handle problems before they handle you.

You just saw how history teaches that speed and execution have always mattered — and now AI is the biggest shift we’ve seen yet. If you want to turn the disruption into an advantage, download The FREE AI Edge Book Club Guide.

That’s the challenge Emily Weissmueller faces every single day. Emily is a former elementary school teacher who pivoted into K-12 edtech sales eleven years ago. She works with special education administrators, and like so many salespeople in 2026, her meetings are primarily virtual.

She’s doing everything right: prospecting consistently, securing appointments, sending calendar invites. But when it’s time for the meeting? Hit or miss. Sometimes they show up. Sometimes she’s sitting there waiting while nobody logs on.

If you’ve ever stared at a Zoom room alone wondering if your prospect forgot about you, you know exactly how this feels. And if you’re wondering whether confirmation emails help or hurt, you’re asking the wrong question entirely.

The Virtual Meeting Paradox

Let’s be honest about something: Virtual meetings are throwaway appointments for both sides.

When you had to drive four hours to meet someone in person, both parties had serious skin in the game. You invested time, gas money, and effort. Your prospect blocked their calendar knowing you were making the trip. Neither of you would casually blow that off.

But virtual meetings? They’re low commitment on both ends. No one’s driving anywhere. It’s just a calendar block that can easily get bumped by the next urgent thing that pops up. And when you’re selling into education like Emily is, where everything moves infinitely slow and decision-makers are incredibly risk-averse, you’ve got even more working against you.

The question isn’t whether to send a confirmation email. The real question is: How do you stack the deck so heavily in your favor that prospects feel obligated to show up?

The Commitment and Consistency Framework

There’s a principle in human behavior called commitment and consistency. When people commit to something, they typically feel compelled to follow through. Otherwise, they feel guilty. And guilt is actually useful because you can leverage it to reschedule when someone doesn’t show.

But the goal isn’t to make prospects feel guilty after they no-show. The goal is to engineer so many small commitments throughout the process that they show up in the first place.

Here’s the system that works:

Step 1: Confirm Verbally When You Set the Meeting

When your prospect agrees to meet, always repeat it back: “Okay, so I’ve got you on Thursday, January 26th at 2:00 PM. Did I get that right?”

When they say yes, that’s commitment number one. You’re putting it in their brain. You’re making it real.

Then say this: “Let me grab your email and I’ll send you a meeting invite for your calendar just to make it convenient for you.”

This does two things. First, it confirms you have the right email. Second, it gets another yes. That’s commitment number two.

Step 2: Send a Meeting Invite That Actually Helps

Most meeting invites are useless. They say “Meeting with Jeb Blount” or “Sales Call” and include seventeen different international dial-in numbers that nobody needs.

Here’s what your meeting invite should look like:

Title: Emily Weissmueller (Company Name) + Prospect Name (School Name) – Why We’re Meeting

Location: Virtual Meeting (then paste the meeting link, nothing else)

Notes: Keep it simple. Here’s the meeting link. If it’s a phone option, include just that number. Then add: “If anything changes, here’s my direct number and email.”

When your prospect looks at their calendar the morning of the meeting and sees this, they know exactly who you are, why you’re meeting, and how to join. You own the moral high ground.

Step 3: Send a Video (This Is Non-Negotiable)

The next morning after you set the meeting, pull out your phone and record a 20-30 second video. Look at the camera. Smile. Sound excited.

“Emily, this is Jeb at Sales Gravy. Thank you so much for agreeing to meet with me. I’m so excited to spend time learning about you and your mission for helping these kids. Just want to confirm our meeting is on January 26th at 2:00 PM. The invite is on your calendar. I can’t wait to see you.”

Send that via email.

Now think about what you’ve just done. You’ve made it personal. You’ve shown effort. You’ve demonstrated that you actually care about this conversation. It’s exponentially harder for them to no-show because they can see you’re a real human who invested time in this relationship.

This philosophy is about going the extra mile to demonstrate that you’re different, that you care, and that this matters.

Step 4: Leave a Voicemail the Day Before

The afternoon before your meeting, when you know your prospect is likely gone for the day, call and leave a voicemail.

“Hey Emily, this is Jeb. I’m so excited to meet with you tomorrow. I’ve been thinking about your school and the ways we might be able to help. I can’t wait to learn more about what you’re trying to accomplish for these kids. Just a reminder, our meeting is at 2:00 PM tomorrow. All the info is in your calendar. If anything changes, give me a call.”

You’re doing the heavy lifting. You’re reminding them. You’re expressing genuine interest in their world, not just your sale.

Step 5: The Morning-Of Email (Optional)

Here’s where the A/B testing comes in. Some salespeople swear by the morning-of confirmation email. Others think it gives prospects an easy out.

My take? Test both approaches and track your show rates. Do half your appointments with the morning email, half without it, and see which converts better. Even a 2-3% improvement in show rate compounds significantly over a year.

If you do send the morning email, make it about them: “Emily, I’m really looking forward to our conversation today at 2:00 PM. I can’t wait to learn more about your mission and see if there’s a way we can support what you’re building.”

Play to their heartstrings. People love talking about themselves and their work. Make it easy for them to want to show up.

What to Do When You Send a Confirmation Email

Now, if you’re going to send a confirmation email, there are specific scenarios where it’s absolutely required:

• You’re driving four hours to meet someone in person
• You’re bringing executives or your boss to the meeting
• It’s a final presentation or closing meeting with a major opportunity
• Multiple stakeholders are coordinating calendars

In those cases, you’re not just confirming—you’re protecting your time and theirs. You’re making sure you don’t waste an executive’s schedule or drive across the state for nothing.

But for a standard first appointment? The video and voicemail sequence will outperform a confirmation email every single time.

The Real Problem: Systems, Not People

No-shows aren’t a people problem. They’re a systems problem.

When you build a repeatable prospecting system that includes verbal confirmation, calendar invites with clear details, personal video, and day-before voicemail, you engineer commitment at every stage.

You’re not hoping prospects remember. You’re not relying on their calendar notifications. You’re building a runway that allows them to land in the meeting because you’ve made it nearly impossible for them to forget or blow you off.

And when someone does no-show after all that effort? You own the moral high ground. You can call back with confidence: “Hey, I know things come up. I sent the video, left the voicemail, and had everything on your calendar. Let’s get this rescheduled because I’m genuinely excited to learn about what you’re working on.”

That conversation is dramatically different than calling back after sending one email and hoping for the best.

The Efficiency Multiplier

Think about what happens when your show rate improves by even 10%. If you were setting ten appointments per week and six were showing up, that’s a 60% show rate. Bump that to seven showing up, and you’re at 70%.

That’s one extra conversation per week. Four extra conversations per month. Forty-eight extra conversations per year.

If your close rate is 20%, that’s nearly ten additional deals per year just from improving your meeting show rate. That’s the power of sales execution at the highest level.

Your Action Plan

If you’re struggling with no-shows, implement this system immediately:

For every appointment you set:

1. Confirm it verbally when you schedule it
2. Send a detailed calendar invite with clean formatting
3. Record and send a personal video the next day
4. Leave an enthusiastic voicemail the day before
5. A/B test the morning-of email and track results

Track these metrics:

• Total appointments set
• Show rate percentage
• No-show rate
• Reschedule success rate

After 30 days, analyze what’s working and double down on it.

The Bottom Line

Virtual meetings are easy to ignore. That’s just reality in 2026. Your prospects are busy, distracted, and constantly reprioritizing.

Your job isn’t to guilt them into showing up. Your job is to build a system that makes showing up feel like the obvious, natural choice because you’ve demonstrated care, invested effort, and made it personal.

Stop sending one confirmation email and hoping for the best. Start building commitment through repetition, personalization, and genuine interest in your prospect’s world.

That’s how you fill your calendar with meetings that actually happen. That’s how you stop wasting time staring at empty Zoom rooms. And that’s how you build a sales career based on systems, not hope.

Meetings happen by design, not by luck. Build the runway. Land the meeting. Close the deal.

Ready to Master the Complete Prospecting System?

The tactics in this article are just the beginning. If you want to learn the complete methodology for filling your pipeline with qualified appointments that actually show up, join us at an upcoming Sales Gravy Live Event. You’ll get hands-on training in prospecting, qualification, objection handling, and closing from Jeb Blount and the Sales Gravy team. Don’t leave your sales success to chance—invest in the skills that separate top performers from everyone else.

So you’re golden, right?

Wrong. One reorganization, one promotion, one departure, and your deal could vanish overnight.

Research from LinkedIn Sales Solutions analyzed thousands of enterprise deals and found something most salespeople refuse to believe: sales teams that build relationships with multiple stakeholders inside an account are 34% more likely to win. 

That’s the difference between hitting quota and missing it. Between a banner year and a brutal one.

Why Single-Threaded Deals Die

On average, 4-7 people influence a complex B2B buying decision.

Even if you nail the pitch, you’re still just one voice in a conversation happening behind closed doors. A conversation where people you’ve never met are raising objections you’ll never hear. Where priorities you don’t know about are shifting the criteria. 

Your champion can be dismissed as “the person who likes that vendor.” But when you’ve got three advocates from different departments? Consensus wins deals.

Your Champion Won’t Stick Around

One in five of the people you’re counting on right now won’t be in their role twelve months from now. They’ll get promoted, reassigned, poached by a competitor, or laid off in the next restructuring.

When that happens to your sole contact, your deal doesn’t just stall. It dies. The new person in that role has zero relationship with you, zero context on your solution, and zero incentive to champion something their predecessor started.

But if you’ve built what top performers call “account insulation”—relationships with two, three, or four people across different departments and levels—the web flexes when someone leaves. It doesn’t break.

Weak Ties Matter More Than You Think

We’re trained to go deep with our primary contact. Build trust. Understand their pain points. Tailor every message to their specific needs.

That’s not wrong. It’s just incomplete.

In complex selling scenarios, influence often spreads through what researchers call weak ties—the casual, adjacent connections that link clusters of strong relationships. These are your amplifiers.

A brief introduction. A shared article. A helpful insight that makes someone in operations remember your name when your solution comes up in a meeting you’re not in. These loose connections become the difference between a deal that stalls and one that scales.

Think about how deals from referrals close. They close twice as fast as deals that start cold. Accounts with multiple contacts grow larger, stay longer, and refer more business. The pattern is clear.

Get enough internal referrals, and you stop being the vendor someone works with. You become the partner everyone trusts.

Five Mistakes That Keep You Single-Threaded

Account multithreading fails most often before it ever really begins. Not because it is hard, but because salespeople sabotage it with impatience, poor judgment, or misplaced effort. If you recognize any of these behaviors, they are costing you leverage inside the account.

1. Trying to build fifty superficial relationships instead of multiple deep, meaningful connections. Spray and pray doesn’t work in prospecting, and it doesn’t work in account multithreading.
2. Asking for referrals before you’ve built credibility. You can’t extract value before you’ve created it.
3. Failing to nurture the relationships you’ve already initiated. You can’t plant seeds and never water them.
4. Ignoring the law of reciprocity. If you don’t offer value first—business insights, useful data, relevant introductions—people won’t feel any obligation to help you. You’ll burn through goodwill and get nothing back.
5. Wearing out your welcome. If you’ve reached out multiple times with relevant insights and gotten silence, that’s a signal. Move on.

How to Build Your Account Web With Multi-Threading

Start by mapping the web of people connected to your account. Decision makers, influencers, skeptics, the quiet analysts whose opinions shape what the decision makers think. Write it down. Visualize the relationships you have, the ones you need, and the blank spaces in between.

Then ask questions that open doors and show you recognize the decision is bigger than one person.

“Who else on your team would have a point of view on this?”

“Would it be helpful if I shared what other departments are doing with similar tools?”

“Is there someone else who should see this?”

Or use my favorite: “I need your advice on this.” That phrase invokes reciprocity and dramatically increases the probability they’ll give you the referral.

When trust is formed, asking for a direct referral becomes an act of generosity rather than an intrusion. Frame it around value, not obligation.

“Would you be willing to introduce me to your colleague in operations? I think she’d have an interesting take on what we’re talking about.”

“If anyone else on your team might benefit from this, would you mind sharing my name?”

People say yes far more often than you think when you ask this way.

The Quiet Chorus That Closes Deals

The more people who trust you, the faster and further your message travels inside the account.

You’ve got accounts in your pipeline right now sitting on a single thread. One job change, and that deal you’ve been nursing for months vanishes overnight.

Stop searching for the one perfect contact. Start building a small community inside every account.

It’s not a single voice that carries your deal through. It’s three voices in three different departments saying the same thing about you when you’re not in the room.

Protect Your Pipeline with Discipline

Account multithreading isn’t complicated, but it requires discipline and a shift in how you approach relationship-building. If you’re ready to protect your pipeline, increase your win rate by 34%, and build accounts that grow instead of churn, start mapping your key accounts today. Identify the blank spaces. Ask better questions. Build the web before you need it.

Ready to close more deals? Explore Keith Lubner’s courses on Sales Gravy University. 

Patrick Lencioni joins Jeb Blount to reveal how discovering your Working Genius can transform your career and eliminate workplace frustration. Learn why doing the wrong kind of work drains you (even if you love your job), and how identifying your natural talents creates joy and peak performance. Pat shares the accidental discovery that led to this breakthrough productivity framework now used by over 1.5 million people, including the entire Sales Gravy team.

You'll learn:

• The six types of work and why nobody excels at ALL of them
• How to identify which work energizes you vs. drains you
• Why talented people feel miserable in the wrong role
• Using Working Genius to fix team dynamics without losing people
• Surprising applications of Working Genius

Over 1.5 million people have discovered their working genius. Most of them wish they’d found it sooner. Visit workinggenius.com and take the assessment. Use coupon code GRAVY for 20% off. 

That’s the question Tara asked on a recent episode of Ask Jeb on The Sales Gravy Podcast, and it’s one I hear constantly from SDRs, account executives, and even sales managers who’ve convinced themselves that cold calling is outdated.

If you’re nodding along, thinking email is the future and cold calling is dead, you need to wake up. Email efficiency is going down without bounds, and if you’re not picking up the phone, you’re leaving money on the table.

The Hard Truth About Email Prospecting

Let me be blunt: Your email isn’t failing because the channel is broken. It’s failing because what you’re doing is terrible.

Before you blame the medium, look in the mirror. Did people ignore your email because you sent them something genuinely personalized and valuable? Or did they ignore you because you followed up thirteen times in five days? Did they ghost you because your seven colleagues already called them that same day?

The brutal reality is that most salespeople treat email like a spray-and-pray numbers game. They blast generic messages, add zero personalization, and then wonder why nobody responds. Meanwhile, they avoid the one thing that actually works: picking up the phone and having real conversations.

Why Cold Calling Will Always Matter

Cold calling isn’t going anywhere. It never has been, and it never will be.

You want to know why? Because sales is a human business. People buy from people they trust, and you can’t build trust through automated emails that sound like they were written by AI.

A phone call gives you something email never can: the ability to prove you’re a real human being who’s genuinely there to help, not just to pitch and sell.

When you call someone and say, “Hey, I sent you an email last week with this case study because I saw you talked about this at the Outbound Conference,” you’re showing them you did your homework. You’re not just another robot in their inbox.

Here’s a line I love: “Would I be the worst salesperson in the world if I didn’t also try to call you?” It’s honest, it’s human, and it cuts through the noise.

You Don’t Know What to Say? Make the Calls

The number one excuse I hear from salespeople: “I don’t know what to say.”

Here’s my advice: Make one hundred calls and talk to people. They’ll teach you.

You’re going to learn what not to say. You’re going to start seeing patterns in how your prospects think, what problems they face, and what language matters to them.

This is how you develop business acumen that separates you from the pack. You can’t learn it behind a keyboard.

I was in an alignment call today with a new client, and they said, “You totally understand us.” Why? Last week, I was with a business adjacent to their industry, learned their language, and pulled that knowledge into the next call.

Use Tools to Compress Your Learning Curve

Use tools like ZoomInfo to accelerate your learning curve. At Sales Gravy, we use it every day to find information about people, see what they’re doing on our website, and get intent signals that build our lists automatically.

You can use these tools to learn the language of industries you’re breaking into. You can see company news, understand their challenges, and show up on calls sounding like you belong.

But here’s the key: The tool doesn’t make the call for you. It gives you the ammunition. You still have to do the work.

Be Strategic and Resourceful

Here’s a strategy most salespeople are too lazy to try: If you’re having trouble getting through to a decision maker, call someone else in the company who’ll actually talk to you.

Selling HR services? Call a sales rep. They’ll talk your ear off about the company and might even make an introduction.

Try this: “Hey, I know you’re in sales. I’ve been trying to get hold of Joseph for nine months. Is there any way you could help me out?”

That’s not being cheesy. That’s being resourceful. But you have to be genuine. You can’t just ask for something without building rapport.

Your Action Plan

If you’re struggling with email effectiveness:

Pick up the damn phone. Stop making excuses about why cold calling doesn’t work. It works if you work it.

Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Introducing yourself to strangers will never be easy, but it’s the price of admission for being great at sales.

Use data strategically. Build sequences that interweave multiple channels over 30, 60, 90 days. Email, phone, LinkedIn, video. Give yourself the best odds.

Don’t oversell on the cold call. A little interest isn’t an invitation to vomit your pitch. Your job is to earn the next conversation.

Make one more call. At the end of the day, when you’re tired, make one more call. That’s where discipline separates winners from everyone else.

The Bottom Line

Email isn’t dead, but it’s not a magic bullet. Cold calling isn’t outdated. It’s the foundation of everything we do in sales.

Stop hiding behind your keyboard. Stop blaming the tools. Stop making excuses.

The shortest path to a meeting is through a real conversation. That’s how you build relationships, develop trust, and separate yourself from every other salesperson who’s too afraid to dial.

Get outside your skin. Be genuine. Be there to help. And pick up the phone.

Ready to take your prospecting skills to the next level? Join us at one of our upcoming Sales Gravy LIVE events where you’ll learn directly from top sales leaders and get hands-on coaching to transform your results.

We’re just a little more than 30 days away from our New Year’s intentions, resolutions, and goals. A month ago, we set out into the new year with hope and ambition that this year would be our best ever and that we’d make positive lasting changes in our lives.

It’s Easy to Slip Off the Track

You’ll remember that discipline is sacrificing what you want now for what you want most. But as time goes by and sticking with new habits gets more challenging, it’s easy to forget what motivated us to make the changes in the first place. It’s easy to let down our guard and go back to our comfort zone.

The farther away we get from our intentions, the more likely it is that we allow our discipline to slip and get off track. It’s just human nature.

Small Slips in Discipline Can Add Up Quickly

Let’s say you kicked off the new year determined to have your best sales year ever, and you knew that meant filling your pipeline daily by getting Fanatical about Prospecting. But upon reflection, you realize that days have passed since you picked up the phone, knocked on a door, or talked with customers.

You’ve been making excuses to avoid the very activities that move you closer to your goals.

I’ll admit that it happened to me just this past week. This month has been non-stop travel — 12 flights, 10 cities, 8 keynotes, 5 full days delivering training to sales teams. Toward the end of the week, I got tired, made excuses, and let my exercise and nutrition routine slide.

This was something I promised myself I wouldn’t do when the year started. I know that if I don’t stop right now and recommit to my goals, then there is a good chance that I’ll continue down this negative path — because it’s easy.

Revisit Your Goals and Resolutions

This is exactly why NOW is a good time for a gut check and a look in the mirror. Pause and carve out time today to revisit your goals, resolutions, and intentions.

Sit down and think about what you decided to achieve back in early January. Visualize what it was that motivated you. Picture what you want most and where you want to be at the end of this year.

Go back and re-listen to the Money Monday episodes on building a personal business plan, reflection vs. regret, and why personal goals are essential for sales discipline.

Then recommit to your goals. Remember the feelings you had when you set them, and make an intentional decision to get back on track.

Evaluate Your First Month’s Performance Against Your Sales Goals

Next, step back and evaluate your first month’s sales performance. As you do, you’ll likely find one of three scenarios:

1. You Crushed It – You had a killer month and blew your goals out of the water.
2. You Were Average – You hit quota or did “okay,” but you know you’re capable of much higher performance.
3. You Bombed – You missed your number and ended the month worse than you hoped.

Great Sales Month

If You Crushed it, and you’re at the top of the ranking report, fantastic, congratulations!

But be very careful not to let off the gas. It’s likely you worked very hard last month to achieve these results. There will be the temptation to take a breather.

Trust me, if you do, this complacency will come back to bite you.

Now is the time to recommit to doing the activity that fueled your success last month so you don’t end up with a lackluster February and a disastrous March.

In other words, you’ve set the foundation for a huge year, take advantage of what you have accomplished, and keep the pedal to the metal!

Average Sales Month

If you had an average or just OK month — maybe you hit quota, maybe you came close, but you know you’ve got more in the tank — then it’s time for some honest self-reflection.

Ask yourself:

• What held you back from greatness?
• What could you have done differently that would have resulted in higher sales productivity?

Maybe you needed to prospect harder. Perhaps you could have pushed a little harder to close some of your pipeline opportunities. It could have been that your pipeline wasn’t big enough from the start, and you ended up scrambling to make your numbers, but otherwise, you did everything right.

It’s okay, you haven’t hurt yourself. You are still in a good position to have a great year. But you’ll need to identify your performance gaps and plan to overcome them in February.

This is a good time to sit down with your coach or mentor, break down your performance, and get guidance on where you can make tweaks and get better.

If you don’t have a coach and you want to talk with someone, go to https://salesgravy.com/coach to get help.

Bad Sales Month

If you bombed, if your month was downright awful, then you’re going to need to move fast to make adjustments.

Getting behind the eight ball at the beginning of the year is no fun. You don’t want to chase your tail for the rest of the year.

The key is taking positive action now. Rather than dwelling on the negatives — which is super easy to do — pull your head up and start breaking down what happened.

Empty Pipe

Did you have an empty pipeline, so you had nothing to close? That happens to a lot of salespeople in the first month of the year. Go back and listen to the How to Fix an Empty Pipeline Now Money Monday episode from a few weeks ago. Use that lesson to help you fix the problem.

Closeable Opportunities that Pushed

Were there closeable pipeline opportunities that simply pushed into this month? Make sure you’re on top of them so they don’t vanish for good. But also make sure you have the pipe to cover this month, so you’re not solely depending on last month’s leftovers.

Shortcutting the Sales Process

Is it possible that you might have been skipping steps in the sales process? This will often happen when you are in a desperate and stressed emotional state. This is a big clue that it is time to get back to the basics and fundamentals of selling— and get disciplined about following a proven sales process.

This may be a very good time to take some courses on Sales Gravy University and read (or listen) to books like Sales EQ that can help you dial in your sales process.

Recommit to Your Sales Goals

We all slip. We all make mistakes. Discipline can waver, especially once the initial excitement of a new year fades. But you have the power to step back into your resolutions and do the daily work required to achieve your goals.

Whether you crushed it, coasted, or crashed, the key to getting February off to a strong start is to recommit.

Make the decision — say it out loud: “I’m going to be better in February than I was in January.”

Need help setting winning Sales Goals? Check out our FREE Goal Planning Guide

Chris Spratling, founder of Chalkhill Blue Limited and author of The Exit Roadmap, shared this on a recent episode of the Sales Gravy podcast. He works with business owners preparing to sell their companies, helping them get operations, finances, and sales engines ready for new ownership. That insight cuts straight to the reason so many founder-led businesses hit a ceiling they can’t break through. 

If you are a founder who still carries most of the revenue, or you have a founder-led sales team that depends on you to close critical deals, this is bigger than exit planning. It determines whether your business can grow beyond your personal capacity.

The Golden Handcuffs Problem

You built the business. You know the product better than anyone. You can sell it without thinking.

That is exactly where the risk starts.

When major clients only trust you, when your sales process lives in your head, when new reps struggle to replicate what comes naturally to you, you aren’t running a sales operation. You are running a one-person engine with a support team around it.

Spratling calls this the “golden handcuffs.” It looks like success from the outside, but underneath, it creates dependency. Every time you step in to save a deal, you reinforce the idea that the business only works when you are involved.

Most founders focus on how this affects valuation at exit. Fewer recognize the more immediate cost. That dependency limits how fast the company can grow right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEBLyaOy9XQ

Where Founder-Led Sales Breaks Down

The transition from founder-led sales to a functioning team is where momentum often stalls.

You hire your first salesperson. They do well. Then a second. Then a third. Suddenly, deals slow down, messaging gets inconsistent, and you find yourself pulled back into conversations you thought you had delegated.

They don’t sell the way you do. They miss cues you catch instinctively. They hesitate where you would push forward. So you jump in, coach through objections, and close deals yourself.

What feels like instinct is actually a method you developed through hundreds of conversations. The problem isn’t that your team lacks talent, but that your approach has never been translated into something they can use without you standing next to them.

As long as that stays true, scale will remain out of reach.

Turning Intuition Into a Usable Process

The hardest shift for founder-led teams is codifying what the founder does without thinking.

You know which deals are worth pursuing. You know when to apply pressure and when to step back. You know how to redirect a conversation when resistance shows up. That knowledge is pattern recognition built over time, and it can be used to create a process.

Start by defining how deals actually move through your pipeline. Not a generic framework pulled from a template, but the real stages your customers pass through, with clear criteria for each transition. What has to be true before a lead is qualified? What information must be present before a proposal goes out?

Then look at discovery. What questions do you ask every time? What do you listen for before positioning your solution? Which objections show up consistently, and how do you respond when they do?

The goal is to document the structure beneath the conversations so that someone else can navigate the same terrain with confidence.

Why Your CRM Is Not Pulling Its Weight

Most founder-led teams have a CRM, but they only use it to track contacts and deal size.

However, a functioning, high-performing sales system treats the CRM as a learning tool. That means capturing more than surface-level data. It means recording what buyers actually say, why deals move forward, where they stall, and who influences the decision.

When that information is tracked consistently, patterns become visible. You see which prospects convert fastest, which objections actually kill deals, and where momentum typically breaks down.

That insight does more than improve forecasting. It gives you a concrete way to train new reps based on real deals you have closed, not abstract theory.

Three Steps to Build a Sales Engine That Does Not Depend on You

The objective isn’t to remove yourself from sales completely. It’s to make your involvement a choice rather than a requirement.

Step 1: Define Clear Qualification Criteria

Your team needs to know which leads are worth pursuing and which ones are a waste of time. If you’re constantly redirecting their focus, you haven’t defined “good fit” clearly enough. Get specific—industry, company size, buying triggers, decision-making structure. 

Step 2: Create Documented Playbooks

How do you handle discovery? What’s your approach to proposals? How do you navigate the closing process? Your team needs a framework they can adapt. Think decision trees, not scripts. “If they say X, then ask Y. If they push back on Z, here’s how to reframe it.”

Step 3: Transfer Client Relationships

If every major client relationship is tied to you personally, your business is fragile. Start introducing your team into those relationships now. Bring them to calls. Have them lead the follow-up. Shift trust from you as an individual to your company as a whole.

What This Looks Like in Practice

Record your next three sales conversations, with the customer’s permission. Review them carefully. Note the questions you asked, when you asked them, and how you responded to resistance. Identify what made you confident that the opportunity was real.

Turn those insights into a simple framework your team can follow. Have them use it. Watch where it works and where it breaks. Refine based on what you see.

Done consistently, this process creates a system new hires can step into within months. It won’t make them identical to you, but it will make them effective without constant rescue.

The Real Test

You will know your found-led sales team has scaled when you can step away for two weeks without monitoring email, chat messages, or “quick calls” with prospects.

And when you come back, the pipeline has moved forward.

If that thought terrifies you, you don’t have a sales team. You have an expensive support staff for your one-person operation.

Building a sales operation that runs without you isn’t about making yourself irrelevant. It’s about making your business transferable and scalable, whether you’re planning an exit in three years or just trying to grow past your own capacity right now.

Because at some point, your ability to personally close deals stops being your greatest asset and starts being your biggest bottleneck.

The question is whether you’ll recognize that point before it costs you the next stage of growth.

If you want to start turning founder intuition into a repeatable sales system, download our free Small Business Guide to Sales Training. It walks through the frameworks that help teams scale without depending on a single closer.

For most people, that moment never comes. They stumble into sales, struggle with the stereotypes, and either quit or spend their entire career fighting against what they think selling is supposed to be.

But for those of us who get it, there’s a moment of clarity so powerful it changes everything. Mine happened in high school when I was chasing a girl and ended up on the yearbook staff. Thirty days later, I handed over $3,800 in checks while everyone else struggled to hit their $300 quota.

The Sales Crack Moment

When Mr. Hall at Hall’s Hardware Store wrote me that first check for a yearbook ad after I had done little more than ask outright for the money, something clicked. This wasn’t complicated. Walk in, shake hands, present value, and people give you money.

While my classmates were paralyzed by the same stereotypes you hear today (“I’m not a salesperson”), I was out there having conversations. That’s all prospecting really is. Talking to people.

The gasp in that room when I revealed my numbers? That was better than the money. That was the competitive fire igniting. That was me realizing I could outwork, outsell, and out-earn anyone if I just committed to the process.

The Discipline Problem Most Sellers Miss

Here’s what nobody tells you about sales success: It’s not about talent. It’s not about charisma. It’s about the ruthless execution of proven processes.

By the time I was 21 or 22, I was making $300,000 in the early nineties. That’s equivalent to making close to a million today. Not because I was special, but because I understood something fundamental that most people never figure out: The more people you talk with, the more you sell.

And here’s the beautiful part. There are lots of people to go talk with. The pipeline never runs dry if you’re willing to fill it.

The Three Non-Negotiables for Modern Sellers

The future of selling is blending. Not choosing between video and phone and in-person. Blending all of them based on one critical question: What communication channel gives me the highest probability of capturing my desired outcome at the lowest cost of time, energy, and money?

When I started selling, we had two channels. Maybe three if you count snail mail. Phone and in-person. That’s it. Today? You’ve got a dozen ways to connect. WhatsApp lets you text, call, and video chat almost instantly. The options are endless.

But here’s where Gen Z sellers (and honestly, every generation) screw this up: They get single-siloed.

“I’m only good at email.”
“I only do video calls.”
“I hate the phone.”

That mindset is killing your income potential. You need to be good at everything. Master every channel. Because the channel doesn’t matter. The outcome does.

Synchronous Beats Asynchronous Every Single Time

Here’s the second non-negotiable to sales success: Stop hiding behind asynchronous communication.

We do deals in a synchronous world. Real-time conversations. Phone calls. Video meetings. Face-to-face interactions. If you think you can close business through email threads and text messages, you’re delusional.

Why? Because robots can write better emails than you can. AI can craft more persuasive text messages. But sales is the ultimate human career in the age of AI precisely because of the human connection required in synchronous conversations.

Lead with phone calls. Get face-to-face when the deal size justifies it. Use video when it makes sense. But always, always prioritize real-time conversations over digital hide-and-seek.

Ask Questions and Actually Listen

The third non-negotiable is mastering the art of asking great questions and listening to the answers.

People make five decisions before they buy from you: Do I like you? Do you listen to me? Do you make me feel important? Do you get me and my problems? Do I trust and believe you?

Notice what’s not on that list? Your product features. Your company’s awards. Your clever sales pitch.

They’re evaluating you. Your ability to connect. Your capacity to understand. Your commitment to making them feel important.

And the only way to get five affirmative answers to those questions is through synchronous conversations where you ask intelligent questions and actually listen to what they’re telling you.

The Make It Rain Principle

When Mr. Rouse made me editor of the yearbook after I brought in $3,800, I learned something that shaped my entire career: When you can make it rain, you can get anything you want.

That principle holds true whether you’re selling yearbook ads in high school or enterprise software to Fortune 500 companies. Revenue solves problems. Performance opens doors. Results create opportunities.

Most people in sales stumble into it. They took the job because it was available. They stick with it because the money’s decent. But they never commit to mastering the craft.

The question isn’t whether sales chooses you. The question is whether you choose sales. Whether you commit to being good at every communication channel. Whether you prioritize synchronous conversations over digital convenience. Whether you master the art of asking questions and listening.

Those fundamentals never change. The technology evolves. The channels multiply. But the core truth remains: Talk to more people, in real time, with genuine curiosity about their problems, and you’ll make more money than you ever thought possible.

That’s how you achieve sales success. That’s how you go from yearbook ads to seven figures. That’s how you make it rain.

Want to master the fundamentals of prospecting and build your own rocket ship career? Join us at Sales Gravy LIVE: Fanatical Prospecting Bootcamp. Two days of intensive training where you’ll learn the exact systems and processes that turn ordinary sellers into top performers.

I’ve written 18 books and trained hundreds of thousands of salespeople. I can’t tell you how many times someone comes up to me and says, “Jeb, I read Fanatical Prospecting. Great book. But that stuff doesn’t work for me.” Or they’ll say, “I tried that objection handling technique you taught, but it didn’t work, so I went back to what I was doing before.”

Here’s what they don’t understand: The problem isn’t the technique. The problem is that they gave up too soon. The brutal truth is that most people fail to implement what they learn. 

The Skate Park Lesson

A couple of weeks ago, I was traveling for business, working with one of my clients’ sales teams. One afternoon, I decided I needed some exercise, so I went for a walk. Along the way, I came across a skate park where kids were riding their skateboards and doing tricks.

There was a bench nearby, so I sat down to watch for a while.

Close to me was a group of young guys, probably 13 or 14 years old. They were huddled around a phone watching a YouTube video of someone doing a particular trick on their skateboard. They watched it, talked about it, and then one of them threw his skateboard down and attempted the trick.

He immediately fell off and failed.

The next kid tried, and he failed.

Then the next one and the next one. All of them failed to do the trick. 

So what did they do? They went back and watched the YouTube video again. Then they threw down their boards and crashed and burned, but this time, slightly less dramatically than the first time.

They repeated this process over and over. Watch the video. Try the trick. Fail. Watch again. Try again. Fail a little less badly. Until finally, one of them nailed it.

When he landed the trick, they all erupted. Clapping, fist pumping, and cheering. And once one kid got it, the rest of them started getting it too. They practiced until they had the trick nailed down, then went back to YouTube to find another trick to learn.

At that point, I got up and headed back to my hotel. But as I was walking, I couldn’t stop thinking about what I’d just witnessed.

Too Often, We Give Up too Soon

How often do we do the exact opposite in business and sales? We read a book, watch a video, listen to a podcast. We hear about a technique or concept that sounds really good. And we think, “Yeah, I’m going to try that.”

So we give it one shot. Maybe two if we’re feeling ambitious. And when it doesn’t work perfectly the first time, we say, “Well, this doesn’t work for me,” and we give up and never try it again.

Or worse, we read the book, feel really good about the concept, then put the book down and never even attempt it at all because we’ve already convinced ourselves it wouldn’t work for us before we even tried.

But here’s the thing: Those kids at the skate park didn’t look at that trick and say, “This looks hard, it probably won’t work for me.” They looked at it and said, “We’re going to figure this out.” They understood something that most adults have forgotten: Just because you read about something or see someone else do it, doesn’t mean you’re going to master it on the first try.

The Homemade Yogurt Failure Paradigm 

As I was walking back from the skate park, this lesson reminded me of something that had happened to me over the holidays.

I’d seen something in my news feed about making homemade yogurt. It looked interesting, so I bought some milk, studied the recipe, and made an attempt.

And I failed. My concoction didn’t turn into yogurt at all. My immediate reaction was, “Well, this isn’t going to work; it must be a bad recipe.” I gave up after one failed attempt.

But after watching those kids at the skatepark, I realized the giving-up-too-soon trap I’d fallen into. So when I got home from my trip, I went back, reread the recipe, walked back through my steps to figure out what went wrong, and tried again. This time it worked, and I actually made yogurt.

The recipe wasn’t the problem. My execution was the problem. And I only figured that out by trying again.

The Human Overconfidence Fallacy 

Here’s the lesson: We are all susceptible to this human fallacy of believing that we can read something, watch something, or hear something once and then immediately do it perfectly.

When it doesn’t work the first time (or even the second time), we conclude that the technique is flawed, or it won’t work for us, or our situation is unique and different.

But the truth is, we gave up too soon, before we gave the technique a fair shot. That’s just being human. We’re wired for overconfidence, instant gratification, and immediate results. When we don’t get them, we move on.

Why This Matters in Sales 

Let me bring this back to sales, because this pattern will absolutely kill your results.

You read a book on prospecting, learn a new cold calling technique, watch a sales training video on objection handling, or attend a conference or training and learn new ideas.

Then you try it. Maybe it feels awkward, or the prospect reacts differently than you expected. Maybe you stumble over the words, or you get shut down and rejected. So you conclude it doesn’t work, and you go back to what you were doing before, which, by the way, wasn’t working either. That’s why you were looking for something new in the first place.

Here’s what you’re missing: Sales is and always has been a numbers game. Statistics and the law of averages matter. Even the best techniques don’t work 100% of the time. You have to use them enough times to see the patterns and to understand what’s working and what needs adjustment.

The Iteration Process

Those kids at the skate park weren’t just repeating the same failed attempt over and over. They were iterating.

They’d try the trick, fail, and then make a small adjustment. They’d watch the video again, notice something they missed the first time, and then talk to each other about what went wrong and what to try differently.

That’s the process: Try, fail, learn, adjust, try again.

But most people skip the “learn and adjust” part. They just try, fail, and quit.

Let me give you a sales example. Say you’re trying a new prospecting email template. You send it to ten prospects and get no responses. The try-fail-quit people conclude the template doesn’t work. But a try-fail-learn-adjust-try again high performer would ask: 

• Did I send it to the right prospects? 
• Was my subject line compelling? 
• Was the timing right? 
• Did my call to action make sense? 
• Should I test a different version?

They’d iterate and test different variables until they figured out what worked. That’s what separates top performers from everyone else. They don’t give up after one attempt. Instead, they iterate until they succeed.

The Success Leaves Clues Principle

Here’s something else those kids understood: If someone else is doing something successfully, that means it’s possible.

When they watched that YouTube video, they didn’t say, “Well, that guy is just naturally talented.” They said, “If he can do it, we can figure out how to do it too.”

This is the “success leaves clues” principle. If someone else is making something work, that’s proof it can work. Your job is to master their patterns and believe that you can make it work too.

When you read a book like Fanatical Prospecting, and you see examples of people who built massive pipelines using these techniques, that’s not fiction. Those are real people who learned how to execute these strategies.

When you watch a training video and see someone handle an objection smoothly, that’s not magic. It is someone who practiced that response dozens or hundreds of times until it became natural.

The clues and evidence are there. The only question is: Are you willing to put in the practice and endure the failures until you get there yourself?

The Practice Paradox

Here’s the paradox that trips people up: The techniques that work best often feel the most awkward at first. That’s because they’re different from what you’ve been doing, and anything different feels uncomfortable.

For example, when I teach salespeople to slow down and use silence in negotiations, they hate it. It feels unnatural. They want to fill the silence with words. But the ones who push through that discomfort and practice using silence close bigger deals at better margins.

When I teach salespeople to ask for referrals using a specific framework, they feel like they’re being pushy or scripted. But the ones who practice the framework until it becomes conversational generate more referrals than they ever thought possible.

The discomfort is temporary. The results are permanent. But you have to get through the discomfort in order to get to the results.

5 Keys to Mastering New Sales Skills

So, how do you actually implement what you learn? Here’s what I recommend:

• First, commit to practicing any new technique at least twenty times before you decide if it works. Not once. Not twice. Twenty times minimum. That’s how long it takes to get past the awkwardness and start seeing results.
• Second, track your results. Don’t rely on your feelings about whether something is working. Write down what happened each time you tried the technique. Look for patterns and notice what’s improving.
• Third, iterate. If something isn’t working after multiple attempts, don’t just abandon it. Adjust it. What needs to change? What variable can you test differently?
• Fourth, find someone who’s making it work and learn from them. If you’re struggling with a technique that others are using successfully, reach out to them. Ask questions. Watch how they do it.
• Fifth, be patient with yourself. You’re not going to master anything instantly. Give yourself permission to be bad at something new while you’re trying to master it.

Your Homework this Week

Here’s what I want you to do this week: Pick one technique you learned recently – from a book, a podcast, a training – and commit to trying it at least twenty times this week. Track what happens each time. Notice what’s working and what’s not, make small adjustments, and keep at it.

Because here’s the truth: The techniques work. But you must put in the work before they will work for you.  

Those kids at the skate park didn’t give up after the first fall. They kept going until they nailed the trick. That’s what separates winners from everyone else. Not talent, luck, or some magical gift. Just the willingness to try, fail, learn, adjust, and try again until you get it right.

And remember, when it’s time to go home, make one more call. Because that one more call is one more rep, one more attempt to get better, and one more step toward mastering your craft.

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I said that recently in a conversation with Harriet Mellor of Your Sales Co, and it captures something every sales leader needs to understand. 

I grew up in the sales training business. My dad literally wrote THE book on prospecting—several of them, actually. I worked at Paycom, Comcast, and various startups where I consistently crushed my numbers.

But what I learned is that knowing the right techniques and getting your team to actually implement them are two completely different challenges. Sales training resistance is rarely about bad content. More often, it is about ego and pride standing in the way of growth. I had to recognize that in myself before I could address it in the people I lead.

Why Your Top Performers Resist Training the Most

When I was a rep, I was terrible at taking coaching. Not because I didn’t understand the concepts. I understood them better than most. But when someone tried to coach me, I tuned out.

The problem was I’d already figured out a system that worked. I was hitting my numbers. Why would I mess with it?

Think about learning golf. You chunk the ground twenty times, then suddenly you make contact. The ball doesn’t go straight or very far, but it goes. Someone tries to teach you proper form, your first thought is, “I already figured out how to hit the ball.”

That’s where many top performers live. They’ve reached an equilibrium. Not peak performance, but functional competence. Training feels disruptive because it threatens what is currently working.

They’re not resisting because they’re stubborn. They’re resisting because they have something to lose. What if they try something new and their numbers drop? They’d rather stay at 85% effectiveness than risk dropping to 60%, even if it means eventually reaching 120%.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjAra5yiRYM

Two Ways Ego Hurts Performance

Creates Rush Instead of Curiosity

At Paycom, I carried a massive chip on my shoulder. I carried the same name as my dad. People knew who he was. I felt pressure to prove I belonged.

So I rushed. I skipped discovery. I pushed toward proposals. I talked more than I listened. Every call felt like a test I needed to pass.

You can hear this on your team’s calls. Reps who are trying to prove something move too fast. They stop asking questions. They perform instead of selling.

That behavior is driven by ego, and it costs deals.

Telling them to slow down will not fix it. You need to understand what they feel compelled to prove and why they associate speed with competence.

Blocks From Actually Learning

When I was carrying a quota, I thought I was a lifelong learner. I read every sales book. I listened to podcasts. I sat through hours of training sessions.

But when it came to changing what I did on Monday morning, I defaulted right back to what I knew.

I’d hear a new objection handling technique and think, “Yeah, I basically already do that.” I didn’t. But ego wouldn’t let me see the gap.

Your salespeople are doing the same thing right now. They’re taking in your coaching but filtering it through their existing beliefs. They’re protecting the system that’s currently working. And they’re developing blind spots they can’t see.

Watch for the reps who stop recording their calls because they “know what they sound like.” The ones who skip role play because it’s “not realistic.” The ones who tune out your coaching because you “don’t understand their territory.”

Reps who do this aren’t trying to be difficult, but instead trying to protect their self-image instead of improving their performance.

Why Your Team Listens to Outside Trainers But Not You

One of the most frustrating parts of leadership is to preach a methodology for six months and nothing changes. Then an outside consultant shows up and says the exact same thing. Suddenly, everyone’s taking notes and engaged.

I experienced this firsthand with my dad. He would offer advice, and I tuned out. Days later, I would hear the same message from someone else and think it was brilliant.

It wasn’t about the message. It was about who was delivering it.

When you try to coach your team, there’s history. There’s baggage. Maybe you’ve given conflicting directions before. Maybe they see you as “management” instead of someone who gets it. Maybe they just don’t like admitting to their boss that they need help.

Outside trainers don’t carry that weight. They show up with a clean slate and credibility that’s granted just by being an outsider.

The real question isn’t how to make your team listen to you. It is how to create an environment where learning feels safe, regardless of who delivers it.

How to Break Through Sales Training Resistance

Frame Training as Addition, Not Correction

I stopped resisting coaching when my leaders stopped making me feel like I was doing things wrong.

Instead of pointing out flaws, the best managers invited experimentation. Instead of “you need to improve your discovery process,” the best managers said, “try asking this question in your next three calls and see what happens.” 

Position new techniques as tools to add to what’s already working, not corrections to what’s broken. Your team will actually try them.

Make It Safe to Fail

On the marketing team, I got my team members on sales calls. Yeah, marketers are making prospecting calls alongside me. It felt like a crazy concept until it started working. Importantly, I let them hear my wins and my mistakes so they knew I was in it with them the entire way.

I wanted them to see me stumble over a question. Get flustered. Say the wrong thing. Then watch me debrief it and do better on the next call.

When I started doing this, something shifted. My team stopped being afraid to try new things. If I could screw up a cold call and laugh about it, they could too.

The tide turned when they asked to jump in with me and started booking appointments. The win unlocked a new level of understanding. These marketers suddenly believed that they could, instead of simply being told that they could.

Your salespeople need to see you fail. Not in a performative way. In a real, vulnerable, “I’m still learning too” way.

That’s when they’ll give themselves permission to be imperfect. And that’s when actual learning happens.

Change One Small Thing at a Time

I didn’t transform my sales approach overnight. The managers who got through to me asked me to change one thing every few weeks. One question to add to discovery calls. One way to handle a specific objection.

After six months, I’d transformed my entire process. But I never had to risk everything at once.

Pick one behavior for your team. Make it specific. Make it small. Give them three weeks to practice it. Then add something else.

Stop trying to overhaul their entire approach in one training session.

Let Them Experience the Win

You can tell your team a technique works until you’re blue in the face. They won’t really believe you until they feel it themselves.

My marketing team didn’t enjoy making calls at first. They were uncomfortable. They were bad at it. But then they got their first yes. That moment when someone on the other end of the phone said, “Yeah, let’s set up a time to talk”—everything changed.

That lift in your chest when you close a deal? That high you get from hearing yes? You can’t explain that. Your people have to experience it.

Stop trying to convince your team that new approaches work. Create low-risk situations where they can discover it themselves. Role-play early, followed by real calls together. Small wins. Repeat.

When Ego Stops Being Their Engine

Every salesperson reaches a moment when the traits that fueled early success start creating friction. The confidence that helped them pick up the phone becomes arrogance that stops them from listening. The drive that made them a top performer becomes anxiety that makes them rush.

For me, that moment came when I realized that chip on my shoulder wasn’t serving me anymore. It had driven early success. Then it started tearing me down. I was less empathetic, more rushed, less thoughtful.

Most salespeople never recognize that moment. They keep pushing the same way they always have, wondering why it’s getting harder to hit their numbers.

Your role as a leader is to help them spot it. Not by calling it out directly—that triggers defensiveness—but by creating an environment where they feel safe enough to recognize it themselves.

The best salespeople develop the ability to notice when pride is shielding them from feedback. They know when to trust instinct and when to slow down and listen.

What to Do This Week

Look at who is hitting their numbers while quietly resisting coaching. Those are rarely problem reps. They are people protecting what feels safe.

Start with one person and one behavior. Keep the change small enough that it does not threaten their confidence. Model your own learning openly. When people see that improvement does not require perfection, they are more willing to try.

I spent years proving I was good enough instead of getting better. Many salespeople do the same thing. Ego does not disappear with success. It just gets quieter.

The leaders who drive sustained performance create environments where learning feels normal, progress is visible, and growth does not require losing face.

If you are leading a small sales team, coaching resistance gets magnified. Download our Free Small Business Guide to Sales Training, which gives you a clear framework for building coachable habits, consistent execution, and sustainable performance without overwhelming your team.

That’s the question posed by Scott Northway, and it’s one of the most common challenges I see in sales today. A new account manager takes over, inherits a book of business that’s been ignored, and now has to figure out how to rebuild relationships with customers who’ve been collecting dust.

If you’re nodding your head right now, you’re not alone. Poor account management is quietly bleeding companies dry, and most leaders have no idea how much revenue they’re leaving on the table.

The Brutal Truth About Why Customers Leave

When we survey customers through our consulting projects with clients who are hemorrhaging accounts, here’s what we find: About 70 percent of the time, customers don’t leave because of price. They don’t leave because of product quality or service issues.

They leave because they feel taken for granted.

Let me give you a real example. I pay six figures annually for a software program that’s critical to my business. Every time my contract comes up for renewal, it’s like a circus. They fly people in. They wine and dine me. They promise the moon about how they’re going to support us and be our partner.

Then once the contract is signed? Crickets.

My account manager disappears for three years. If I don’t call them, they don’t call me. And here’s the thing: I actually like my account manager. I genuinely want to work with them. There are products I could buy, optimizations we could make, but I have to do all the work to make it happen.

This is insane. And it’s costing companies millions.

What Won’t Work: The Rookie Mistakes

So you’ve inherited these neglected accounts. Here’s what you absolutely cannot do: Show up on their doorstep apropos of nothing and try to sell them something.

If I’m an existing customer doing business with your company, and you show up trying to pitch me without acknowledging the elephant in the room, we’re probably done. It’s rude. It’s bad behavior. And it tells me you’re just like every other transactional vendor who doesn’t actually care about my business.

The second mistake is spreading yourself too thin across all 50 accounts without any strategy. You’ll burn out, deliver mediocre service to everyone, and end up losing accounts you could have saved.

The Human-to-Human Approach That Actually Works

Here’s what does work: Be honest. Be human. Name the problem.

Pick up the phone and say something like this: “Hey, I’m your new account manager. I recognize that no one’s contacted you in a while, and I’m sorry about that. I apologize. I’d like to do a fresh start. Would you give me the opportunity to get to know you better and learn about what’s important to you?”

That’s it. Simple. Direct. Human.

Now here’s the hard part: When you have that conversation, some customers are going to unload on you. If they really have felt taken for granted, they’re going to say some nasty things. They might complain about the last account manager. They might air grievances about problems that have been festering for months.

And the most important thing you can do in that moment is shut up and listen.

Don’t try to defend the past. Don’t talk over them. Don’t promise you’re going to be so much better than the last person. Just let them get it all off their chest. Let them talk it out, because people like people who listen to them.

Then, if there’s something specific you can help them with, don’t make promises you can’t keep. Commit to one thing. Take care of that commitment. Honor it. Build trust slowly. That’s how you become a high-value partner through fanatical prospecting discipline applied to account management.

The Smart Way to Triage 50 Accounts

You can’t effectively manage 50 accounts with equal attention, so you need to segment fast. Use a simple A, B, C ranking by revenue and risk:

A Accounts: Your largest customers or those at highest risk of churn. These get weekly or bi-weekly touchpoints.

B Accounts: Solid mid-tier customers with growth potential. These get monthly check-ins.

C Accounts: Smaller accounts that are stable. These get quarterly touchpoints.

But here’s the secret weapon most account managers miss: Use AI and your CRM data to find the low-hanging fruit. Look for patterns like former buyers who’ve moved to new companies in your territory, customers who mentioned specific challenges in past conversations, or accounts showing signs of expansion readiness.

One of the smartest things you can do is ask your AI tools: “Did anyone on this account ever mention their favorite sports team? Do they like to cook? What matters to them personally?” Those human details are gold for building real relationships in sales.

The Retention Secret Nobody Talks About

Here’s what kills me about account management: Retention is actually easy. If you’re just nice to people, for the most part, they’re going to be nice to you.

It doesn’t take grand gestures. It takes consistency.

A random text message: “Hey, just thinking about you. How’s everything going?”

A quick video message once a quarter checking in.

Remembering to ask how their kids’ soccer season went.

Sending them an article relevant to their business with a note: “Saw this and thought of you.”

Human beings at the core just want to be understood and they want to feel important, like they matter. That’s it. That’s the whole game.

Your 30-60-90 Day Stabilization Plan

If you’re inheriting neglected accounts, here’s your action plan:

Days 1-30: Triage and stabilize. Reach out to every A account with your honest, human approach. Listen more than you talk. Identify immediate fires to put out.

Days 31-60: Earn the right to advise. Deliver on your initial commitments. Start providing value without asking for anything in return. Build familiarity and trust through effective sales communication.

Days 61-90: Focus on expansion. Now that you’ve proven yourself, you can start identifying opportunities to grow these accounts. But not before.

Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Build familiarity, then trust, then earn the opportunity to expand the business.

The Bottom Line

Stop treating your existing customers like an afterthought. They’re your easiest path to revenue growth, but only if you actually treat them like they matter.

Account management isn’t complicated. It’s about being human, being consistent, and actually caring about the people who are already paying you money.

So pick up the phone. Send that text. Schedule that coffee. Make the small investments in relationships that compound into massive retention and expansion wins.

That’s how you turn neglected accounts into your most profitable relationships. That’s how you build a book of business that actually grows. And that’s how you stop losing customers you already have.

Ready to master the prospecting and relationship-building skills that drive account growth? Join us at Sales Gravy Live: Fanatical Prospecting Bootcamp. Two days of intensive training that will transform how you approach every customer conversation.

I’ve been there. I know you have too. It’s one of the greatest feelings ever.

But let’s juxtapose that against going into a meeting feeling insecure, where your focus is on everything that could go wrong versus everything that could go right. And then, as soon as something does go wrong, everything starts to spiral downward.

There is absolutely nothing that can make or break a deal like confidence.

In this Sales Gravy podcast episode, we’re going to explore exactly where confidence comes from, why it matters so much in sales, and most importantly, what you can do to build the unshakeable confidence that closes deals.

The Insecurity Death Spiral

Recently, I learned a profound lesson about confidence.

I was invited to play golf with a group of businesspeople in Florida. Beautiful day, sunshine, great course. It should have been perfect.

Except I’m not a very good golfer. And these guys? They were good. Really good. The kind of golfers who carry single-digit handicaps and talk about their swing plane like it’s a science project.

So I’m standing on the first tee, watching them stripe their drives straight down the middle, and I can feel it happening. That little voice in my head starts whispering: “You don’t belong here. You’re going to embarrass yourself. Everyone’s going to see how bad you are.”

I started strong enough. Made it through the first couple of holes without humiliating myself. But then I hit a bad shot. Then another. And instead of shaking it off like I normally would, I started fixating on those bad shots.

That’s when the downward spiral began.

Every swing became an exercise in anxiety. I was so focused on not messing up that I couldn’t help but mess up. My mechanics fell apart. My rhythm disappeared.

By the end of the round, I had played one of the worst games of golf in my life. Not because I suddenly forgot how to swing a club, but because I let insecurity take over.

Now, I managed to keep a smile on my face. We were playing golf in the Florida sunshine, after all. But inside, I was frustrated because I knew what had happened. I let my insecurity about being the weakest player in the group sabotage my entire game.

And here’s what hit me on the plane home: That’s exactly what I see happen in sales all the time. One moment of uncertainty, one unexpected challenge, and suddenly, a salesperson who is perfectly capable starts spiraling. Their confidence evaporates. And with it goes their ability to perform.

Why Confidence Matters in Sales

In sales, there is nothing that sells like confidence. Nothing.

Buyers lean into confidence. They’re attracted to it. They trust it. And because of emotional contagion—your ability to transfer your emotions to another person—you basically take your confidence and hand it to the buyer, who then gains more confidence in you.

Think about it. When you walk into a meeting radiating confidence, the buyer thinks, “This person knows what they’re doing. They believe in what they’re selling. I can trust them.”

But when you walk in feeling insecure, the buyer picks up on that too. They start thinking, “Why is this person nervous? What aren’t they telling me? Maybe this isn’t the right solution.”

In sales, because we can’t always control the playing field and because we don’t always feel like we should be where we are—especially when we’re dealing with the C-suite or high-level decision makers, when we’re in super competitive situations, or when we don’t really know what we’re talking about—one thing that goes wrong can create a cascade of other problems, creating a downward insecurity spiral that is real and deadly.

The Ultimate Source of Confidence

So the question is: Where does confidence come from? Where do you get it?

Well, confidence by its very nature comes from the inside. It’s a mindset. It’s something that you believe, just like insecurity is a mindset that comes from the inside.

Confidence is mostly created by certainty.

• When you feel certain that you can control the outcome, you feel more confident.
• When you’re in situations that feel familiar, or you’re talking about a product, your service, or some part of your offering that you totally understand, you feel more confident.
• When you’ve executed the sales process perfectly and built deep relationships with your customers, you feel more confident that they’re going to buy from you.
• When you’ve practiced your presentation multiple times and know it by rote, you feel more confident.

By the way, the same thing works in reverse. Uncertainty begets insecurity.

When you walk into a situation, and you feel uncertain—and this happens to a lot of brand-new salespeople who don’t know what to say or feel like they don’t really understand the product offering, their industry, or their customer’s business—it creates a level of insecurity.

So the answer, if we want to be more confident, is to create more certainty.

Certainty Creates Confidence

Let me give you an example from my horrible, awful, terrible round of golf.

In the middle of that terrible round, I got desperate for anything that would give me confidence. So I started playing entire holes with my 7-iron because that was the one club I felt I was certain I could hit.

Except for putting, I would hit the 7-iron off the tee, on the fairway, and chip with it around the green. 150 yards at a time with my 7-iron, I could make it go straight down the fairway and hit the green.

That certainty in that particular club helped me feel more confident, and my game actually improved when I stuck with what I knew worked.

Now, in sales like golf, there is nothing you can be 100% certain about, simply because there are too many variables. We’re dealing with human beings, nasty competitors, and a shifting landscape. Even in accounts that are in our pipeline, things are always changing.

So for us as sales professionals, there’s no absolute certainty. But there are ways you can boost certainty in order to gain more confidence.

Four Ways to Create Certainty and Boost Confidence

1. Invest in Yourself Through Education

If you get insecure when you’re talking about things in your industry or about your product that you don’t understand, then go educate yourself.

Take the time to learn. Take classes. Go to your LMS and take e-learning. Read everything about your product. Become an expert—not just in your product, but in your industry.

Also, learn about business. The more you can educate yourself about business, the more you gain business acumen, which makes you feel more confident in conversations with executives.

When you know your stuff cold, understand your product inside and out, and can speak intelligently about your industry and your customer’s business challenges, uncertainty evaporates, and with it, goes insecurity.

2. Plan Every Single Call

Winging it is wickedly stupid on sales calls because when you wing it, you create uncertainty.

So sit down and think about every single call.

• What am I going to do?
• What questions am I going to ask?
• What’s my objective for being there?
• What am I going to close for at the end (targeted next step)?

Build a plan, write it down, and review it in advance of your meeting. Planning creates certainty.

3. Murder Board Your Big Meetings

Along with planning comes the concept of murder boarding, red teaming, or scenario playing. Murder boarding creates certainty around handling the unexpected.

Especially in large presentations and closing calls, you need to start pulling the thread on everything that could possibly go wrong. Every objection you could get. Every pushback. Every hard question.

Think about the different stakeholders who are going to be around the table, and the types of questions they’re going to ask, and the potential things they may say. Then find somebody on your team or somebody in your household to role-play all those scenarios with.

I’ve found that nothing gives me more confidence in big sales meetings than murder boarding. Because when I get into those situations—especially with objections or negotiations that can be super intimidating—the more I role-play those things, the better I am at them and the easier they are to deal with. In fact, they’re far less difficult in real life than they were in the role-playing.

4. Keep a Full Pipeline

This is powerful: There’s nothing that makes you more confident than being able to sell like you don’t have to sell.

When you are fanatical about prospecting and build a full pipeline, it gives you lots of options. You know you can walk away from anything. You’re detached from the outcome.

When it doesn’t make a difference if you win or lose, you gain immense confidence, which is why a full pipeline is the ultimate confidence builder.

With Confidence, Mindset Matters

When it comes to confidence, mindset matters. If you are obsessed with how you might fail or what you might do wrong, there’s a tendency to get the thing you’re focused on. It’s called target obsession. Whatever we focus on, we tend to attract and move toward. So be careful what you’re focused on.

One of the things I do—and I know this is kind of weird, but it works—is before I walk into a sales meeting, I look into the mirror and tell myself, “I’m a great salesperson.”

I actually say the words out loud. It’s a little bit cheesy. But by saying those words, changing my body language, pushing my shoulders up, my chin out—the power pose, as some would say—that actually begins to change my mindset and makes me feel more confident.

Add to that eating well, getting plenty of sleep (sleep really does wonders for your confidence), exercising, and making sure, before you go into a big presentation, that you’re not going in on an empty stomach.

How to Overcome Insecurity in the Moment

I sell every single day, and I’ve been doing this for 30 years. I know what it’s like to walk into a meeting with a prospect or customer and feel insecure. It happens to me still. But here’s the thing: I’m very careful not to let people see me sweat because insecurity and sales make a poor mixture.

Because emotions are contagious and people have a tendency to respond in kind, I want to avoid transferring my insecurity to them, causing them to feel uncertain about me. So I’m very careful with my body language, eye contact, voice inflection, and how fast I speak.

One tactic I use when I feel insecure is to slow down, pause, and ask a question. This gives me a moment to regain my composure and manage my body language.

Build Confidence with Knowledge, Planning, Practice, and Pipeline

Confidence isn’t something you’re born with. It’s something you build through preparation, knowledge, practice, and a full pipeline.

The good news is that all of these things are within your control. You can choose to educate yourself, to plan, practice, and prospect.

Here’s what I want you to do this week:

First, identify your gaps. Where do you feel uncertain in your sales process? Is it product knowledge? Industry knowledge? Objection handling? Closing? Write it down.

Second, create a learning plan. For each gap you identified, create a specific plan to fill it. What books will you read? What training will you take? Who will you shadow or learn from?

Third, plan your next three calls. Don’t wing another call this week. Sit down and plan your next three sales conversations. Write out your objectives, your questions, and your close.

Fourth, murder board your biggest opportunity. If you’ve got a major presentation or closing call coming up, spend an hour this week role-playing every possible scenario with a colleague.

Fifth, evaluate your pipeline. Is it full enough that you can sell without desperation? If not, block time this week for serious prospecting.

This is how you build the kind of unshakeable confidence that buyers respond to, competitors fear, and that feels so good.

And remember, when it’s time to go home and you’re tired and worn out, always stop and make one more call. Because that one more call gives you the confidence that you can walk in any door, anytime, stand toe to toe with any buyer, and have a winning sales conversation.

Over a million sales professionals and sales teams have become more confident prospectors with the Fanatical Prospecting system. Learn more here.

You spent weeks on this presentation. None of it matters because everyone in that room has already sat through the same pitch from three other vendors this month.

“Pitching sucks,” says Danny Fontaine, author of Pitch, on an episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast. “It sucks for the people doing it because we get so stressed out, and we spend weeks doing mountains of work. Meanwhile, there is a whole audience who has just as bad of a time as us because they have to sit through an hour of 100 PowerPoint slides and they’re bored.”

He is right. The audience suffers just as much. They sit through identical presentations, back to back, trying to remember which vendor said what. Both sides leave exhausted. No one wins.

There is a better way. Effective sales pitch techniques don’t rely on slides. They create engagement, tell stories, and turn monologues into conversations that actually move deals forward.

Why Traditional Pitches Fail

The standard pitch follows the same predictable pattern. Company overview. Capabilities. Case studies. Pricing. Questions at the end. Every competitor uses the same structure. That means you are asking your prospect to choose between nearly identical presentations.

When everything looks the same, decision makers default to price or familiarity. Your carefully crafted message gets lost in the noise.

You are treating the pitch like a presentation when it should be a conversation. You are trying to inform when you should be persuading.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h7RqBuThf0

Experience Beats Information

In 1979, a small advertising agency called Allen Brady and Marsh (ABM) competed against industry giant Saatchi & Saatchi for the British Rail account. ABM’s founder, Peter Marsh, knew he couldn’t win by playing it safe.

When the British Rail executives arrived for the pitch, no one answered the door. They rang the buzzer three times before it finally opened, with no one behind it. The receptionist ignored them while filing her nails. The waiting area was filthy. After a while of being dismissed, the chairman stood up to leave.

That is when Marsh burst through the doors and said, “Gentlemen, you have just experienced what your customers go through every single day. Shall we see what we can do to put it right?”

ABM won the account. And it worked because the executives didn’t just understand the problem. They felt it.

Most sales pitches fail because they ask buyers to care before they are emotionally engaged. Information alone doesn’t create urgency—experience does.

Start With Them, Not You

Pitches always start the same: ‘Thanks for your time. Here’s our agenda. Let me tell you about our company.’

Your prospect stops listening after the first sentence.

If you want engagement, start with a question. Ask what matters to them. Ask what would make the time valuable. Ask what problem they are trying to solve.

Before you show a single slide, say something like, “Before we start, what would make this conversation worth your time today?” Or, “What is the biggest challenge you are facing with this right now?”

Those questions do three things immediately. They show respect. They give you intelligence. And they turn the pitch into a conversation from the first minute.

This works even better over Zoom, where attention is fragile and distractions are everywhere. When you ask early questions, you pull people in instead of competing with their inbox.

Stories Create Memory

The most powerful stories aren’t pulled from case studies. They come from real life. Every meaningful achievement involves obstacles. Those obstacles contain lessons. Those lessons connect directly to the challenges your prospects are facing.

A story without relevance is just noise. A story with a clear lesson becomes a lever.

A consultant once shared a story about buying a secondhand Lego set. She started building it, only to discover key pieces were missing. After hours of searching for replacements, she had to start over. When pitching a complex implementation, she said, “That taught me something. At the beginning of any project, we have to make sure all the pieces are in the bag.”

That story worked because it made preparation tangible. It made risk visible. It connected emotionally and logically.

If the story does not clearly support the point you are making, don’t tell it.

Ask Before You Lose Them

Most salespeople cling to their script even when they can see the room drifting away. They are afraid of losing control, so they keep talking.

That is how you lose the deal.

Don’t wait until the Q&A to ask questions. Sprinkle them throughout your pitch to keep your audience engaged and the conversation alive.

Ask if you’re hitting the mark, what they want to explore deeper, and what matters most to them.

When you ask questions, you aren’t giving up control. You are gaining it. The person asking the questions is always in control of the conversation.

Emotion First, Logic Second

Buyers like to believe they are rational. They are not. Emotion drives decisions. Logic justifies them.

If you want someone to care, you have to make them feel something. Frustration. Relief. Possibility. Urgency.

That is why the British Rail experience worked. Marsh didn’t argue that customer service was bad. He made them experience it. The feeling came first. The logic followed.

Once a buyer is emotionally engaged, they start looking for reasons to say yes. They look for data to support the decision they already want to make.

This is why information-first pitches fall flat. You are asking people to care before you have given them a reason to.

Create the emotional connection first. Then give them the facts.

When the Room Goes Cold

Even the best sales pitch techniques don’t work every time. Sometimes the wrong people show up, there is a fire you didn’t know about, or your message just doesn’t land.

When that happens, don’t push harder. Pivot. Call it out. Ask what would be more valuable. Acknowledge the moment instead of pretending it is not happening.

That level of honesty builds trust. It shows you are there to solve a problem, not deliver a performance.

Why This Matters

Your prospect didn’t show up to be entertained or to be bored.

When you give them an experience they didn’t expect, you separate yourself from every competitor running the same tired deck. You become memorable. You become relevant. You become human.

The pitch that feels risky is usually the one that wins. The personal story. The direct question. The willingness to have a real conversation.

Because the alternative is being forgotten the moment you leave the room, no matter how many slides you showed.

Want to take your pitch from forgettable to unforgettable? Download the FREE A.C.E.D. Buyer Style Playbook, which shows you exactly how to read your buyers, adapt your approach, and turn every conversation into a deal-closing opportunity.

That question came from a room full of college students at BYU-Idaho, ages 19 to 24, all exploring sales careers. And my answer is the same whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been in the game for decades.

The biggest lie about selling is this: Good salespeople have the gift of gab.

You know the stereotype. The smooth talker. The fast-talking closer. The person who can talk their way into or out of anything. We’ve all seen it in movies, TV shows, and plays like Death of a Salesman. It’s been around for a century, and it’s completely wrong.

The Truth Top Performers Know

Here’s what the best salespeople actually do: They listen.

The greatest salespeople aren’t the best talkers. They’re the best listeners. They’re individuals who know how to ask the right questions and know how to ask questions in a way that create these aha moments for prospects and customers.

They understand something fundamental that average performers miss: Closing happens in the discovery process, not at some magical point where you lay the hammer down and ask for a sale.

Think about that for a second. The deal isn’t won when you deliver your polished presentation. It’s not won when you overcome the final objection. It’s won in those early conversations when you’re asking questions, uncovering pain, and building relationships.

Why the Stereotype Persists

The negative stereotype of salespeople has been pervasive in society for generations. Part of it’s because no one really likes to be sold. And there are salespeople who are bad. They talk at people instead of actually taking the time to listen.

But here’s the reality: Lots of professions have negative stereotypes. Lawyers. Politicians. Salespeople aren’t the worst of them.

And here’s the good side of that negative stereotype: Nobody wants to be in sales. So if you’re in sales, you’re making a whole lot more money than anybody else. That’s a good thing.

The people who look at the profession of selling and say, “I could never do that” or “I could never interrupt people or take that type of rejection,” are the same people who will never experience the income, freedom, and impact that comes with being great at sales.

The Power of Questions

When you shift your mindset from talking to listening, everything changes. Instead of thinking about what you’re going to say next, you’re focused on what your prospect is telling you.

You’re asking questions like:

• What’s driving this decision right now?
• What happens if you don’t solve this problem?
• Who else is involved in this decision?
• What does success look like for you?

These aren’t manipulative tricks. They’re genuine attempts to understand your prospect’s world, their challenges, and their goals. And when you do that well, you create trust. You build relationships. You position yourself as a partner, not a vendor.

The discovery questions you ask matter more than any pitch you could ever deliver. Handling objections starts with asking the right questions early in the process.

Who’s Really in Control

Here’s the truth: The person in control of the conversation is rarely the talker. In fact, it’s almost always the listener.

If you want to move deals, stop performing and start discovering. Build your calls around three things: smart opening questions, deep follow-ups, and crisp advances to the next step.

You’ll gain insights, not just airtime. And insights are what close deals.

Success in sales isn’t about being the loudest voice in the room. It’s about being the most curious, the most engaged, and the most intentional about moving the sale forward.

What You Need to Unlearn Right Now

If you’ve been operating under the assumption that you need to be a great talker to succeed in sales, unlearn that immediately.

Replace it with this truth: You need to be a great asker and an even better listener.

Your job isn’t to convince people. Your job is to help people convince themselves by asking questions that lead them to their own conclusions. When prospects discover the solution themselves through your questioning, they own it. They believe it. And they buy.

That’s the relationship you build through asking questions. That matters the most.

The Bottom Line

Stop trying to out-talk your prospects. Stop preparing 47-slide presentations. Stop thinking that your job is to educate and inform.

Your job is to discover. To listen. To understand. To ask the questions that help your prospects see clearly what they need to do next.

The best salespeople aren’t the smooth talkers. They’re the smart listeners who know that the power of the sale is in the questions they ask, not the words they say.

If you master this one fundamental truth, you’ll close more deals than all the gift-of-gab salespeople combined. And you’ll build a career based on relationships, trust, and value instead of pressure, manipulation, and empty talk.

That’s how you win in sales. That’s how you build lasting customer relationships. And that’s how you separate yourself from everyone else who’s still chasing the lie.

Visit salesgravy.com/live to see all of our upcoming virtual and in-person events.

That internal meeting popped up. Someone needed “just five minutes.” Your CRM screamed for attention. Before you knew it, another day passed without a single cold call, without one new connection request, without moving the needle on your pipeline. But hey, at least your calendar looked impressively full.

Here’s what nobody wants to admit: your jam-packed calendar isn’t proof that you’re too busy to prospect. It’s proof you’ve made prospecting optional. And optional activities don’t close deals or pay commissions.

The Meeting Excuse Is Killing Your Pipeline

Sales professionals love to point at their calendars as evidence of why they can’t prospect. Look at all these internal meetings. See how packed my schedule is. How could I possibly find time for outbound activity?

The real question is: when did you last decline an internal meeting to protect your prospecting time? Most salespeople never have. They treat every meeting invitation as a welcome escape from the discomfort of cold outreach. It’s the perfect alibi when your manager asks about pipeline activity.

But your calendar tells the truth about your priorities. If time blocking for prospecting isn’t on it, prospecting isn’t actually a priority. And if prospecting isn’t a priority, why exactly are you in sales?

You Don’t Need Hours—You Need 15 Minutes

The biggest lie salespeople tell themselves is that prospecting requires massive blocks of uninterrupted time. Two hours minimum. Otherwise, why bother starting?

This is the same mental trap that keeps people from reading, exercising, or learning new skills. They convince themselves that 15 minutes isn’t enough to matter, so they do nothing instead.

Consider this: reading for 15 minutes daily gets you through 20-25 books per year. Walking for 15 minutes adds nearly a mile to your day. Fifteen minutes of focused prospecting can generate six to ten cold calls, dozens of personalized connection requests, or several high-impact video messages to ghosting prospects.

The power isn’t in the duration, but in consistent, focused execution of time blocking for sales activities.

The 15-Minute Power Block Rules

These 3 rules are requirements if you want your time blocking strategy to actually work.

Rule 1: Single-task only. 

Your 15-minute prospecting block is for prospecting. Not prospecting while monitoring email. Not prospecting between Slack messages. Just prospecting. If you spend three minutes calling and twelve minutes scrolling Instagram, you didn’t prospect for 15 minutes.

Rule 2: Everything else can wait.

Yes, that includes your boss. You will not lose a customer or your job because you ignored email for 15 minutes. Responding at the end of your block is still professional. Think about it—if you were sitting face-to-face with your top client, would you stop mid-conversation to check email? Treat your power blocks with the same respect.

Rule 3: Protect the block like your commission depends on it.

Because it does. Top performers don’t ask permission to prospect. They schedule it, block it, and defend it against every interruption. The coworker who needs “just a minute” can wait sixteen minutes.

What Actually Happens in 15 Minutes

Specificity kills procrastination. You’re more likely to execute when you know exactly what you’re doing during your time blocking windows.

Eight to fifteen cold calls fit comfortably in 15 minutes. That’s enough to connect with two or three decision-makers if you’re efficient. Send ten to fifteen LinkedIn connection requests to stakeholders outside your network. Write and mail three handwritten notes to accounts you closed this month. Record personalized video messages for three prospects who’ve gone dark.

None of these activities requires elaborate preparation or perfect conditions. They require you to show up for 15 minutes and do the work. That’s it.

Schedule Your Priorities or Someone Else Will

Stephen Covey said the key isn’t prioritizing your schedule, but scheduling your priorities. Most salespeople do the opposite—they let their calendars fill with whatever lands there first, then wonder why revenue-generating work never happens.

Your calendar should reflect your income goals. If hitting quota requires consistent prospecting, your calendar should show consistent prospecting blocks. If building relationships with key accounts matters, those touchpoints should be scheduled.

When you schedule your sales priorities first, everything else fits around them. When you don’t, everything else crowds them out entirely.

Look at your calendar right now. How many prospecting blocks do you see this week? If the answer is zero, you’ve just identified why your pipeline feels thin.

How to Apply Time Blocking Starting Now

Open your calendar and block three 15-minute windows for prospecting tomorrow. Morning, midday, and late afternoon. Label them “Prospecting Power Block” and set them as busy.

Before each block, decide on one specific activity: cold calls, LinkedIn outreach, video messages, or handwritten notes. Don’t try to do multiple things. Pick one and execute for the full 15 minutes.

Close your email, silence your phone. For 15 minutes, nothing else exists except the activity you committed to. When the timer ends, return to everything else.

Track your blocks for one week. Count how many you actually protected versus how many got sacrificed to “urgent” requests. This data will reveal whether you’re serious about prospecting or just pretending to be.

Make Time or Make Excuses—You Can’t Do Both

Top performers don’t wait for the perfect time to prospect. They don’t need two-hour windows or complete silence or ideal conditions. They make the time, even when it’s just 15 minutes. Especially when it’s just 15 minutes.

That 15-minute window you’re dismissing as too small? It could be the first conversation with your biggest account next quarter. It could be the connection that leads to your highest commission check. It could be the breakthrough that turns a struggling month into a record-breaker.

But only if you actually protect it. Only if you treat time blocking for prospecting as non-negotiable. Only if you stop letting your calendar lie to you about why you’re not doing the work.

Your pipeline doesn’t care how busy you looked today. It cares about the calls you made, the emails you sent, and the relationships you built. Fifteen focused minutes at a time.

Stop letting busy work crowd out revenue-generating activities. Download our free Time Audit Log to identify exactly where your selling time is going and reclaim hours each week for actual prospecting. Track your activities for just three days and discover what’s really eating your calendar.

“I find that a lot of sales leaders I work with are operating at about 110% capacity. So when we’re talking about tackling health and fitness, we have to really understand what is going to be the few habits that are really easy to do and have the biggest bang for buck.”

That’s Josh Hulsebosch, a fitness coach who specializes in working with sales professionals, speaking on the Sales Gravy podcast. His observation cuts straight to the real reason most January fitness resolutions fail: they’re trying to add more to an already overflowing plate.

The typical sales professional is already drowning in competing priorities while operating at maximum capacity. When New Year’s hits, the instinct is to overhaul everything at once. New diet. New workout plan. New morning routine. That approach might work for people with open calendars and low pressure. For salespeople pushing through Q1 kickoffs, territory planning, and quota pressure, it is a fast track to burnout.

The All-or-Nothing Trap

Meet Steve. He’s an individual contributor who decided January 1st would mark his transformation. No more coffee. Five-mile runs every morning. Intermittent fasting. Four hours of cold calling daily because he just finished reading Fanatical Prospecting.

Ten days in, Steve slept through his alarm, missed his workout, and ordered a triple-shot latte on the way to work.

That emotional crash bled into his work. His prospecting activity dropped. His confidence dipped. His motivation evaporated under the weight of his own perfectionism.

Steve’s mistake wasn’t lack of commitment. He turned ambitious goals into self-sabotage by refusing to acknowledge a simple truth: sustainable change requires starting where you are, not where you wish you were.

Most sales professionals approach fitness goals like they approach pipeline building—more activity equals better results. But health doesn’t work like prospecting. You can’t brute force your way into better sleep or lower stress. The body requires a different strategy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ilLRFM78Mw

The 110% Capacity Problem

Sales is a cognitively demanding profession. You’re the quarterback of the business. Every day requires strategic thinking, relationship management, objection handling, and staying mentally sharp through rejection.

When you’re already operating at 110% capacity, adding extreme fitness commitments creates another obligation you can’t meet, another source of stress, another thing to feel guilty about when you inevitably miss a workout or eat fast food between calls.

The sales professionals who successfully improve their health identify which habits will support their performance, then build them into their existing routine. They do not chase trends. They focus on fundamentals.

The Four Pillars of Health for Sales Professionals

Fitness and health goals for sales professionals need to be realistic for people working at maximum capacity. You can’t afford to waste energy on complicated protocols or fitness fads. You need the fundamentals: exercise, nutrition, sleep, and stress management.

When these four pillars are strong, everything else becomes easier.

Pillar One: Exercise

The fitness industry wants you to believe you need intense workouts, complicated programs, and hours at the gym.

For sales professionals, the single most effective exercise habit is walking 8,000 steps daily.

This number is achievable for most people regardless of fitness level. It builds momentum without requiring a complete schedule overhaul. When you consistently hit 8,000 steps, you prove to yourself that you can follow through on a commitment without sacrificing your work performance.

Movement improves cognitive function, reduces stress hormones, and helps with sleep quality—all critical for sales performance.

Make it automatic. Take calls while walking. Park farther away from the office. Walk to get coffee instead of ordering delivery. Use a standing desk and pace during internal meetings. Build movement into what you are already doing rather than treating it as another task.

Once 8,000 steps become effortless, you can layer in strength training or other activities. But walking is the foundation. It’s the one exercise habit that compounds without breaking you.

Pillar Two: Nutrition

Sales professionals tend to fall into two nutrition traps. The first is eating like garbage because they’re too busy to care. The second is attempting some extreme diet overhaul that lasts nine days before they’re back to their old patterns.

The solution isn’t meal plans or macro tracking or cutting entire food groups. It’s having a system that works when you’re slammed.

Start here: don’t skip meals. When you’re running between meetings and surviving on coffee, your blood sugar crashes. That kills your cognitive performance and drives you toward quick fixes that leave you feeling worse an hour later.

Keep protein-rich foods accessible. Greek yogurt, hard-boiled eggs, protein bars that aren’t candy in disguise, rotisserie chicken, nuts. These don’t require cooking or planning. They stabilize your energy and keep you sharp during long stretches between meals.

Meal prep doesn’t need to be complicated. Pick one day, cook a large batch of something simple—grilled chicken, ground turkey, rice, roasted vegetables—and portion it out. Now you have real food available when your schedule gets chaotic.

Hydration matters more than most people realize. Dehydration mimics fatigue. Keep water at your desk. Drink it between calls. If you’re consuming coffee all day, match it with water. You’ll notice the difference in your afternoon energy levels.

Pillar Three: Sleep

Sleep deprivation destroys sales performance. You get paid to think. When you run on five or six hours of sleep, decision-making suffers. Decision-making suffers. Emotional regulation weakens. Your ability to read prospects and handle objections declines.

You can’t always control how many hours you sleep, especially during high-pressure periods. But you can improve sleep quality.

Start with a simple nighttime routine that signals to your body it’s time to wind down. Turn off screens thirty minutes before bed. Keep your bedroom cool. If your mind races when you lie down, acknowledge the thoughts without engaging with them. Notice they’re there, then redirect your focus to your breathing.

If you wake up in the middle of the night with work thoughts, write them down or set a reminder for the next day. This closes the mental loop and allows your brain to let go.

Pillar Four: Stress Management

Sales is a pressure environment. Constant decision-making. Emotional labor. Rejection. Urgency. You move from call to meeting to fire drill to another call with almost no downtime. Over time, your nervous system stays stuck in high alert.

That chronic stress does not just affect your mood. It impacts your sleep, your focus, your patience with prospects, and your ability to think clearly in complex conversations. If you do not manage it, it will manage you.

Controlled breathing is one of the fastest ways to regulate your nervous system.

Inhale for four seconds. Hold for four. Exhale for four. Hold for four.

This is box breathing. You can do it between calls. Before a tough conversation. While waiting for a prospect to answer. It does not draw attention. It just brings your system back into balance.

When stress is regulated, sleep improves. When sleep improves, thinking becomes clearer. Clearer thinking leads to better sales performance.

It is a small habit. The impact compounds.

Building Fitness Goals That Actually Stick

If you’re surviving on five hours of sleep, start there. If you’re skipping meals and running on caffeine, fix your nutrition first. If you haven’t moved your body in weeks, commit to 8,000 steps.

Don’t try to overhaul all four pillars simultaneously. That’s the all-or-nothing trap that killed Steve’s momentum in ten days.

When you take care of your physical and mental health, you show up sharper for your prospects, your team, and your numbers. Your body is the vehicle for your career. You can’t hit quota consistently if you’re running on empty.

Start with one pillar. Build one habit. Give it time to take root before you add the next one. That’s how you win in Q1 and beyond.

If you are serious about building fitness habits that actually fit the realities of sales, go deeper with Josh Hulsebosch’s performance-focused courses on Sales Gravy University. His programs are built specifically for sales professionals who are operating at full capacity and still want to win on health, energy, and longevity.

That’s the question Taylor Deadrick asked me during a recent live event. Taylor works for Insperity (a fantastic company that handles all our HR and payroll at Sales Gravy, by the way), and she wanted to know how to establish her own brand while staying aligned with her employer.

If you’ve ever felt this tension, you’re not alone. The fear of conflicting with your company’s brand holds too many salespeople back from building the authority they need to win more deals.

Let me show you how to build a personal brand that actually amplifies your company’s message instead of competing with it.

The Only Real Conflict You Need to Worry About

Here’s the brutal truth: The only way you’ll conflict with your company’s brand is if you assert that your own opinion is that of your employer, or what you’re posting, saying, or writing conflicts with their core values, their marketing message, or the way they go to market.

That’s it. That’s the line.

If you start trying to speak for your company or post things that contradict their values, you’ve got a problem. But if everything you do supports those core values, you’re going to be just fine.

Think about it this way: Your company hired you because you aligned with their mission. Now your job is to amplify that mission through your own authentic voice and expertise.

The mistake most salespeople make is thinking their personal brand needs to be separate from or independent of their company. Wrong. Your personal brand should be the human face of your company’s value proposition.

Your Personal Brand Is Bigger Than Your Logo

Your personal brand isn’t just what you post on LinkedIn. It’s not your profile picture or your witty headline.

Your personal brand is the confidence you show when you hop on a microphone and ask a tough question. It’s your smile and the way you treat people. It’s whether you’re kind, whether you invest in yourself, whether you show up with expertise that actually helps people solve problems.

Your personal brand is the human being who walks into businesses every day and shows up for those businesses. That’s the most important part of your brand, and that’s the part that builds trust and causes people to buy you.

Everything else (your LinkedIn posts, your content, your online presence) is just an extension of that core identity.

Authority: The Secret Weapon of Personal Branding

When I think about building a personal brand, I think about one word: authority.

Authority is your expertise. It’s what you know that helps other people win. And here’s the beautiful thing: When you build authority in your space, you’re not competing with your company’s brand. You’re reinforcing it.

Let’s use Taylor’s situation as an example. She works with small and medium-sized businesses, helping them grow by taking HR and payroll off their plate so they can focus on what matters. That’s exactly why we came to Insperity in the first place.

If Taylor builds her authority around understanding the problems small business owners face, if she becomes known for helping companies break through growth barriers, if she consistently shares insights about the challenges her buyers deal with every single day, that authority doesn’t conflict with Insperity. It amplifies everything they stand for.

When you focus on your expertise and how you help people, your personal brand becomes a magnet. You create leads. When prospects research you before a meeting, they see someone they actually want to talk to. You’re building trust before you ever shake hands.

The Five S Framework for Building Authority

In my book The LinkedIn Edge, I walk through what I call the Five S’s for building your personal brand, especially on LinkedIn. This framework keeps you aligned with your company while establishing your unique authority.

The key is sending the right message to the marketplace about the expertise you bring, your authority in solving specific problems, and how you can help people win. When you focus there, everything else falls into place.

Your content should showcase the patterns you’re seeing with your buyers, the problems you solve consistently, and simple frameworks they can use right away. That’s what creates familiarity. That’s what warms up the room before you ever make a call.

Think of LinkedIn as your familiarity engine. When you show up consistently with practical insights, every outreach gets easier and every conversation becomes more productive.

Know Your Company’s Social Media Policy Inside and Out

Before you post a single piece of content, take a hard look at your company’s social media policy. Understand what they allow you to say and what they don’t. Know those boundaries cold.

This isn’t about limiting yourself. It’s about operating with confidence. When you know exactly where the guardrails are, you can create boldly within them.

Most companies have pretty straightforward policies: Don’t share confidential information, don’t speak on behalf of the company without authorization, and stay aligned with core values. Follow those rules, and you’ll be fine.

The salespeople who get in trouble are the ones who never bothered to read the policy in the first place.

Your Brand Is What You Do, Not Just What You Post

Here’s what too many people forget: Your personal brand is built in the trenches, not just on social media.

It’s built into every discovery call where you ask better questions than your competitors. It’s built in every proposal where you demonstrate that you truly understand your buyer’s world. It’s built in every follow-up where you add value instead of just checking in.

The online stuff matters, but it only works if it’s backed up by real expertise and genuine care for your customers. You can’t fake authority. You earn it by doing the work, studying your industry, understanding your buyers, and creating your content.

When you combine that real-world expertise with a consistent online presence, you become unstoppable. You’re not just another rep. You’re the person buyers want to work with.

The Bottom Line

Stop worrying about conflicting with your company’s brand. Instead, focus on amplifying it through your unique voice and expertise.

Your personal brand should make your company look good. It should attract the right buyers. It should build trust before you ever pick up the phone.

Stay aligned with your company’s core values. Know their social media policy. Focus your content on your specific expertise and the problems you solve. Show up consistently, both online and in person.

That’s how you build a personal brand that becomes a magnet. That’s how you make every conversation easier and every deal more likely to close. And that’s how you become the salesperson everyone wants to buy from.

Your brand is your authority. Now go build it.

Want to learn the complete system for building authority on LinkedIn? Check out Jeb’s latest book, The LinkedIn Edge, where he breaks down the Five S framework and shows you exactly how to turn your LinkedIn profile into a lead-generating machine.

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been producing the Sales Gravy continuously for 20 years. Over the last 20 years, thanks to you—our incredible audience—we’ve consistently ranked as the #1 most listened to sales podcast in markets all over the world.

I remember my first podcast episode all those years ago, produced with a microphone I bought at Guitar Center and recorded under a blanket for sound suppression. Today, we produce our podcast in professional studios at Sales Gravy and have a full production team on staff to ensure we are giving you the highest quality sound possible. 

What hasn’t changed is my unwavering focus on making the complex simple by cutting through the noise, eliminating the fluff, and giving you the basics and fundamentals that actually work in the real world.

We’ve got a ton of new episodes and bonus content coming your way, so be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast app and listen every week. 

Sales Professionals Must Have Goals to be Successful

Your personal goals are the aspirations that drive you, inspire you, and push you through the tough days. These goals are essential to helping you maintain sales discipline throughout your sales year. When developing personal goals, I break them down into three buckets:

To-Have Goals

These are the things you want to acquire or buy. Whether it’s a house, a new car, or building up your savings, to-have goals are about acquiring something that enhances your life.

To-Be Goals

These are about evolving into the person you want to become. Maybe you want to be a sales manager, or if you’re a manager, you want to be a director or VP of sales. You might want to go back to school for a degree or an MBA. Or you want to be a better spouse, a better leader, or a better peer. Maybe you want to be a President’s club winner or be recognized as an expert in your industry—whatever it is, to-be goals help you level up as a person and a professional.

To-Do Goals

These are experience goals. Think about experiences that create lifelong memories—maybe you want to travel somewhere special or take on a meaningful project or hobby you’ve always dreamed about.

Four Reasons Why Goals Matter in Sales

Number one, goals massively increase the likelihood that you’ll actually achieve the things you want. Speaking your goal out loud, writing it down, and being intentional about it has a powerful psychological effect.

Number two, goals make life meaningful. It’s unbelievably fulfilling to look back and see what you accomplished—how far you’ve come over the course of a year, five years, or a decade.

Number three, we work in a tough, competitive profession, and it’s just plain satisfying to put your commission checks, bonuses, and hard-won earnings toward something that improves your life or the lives of the people you love.

But the biggest reason to set goals—especially in sales—is that the sales profession is hard work and it can be brutal. It’s loaded with rejection.

At every turn, we face potential “nos,” whether it’s prospecting calls, asking for next steps, pushing to level up to a decision-maker, or closing the deal. We even face internal rejection when we try to sell a complex deal internally to our own company or get approval for special pricing. Rejection is everywhere, and the fear of rejection—or avoiding it—is the number one reason salespeople fail to perform.

Add to that the grind: making call after call, stuffing data into the CRM, pushing through proposals, handling endless follow-ups, and selling becomes tedious, hard, rejection-dense work.

For this reason, it requires discipline to stay on track and keep grinding day after day and month after month over the course of the sales year. But here’s the rub: discipline can wane, especially if we’re not hyper-focused on a bigger prize.

Goals Give You the Discipline to Do the Hard Things

I want you to pay attention to this next part because understanding the real definition of discipline is critical. Discipline is sacrificing what you want now for what you want most.

Human nature wants easy. We’d rather that customers call us than have to chase them. We’d rather deals close themselves than invest hours into multi-step follow-ups. We don’t want to face that “no.”

But success in sales is paid for in advance, with facing rejection and hard work. Therefore, if you don’t have a clear, compelling reason—something you want most—it’s easy to cave in and take the easy route instead of doing what really needs to be done.

This is the reason why having a strong set of personal goals is crucial for sales professionals. You need that powerful “why” to keep grinding when the going gets tough. When the pipeline’s not as full as you’d like or you’re hitting roadblocks, you need something more important than convenience to drag you back into the fight.

A Tactical System for Setting Winning Goals

Let’s jump into the tactics for actually doing this. If you’ve gone through any kind of SMART goal-setting course, some of this may sound familiar. But these basics are timeless and indispensable. To set effective goals, you need to ask and answer five basic questions:

What Do You Want?

Sounds simple, but for a lot of us, it’s not. We’re so busy scrolling through social media, bingeing on TikTok, or juggling daily distractions that we never pause to ask, “What do I really want from my life?” So step one is to get specific. Define it.

When Do You Want It?

Because we’re talking about next year’s personal goals, let’s keep them within a 12-month horizon. But any truly effective goal requires a deadline or target date—otherwise, it’s just a pipe dream. When you have a hard date, it creates urgency and focus.

Is It Attainable?

Be honest with yourself. If all your goals are ridiculously ambitious, you’ll burn out or give up once it’s clear you’re not making meaningful progress. Stretch goals are great—big, hairy, audacious goals will push you—but balance those with goals you can realistically achieve.

How Bad Do You Want It?

This is the ultimate question. If your goal doesn’t fire you up, if it’s not something you’d move mountains to achieve, you won’t push through the tough days. Remember, discipline means sacrificing what you want now for what you want most. If the desire isn’t there, the sacrifices won’t be made.

How Are You Going to Get There?

These are your steps to success—your system, your process, your roadmap. As James Clear says in Atomic Habits, you don’t rise to the level of your goals; you fall to the level of your systems. The idea is simple: if you have a crystal-clear process for what you need to do daily, weekly, and monthly, you’ll keep moving toward the goal—even when life gets hectic.

This is where your personal business plan and your personal goals intersect.

For instance, if your to-do or to-have goal requires additional income—maybe you need a bigger commission check to afford that new pool or a bucket-list vacation—then you have to hit your sales targets. This means building a discipline system that ensures you’re prospecting enough, qualifying enough opportunities, following up diligently, and negotiating effectively. Without a system and personal business plan, you are more likely to get random results.

Stop Now and Build Your Goal Sheet

Sit in silence. Turn off the noise, get away from distractions, and grab a notebook and pen. Write down what you want, when you want it, if it’s attainable, how badly you want it, and how you plan to get there. Sketch it all out—just let the ideas flow. Once you’ve got it all down, build a formal goal sheet.

Yes, I’m talking about physically writing it out. There’s tremendous power in seeing your goals in black and white, or printing them out and pinning them above your desk. Countless studies show that written goals are far more likely to be realized than goals that just bounce around in your head.

This goal sheet is your personal roadmap—put it into your personal business plan so everything stays in one place.

Learn how to set winning goals and build your personal Goal Sheet in Jeb Blount’s comprehensive course: The Essentials of Setting Winning Goals

You set goals in January. By March, they are forgotten.

It’s because most salespeople confuse wanting something with planning for it. 

“I want to close more deals this year.” That is not a goal. That is a wish.

“I want to be better at prospecting.” Still not a goal. Just a vague intention that leads nowhere.

Real sales goals require a system. Not motivation. Not inspiration. A repeatable process that turns big numbers into daily actions you can actually execute.

This four-step sales goal planning system turns annual quotas into weekly, executable actions that salespeople can control and measure.

Why Most Sales Goals Fail Before February

Most salespeople treat goal-setting like a New Year’s resolution. They write something down, feel good about it for a week, then watch it disappear under the weight of quota pressure and full calendars.

Three things kill sales goals before they have a chance:

Lack of specificity. Your brain cannot attach to something vague. There is no finish line, no way to measure progress, and no emotional connection to the outcome.

No breakdown. Big numbers paralyze you. Looking at an annual quota feels impossible. Your brain shuts down. You don’t know where to start, so you don’t start at all.

Zero accountability. Goals that live only in your head are easy to abandon. There is no consequence for missing them because nobody, including you, is really tracking them.

Research consistently shows that people who write down specific, challenging goals and track them perform significantly better than those who rely on vague intentions or hope.

The difference between hitting your number and missing it is having a systematic approach to sales goal planning and the discipline to execute it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qcAEM3qG3g

Step 1: Identify Your Major Milestones

Big goals overwhelm you. When you stare at “close $1.5 million this year,” your brain checks out. It feels too big, too far away, and too abstract.

The first step in effective sales goal planning is breaking that number into key checkpoints. These milestones tell you whether you are on track or falling behind.

For a $1.5 million annual goal:

Q1: $375K

Q2: $375K

Q3: $375K

Q4: $375K

Now you are not chasing $1.5 million. You are chasing $375K this quarter. Still significant, but manageable.

Take it further. What does $375K mean for your pipeline?

If your average deal size is $50K, you need eight closed deals per quarter. If your close rate is 25 percent, you need 32 qualified opportunities in your pipeline each quarter to close those eight deals.

Suddenly, that intimidating annual number becomes a concrete monthly target of roughly 11 qualified opportunities.

You cannot control whether a deal closes, but you can control how many qualified opportunities you put in your pipeline. That is the number you chase.

Step 2: List Your Specific Tasks

Milestones tell you where you need to be. Tasks tell you how to get there.

These numbers will vary based on your market, deal size, and conversion rates. The point is forcing your goal all the way down to weekly actions you can control.

This step requires brutal honesty about the activities that actually generate results in your sales process.

If you need 11 qualified opportunities per month and your prospecting-to-opportunity conversion rate is 10 percent, you need 110 prospecting conversations monthly.

What does that look like in weekly tasks?

• 30 outbound calls
• 15 LinkedIn connection requests with personalized messages
• 10 follow-up emails to lukewarm prospects
• 3 referral conversations

Assign realistic timeframes to each task. Making 30 calls doesn’t require four hours. It requires 45 minutes of focused effort. Block the time, make the calls, move on.

The more specific you get, the less room there is for excuses. You either completed the tasks or you did not. You are either on pace or you are behind.

If you cannot list the specific weekly tasks required to hit your goal, you do not have a sales goal. You have a hope.

Step 3: Consider Obstacles and Resources

Every goal has obstacles waiting to derail it. Ignoring them does not make them disappear.

Identify what will try to stop you, then plan around it.

The biggest time killers in sales are rarely mysterious. Meetings that don’t move deals forward. Prospects who will never buy but keep you engaged. Administrative tasks that someone else should handle. Reorganizing your CRM instead of filling it with opportunities.

Here is how to expose them. Track your time for one week. Write down every activity in 30-minute blocks. No editing. No judgment. Just honest data.

At the end of the week, categorize everything:

• Income-producing activities like prospecting, discovery, and closing
• Income-supporting activities like proposals, follow-up, and research
• Waste, which is everything else

Most salespeople discover they spend less than 30 percent of their time on income-producing activities. If that is you, you just found out why you are not hitting your goals.

Once you know where your time actually goes, you can protect the activities that matter. Block prospecting time before meetings start. Batch administrative work. Decline meetings where your presence adds no value.

Now identify resource gaps. What do you need that you don’t have?

Skills you need to develop. Tools that would improve your results. Support from leadership to open doors with key accounts.

Find these gaps early. Discovering you lack a critical skill in November is too late.

Step 4: Stay Flexible Without Lowering the Goal

Sales goal planning requires flexibility in tactics, not flexibility in commitment.

Markets shift. Buyers change. Your original plan may need adjustment. That does not mean the destination changes.

Review your goals monthly and let the data guide you. Ask three questions:

• Am I on track
• What’s working
• What’s not working

If something is working, do more of it. If something isn’t working, adjust your approach.

For example, your data might show inconsistent execution, poor list quality, or weak follow-up. The answer is not abandoning foundational activities like cold calling. The answer is tightening your process, improving targeting, or reinforcing outreach with disciplined follow-up.

Flexibility means adjusting how you execute, not lowering the standard because the work is harder than expected.

Salespeople who hit ambitious goals stay flexible in their methods and uncompromising about the outcome.

Monthly reviews keep you honest. They prevent you from wasting months on ineffective activity before realizing you are off track.

Execute Your Sales Goal Planning System

Take one goal right now. Write it down with a specific number and a deadline.

Break it into three to five milestones. List the weekly tasks required. Identify your two biggest obstacles and the resources you need to overcome them.

Then execute. Review weekly. Adjust monthly. Never stop driving toward the outcome.

This system works because it eliminates ambiguity. You know what needs to happen this week. Obstacles don’t blindside you because you planned for them. You aren’t following a broken plan for six months because you built in regular reviews.

While other salespeople hope for a good year, you will be executing a plan. While they react to whatever fires pop up, you will be proactively driving toward measurable outcomes.

The difference between salespeople who hit their goals and those who do not is not talent or luck. It is having a systematic process for turning big goals into daily actions and the discipline to follow through when motivation fades.

Sales goals don’t fail because you lack desire—they fail because the plan isn’t specific enough to execute. Download the FREE Goal Planning Guide to turn your sales goals into results. 

That’s the question posed by Brady from Arkansas. Brady’s been getting legitimate job offers from recruiters, and he’s wondering how to leverage these opportunities into better compensation at his current company without burning bridges or coming across as disloyal.

If you’ve ever found yourself in this position, you know it’s a delicate dance. You want to be paid what you’re worth, but you also don’t want to destroy the relationships and goodwill you’ve built. So how do you navigate this conversation?

The Right Way to Have the Conversation

If you’re getting external job offers from legitimate companies with strong brands, the key is in how you frame the conversation with your boss.

Here’s the approach: “I really like working here, and I want to stay at this company. I love it. But I’ve got another company out there that’s a good company. They’re a great brand, they’re well known, and they’re making this job offer to me at a significantly higher level of compensation. It’s hard for me to say no to that. I feel like I need to bring this to you before I make a decision because I like working here.”

Notice what you’re NOT saying. You’re not walking in with an ultimatum saying, “If you don’t give me this, I’m leaving.” Instead, you’re saying, “I want to stay here. I like it here. I’m just in a situation where they’re offering me enough that it’s turning my head and I’m looking their way.”

This approach keeps the door open for a productive conversation about what might be possible without threatening your current employer or damaging your relationship.

When Loyalty Actually Matters

Now, before you go schedule that meeting with your boss, you need to ask yourself a hard question: Do you owe this company some loyalty?

If you were down on your luck, lost a job, and they came along and gave you something that saved you, you probably owe them some loyalty for that. Not forever, but there’s a little bit of honor in not just jumping to the next place immediately.

You also need to think about your resume. If you’ve just got there and a year later you’re jumping to another place, that’s on your resume. And believe it or not, even in today’s world, that still means something. I won’t hire people who jump from job to job every year. I don’t care how good they are because they’re probably going to jump again.

So think long term: Am I demonstrating to a future employer that I’m worth investing more money in? The answer is yes when you gave them three years of your life, performed at a really high level, and now you’re going to leverage that to go level up elsewhere.

Speaking Your Boss’s Language

Here’s what most salespeople get wrong when asking for more money: They forget to speak the language their boss understands.

If you walk into your sales leader’s office and say, “I want to make more money,” you know what they’re going to tell you? “Go sell more.” And they’re right. If you’ve got a great compensation plan with no limit on how much commission you can make, the answer is simple: crank out more sales.

So before you ask for more base salary, ask yourself: Do I have a limit on how much commission I can make? If the answer is no, then your first conversation should be about getting bigger opportunities.

Try this approach: “I can sell. I’m hitting numbers, but I’m not making the money I want. What can you do to give me bigger accounts, bigger opportunities, bigger customers? Give me better leads. What can you do to get me in a situation where I can earn more?”

This is speaking the boss’s language. You’re showing that you want to produce more, not just get paid more for the same work. If you get shut down in that situation, then you have another conversation.

The Commission vs. Base Salary Play

If you’re a baller and you’ve proven you can sell, here’s a move most salespeople never consider when negotiating compensation: Ask for a higher commission percentage instead of a higher base salary.

I honestly don’t care about base. I think a base matters when you’re getting started, and it’s nice to have, but I would much rather have a higher commission percentage than a higher base.

Here’s how you position it: “In the open market, I can take a similar job and make $400,000. I want to make the same thing here. Now there’s two ways we could do this. One is that you can increase my base salary. Two is you give me a higher commission rate, and I think the commission rate should be this. I think I’m worth that.”

What you’re basically saying is that your cost of sales is going to be variable. They only pay you if you sell it, so their carrying costs stay the same.

In my company, the people who don’t take a base salary make more than double in commission what people who do take a base salary bring home. There’s a massive difference because the people saying “pay me more commission” are saying “I’m willing to put skin in the game in order to make more.”

Now, this doesn’t work if you’re at a massive company with a thousand salespeople and rigid HR policies. But if you work for a smaller organization where people can make decisions, have an honest conversation around this approach.

You might even propose a tiered structure: “You can pay me your base commission on everything up to the quota you gave me. But once I cross that quota, I want my commission to roll up so that if I get over this number, the rate scales.” That’s a conversation most entrepreneurial leaders will entertain because it’s putting your money where your mouth is.

What Money Can’t Buy

Here’s the thing most people miss when they’re chasing the next big paycheck: There’s always money out there you can chase. You have an obligation to yourself and your family to make as much as you possibly can in sales.

But there’s also the value of working in a place that values you. There’s more than just the money. There’s the freedom, the flexibility, and the opportunity to be part of something that gives you purpose.

I had somebody come to me recently and ask this question, and I said, “This job that you’re moving to that’s going to pay you all this money, suddenly you’re going to have someone who’s micromanaging and telling you what to do every single day. In your current role, you’re not making as much money, but you call the shots on your day every single day. Nobody even messes with you. Are you willing to sign up for that?”

They said their wife told them the exact same thing. Maybe that’s a sign that having the freedom and flexibility is more valuable than making a lot of money but being miserable because everything you do is being micromanaged.

The Bottom Line

When it’s time to ask for more money, remember these principles:

1. Bring the conversation to your boss before making a decision. Frame it as wanting to stay, not threatening to leave.
2. Consider what you owe in loyalty. If they gave you a chance when you needed one, factor that into your decision.
3. Speak your boss’s language. Ask for bigger opportunities before asking for more base pay.
4. Consider the commission play. If you’re confident in your abilities, asking for higher commission rates can be more lucrative than base salary increases when looking at total compensation.
5. Weigh the intangibles. Money isn’t everything if you’re trading freedom and fulfillment for a micromanaged existence.

The best compensation conversations happen when you approach them with confidence, gratitude, and a clear understanding of your value. That’s how you get paid what you’re worth without burning bridges along the way.

Want to learn more about leveraging your personal brand to create more career opportunities? Check out Jeb’s newest book, The LinkedIn Edge, and discover how to turn your LinkedIn profile into a powerful career and sales tool.

Imagine walking into a store and seeing a shirt for $50. Fine. Unremarkable. You might buy it, you might not.

Now imagine seeing that same shirt with a tag that reads: $100 NOW $50. Suddenly, you’re interested. You found a deal. You beat the system. You’re a hero.

Same price. Same shirt. Completely different emotional response.

That psychological gap between logic and emotion cost JCPenney roughly $1 billion and offers one of the most important lessons in sales psychology you’ll ever learn: people don’t buy with logic—they buy with emotion and justify with logic later.

The Fair and Square Disaster

In 2012, JCPenney hired Ron Johnson as CEO. Johnson was a retail rock star, the architect behind Apple Store’s legendary success. He walked into JCPenney and saw chaos: endless coupons, manufactured “original prices,” and constant sales cycles.

His solution? Kill it all.

Johnson launched “Fair and Square”—a radically transparent pricing model. No games. No coupons. No inflated prices marked down. Just one everyday low price on everything.

That $100 shirt marked down to $50? Now it was simply $50. Honest. Logical. Clean.

The market’s response was brutal. Within one year, sales dropped 25%. The company lost nearly $1 billion. Stock price went into freefall. Johnson was fired.

What Johnson Got Wrong About Sales Psychology

Johnson made a catastrophic assumption: he believed customers were rational economic actors who would reward transparency and honesty.

He was dead wrong.

For decades, JCPenney’s customers had been playing a game. They clipped coupons, timed sales, scrutinized flyers, and planned shopping trips around promotions. The weekly coupon wasn’t just a discount—it was a ritual. Their insider advantage, their badge of savvy shopping honor.

Johnson stripped away their emotional satisfaction and replaced it with sterile efficiency.

Without the “$100 now $50” comparison, the flat $50 price lost all psychological weight. No thrill. No victory. No story to share. Same price. Different feeling.

The Sales Psychology Principle You’re Ignoring

Loss aversion is twice as powerful as gain motivation.

Your prospects don’t just want to gain something—they want to feel like they won, like they’re in control, like they made a smart decision that will impress their boss.

When you strip away their buying process, when you force them into your “more efficient” workflow without their input, they don’t see the gain. They experience loss. You’ve taken away their control, their ritual, their power, their role as the hero.

In sales, that feeling is deadly.

Your Customers Have Rituals Too

Think about your best accounts. What do they actually value?

It’s probably not your features or your ROI calculator.

It’s the rep they’ve worked with for years. It’s the quarterly business review they rely on. It’s the reporting cadence that makes them look good internally. It’s the buying process that lets them feel competent and in control.

That’s their ritual.

When you try to “streamline” their process, when you push them toward a different point of contact, when you change the reporting structure they trust—you’re doing exactly what Ron Johnson did.

You’re selling logic when they’re buying a feeling.

Stop Leading With Features and Benefits

Most salespeople lose deals before they even start because they lead with logical arguments:

• “Our platform reduces processing time by 40%.”
• “We integrate with 200+ systems.”
• “Our customer support response time is under 2 hours.”

All logical. All true. All useless if your buyer doesn’t feel something first.

Your prospect doesn’t wake up excited about efficiency gains. They wake up stressed about looking good in front of their VP, avoiding mistakes, and maintaining control of their budget.

Research is clear: emotional decisions get made first, then logic comes in to justify them.

Your job isn’t to build a logical case. Your job is to help your buyer feel like a hero, then give them the logical ammunition to defend that emotional decision internally.

How to Apply This Starting Today

Identify Their Rituals

Watch how your customers actually operate. Do they need three stakeholders in every meeting? Do they always loop in procurement at a specific stage? Do they have a preferred communication cadence?

Don’t fight it. Work with it. Their process is their psychological anchor for stability.

Frame the Win They Can Own

Frame your solution so the customer feels in control and gets the credit.

Instead of: “Our platform will solve your problem.”

Try: “This approach could help you demonstrate a 30% cost reduction in Q2—giving your team clear wins to share with leadership.”

Make them the hero of their own story.

Highlight Emotional Outcomes, Not Just Logical Ones

Don’t just talk about what your product does. Talk about how it makes them feel.

• “You’ll have complete visibility so you’re never caught off guard in executive meetings.”
• “Your team will finally have the data they need to look proactive instead of reactive.”
• “You’ll be the person who solved the problem everyone else said was impossible.”

Guide, Don’t Force

Lead your prospects toward better outcomes without stripping away their sense of control.

Instead of forcing a complete switch to your system, collaborate on how your solution enhances their existing trusted process. Make them feel like a collaborator, not a passenger.

The Takeaway

Ron Johnson wasn’t wrong that consumers should prefer transparent, honest pricing. He wasn’t wrong that the coupon game was exhausting and complicated.

He was wrong about what people actually buy.

They buy feelings. Control. Victory. Status. The story they tell themselves about being smart.

Your prospects are no different. They’re not buying your SaaS platform, your consulting services, or your enterprise solution. They’re buying the feeling of being competent, in control, and successful.

The difference between average salespeople and top performers isn’t product knowledge or work ethic. It’s understanding the sales psychology behind how buyers actually make decisions.

When you appeal to emotion first and back it up with logic second, you stop losing deals to “no decision” and start winning consistently.

Because at the end of the day, sales isn’t about having the best product. It’s about making your customer feel like they made the best decision.

Ready to master buyer psychology and close more deals? Download the ACED Buyer Style Playbook and discover how to match your sales approach to the four core buyer personalities. Stop selling logic. Start selling the way your customers actually buy.

You know the feeling when you close a big deal.

The rush. The quiet satisfaction of updating your pipeline. Maybe a quick high-five with your manager.

And then, almost immediately, it fades.

You’re back to cold calls that go unanswered, emails that disappear into inboxes, and prospects who promised they were interested suddenly going silent. In sales, rejection isn’t a side effect of the job. It is the job.

That reality is exactly why most people don’t last in sales. And it’s why the people who do last tend to get paid very well.

Over the past quarter, we talked with some of the most consistent sales leaders in the business. Here are four moments from the Sales Gravy Podcast that reveal how top performers stay motivated and close more deals, even when the work feels heavy.

Find Your Carrot and Make It Specific

Will Frattini, VP of Sales at ZoomInfo, keeps a small Christmas ornament on his desk. His daughter gave it to him when she was five.

That ornament is his carrot.

During a recent podcast conversation, Will explained that when sales gets hard, that ornament reminds him exactly why he keeps pushing. Not in an abstract or inspirational-poster way, but in a deeply personal one. It represents his family, his responsibility, and the future he’s building for them.

That distinction matters.

Many salespeople say they’re motivated by family, freedom, or financial security. Those values are real, but on their own, they’re often too broad to sustain sales motivation during a brutal stretch of rejection. When you’re fifty dials deep with no connects and another demo just canceled, vague motivation doesn’t hold up.

Will doesn’t just think “my family.” He sees a moment, a memory, and a tangible reminder of what’s at stake. That specificity gives his motivation weight.

Top performers anchor their sales motivation to something concrete and emotionally charged. A down payment they want to make by a certain date. A trip they want to take without checking their bank account. A milestone that matters beyond quota.

The more specific the carrot, the more powerful it becomes when sales gets hard.

How to define yours:

Write down one specific outcome you want to achieve in the next six months. Not “hit quota,” but the real-world result that quota enables. A number. A purchase. An experience. Put it somewhere you’ll see it every day.

Work With Customers Who Actually Value You

One of the fastest ways to drain sales motivation is closing deals with customers who make you miserable.

On an episode of Ask Jeb, Jeb broke down how companies grow faster by focusing on the right customers, not just more customers. When you’re behind on quota late in the year, it’s tempting to take anything that looks like revenue. Any company that shows interest. Any prospect willing to meet. You convince yourself that a deal is a deal.

Then January arrives.

That customer floods your team with support tickets, questions every invoice, demands exceptions, and slowly erodes the satisfaction of the win you celebrated just weeks earlier.

Consistent performers learn to protect their energy. They get ruthless about fit. Not just company size or industry, but values.

They ask questions like, “What do you value most in a partner?” and they listen carefully to the answer. Some buyers want constant responsiveness. Others value expert perspective and challenge. Some want efficiency and minimal interaction.

None of those preferences are wrong. But only one aligns with how you actually sell.

When sales gets hard, motivation comes easier when you’re pursuing customers who respect your approach instead of fighting it.

How to clarify your ideal customer:

Look at your three favorite customers. The ones your entire team enjoys working with. What do they share beyond surface-level traits? How did they behave during the buying process? Those patterns matter more than any firmographic filter.

Slow Down Before You Create Your Own Problems

When pressure builds, speed starts to feel productive. You rush contracts. You promise timelines without checking internally. You say yes to custom requirements because slowing down feels risky.

On an episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount, Jr. shared one of the most painful stories we heard this year. A $1.4 million deal with a pediatrics practice unraveled after someone rushed the process and placed the client into an early adopter program without a test environment. The result was catastrophic. The client’s live system crashed, HIPAA was violated, and the company lost not only the deal but $600,000 in annual recurring revenue.

Top performers understand something most reps learn the hard way: smooth is fast.

They build guardrails around high-risk moments. Before sending a contract, they align internally. Before committing to timelines, they check with the people who actually do the work.

Slowing down at the right moments builds trust. It prevents chaos. And it preserves sales motivation by keeping you from spending the next quarter cleaning up mistakes made under pressure.

How to build a slowdown system:

Identify the three points in your sales process where you tend to rush. Proposals, negotiations, technical commitments. Create a short checklist for each and make it mandatory.

Use AI to Think Faster, Not to Stop Thinking

Sales demands constant context switching. Pipeline reviews. Prospect research. Discovery prep. Follow-up. Objection handling. The mental load adds up quickly.

Victor Antonio recently shared an example of a window company using vision AI to diagnose broken window seals from photos. Instead of sending a technician, customers submit an image. The system verifies the issue, checks inventory, confirms warranty status, and schedules service automatically.

AI hasn’t changed what strong salespeople do. It’s changed how quickly they get to the work that actually matters.

Top performers use AI to handle tasks that drain energy but don’t require judgment. Research summaries. Organizing notes. Drafting frameworks. That speed preserves mental bandwidth for conversations, strategy, and relationship building.

Used correctly, AI supports sales motivation by reducing friction, not replacing effort.

How to use AI without dulling your edge:

List the tasks you repeat weekly that consume time but not insight. Let AI handle those. Keep anything involving trust, nuance, or decision-making firmly in your hands.

Why This Matters for Sales Motivation

Sales has always been hard. Cold calling was hard decades ago, and it’s still hard today. You still have to find people, start conversations, build trust, and ask for commitments.

What separates average reps from consistent performers isn’t resilience alone. It’s structure.

Top performers know exactly what they’re chasing and why it matters. They protect themselves from bad-fit customers. They slow down when it counts. And they use tools strategically to preserve energy for selling.

They still get rejected. They still lose deals. They still have months where nothing goes right.

But they don’t drift. They don’t panic. And they don’t quit when the work gets uncomfortable.

That discipline is what sustains sales motivation long after the initial excitement wears off.

If you want a clearer target to aim at when sales gets hard, download the FREE Sales Gravy Goal Guide. It will help you define the goals that actually keep you focused, disciplined, and motivated—especially when rejection starts piling up.

That’s the question posed by Dylan Noah from Toronto. Dylan sells craft cider to bars and restaurants across his territory. He’s the only salesperson for a small producer, working with limited tools (no proper CRM), and here’s the kicker: he could sell a million dollars’ worth of product, but production isn’t enough to meet that demand.

If you’re shaking your head thinking this is a champagne problem, you’re half right. But for Dylan, trying to hit his income goals through commissions, it’s a real constraint that’s costing him money every single day.

The CRM Obsession Is a Distraction

Let’s tackle the first issue head-on. Dylan is worried he doesn’t have the right CRM tools to manage his accounts and hit his numbers.

Here’s the brutal truth: at one point in time, salespeople sold a lot of cider, beer, wine, liquor, and all kinds of other stuff without any CRM at all. They used index cards in a box. They had lists on paper. And they crushed it.

You’re a small business with one salesperson working with 3,000 to 7,000 potential accounts in your territory. The last thing you should worry about right now is a $40,000 CRM system.

Could you use automation for email sequences and promotions? Absolutely. Should you eventually invest in something like HubSpot or Pipedrive? Yes. But right now, what you need is a simple system to identify your best accounts and focus your time there.

You’re not going to hit $1 million across 3,000 accounts. You’re going to hit it across 500 accounts that are the biggest restaurants and bars, where they like you, their customers like cider, and where you can create events and experiences that spike sales.

Use a spreadsheet. Use index cards. Use whatever basic tool you’ve got right now. Create a 30-60-90 day system where you know who you’re calling on in the next 30 days, the next 60 days, and the next 90 days. Build a list of your top 250 accounts that buy the most from you. That’s where you live.

Stop obsessing over tools you don’t have and start maximizing the opportunity in front of you.

Scarcity Is Your Secret Weapon

This brings us to the real issue: production capacity. Dylan can sell it, but his company can’t make enough of it.

The bourbon distillers in America are dealing with this exact problem right now. They ramped up production years ago based on projected demand, and now they’re sitting on excess inventory that’s aging out. It’s a delicate balance, and if you make too much, it goes bad and you lose everything.

Here’s what most salespeople don’t understand about scarcity: it’s actually a competitive advantage if you manage it right.

When you have limited product, you’re always going to be in an ebb and flow situation. Sometimes you’ll have an abundance of one product type. Sometimes you’ll have high-demand products in short supply. The key is building a system that lets you move fast when opportunity strikes.

This is where building buying profiles for every single customer becomes essential. You need to know which accounts buy which types of products, what their purchase patterns look like, and what their potential is (high, medium, or low).

Think about it like your account coverage pyramid. When you have product available, you start at the top with your highest value accounts and work your way down. You’re not treating all 150 accounts the same. You’re prioritizing based on potential.

When you have an abundance of one product type, you go directly to the customers who buy that product and say, “Hey, I’ve got product right now. Do you want to buy?” You can run specials. You can offer incentives (within legal limits). You move it fast.

When your high-demand products come in, you call your best accounts first and say, “I’ve got ten cases of this. I’m calling you first. How many do you want?” Then you go down your list. Most of the time, you’ll sell out before you even leave your office.

But if you’ve got 150 accounts and you’re treating them all the same, it gets overwhelming fast. Segment them. Prioritize them. Work them strategically.

Making Your Number When You Can’t Control Supply

The income issue is where this gets really interesting. Dylan wants to double his sales and earn more commissions, but he can’t because the company keeps running out of product.

Here’s my take: if you’re supposed to sell $1.5 million but your company only produces $750,000 worth of product that you could sell, they should pay you for the $1.5 million. Production was the reason you couldn’t make your number, not your sales ability.

Now, I know there are people in operations reading this who are going to say I’m full of it. But from a sales standpoint, if you’ve sold out of everything available, you’ve done your job. The constraint isn’t you, it’s production capacity.

That’s a hard conversation to have with ownership, I get it. But here’s how you make that case: sell out of the other stuff that people don’t want as much. Figure out how to move all of it. Put yourself in a position where you own the moral high ground when it comes to sales performance.

If you do that and they still can’t or won’t pay you for what you could have sold, then you’ve got a decision to make. But at least you’ll have learned how to sell in a resource-constrained environment, how to build relationships, how to manage your territory, and how to work a manual system. Those are skills that transfer to any sales role, especially ones that give you all the bells and whistles and unlimited product to sell.

The Power of Old School Discipline

Let’s go back to 1985 for a minute. In 1985, you would have had a Rolodex with tabs for H (high potential), M (medium potential), and L (low potential) accounts. When product came in, you’d open to H, pull out the cards, and start dialing.

“I’ve got ten cases of your favorite cider. I’m calling you first. How many do you want?”

If they don’t want any, click. Next card.

By the time you hit the tenth account, you’re usually sold out.

That’s the power of segmentation combined with discipline. Systems beat moods. Sequence beats sporadic effort. Process creates momentum.

You don’t need fancy technology to do this. You need clear priorities, good segmentation, and the discipline to work your system consistently.

The Bottom Line

If you’re in Dylan’s situation with limited tools and limited product, here’s your game plan:

Stop worrying about what you don’t have and focus on maximizing what you do have. Build a simple segmentation system using whatever tools are available. Create detailed buying profiles for all your accounts so you know exactly who to call when specific products become available. Work your account coverage pyramid from top to bottom, always prioritizing your highest value customers. Sell out of everything, even the less popular products, so you have leverage when talking to ownership about compensation.

The reality is that most sales challenges aren’t about having the perfect tools or unlimited resources. They’re about having the discipline to work a proven system consistently, even when conditions aren’t ideal.

That’s how you win in sales. That’s how you hit your numbers. And that’s how you build a foundation of skills that will serve you for your entire career, whether you stay in a resource-constrained environment or move to a role where the sky’s the limit.

Ready to master the fundamentals of prospecting and account management? Check out Jeb Blount’s latest book with Brynne Tillman, The LinkedIn Edge, and learn how to build systematic, relationship-driven sales processes that work in any environment.

Explore:

• How to get out of your regret loop
• The power of reflection
• How reflection creates awareness
• A system for achieving your sales goals
• 7 Steps to year-end sales reflection

Ways to Look Back at Your Sales Year

For me, the last two weeks of the year have always been the chance to pause, take a break from the grind of selling, and really think about what happened over the past year—the good, the bad, and the ugly.

If you are anything like me and do the same, there are two ways to look back on your last twelve months. You can do so with regret or reflection.

These two opposing lenses are vastly different in the way they affect your view of where you’ve been and where you are going.

The Trouble With Regret

Let’s start by unpacking regret.

Some of you are already feeling regret about goals you missed, deals you lost, opportunities that slipped through your fingers, or the people in your life you may have let down.

Regret is that feeling you get when you look back on something you did (or didn’t do) and wish you could change it.

In many ways, regret is similar to worry, except it’s focused on the past instead of the future. Worry is about what might happen; regret is about what already happened. That’s a big distinction.

Although you can turn worry into action and change the future, you cannot rewrite the past. No amount of regret changes history. All it does is create a feedback loop in your mind where you keep reliving your mistakes, misses, and failures over and over again.

Why Sales Professionals Get Stuck in a Regret Loop

I’ve observed so many people get stuck in this endless loop of regret. They keep lamenting, “If only I had . . .”

• “made that call.”
• “handled that prospect differently.”
• “taken that chance.”
• “been there or done that.”

Those “if onlys” can paralyze you. They sap your energy, crush your confidence, and keep you from moving forward.

On one hand, regret can push you to change—you don’t want to feel that kind of pain again, so you work hard to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

On the other hand, regret can become a debilitating emotion that drags you into an exhausting and useless mental loop of “would’ve, could’ve, should’ve.”

But no matter how many times you complete that loop, it doesn’t change the outcome. It becomes an emotional anchor that weighs you down as you start the new year.

The Power of Reflection

Reflection, on the other hand, is entirely different—and far more productive.

When you reflect, you detach from your emotions with objectivity to look at your entire body of work from the past year.

• You’re asking the questions, “What went well? What didn’t go so well? What did I learn?”
• You consider the wins that made you proud and the moments you’d rather forget.
• You figure out why you won so you can repeat those winning behaviors.
• You extract value from the lessons of failure.

Reflection isn’t about punishing yourself for what went wrong. It’s about gaining clarity on why it went wrong—and what you can do about it next time.

How Reflection Creates Awareness

Reflection also helps you find gratitude in unexpected places. Maybe there’s a hidden lesson in overcoming an obstacle, or perhaps you gained a new perspective because a challenging person came into your life.

It’s important to realize that each decision you made over the past year shaped your present circumstances. But you are not defined by these circumstances, only by how you respond to them.

Reflection creates awareness. Where there is awareness, there is the potential for change. Awareness is like the sun; anything it touches has a tendency to transform.

The bottom line is that reflection is about learning, growing, and transforming. Regret is stagnation.

Why Reflection Matters at Year-End

The reason I’m talking about the impact of reflection as we close out this year is because, for most of us, the slate really does feel clean come January 1st. In the sales world, we get a brand-new quota and brand-new targets. There’s an air of possibility as we think:

• “This year is going to be different.
• “This year, I’m going to crush my numbers.”
• “Hit my income targets.”
• “Make it to President’s club.”
• “Get a promotion.”
• “Finally, close that dream account I’ve been chasing.”

But if you don’t take a moment to reflect on what worked and what didn’t, you’re likely to find yourself repeating the same missteps. Reflection is like an internal debrief—a chance to say, “Here’s what happened, here’s why, and here’s how I’m going to fix it.”

Why Clarity Arises From Reflection

Let me give you a personal example. A the beginning of last year, I set a goal for my sales training company, Sales Gravy. This was a big, bold, visionary goal that would transform our organization and ultimately double our sales.

I proudly and confidently told my team that it was going to happen. And then, in an embarrassing crash and burn, I failed miserably.

Certainly, I could have stewed in regret, beating myself up and allowing my self-talk to run wild about how I fell short. But that would have been a waste of time and energy.

Instead, I chose reflection. I asked myself, “What happened and why didn’t I achieve this goal?” As I mulled over those questions, the answers came more clearly than I expected.

One of the biggest insights I gained was that I’d set this big goal, but didn’t establish a system or plan to make it happen. You see, a goal without a system is basically just a wish—as they say, “hope is not a strategy.”

Build a System that Supports Your Goals

If, for example, you set a goal to prospect a hundred potential customers per week, but you haven’t built a disciplined daily routine, built targeted lists, set aside specific times for calls, and created accountability checkpoints, it’s not going to stick. Life will get in the way. Sooner or later, your big, bold goal gets overshadowed by a million other tasks. Without a system for achieving the goal, you quickly succumb to discipline fatigue.

This is exactly why reflection can be your best friend at year’s end. It allows you to own your failures without letting them define you, and it helps you leverage your successes by pinpointing what you did right.

Regret says: “You messed up. You’ll never fix this. It’s too late.”

Reflection says: “You messed up. Now let’s find out why, learn from it, and do better next time.”

How to Conduct a Year-End Sales Reflection

To turn past performance into future growth, follow this 7-step systematic reflection process:

1. Seek Silence: Carve out 30 minutes in a quiet environment without digital distractions to ensure deep focus.
2. Audit the Timeline: Mentally journey through the year, month-by-month, starting from January, to recall specific goals and market conditions.
3. Celebrate Wins: Identify specific deals and relationships that succeeded. Recognize the personal milestones that boosted your confidence.
4. Isolate Winning Behaviors: Determine the exact habits and mindsets that led to your successes so you can turn them into repeatable systems.
5. Analyze Failures Objectively: Pinpoint the goals that stayed out of reach. Ask “Why?” to uncover the root cause of the miss without self-judgment.
6. Build Systems, Not Just Goals: Replace “hope-based” strategies with disciplined routines, targeted lists, and accountability checkpoints.
7. Practice Gratitude: Identify the “silver linings” and lessons learned from challenges to maintain an optimistic outlook for the new sales season.

Here’s the big takeaway: Regret is the enemy of progress; Reflection is the catalyst for growth.

Get your New Year off to a winning start with Jeb Blount’s popular on-demand course: The Essentials of Setting Winning Goals

That insight comes from Colleen Stanley, author of Be the Mentor Who Mattered, during a recent conversation on the Sales Gravy Podcast. It’s a simple statement that cuts through all the noise about mentorship and gets to the heart of why most mentoring relationships fail to deliver results.

Sales professionals constantly talk about wanting mentors. They want access to someone who’s been there, done that, and can show them the shortcuts. But when they get that access, they squander it. They show up unprepared. They argue with advice. They never implement what they learn.

On the flip side, experienced sales leaders say they want to give back and mentor the next generation. But they get burned out after investing time in people who don’t follow through. So they stop offering help altogether.

The problem isn’t a lack of willing mentors or eager mentees.

The problem is that nobody understands their role in making mentorship work.

What Mentees Get Wrong About Mentorship

Most people treat mentorship like a magic pill, assuming that simply being near someone successful will transfer that success to them. It doesn’t work that way.

Getting real value from a mentor requires more than just showing up. You need to actively do the work that makes their guidance worthwhile. Start by focusing on these key actions:

Ask Directly

The biggest barrier to mentorship isn’t that successful people won’t help you. It’s that you never ask.

You assume they’re too busy, too important, or too far removed from your situation to care. You’re wrong on all three counts.

Successful people got where they are because someone helped them along the way. Most of them want to pay that forward. But they’re not mind readers. If you want help, ask for it directly.

Respect Their Time

When you do ask, come prepared.

Don’t ask for “15 minutes to pick your brain.” That’s code for “I haven’t thought about what I actually need, so I’m going to waste your time figuring it out.”

Instead, be specific.

“I’m struggling with qualifying early in the sales process. Could you share how you approach qualification conversations?”

Specific questions get specific answers. Vague requests get vague responses—or none at all.

Do What They Tell You to Do

This is where most mentoring relationships die.

You ask for advice. You get great guidance. Then you come back with a list of reasons why it won’t work for your situation.

Stop that.

If you’re going to ask someone for their expertise, try their approach before explaining why your situation is different. You’re there because they know more than you do. Acting like you know better defeats the entire purpose.

Your mentor’s reward isn’t money or recognition. It’s watching you take their advice and succeed because of it.

When you implement what they teach and come back with results, they’ll invest even more in your development. When you make excuses, they’ll move on.

Take Tough Feedback Without Getting Defensive

Not every mentor has read the latest book on constructive feedback. Some of them are direct or blunt.

Take it anyway.

When someone cares enough about your success to tell you the truth—even when it’s uncomfortable—that’s a gift. Don’t reject it because it wasn’t wrapped perfectly.

The best mentors don’t sugarcoat feedback because they respect you enough to be honest. They see potential in you that you can’t see yet, and they’re not going to let you waste it by staying comfortable.

What Mentors Get Wrong About Mentorship

If you’re in a position to mentor others, you already know the frustration of investing in someone who doesn’t follow through.

It’s exhausting. Eventually, you start to wonder if it’s worth your time at all.

Before you close yourself off completely, it’s important to understand the common patterns that cause mentoring relationships to stall.

Waiting for the Perfect Mentee

There is no perfect mentee.

Everyone who asks for your help is going to be rough around the edges. They’ll make mistakes. They might waste some of your time.

That’s the cost of mentoring.

The real question isn’t whether someone is polished. It’s whether they’re committed.

Are they showing up prepared?

Are they implementing what you teach?

Are they making progress, even if it’s slow?

If the answer is yes, keep investing. If it’s no, redirect your energy elsewhere. Just don’t let one bad experience make you cynical about everyone.

Trying to Control Their Path

Your job as a mentor isn’t to create a clone of yourself.

It’s to help someone develop their own approach using the principles that made you successful.

They might take your advice and apply it differently. They might adapt it to their personality, their market, or their selling style.

That’s not wrong. That’s the point.

Stay unattached to the outcome. You can’t be more invested in their success than they are. Give them your best insights, support their growth, and let them own the results.

Mentoring the Wrong People

Not everyone needs your specific expertise.

Some people need tactical help with prospecting. Some need strategic guidance. Others need coaching on emotional intelligence.

Look for the multipliers.

Mentor people who will take what you teach them and use it to help others. When someone you mentor goes on to mentor others, your impact grows far beyond what you could achieve alone.

That doesn’t mean only mentoring future executives. It means finding people who are genuinely committed to growth and generous enough to share what they learn.

The Real Value of Mentorship

Mentorship isn’t a transaction.

It’s not about what you can get from someone more successful or what you owe someone less experienced.

It’s about creating a community where people help each other get better. Where progress matters more than perfection. Where tough feedback is welcomed because everyone knows it comes from a place of care.

Having someone in your corner who believes in your potential—even when you don’t—can be the difference between quitting and breaking through.

But that only works if both sides understand their role.

Mentees must show up ready to learn and willing to act.

Mentors must show up ready to tell the truth and willing to invest.

Find the mentors who will challenge you. Be the mentor who changes someone else’s trajectory.

Ready to take the next step in your development? Finding the right mentor or coach can transform your sales career—if you know what to look for. Learn how to identify the coach who’s right for you with our FREE How to Find the Right Coach for You Guide. 

That’s the insight that hit when Wendy Ramirez, a leading Mexican sales expert and author of Lo que nadie habla de las ventas: Estrategias para no ser llamarada de petate or What Nobody Talks About in Sales: Strategies to Avoid Being a Flash in the Pan, joined this week’s episode about handling rejection on Ask Jeb on The Sales Gravy Podcast.

After forty years in sales, I was rejected yesterday, I’ll get rejected tomorrow, and I’ve been rejected so many times that I almost don’t even feel it anymore. But that doesn’t mean you can just “let it roll off your back” as some sales trainers tell you.

If you’re struggling with rejection, you’re not alone. And more importantly, you’re not broken. There’s a biological reason it hurts so badly, and there are concrete techniques you can use to handle it.

The Biology of Rejection: Why Your Brain Is Working Against You

Here’s what most sales trainers won’t tell you: Rejection is supposed to hurt. It’s baked into your DNA.

Forty thousand years ago, human beings lived in small groups around campfires. If you got kicked out of the group and walked away from that campfire into the dark, you were in danger. You were part of the food chain. There were things out there hunting you, rival tribes fighting over scarce resources, and being alone meant you probably weren’t going to pass on your genes.

So human beings who avoided rejection were more likely to survive. This fear of rejection became an evolutionary advantage, and it’s still with us today.

That’s why selling is so hard. It’s why most people don’t want to go into sales. Walk into the accounting department and ask if anyone wants to make cold calls with you. They’re going to look at you like you’ve got four heads because nobody wants to be in a profession where you have to do something that unnatural.

This avoidance of rejection serves us really well for most of our life. You need to get along with your family, your coworkers, and other people in the world. Knowing where the line is that would get you rejected is super important to being able to work as a team.

But in sales? It’s killing your performance.

The Truth About Objections: You’re Creating Them

When people reject you or give you an objection, what they’re expressing is their fear. They’re expressing their fear of moving forward, their fear of change, their fear about whether or not you’ll do what you say you’re going to do.

And here’s the brutal part: Most of the time, you created that fear.

The easiest way to deal with an objection is to do good discovery and do a good job in the selling process. When salespeople make the mistake of not doing any discovery, they don’t have any ammunition. So the rejection sounds like this: “Your price is too high.” That’s the only way a person really knows how to explain it. If they don’t like you, they’ll say, “We need to go think about this.”

Think about it this way. If you do a great job of building the relationship, asking questions, listening, getting all of their pain and aspirations on the table, and then telling their story back to them in the context of how you can help them solve their problems, then you’ve earned the right to ask them.

When you ask, and they give you an objection, you know what to do because you already have that information. You’re just bringing back and putting on the table the things that they already told you.

The worst rejections I’ve gotten? They’re usually when I lost a deal because I didn’t do discovery. And then I found out after the fact that I missed something I shouldn’t have missed. It’s not so much the rejection that hurts. It’s the shame and the gut punch that I didn’t do my job as a salesperson, and therefore, I created the environment that made that objection so big that I couldn’t get past it because I had no information to work with.

The Ledge Technique: Your Magic Quarter Second

Let’s get practical. You’re on a prospecting call, you’re engaging another person, and they hit you with an objection that feels like rejection. What do you do?

Use a technique called the ledge. Neuroscientists would call it the magic quarter second that allows your executive brain (your prefrontal cortex) to get in control of your emotional brain (your limbic system) and that little structure inside your brain called the amygdala that triggers the fight or flight response.

The ledge is just something you’ve memorized that you say automatically whenever you get that particular objection. The thing about prospecting objections is that we know every potential one. They’re not surprising. People are going to say, “I don’t have any time,” “I’m not interested,” “I’m already working with someone,” “Your prices are too high,” “This is not a good time for me,” “I’m not the right person.”

So if someone says, “I’m too busy right now,” I just say, “I figured you would be. And that’s exactly why I called.” That’s all I say.

The reason I have that memorized is because when they say that, rather than getting consumed by the fight or flight response, I know exactly what to say. In that magic quarter second, my brain that’s smart takes over and says, “This is not a threat. This is just a person who says they don’t have enough time right now, and you know exactly how to handle it.”

Relating: The Slower Form of the Ledge

If you’re in a slower type of objection (let’s say you’re asking someone to buy from you), use a form of the ledge by relating with them.

When someone gives you an objection, they’re expecting conflict because we’re just human beings. If I tell you no, I’m expecting you to come back at me. So they give you the objection and they’re ready for it. If you punch back, they’re going to punch back. Everybody loses.

But instead, if you relate to them, you lower the temperature. You get on their side of the table. You show empathy without agreeing with them.

Here’s what that sounds like in practice: Someone says, “This is more than I wanted to pay.” You could say, “Well, look, it’s really not that expensive, and you’re going to get so much out of it.” Or you could say, “I totally get where you’re coming from. It sounds to me like you’re someone who makes really good decisions with their money.”

You’re not agreeing that the price is too high. You’re agreeing that they’re a person who makes good decisions with their money. You’re lowering the conflict level and increasing the collaborative level. You’re diffusing them and breaking their pattern.

Then you can go into, “When you say it’s a little bit more than you wanted to pay, how do you mean? What does that mean to you?”

But you always start with relating to them.

The One Basic Truth About Objections

Here’s something you need to understand: In every sales conversation, while facing every objection, it is the human being who has the greatest emotional discipline that is most likely to have control over the conversation.

And if you control the conversation, you can handle the objection.

This is called relaxed assertive confidence. When you demonstrate this behavior, it almost acts like a magnet. People lean into you. And emotionally (because emotions are contagious), it causes them to respond in kind. When you come off as relaxed and confident, suddenly they lower their conflict level and they become more confident in you as well.

There’s nothing that handles objections better than pure old confidence.

Persistence Always Finds a Way to Win

Let me leave you with this: Persistence always finds a way to win. Always.

In the US, 44 percent of salespeople only face rejection once before they give up. 78 percent give up after asking twice. 91 percent give up after asking only four times.

But on average, it takes eight asks to get someone to say yes to you.

So think about that. The statistics are in your favor. The more you’re persistent, the more you keep asking, the more likely you’re going to get what you want. The more you face rejection, the more likely you’re going to get what you want.

The inspirational part? Doing that is really hard. It takes discipline, and discipline is defined as sacrificing what you want now for what you want most.

The easiest, fastest way to put on that emotional armor and dive into objections and rejections is to know exactly what it is that you want. So that in that moment when your brain is saying to you, “Run, don’t do this, don’t face it,” you remember that on the other side of that rejection is the one thing that you want more than anything else in the world.

And you’re willing to go through it, around it, under it. No matter what it takes. You’re willing to do whatever it takes to get that thing that you want.

That’s when rejection stops being the problem and starts being just another step in your process.

Ready to transform your prospecting approach and fill your pipeline? Grab a copy of The LinkedIn Edge, Jeb’s latest book on combining LinkedIn, AI, and proven outbound strategies to sell more and close bigger deals.

Business Owners are Motivated to Reduce Taxes

In the United States, there are millions of SMBs, and the vast majority of these businesses are what we call pass-through organizations for tax purposes. This means that the owners or partners in these businesses report the profits on their personal tax filings.

Unlike big companies, small companies don’t have the luxury of rolling profits over to the next year. So whatever they made this year, they have to pay taxes on.

As the calendar winds down, business owners are often motivated to invest in products, services, and software solutions in order to reduce taxable income.

In other words, if a business has shown strong profits throughout the year, its owners might be keen to spend some of that money on improving their operations, expanding their capabilities, or streamlining their processes—right now—rather than hand over a large chunk of their profits to Uncle Sam come tax season.

Business Owners Hate Paying Taxes

To understand why this year-end period is so critical, let’s get into the mindset of a small or medium-sized business owner.

Unlike large enterprises with multiple departments and complex accounting strategies, SMB owners are often personally invested in the company’s financial results because those results are essentially their income. It’s how they pay their mortgage and put food on the table.

For this reason, they watch their revenue and expenses closely. As the year comes to an end, they’re looking at their bottom line and thinking about the upcoming tax bill.

For many of these business owners, profit is a double-edged sword. Don’t get me wrong, they want to make a profit. But at some point, too much profit triggers a much higher tax bill.

If there is one thing I know about small and medium-sized business owners, it’s that they hate taxes. They are always looking for ways to legally minimize their tax liability.

One easy and productive way to do this is to make fully or partially depreciable investments in the business before December 31st. That could mean buying new equipment, software, training packages, or services that will not only improve the business long-term but also reduce taxable income for the current year.

An Urgent Need to Spend

As a salesperson, the key takeaway here is that your prospects have a natural, time-bound incentive to spend. If you can position your product or service as the right investment at the right time, you might find it easier to close those deals that seemed just out of reach during the rest of the year.

And by the way, if you are dealing with decision-makers who are pushing off decisions to next year, this is a great way to get past that objection.

Framing Your Business Case

I want to be clear, though, that most businesses are not going to spend money for the sake of spending money. Savvy business owners want to reduce taxes and do the right thing for their company.

Therefore, you can’t just be transactional. You still must follow the sales process and build a bridge to the value of tax savings AND business improvement when making your business case.

It’s all about framing your product or service as a strategic investment rather than a mere expense.

For example:

• If you sell software tools that improve operational efficiency, make the case for how your solution will help them save on labor costs, reduce errors, and streamline workflows.
• If you’re selling advertising, highlight how a year-end launch of a new campaign will lead to immediate results that set the stage for a strong Q1.
• If you sell capital equipment, walk them through how the new equipment will make them more productive and help them expand their business in the new year.

The key is to connect the value of your offering directly to the timing. Consider messaging like:

• “This is an opportune moment to upgrade your systems, so you’ll enter the new year with a competitive edge and potentially lower your tax liabilities this season.”
• “By getting your campaign locked in before the year closes, you can reap immediate tax benefits while ensuring your advertising starts generating leads in January when you need them the most.”
• “If we get the equipment ordered now, it will be delivered in Q1, giving you plenty of time to get a high ROI next year.”

When you can tie the ROI of your product to both tangible improvements and the financial perks of year-end spending, the business case becomes much more compelling, and you will sell more.

Tailor Your Approach

While the end-of-year tax incentive is a common denominator, not every SMB is identical. Some might be profitable but cash-constrained, while others have capital burning a hole in their pockets. Some may be in sectors that had a booming year, while others are just recovering from a difficult market.

The more you understand the unique challenges and goals of each prospect you’re targeting, the better you can tailor your approach.

Before you pick up the phone, walk through their door, or send an email, do some research. Check out their recent announcements, whether they’re hiring or expanding. Look into trends in their industry.

Understanding these nuances will help you fine-tune your messaging. If you know a business is tight on cash, emphasize flexible payment plans or financing options. If the business is flush with profit, reinforce the immediate tax advantage and the strategic value of reinvesting those funds.

Empathy and relevance are your allies here. Show that you understand their position and that your solution aligns perfectly with their current goals. That personal touch, combined with the natural urgency of year-end, is a powerful recipe for closing the deal.

Lead With Urgency: Clear, Direct, Compelling

I don’t want to sweep under the rug how important timing and urgency are with this tactic. While you don’t want to be completely transactional, you do want to be direct.

As we approach the end of the year, many SMB owners have a long to-do list: Finalizing paperwork, inventory checks, reviewing vendor contracts, preparing for holiday promotions, and on and on. They’re busy. They have limited time to spend on sales pitches. This means your outreach needs to be respectful of their schedule and also clear, direct, and compelling.

Say right away: “I’m reaching out before the year ends because I have a solution that can help you maximize your tax benefits this year and help you grow your business next year.”

Being direct and to the point respects their time and sets the context immediately. If you need more help with direct and to-the-point messaging, grab your copy of my book, Fanatical Prospecting, and review Because Statements.

It’s crucial that you create and maintain a sense of urgency. Not the aggressive, pushy kind, but a natural urgency rooted in a real calendar event: The year-end.

The clock is ticking, and if they don’t make their purchase by December 31st, they will miss out on the potential tax advantages. This deadline isn’t artificial—it’s a reality. Use it to frame your conversations. Urgency helps prospects prioritize your offer over other distractions in their busy schedule.

Handling Objections

You might encounter objections like: “We’re too busy to consider new solutions right now,” or “We don’t have enough budget.”

In these cases, it’s wise to highlight the cost-saving and tax benefits again. Stress that investing now can actually put them in a better position financially. Remind them that waiting until next year could mean missing out on an opportunity to reduce this year’s taxable income.

If time is an issue, propose a quick and efficient implementation plan. Show them that you can be agile and help them integrate the solution without massive downtime.

If budget is a concern, consider promotions, discounts, or favorable financing terms. Sometimes, offering a small year-end incentive can tip the scales in your favor.

The Five Keys to Selling More to SMBs at the End of the Year

1. SMBs have a natural incentive to invest before year-end: They want to reduce their taxable income and set themselves up for a strong next year.
2. Frame your product as a strategic investment: Highlight the value, ROI, and tax benefits that come with a year-end purchase.
3. Avoid being transactional: Follow the sales process and position yourself as a partner who can help them navigate this critical period.
4. Tailor your approach to each SMB’s situation: Research their needs and adjust your prospecting message accordingly, showing empathy and relevance.
5. Create urgency with a real deadline: The calendar itself is your ally; emphasize that the benefits come from acting before December 31st.

Here’s the deal, though: Do not wait. Start this process now. The low-hanging fruit is out there, but it will rot on the vine if you fail to pick before the sand runs out of the hourglass this year.

Check out the BRAND NEW Jeb Blount Ultimate Sales Success Box Set. It’s the perfect gift for the sales professional in your life!

“Respectfully, you are not my audience.”

Performance coach Giselle Ugarte said that on a recent episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, and it might be the most liberating thing you’ll hear about LinkedIn personal branding this year.

Because somewhere between building your profile and hitting publish on that post, you’ve started making decisions based on what your college roommate might think. Or your former boss. Or yes, your mom.

The hard truth? None of them are writing you commission checks.

The Real Reason Your LinkedIn Personal Branding Falls Flat

You’ve heard “be authentic” and “show up as yourself” so often that the advice has lost all meaning. So you end up in a strange middle ground where you’re not polished enough to impress executives and not human enough to connect with actual buyers.

Your LinkedIn personal branding suffers because you’re creating content for ghosts. People who will never hire you, never refer you, never sign a contract. You’re worried about the wrong audience, and that hesitation shows up in every word you type.

Think about the last post you almost published but didn’t. What stopped you? Probably not a legitimate business concern. More likely, you had a flash of “what will people think?” and that voice didn’t belong to your ideal client. It belonged to someone in your network who wouldn’t buy from you if you were the last salesperson on earth.

Who Your LinkedIn Content Is Really For

Your LinkedIn personal branding should speak to three groups:

•  Current clients
•  Prospective clients
•  People who can refer you to clients

That’s it. Everyone else is background noise.

When you post about closing a tough deal, your brother who works in IT might think you’re bragging. Your client, who fought through the same challenge, is nodding in agreement.

When you share a lesson from a deal that went sideways, your high school friend might wonder why you’re airing dirty laundry. Your prospect is realizing you understand their world.

The disconnect happens because you’re trying to serve two masters. You want to build real relationships with buyers while also maintaining some imaginary professional image for people who have zero impact on your business.

The Transform 20: LinkedIn Personal Branding That Actually Works

If you’re going to shift your LinkedIn personal branding from performative to productive, you need a system. Not another “post three times a week” generic advice pile, but something that forces you to focus on real humans instead of vanity metrics.

Giselle’s practical framework, Transform 20, breaks down into four daily actions, each designed to build actual relationships:

Connect with 5 new people.

Not random connections. People you met this week, people on your calendar, people who recognize your face. Every request should feel familiar to them.

Send 5 meaningful messages.

Check in. Reference something personal. End with a question. “Let me know” is where leads go to die. Meaningful DMs teach the algorithm who matters to you — and who should see your content.

Leave 5 meaningful comments.

Two to three sentences. Add context. Reintroduce yourself if needed. A thoughtful comment builds more trust than another like or emoji ever will.

Record 5 one-to-one videos.

Sixty seconds or less. “Hey, I was thinking about you because…” It’s a pattern interrupt in an inbox full of text and one of the fastest ways to stand out. This is where confidence compounds.

Twenty actions. Most people won’t do it because it feels like work. But if you woke up to 20 qualified leads tomorrow, would that change your business? That’s what you’re building here.

What Your LinkedIn Profile Should Actually Show

Buyers want to know you’re a real person. That you have a family, hobbies, interests, failures, and lessons. That you care about something besides your quota.

If you blur your Zoom background because you think it’s more professional, you’re missing an opportunity. Let them see the bookshelf, the Peloton, the framed photo. These details give people something to ask about and a reason to remember you.

The same goes for your LinkedIn headline. Yes, include your title. But also include the detail that creates connection. “Mom of four,” or “Proud Michigan alum,” or whatever matters to you and might matter to them. Make it easier for people to find common ground with you.

Stop Creating Content for People Who Will Never Buy

You already know who matters: current clients, prospective clients, and people who can refer you to clients.

Your former colleague who always has something snarky to say about your posts? They’ve never sent you a referral. Your friend from college who thinks sales is beneath them? They’re not signing contracts. Your family member who wants you to be more buttoned up? They’re not in your market.

Have the clarity to know that you can’t build an effective LinkedIn personal branding presence while trying to please everyone. You’ll end up pleasing no one, least of all the people who could actually benefit from working with you.

You cannot build effective LinkedIn personal branding while trying to please people who don’t impact your business.

Before you write that post or record that video, remind yourself: someone would be lucky to hear from me today. You have something valuable to offer — and the courage to show up as a real human.

The salespeople winning on LinkedIn aren’t the most polished. They’re the most human. They make it easier for the right people to decide they want to work with them.

Send the videos. Start the conversations. Show up as the person your clients actually want to buy from. That’s how you win on LinkedIn — and everywhere else.

Want the full LinkedIn playbook? Buy The LinkedIn Edge by Jeb Blount and Brynne Tillman. It’s packed with non-negotiables that will turn your profile into a pipeline-building machine.

That’s the exact situation Kyle Begbie, a regional sales director at Fuse HR Solutions in Ontario, Canada, brought to this week’s Ask Jeb. His team overcame massive market disruption, economic headwinds, and buyer hesitation to finish the year strong. Now he’s facing the most dangerous challenge of all: keeping that momentum alive through the holidays and into January.

If you’re nodding your head right now, you’re not alone. This is the point in the year where sales teams either set themselves up for a championship quarter or dig themselves into a hole that takes months to climb out of.

The Holiday Momentum Trap

Here’s what happened to Kyle’s team, and it’s probably happening to yours too: They worked incredibly hard through disruption and uncertainty. They pushed through discouragement when buyers were putting deals on hold. They ground it out for months to get back on track.

And now they’re exhausted.

The holidays are here. Christmas music is playing. Everyone wants to take their foot off the accelerator and coast a little bit. This is why December and January are the most dangerous months for sales professionals.

Here’s the deal: Nothing really changed in the market from the first half of the year to the second half. Kyle’s team faced the exact same headwinds, the same economic conditions, the same buyer concerns. The only thing that changed was what they believed.

Once they believed they could win, they kept winning. And once buyers realized nothing was going to change and all of this was permanent, they got on with business.

But here’s the problem: If you take your foot off the accelerator now, you’re going to pay for it in January and February. That’s not motivation speak. That’s math.

The 30-Day Rule Will Make or Break Your Q1

The 30-day rule is simple: The prospecting you do in any given 30-day period pays off over the next 90 days.

This is especially true in industries like staffing, but it applies to every sales role. If your team takes December off and doesn’t prospect, you’re going to have a catastrophic January and February. It’s that simple.

So the number one thing you need to do as a sales leader right now is get structure around prospecting. Every morning, your team needs to run their call blocks. They need to run their sequences. They need to go through the entire process, and that cannot stop.

The only way you’re going to lead this is from the front. Whether your team is dispersed or in the office, you need to be running prospecting blocks with them every single day all the way through the holidays. If you do that, you’re going to be golden.

Close What’s Closable Before January 1

The second critical action is closing every deal in your pipeline that’s actually closable right now.

Your customers are thinking they have time. Your salespeople are thinking they have time. Nobody’s pushing anybody. But here’s the reality: If those deals roll over past Christmas into the New Year, the likelihood of closing them is almost zero. You’re essentially starting all over again.

Sit down with all your salespeople right now and walk through their pipeline. Identify every single deal where everything is lined up. Fit, budget, need, authority. Everything’s qualified. The only thing keeping you from closing is they haven’t said yes yet.

Get in the middle of those deals and find a way to get them closed. That gives you momentum going into the new year. December feels great. And in staffing or any service business, those December closes become revenue in January, February, and March, which takes massive pressure off your team.

Set Your Team Up for Success in January

This is a critical time to start thinking about setting yourself up for success in the new year. While everyone else is checking out, you should be:

Building targeted prospect lists for Q1. Identify your ideal prospects for January, February, and March right now so you can hit the ground running.

Cleaning up your CRM. Get your data organized. Update records. Remove garbage. Make sure your team has clean, actionable information when they come back.

Revisiting close-lost deals from earlier in the year. Especially deals from the first half of 2025 where buyers were hesitating or went with a competitor. Maybe the grass wasn’t greener. Maybe they still have the same problems. Build those lists now so you can attack them hard in January.

Following up on qualified leads that stalled. There are good leads sitting in your system that were qualified but couldn’t move because of timing or market conditions. Gather those up and get lists together for your team.

What you’re doing here is acting like a coach getting your players in position to win. Because here’s what happens if you don’t: You come off the holidays, get into the first part of the year, and watch your sales team waste the first two weeks of January walking around in a daze, not knowing what to do.

You want to make sure that the first Monday of the new year, you’re running prospecting blocks, talking to customers, and working deals. Not figuring out what you should be doing.

The Power of Celebration and Storytelling

The last piece of maintaining momentum is taking time to celebrate what your team accomplished.

Sit down with your team and tell them the story of what they did this year. Make sure they understand the lesson: When they shifted their mindset, they changed their game. That’s what happened.

Tell them they did a great job. Make sure they’re taking time for their family and having fun. Help them manage their time so they can do both. But fill up their hearts with confidence and belief that they can do anything.

Because here’s the truth: Nothing changed this year except for them. And if that’s true, then nothing can stop them next year either. It doesn’t matter what happens in the marketplace. Even if we go into a recession, people are still hiring. The money is still there. It’s just that more people are chasing it.

Teach your team that it doesn’t make a difference what happens. The economy can fall apart, but they’re good enough to go find where the money is and take it. Because while everyone else is sitting around telling themselves what they can’t do, your team is telling themselves what they can do.

That’s how you carry momentum. That’s how you avoid the January hole. And that’s how you build a championship sales team.

Ready to take your sales game to the next level? Check out The LinkedIn Edge to learn how to leverage the world’s most powerful B2B social selling platform to fill your pipeline, build relationships, and close more deals.

Walk into a bowling alley on a Friday night, and you’ll see a scene that looks like pure recreation. The crash of pins, the rumble of conversation, the squeak of shoes on the approach. But beneath all that noise is something far more serious: discipline, repetition, emotional control, and the relentless pursuit of mastery.

That’s the real game. And it’s the exact game top performers play in sales.

Selling rewards consistency, mental toughness, and the willingness to execute the fundamentals long after everyone else has checked out. When you break the sport of bowling down frame by frame, it mirrors what we teach every day at Sales Gravy. Fanatical Prospecting. Emotional control. Owning your process. Staying steady under pressure. Winning one shot at a time.

Each frame reveals a truth about the way elite sellers think and operate.

Frame 1: The Approach — Fanatical Prospecting

In bowling, the shot starts before the ball ever moves. The routine is deliberate: same steps, same breath, same commitment. That’s where consistency begins.

In sales, your approach is prospecting. It’s the moment you decide whether you’re a professional or a hobbyist. Pros don’t wait for a pipeline crisis. They build a non-negotiable daily rhythm of fanatical prospecting, exactly the way Jeb teaches it.

“One more call. One more conversation. One more connection.”

That mindset is your approach. That’s the discipline that separates a bowler stepping onto the lane with purpose from the one sitting at the bar making excuses.

You pick a target, commit, and move.

Frame 2: The Lane — Owning Your Sales Process

A lane looks the same every time, but it rarely plays the same. Oil patterns shift. Friction changes. Conditions evolve.

Your sales process is no different.

You can’t control a buyer’s internal politics or shifting priorities, but you can control how you move through your process. You can control your cadence, your discovery, your follow-up, and your commitment to advancing every opportunity with intention.

Average sellers blame the lane. Pros read it.

They ask better questions. They recognize where deals stall. They adjust without abandoning the fundamentals. The arrows exist to guide the ball; your process exists to guide you. Ignore it, and you drift straight into the gutter.

Frame 3: The Ball — Your Message and the Triangle of Trust

A bowler’s ball is drilled to fit their hand, weighted for their style, and chosen for the conditions.

Your ball is your message—your story, your questions, your ability to connect what you sell to what the buyer actually cares about. When you balance logic, emotion, and values, the ball rolls true.

Most sellers throw the same generic pitch at every buyer. Pros tune their message. They refine their openings. They speak the buyer’s language.

Hit with too much emotion and no substance, you lose credibility. Hit with pure logic and no emotional relevance, you miss the pocket of influence.

The goal is simple: strike emotion first, let logic clean up the rest.

Frame 4: The Pins — Prospects, Objections, and Physics

Pins obey physics. They aren’t out to get you.

Prospects are the same.

Some fall quickly. Some require finesse. Some need a second shot. This is where many sellers unravel emotionally. They take objections personally. They turn one “no” into a story about themselves.

Objections aren’t judgment. They’re feedback.

“We’re happy with our current vendor.”

“Call me next quarter.”

Objections are indicators, and tell you where your angle is off.

Pros adjust. Ask a different question. Reframe the problem. Bring a story that hits harder. Then take another shot.

The frame isn’t over until you quit.

Frame 5: The Shoes — Mindset and Emotional Control

No one bowls in street shoes. You’ll slip, lose balance, and go down hard.

Your mindset is your pair of bowling shoes. Without emotional control, every call feels unstable. Every objection knocks you off center. Every tough moment spirals.

Pros prepare their mind before they prepare their day. They visualize tough conversations. They decide how they’ll respond to setbacks before they happen. They choose composure over reaction.

A confident mind produces a confident delivery. Buyers feel both.

Frame 6: The Equipment — Tech as an Amplifier, Not a Crutch

Pros carry multiple balls, tape, tools—gear that helps them adjust and stay consistent. None of it bowls for them.

Sales is full of tools too: CRMs, AI, sequencing engines, dialers. But tools only multiply effort. They never replace it.

Weak sellers hide behind technology. Pros use it to increase conversations and stay organized. Tools help you understand the “oil pattern” of your territory. But at the end of the day, it’s still you, a buyer, and a conversation.

No technology closes deals for you.

Frame 7: The Team — Culture and Accountability

Bowling looks individual, but leagues win seasons. Behind every high average is a team pushing each other, challenging complacency, and celebrating progress.

Sales is the same.

Great cultures are built around coaching, accountability, and emotional safety. Teams share insights, review calls, and collaborate on tough deals. When someone hits a strike, everyone feels the lift. When someone struggles, the team rallies.

You’re competing, but you’re not competing against each other. You’re competing against your potential.

Frame 8: The Scoreboard — Metrics and Truth

The scoreboard doesn’t lie. It doesn’t care how busy you felt. It only reflects execution.

Your sales scoreboard measures the same: dials, conversations, opportunities created, conversion rates. These numbers are feedback tools. High performers study them. They adjust mechanics, behavior, and cadence based on the data.

You can’t manage what you don’t measure.

Frame 9: The Follow-Through — Closing with Composure

A bowler’s follow-through is controlled and deliberate. The ball is gone, but the motion stays disciplined.

Closing requires the same composure.

Many sellers execute well early in the cycle. Then, at the moment of truth, they flinch. They rush. They soften. 

Pros stay steady. They recap value clearly. They ask directly and confidently. They handle final concerns without panic. Closing is the natural output of a disciplined process.

Frame 10: The Final Frame — Finishing Strong with Follow-Up

The tenth frame separates casual bowlers from champions. Tired, under pressure, and out of margin for error, pros sharpen their focus.

In sales, the tenth frame is follow-up.

It’s the week after the demo. The stalled proposal. The buyer who goes quiet. Most sellers mentally check out and tell themselves the wrong story: “If they wanted it, they’d call me.”

Pros don’t buy that lie.

Deals are won in the follow-up—professional, relevant, value-driven persistence. That’s where reliability is proven.

The Game That Never Ends

Sales doesn’t have a perfect 300 game every time. Some days everything strikes clean. Some days, you grind for spares. Some days, the ball finds the gutter no matter how good your form feels.

The separator is what you do next.

Pros study the lane. They adjust their feet. They breathe. They get back on the approach and commit to the next shot with the same intensity as the first.

So as you head into your day, think like a bowler playing the long game. Lace up your mindset. Respect your process. Choose your message with intention. Read your buyers the way pros read the lanes. Lean on your team. Track your scoreboard. And never cheat the follow-through.

The pins are set. The lane is open. You’ve always got one more frame.

Step up with purpose. Roll with confidence. And when in doubt, make one more call.

Ready to take your sales game to the next frame? Build discipline, track your process, and crush your goals with the FREE Sales Gravy Goal Guide. Start mastering your results today.

You’ve been coachable your entire career. You take feedback, adjust your approach, read books, listen to podcasts, and implement what works. Yet being coachable doesn’t automatically make you humble—and that gap may be costing you more than you realize.

Nicolas Restrepo, Senior Vice President of Sales at World Emblem, shared on a recent Sales Gravy Podcast episode: “What advice would I give myself ten years ago? Be humble. There’s a difference between being coachable and being humble.”

Most sales leaders assume coachability covers everything. If you’re open to learning, you’re set—right? Not quite. The best sales leadership is built not only on willingness to learn, but on recognizing that your success was never yours alone.

What Being Coachable Actually Means

A coachable leader stays receptive. Feedback isn’t a threat. Adjustments aren’t a burden. You ask questions, try new techniques, and pivot when something stops working.

Coachable leaders attend training sessions and apply what they learn. They don’t cling to “the way we’ve always done it” when the market shifts. Adaptability is their baseline.

But it’s only half the picture.

What Being Humble Actually Means

Humility isn’t self-deprecation. It’s acknowledging the full story behind every win.

Humble leaders recognize the customer service rep who handled tough calls, the operations team that pulled off a miracle to meet a deadline, and the mentor who guided them through a high-stakes negotiation.

Humility shows up when leaders look at a win and say “we did that” instead of “I did that.” It changes the way you speak, how you coach, and how your team shows up around you.

Why Sales Leaders Confuse the Two

It’s easy to blur the lines. Coachability requires some humility. You have to acknowledge you don’t know everything. But it’s possible to be coachable and still operate from ego.

Some leaders take feedback on their discovery process while taking full credit for the deal. They embrace a new objection-handling framework but never acknowledge the people who supported the outcome. They accept coaching but keep score of how often they were right.

Coachability grows your skills. Humility grows your people.

The Risks of Only Having One

Coachability without humility burns teams out. You may improve individually, but hoarding credit discourages collaboration. When that happens, reps start withholding help because they know their contribution won’t be recognized. They stop sharing insights. They stop going the extra mile. Coachable-but-not-humble leaders also tend to ask for help too late. They’ll accept advice when it arrives but rarely seek it out until they’re underwater.

Humility without coachability leads to stagnation. You may share credit generously and build strong relationships, but if you refuse to learn hard truths about your blind spots, your team stalls with you. Some leaders disguise resistance to growth as modesty, deflecting responsibility rather than owning the need for improvement.

You need both.

Where These Traits Show Up in Real Leadership

Consider how coachability and humility show up in everyday situations:

After a big win:

• Coachable leaders debrief to find the repeatable actions.
• Humble leaders publicly recognize who made the win possible.

When something fails:

• Coachable leaders ask what they could have done differently.
• Humble leaders avoid placing blame on the team.

During onboarding:

• Coachable leaders stay open to feedback from new hires about broken processes.
• Humble leaders acknowledge when a new rep brings a skill they don’t have.

In pipeline reviews:

• Coachable leaders adjust their forecast based on data.
• Humble leaders give credit to the rep who spotted a risk early.

Why This Matters for Long-Term Sales Leadership

Sales leadership is a long game. You’re not just managing this quarter’s number. You’re shaping the culture that determines whether top performers stay or bolt.

Coachability keeps you sharp. Humility keeps your team aligned.

When both traits are active, people share ideas more freely because they know you’ll listen. They fight for deals because their effort is seen. They stay through hard quarters because they trust you’re not in it for personal glory.

How to Develop Both Traits

To strengthen coachability:

• Ask your team for feedback on your leadership and apply it.
• Work with a peer or mentor who will challenge you.
• Notice when you resist feedback and explore why.
• Read one sales leadership book per quarter and implement one idea.

To strengthen humility:

• When talking about a win, name three people who contributed.
• Ask for help early instead of waiting until you’re stuck.
• Start meetings by recognizing someone else’s win.
• Pay attention to how often you use “I” versus “we.”

Questions to challenge yourself:

• When I talk about a win, who gets credit?
• Do reps bring me ideas, or wait to be told what to do?
• Am I more focused on being right or being effective?
• When was the last time I publicly recognized someone?

The Bottom Line

Being coachable gets you in the room. Being humble keeps you there.

You can study every methodology, attend every training session, and absorb every leadership book. But if the goal is proving how great you are instead of elevating how great your team can become, you’re building on sand.

The sales leaders who last, who build high-performing cultures and develop reps who grow into leaders, all understand one truth: success was never a solo act.

Stay coachable so you keep growing. Stay humble so your team grows with you.

Your people will feel the difference. So will your results.

Being coachable and humble is just the start. Learn how to inspire your team, earn trust, and create a culture that drives results. Grab your free chapter of People Follow You and discover the leadership strategies top sales leaders use every day.

Of course not. That’s insane.

But if you’re in sales and you let rejection stop you from making calls, booking appointments, and closing deals, that’s exactly what you’re doing. You’re handing over your commission check to fear.

That was the powerful insight from Wendy Ramirez, a leading Mexican sales expert and author of Lo que nadie habla de las ventas: Estrategias para no ser llamarada de petate or What Nobody Talks About in Sales: Strategies to Avoid Being a Flash in the Pan, on a recent episode of Ask Jeb the Sales Gravy Podcast. When you give rejection the power to stop you, you’re literally taking money away from your family. Let that sink in.

The Science of Why Rejection Hurts

Let’s get one thing straight right now: I’m not going to sit here and glorify rejection. Nobody wants to be rejected. Unless you’re a pure sociopath who feels nothing (and there aren’t many of those in sales), rejection is going to hurt you.

It doesn’t matter if you’re highly outcome-driven like me or highly empathetic. Rejection hurts everyone in different degrees, but it hurts. Period.

Here’s what’s actually happening inside your body when you get rejected: Your brain treats rejection like a physical threat. Fight or flight kicks in. It’s a neurophysical response that dumps adrenaline into your bloodstream, makes your heart race, and creates this overwhelming urge to either run away or fight back.

That uncomfortable feeling? That’s not weakness. That’s just science.

The Problem: Sales Is a Rejection-Dense Profession

Here’s the brutal reality about selling: If you don’t face rejection, you’re going to fail.

Sales is what I call a rejection-dense profession. When you hit rejection in sales, you don’t have the option of going backwards. You can go over it, through it, around it, or dig under it. But your job is literally to go out into the world, find rejection, and bring it home.

That’s the job description. That’s what we signed up for.

Think about it like this: A few years back, I got invited to jump out of an airplane with the Golden Knights, the U.S. Army’s elite parachute team. I’m not a skydiver (just like I’m not a Spanish speaker), but what an honor to jump with probably the best parachute team worldwide.

I asked the guy I was tandem jumping with how many times he’d jumped. Ten thousand times, he said. So I asked him, “Do you ever get afraid?”

His answer changed everything for me: “Of course, I get afraid. I’m jumping out of an airplane. Your body is going to get afraid. I’ve just done it so many times that I know exactly what the process is. I’m able to get myself to jump even though my brain says this is the wrong thing to do.”

That’s exactly what you have to do in sales.

Building Obstacle Immunity

In my book Objections, I talk about something called obstacle immunity. It’s the process human beings go through of facing something that feels really big and uncomfortable, but doing it enough times that we lower the size of that obstacle.

The fear of being rejected never fully goes away. But you can lower that fear.

Here’s how you do it:

Develop the Ledge Technique
The ledge technique allows you to interrupt or break the pattern you feel in fight or flight when you get rejected. It helps you regain your poise and confidence so you know what to say next. It’s about taking control of the conversation when someone gives you an objection.

Understand the Difference Between Objections and Rejection
An objection isn’t the same as a rejection, even though they feel essentially the same in your body. When someone objects, they’re giving you information. When someone rejects you, they’re saying no. Learn to tell the difference.

Focus on Emotional Discipline
In emotionally tense situations, you’ve got to be emotionally disciplined. You’ve got to gain control, gain poise, and handle those objections in a way that allows you to achieve your desired outcome.

The Mindset Makes All the Difference

Sales is a skill position. There are particular skills, techniques, and tools you need to deploy to be good at the craft. But the thing that makes all the difference is what’s in your head.

This is no different than athletics. Elite athletes all operate at similar skill and talent levels. They’ll tell you that winning or losing happens between the ears.

I’m a big golfer. The difference between me having a really good game or a really bad game is one hundred percent what’s in my head. My body knows what to do. I know how to swing the club. The mental game is everything.

If you don’t fix your mindset, you’re not going to get the results you’re expecting. People think they’re stuck and can’t move forward. But it’s just about moving your mindset. Get more information. Learn something new. Apply what you learn. That’s how you increase your mindset and get better results.

Stop Giving Away Your Power

When Wendy said, “When you give to the clients, when you give to the people that rejected you, the power to stop you, that’s exactly what you do,” it hit me like a freight train.

You wouldn’t let someone take your wallet. You wouldn’t let someone steal from your family. So why would you let rejection steal your future?

The next time you feel that uncomfortable feeling in your chest after getting rejected, remember this: That feeling is just your body doing what it’s supposed to do. It’s not telling you to quit. It’s telling you that you’re doing something hard, something that matters, something that will pay off.

Face your fear. Make the next call. The difference between average salespeople and elite performers isn’t talent. It’s the willingness to go through rejection instead of around it.

That’s how you win.

Ready to take your sales game to the next level? Check out The LinkedIn Edge to learn how to leverage the world’s most powerful B2B social selling platform to fill your pipeline, build relationships, and close more deals.

The difference between good salespeople and unforgettable ones isn’t about closing techniques or fancy proposals. It’s about becoming the trusted sales advisor your buyers can’t imagine doing business without. It’s about evolving from vendor to linchpin—the person who holds everything together.

What Does It Mean to Be a Linchpin?

A linchpin is the small pin that holds a wheel on its axle. Remove it, and everything falls apart.

In sales, being a linchpin means you’re more than someone who takes orders or delivers quotes. You’re the trusted sales advisor buyers turn to for guidance, validation, and expertise. They don’t just buy from you; they believe in you. They want your opinion. They rely on your consistency. And when things get messy, they know you’ll help them make sense of it all.

But most salespeople never reach linchpin status. They stay stuck in the vendor zone: quoting, pitching, following up, moving on. It’s safe. It hits metrics. But safety doesn’t create loyalty.

Why Most Sellers Stay Vendors

The vendor zone is comfortable. You know what to do. You have a process. You check boxes.

But here’s the problem: your prospect can feel when you’re focused on yourself instead of them. They know when you’re running through a script or waiting to launch into your pitch. And that feeling—that sense of being just another number—kills trust before it ever has a chance to grow.

Being a trusted sales advisor requires something different. It requires you to slow down, tune in, and genuinely care about the person across from you. That’s where the magic happens.

Build Emotional Connection Through Reading the Room

The best salespeople don’t take behavior at face value. They interpret it.

When a buyer seems distracted or cold, linchpin sellers pause and ask themselves: What’s really happening here? Is this person overwhelmed? Skeptical because of a bad past experience? Or just thinking deeply because they need time to process?

Here’s how to sharpen your ability to read buyer emotions:

1. Match and mirror. Notice their pace, tone, and energy, then subtly align with it. People feel safer with people who move at a similar rhythm.
2. Say what you’re thinking. Use your inside voice as your outside voice. Try: “It sounds like this project has a lot of pressure behind it” or “You seem hesitant—can I ask what’s causing that?” Naming emotions and behaviors politely opens doors.
3. Embrace the silence. Silence doesn’t mean rejection. It means your buyer is thinking, absorbing, processing. This is where most salespeople blow it. They open their mouths too soon because they can’t handle the quiet. Five extra minutes of patience is often what stands between winning and losing a deal.

Reading people is empathy in motion. But it takes work. And most salespeople don’t take the time.

Lead With Curiosity

Curiosity is the trait that rarely gets enough attention in sales training. But when you’re genuinely curious about what makes your buyers tick—what drives their decisions, what matters most to them, what keeps them up at night—you move past small talk and into real conversations.

When you show up to serve instead of showing up to sell, curiosity becomes natural. You ask questions to understand what your customers actually need. You build solutions together. And that’s the moment you become essential to solving their problems.

Here’s how to leverage curiosity as a trusted sales advisor:

1. Ask one more question. When your buyer answers, don’t jump into your pitch. Say, “Tell me more about that” or “What else is behind that concern?” That extra question is where the truth often lives.
2. Replace judgment with wonder. When a prospect makes an odd request, don’t think “That’s ridiculous.” Think “I wonder what’s driving that?” That mindset shift changes your energy completely—and they can feel it.
3. Prep curiosity prompts before each meeting. Write down three open-ended questions that start with “how” or “what.” Questions like “How will this impact your team’s workload?” or “What happens if nothing changes?” uncover real motivation.

The phrase “I’m so curious about…” has become a game-changer in discovery calls. It opens doors to deeper conversations. Most buyers will jump right in, and the conversation flows naturally. Your job is to listen, take notes, and get even more curious as they open up.

Evolve Into an Indispensable Consultant

Most salespeople understand the concept of being consultative: asking questions, offering insights, guiding decisions. But the best take it further. They become so valuable that their clients’ success feels harder to imagine without them.

When you become indispensable, things don’t function properly without you. People need you, not just want you. You bring unique value that can’t easily be replaced, because nobody is you.

Here’s how to go beyond helpful and become essential:

1. Diagnose before you recommend. Don’t rush to fix. Take time to fully understand the client’s situation. Ask deeper questions. Look for patterns. Confirm what really matters before offering solutions. You’ll gain trust faster through understanding than urgency.
2. Teach through insight. Help your clients see their business from a new angle. Bring context, data, or perspective they haven’t considered. When they walk away from a meeting thinking differently because of you, you’re no longer just a vendor—you’re a resource.
3. Lead with consistency and integrity. Show up when it’s easy, but also show up when it’s not. Be steady, dependable, and transparent, especially when outcomes are uncertain. Indispensable consultants don’t disappear when things get complicated. They stay close, communicate clearly, and make it easier for clients to move forward with confidence.

When you understand deeply, teach clearly, and lead consistently, you become more than a salesperson. You become part of your clients’ strategy. You become the trusted sales advisor they call first.

People Buy You First

Being a linchpin isn’t about what you sell. It’s about how you show up for the buyer.

When markets shift or leadership changes, your product might change—but your presence shouldn’t. People will always buy you first.

Show up curious. Listen for meaning, not just for answers. Teach what you know. Stay steady when others panic.

This approach moves you from being one of many to being the one they call first. That’s how you go from vendor to linchpin.

Ready to master the techniques that turn you into the trusted sales advisor your buyers can’t live without? Download the FREE Sales Gravy Book of Play by Gina Trimarco and get the tools, tactics, and techniques to become a more effective and agile communicator in spontaneous sales conversations.

These things look like recognition, but your people know the truth: leadership is outsourcing one of the most human tasks—seeing the people who show up every day and make things happen. And your teams feel the disconnect.

As Jeb Blount Jr. recently said on the Sales Gravy Podcast: “Don’t make your appreciation to customers, to your team, to yourself a completely outsourced behavior. It will be cheap, and everyone will know it.”

Authentic appreciation can’t be delegated to your human resources team or automated through your CRM. And that’s exactly why it works.

Where Sales Leaders Go Wrong with Recognition

Most sales leaders fall into one of two camps.

Camp one believes they don’t have time for appreciation because they’re focused on results. The numbers are what matter. Recognition is soft skills territory—nice to have, but not essential.

Camp two wants to show appreciation but defaults to the path of least resistance. They sign the company card. Approve the budget for the year-end gift. Forward the congratulatory email from the VP. Box checked.

Both camps are missing what actually moves people. Recognition that matters requires you to see the work that often goes unseen. It demands that you pause long enough to notice not just the outcome, but the effort behind it. That’s not something you can outsource.

Why Small Moments Compound Into Big Results

There’s a concept in professional development about making 1% improvements every single day. Over 365 days, those tiny adjustments compound into exponential growth.

Authentic appreciation works the same way.

You don’t need a massive recognition program. You don’t need elaborate gestures or expensive rewards. You need consistency in the small moments that tell your team: I see you, and what you are doing matters.

Consider the sales rep who stays late to prep for tomorrow’s presentation. The account manager who defuses a client issue before it reaches your desk. The teammate who mentors the new hire without being asked. These moments happen every day, and most leaders miss them entirely because they’re scanning for the big wins.

But your team isn’t just looking for recognition when they close the monster deal. They’re looking for it on Tuesday afternoon when they’re grinding through their 50th prospecting call. They’re looking for it when they’ve had a brutal week and still show up ready to perform.

Small acts of authentic appreciation in these moments build trust faster than any annual award ceremony ever will.

3 Elements of Authentic Appreciation

Authentic appreciation has three non-negotiable elements.

• Specific means recognizing exactly what someone did and why it mattered. Not “great work on that account,” but “the way you handled that objection about pricing showed real creativity—you reframed value instead of dropping price, and that’s exactly the approach we need more of.”
• Timely means you don’t wait for the quarterly review or the annual celebration. You recognize the effort when it happens, while it’s still fresh and meaningful.
• Personal means you deliver it in a way that resonates with that individual. Some people want public recognition. Others prefer a quiet conversation. Some treasure a handwritten note. Others just want to hear it directly from you in the moment.

Here’s what this looks like in real leadership: One sales leader makes it a practice to handwrite notes to team members. Not emails. Not Slack messages. Actual pen-on-paper notes. Some are two sentences. Some are three paragraphs. But everyone is specific to something that person did and why it mattered to the team.

Is it efficient? No. Does it scale? Not really. But those notes end up on office walls, in desk drawers, and tucked into planners. Years later, people still have them. That’s the difference between authentic and outsourced.

Integrate Authentic Appreciation Into How You Already Work

Most sales leaders know they should show more appreciation. They feel guilty about it. They add it to their to-do list. And then the day gets away from them.

The problem is treating appreciation as an extra task instead of integrating it into what you’re already doing.

You’re already having one-on-ones. Reviewing deals. Walking the floor or jumping on calls. The question isn’t whether you have time—it’s whether you’re paying attention in those moments.

When reviewing pipeline, don’t just look at the numbers. Notice the effort. “I see you’ve been hitting activity goals consistently for six weeks straight. That discipline is setting you up for a strong Q1.”

When someone sends an update email, reply with more than “thanks.” Take 30 seconds to acknowledge what they did: “This breakdown made my job easier. I didn’t have to dig for answers. That kind of communication makes our team more efficient.”

These aren’t grand gestures. They’re small moments of paying attention and responding like a human being who notices when people do good work.

Building a Culture Where Authentic Appreciation Flows Both Ways

The best team cultures don’t just flow from leader to team member; they flow in every direction.

When you model authentic appreciation, your team starts doing it for each other. They notice the work that happens behind the scenes. They start going the extra mile. The culture shifts from everyone waiting for the leader’s approval to everyone building each other up.

One practice that works: create space in team meetings for peer recognition. Not forced or formal—just an open moment where anyone can call out something they appreciated from a teammate that week. Keep it optional. Keep it genuine. You’ll be surprised how quickly it becomes part of your team’s rhythm.

Additionally, most high performers are terrible at acknowledging their own progress. They hit a goal and immediately move to the next one without pausing to appreciate what they just accomplished.

In coaching sessions, start by asking: “What’s a win from this week?” Make them say it out loud. Make them acknowledge their own growth. That internal recognition builds resilience and momentum that external praise alone can’t create.

What Happens When You Get This Right

When you stop outsourcing appreciation and start building it into your leadership, everything shifts.

• Retention improves. People stay where they feel seen and valued. They leave when they feel invisible.
• Team energy changes. Appreciated people bring more to the table. They take ownership. They go the extra mile because they want to.
• Difficult conversations get easier. When someone knows you genuinely care about their success, they’re more open to feedback and coaching.
• Culture becomes magnetic. Top performers want to work on teams where their contributions matter. They can feel the difference between authentic and transactional leadership from a mile away.

Take Action This Week

Stop waiting for the perfect appreciation program or the right company initiative. Start with what you can control right now.

This week:

• Write one handwritten note to someone on your team. Be specific about what they did and why it mattered.
• In your next one-on-one, ask “What’s a win from this week?” and let them acknowledge their own progress.
• Catch someone doing something right—however small—and tell them in the moment.
• End your next team meeting with clear recognition for one person. Not generic praise, tell them exactly what you noticed and why it mattered.

This month:

• Create a recognition moment in every team meeting. Make it specific, not generic.
• Ask yourself: What recognition do I wish I were receiving? Then give that to someone else.
• When reviewing pipeline or performance, comment on the effort, not just the outcome.

Stop Outsourcing What Should Be Human

The work you do as a sales leader matters. The people on your team matter. And the small moments where you choose to show up and recognize their effort—those matter most of all.

Your team isn’t waiting for the next corporate initiative or the annual awards ceremony. They’re waiting for you to notice. They’re waiting for you to care enough to say something about the work they’re doing right now.

Stop outsourcing what should be human. Lead with authentic appreciation today, and watch your team thrive. 

Want to turn recognition into motivation that sticks? Our Sales Gravy University course, 4 Keys to Keeping Your Sales Team Motivated When Everything Hits the Fan, gives you the proven framework to transform appreciation into performance. Learn how to build a sales culture where people feel seen, valued, and driven — even in hard times.

That’s the challenge Michael Bricker from West Monroe, Louisiana, brought to a recent Ask Jeb episode. Five months into his role at Cantara Networks, a fiber-backed internet provider, Michael was supposed to spend three minutes researching each prospect. Instead, he found himself spending 15 to 30 minutes per call, terrified he’d miss the one critical insight that would unlock the door.

Sound familiar? If you’re nodding right now, you’re not alone. This “research paralysis” is one of the most insidious productivity traps in modern sales, and it’s killing your pipeline velocity.

The Big Lie Your Brain Tells You

Let’s get one thing straight: Research is not prospecting. Research is research.

Every minute you spend digging through a prospect’s LinkedIn profile, reading their latest press release, or analyzing their org chart is a minute you’re not actually doing any prospecting activity. You’re not talking to anyone. You’re not having conversations. You’re not moving deals forward.

But here’s where it gets dangerous. When you add in the basic human fear that comes with making cold calls, research becomes an emotional crutch. Your brain lies to you and whispers, “If I just know all this information, it’ll be so much better.”

So you spend 15 minutes researching, make the call, and it goes to voicemail. You make 12 calls a day. Everyone goes to voicemail. All that research, and you didn’t get anywhere.

How Much Do You Actually Need to Know?

Michael had a breakthrough realization that changed everything: “I’m not looking to make a sale on that initial cold call. I’m looking to make a connection.”

That’s the insight that separates efficient prospectors from research addicts.

On your first cold call, you’re not selling them anything. You’re trying to set an appointment so you can ask questions and figure out whether it makes sense to keep talking. That’s it.

So how much do you really need to know to set that appointment? The answer is not a lot.

Think about it this way: The more you get to know your customers, your business, and your industry, the more business acumen you gain. Over time, you’ll talk to ten businesses just like the one you’re about to call. You’ll recognize patterns. You’ll see that companies in a certain sector or geographic area all face the same three challenges.

You don’t need 15 minutes of research to recognize those patterns. You just need to build a message around them.

When Research Actually Matters

Now, before you throw all research out the window, let me be clear about when it does matter.

If you’re sending a prospecting email, do some research. You’re putting something in writing, so you better have some insight that’s not AI-generated garbage.

If you make a call, get a hard no from the CEO, and want to try again with a different message, do the research before you call back. You’ve hit a wall. Now you need ammunition.

If you’ve had a first meeting and you’re going into discovery, absolutely do deep research. You’re walking in armed because you know they’ll be there waiting. All that effort will pay off.

But for that first cold call? Stop overthinking it.

The Batching Solution

If you feel like you absolutely need to do research (and I get it, some people do), here’s the fix: Schedule time before your call block for research.

Do all your three-minute lookups in one batch. Write your notes next to each name. Then go make the calls.

Why does this work? Because you’re going to hit voicemail a lot anyway. But at least you’ll have the research done and maintain your call momentum.

Let’s say you run a call block on 25 cold leads. You talk to five people. Those five give you information like “I’m not the right person” or “We don’t have that problem.” Now you know something. Now go back and do deeper research on those five so you can come back with a better message.

That’s efficiency. That’s strategy. That’s how you maximize your prospecting time.

The Power of Targeted Messaging

Here’s what really unlocks productivity: Creating targeted messages for roles or industries instead of personalizing every single call.

If you’re calling 25 CIOs in the healthcare sector, you and I could sit down and quickly identify what they’re dealing with. What issues are they facing? What do they want from their business? How could you help them?

We could build one or two messages that’ll connect with most people on that list without researching every single prospect.

Then you make 25 calls in an hour instead of researching five people and making five cold calls in three hours.

Which approach do you think sets more appointments?

Every Meeting Has One Job

Michael asked about moving deals forward after discovery, and here’s the framework that keeps everything simple:

The entire purpose of a prospecting cold call is to get the first meeting.

The entire purpose of the first meeting is to get the next meeting.

Everything else is academic.

Each step in your sales process exists to advance to the next step with a committed micro-commitment. When deals stall, it’s almost always because you didn’t nail down that next step or you didn’t test stakeholder engagement.

If a prospect says, “I’ll get you that information next week,” and next week comes and goes, what are they telling you? They’re not that into this. It’s not a priority.

Keep deals moving by driving momentum through committed next steps.

The Bottom Line

Stop letting research become a productivity trap. The goal isn’t to know everything before you make a call. The goal is to have enough conversations to fill your pipeline while making each one count.

Be confident in your ability to get someone on the phone and convert them into an appointment. If you hit a wall and get valuable information, then go back and research for your next attempt.

But if you’re researching every prospect before every cold call, you’re lying to yourself about productivity. You’re avoiding the hard work of actually prospecting.

Batch your research. Build targeted messages. Focus on conversations that convert. That’s how you build a pipeline that actually moves.

Want to transform your approach to prospecting and turn LinkedIn into your ultimate lead generation machine? Check out The LinkedIn Edge and learn how to leverage the world’s most powerful B2B platform to fill your pipeline with qualified opportunities.

This is the week we pause to express gratitude for the people in our lives, for what we’ve been given, and for what we’ve accomplished.

But gratitude isn’t just a feel-good emotion reserved for the holidays. It’s also a performance- and life-enhancing routine that can give you sales superpowers.

Gratitude Builds a Strong Mindset

Sales is a mental game. Your mindset, attitude, and beliefs have more impact on your sales outcomes and ultimate success than any technique, script, or strategy ever will.

This isn’t soft psychology. This is neuroscience. Gratitude activates the parts of your brain associated with reward and emotional regulation. It releases dopamine and serotonin, neurotransmitters that make you feel good, leading to increased happiness and decreased anxiety and stress. Your confidence rises, your mind clears, you gain emotional control, and you make wiser decisions.

Gratitude fundamentally rewires how your brain processes the world around you. When you practice gratitude consistently, your brain shifts from focusing on what could go wrong and starts seeing what could go right.

Gratitude and insidious self-pity cannot coexist. Instead of dwelling on the deal you lost, the prospect that rejected you, or the leads you don’t have, you appreciate the lessons you’ve learned and the opportunities still in front of you.

But it goes deeper than just feeling better.

Gratitude Builds Resilience

In sales, you face rejection constantly. Bad weeks, tough months, prospects who ghost you after months of work, and deals that fall apart at the last minute, even though you did everything right.

In this brutal profession, the salespeople who survive and thrive are the ones who bounce back faster from these inevitable setbacks.

One of the key traits of highly successful people is an enduring belief that everything happens for a reason. When you can find something to appreciate even in difficult situations, you maintain your emotional stability. You don’t spiral into negativity. You don’t let one bad call ruin your entire day. Instead, you process the setback, learn from it, and move forward.

Abundance vs Scarcity Thinking

When you focus on what you do have—your skills, your relationships, your opportunities, your resources—you shift from scarcity thinking to abundance thinking.

Scarcity thinking is the mother of negativity. It says: “I don’t have enough leads. I don’t have enough time. I don’t have enough support. I’m going to miss my number.”

Abundance thinking is a mindset of opportunity and potential. It says: “Look at the skills I’ve developed. Look at the customers who trust me. Look at the opportunities in my pipeline. Look at what’s possible.”

When you operate from gratitude and abundance, you become more creative, more energetic, more persistent. You stop fixating on limitations and start exploring possibilities.

You show up differently. You bring positive energy. And people feel it. They want to work with people who are confident, positive, and focused on what’s possible rather than what’s impossible.

Cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude

But here’s the thing. You don’t wait to feel grateful. You choose to practice gratitude. The feelings follow.

Every morning, you are empowered to make a conscious choice about where to focus your attention. You can focus on what’s missing, what’s wrong, who’s against you, and what’s hard. Or you can focus on what’s present, what’s working, what’s possible. Both perspectives contain truth. But only one moves you forward toward the success and happiness you are seeking.

Here are some practical ways to build gratitude into your daily routine:

Keep a gratitude journal. Every morning or evening, write down three things you’re grateful for. My friend Eric, who suffered from a severe brain injury, does this, and the impact it has had on his recovery is nothing short of a miracle.

Thank someone every day. Send a text, an email, or better yet, make a phone call. Thank a customer. Thank a colleague. Thank a team member. Express genuine appreciation for something specific they’ve done.

People naturally gravitate toward those who express genuine appreciation. When you thank a customer for their business, when you acknowledge a colleague’s help, when you recognize someone’s support, you strengthen those relationships. It makes you someone people want to work with, buy from, and help succeed.

Mentally acknowledge the good. During your day, when something positive happens, pause for just a moment and mentally acknowledge it or say a prayer of thanks. Don’t let it pass by unnoticed.

Reframe challenges. When something goes wrong, ask yourself: “What can I learn from this? What opportunity might this create? What’s the hidden gift in this situation?” This isn’t about pretending problems don’t exist. It’s about looking for the lessons and possibilities within them.

Start your week with gratitude. Every Monday, give thanks for the week ahead and the opportunity you’ve been given to make a difference in your life, for your family, company, and customers.

The beautiful thing about gratitude is that it is like a muscle; it gets stronger with exercise.

My Gratitude to You

Before wrapping up, I want to take this opportunity to pause and express my gratitude to you.

I’m grateful to you for listening to the Sales Gravy podcast. My team and I pour our hearts into producing this show, and your support means everything to us. Your comments, your reviews, your messages telling us how the podcast has helped you, fuels us.

I’m thankful for the fans of my books. Writing is one of my greatest joys in life, and you make that possible. Every time someone tells me that “Fanatical Prospecting,” or “Sales EQ,” or “The LinkedIn Edge” changed their career, it reminds me why I do this work.

I’m grateful for the companies around the world that trust Sales Gravy to train their teams. You let us into your organizations, trust us with your people, and give us the opportunity to make a real difference. That’s a privilege we never take for granted.

I’m grateful for the sales professionals who invest in themselves through Sales Gravy University. Your commitment to getting better inspires us to keep creating better content.

And most of all, I’m grateful for the amazing people who choose to work at Sales Gravy. We are blessed with an incredible team that wakes up every morning focused on serving you and making a difference. They’re the reason we can do what we do.

Thank you for allowing us to be part of your professional journey.

Reflecting on Gratitude

So as we head into Thanksgiving week, I’ll leave you with this simple reflection:

Be thankful that you don’t already have everything you desire. If you did, there would be nothing left to reach for, no reason to dream, no horizon pulling you forward.

Be thankful that you don’t know everything. It means life still has mysteries to reveal and lessons waiting to shape you.

Be thankful for the difficult times. It’s in these seasons that you grow stronger, wiser, and more resilient.

Be thankful for your limitations. They remind you that there is still room to stretch, improve, and become more than you are today.

Be thankful for challenges and obstacles. They forge your strength, your courage, and your character. These are the things that truly endure.

Be thankful for your mistakes, because each one is a teacher guiding you toward better choices and deeper understanding.

Be thankful for what you’ve been given. Every gift is proof that someone cares, someone believes in you, and someone has invested in your journey.

Be thankful for the people who push you, support you, frustrate you, and inspire you. Each one plays a role in shaping the person you are becoming.

Be thankful for beginnings, endings, and every transition in between. They are the chapters and seasons of a life story still being written.

Be thankful for Monday, because Monday brings new possibilities.

And at the end of the day, when you are tired and weary, when you’ve stopped and made one more call, be thankful because it means you’ve made a difference.

An attitude of gratitude changes how you approach your day—and your prospects. My new book, The LinkedIn Edge, shows you how to leverage that mindset to build genuine connections, engage with your network, and create opportunities that actually convert.

Jake McOsker, an account executive at Forrester Research, found himself facing exactly this problem when he moved from BDR to AE. He cracked it by changing how he used AI for account planning. 

“Rather than taking 10 to 15 minutes to get an account plan out or understand who the notable stakeholders and the decision makers that I need to go with,” he explained, “it’s a 2 to 3 minute process to go through each one of these accounts.”

The traditional approach to AI account planning doesn’t solve the territory problem. You ask ChatGPT or Claude for company information, and you get Wikipedia summaries. Founded in 1987. Headquartered in Dallas. 15,000 employees. The chief sales officer you’re calling doesn’t care about any of that, and showing up with generic facts makes you look lazy, not prepared.

When you’re new to the role, you don’t have years of pattern recognition to fall back on. You don’t know what good account planning looks like yet. You just know you need to get meetings with people who have better things to do than talk to a rep they’ve never heard of.

The solution isn’t using AI as a search engine. It’s using it as a sales assistant with a specific job to do.

The Problem With How Most Reps Use AI for Account Planning

Here’s what usually happens. A rep needs to prepare for a call with a VP of Marketing at a healthcare company. They open their AI tool of choice and type: “Tell me about [Company Name].”

The AI spits back:

• Company history
• Product offerings
• Recent press releases
• Maybe some executive names

The rep skims it, copies a few bullet points into their CRM, and calls it account planning. Then they get on the call and realize they have no idea what this VP is actually trying to accomplish this quarter. They ask surface-level questions. The prospect checks out. The meeting goes nowhere.

This happens because most reps are using AI like a faster Google. They’re asking for information instead of asking for intelligence.

AI account planning only works when you give the AI a role and a specific outcome to deliver. Not “tell me about this company.” Instead, “You’re an account executive trying to book a meeting with this company’s CMO in the next two weeks. Based on their recent announcements and what their executives are posting on LinkedIn, what initiatives are they likely prioritizing right now?”

How to Set Up AI Agents for Account Planning

The difference between a basic AI chat and an AI agent is memory and context. When you create an agent, you’re teaching it what kind of output you need every single time. You’re not starting from scratch with every account.

Here’s the framework that works:

Step 1: Give Your AI Agent a Clear Role

Don’t just ask questions. Set up the scenario with urgency and context. For example:

“You are an account executive at [Your Company]. You’ve been tasked with bringing in [Target Company] as a new customer within the next 90 days. Your first call is with their [specific role, like Chief Sales Officer]. Based on the materials I’m providing, what are the top three business initiatives this person is likely focused on right now?”

This does two things. First, it forces the AI to think from your perspective instead of just summarizing data. Second, it prioritizes current, actionable information over historical background.

Step 2: Feed It the Right Source Material

Wikipedia summaries don’t help you. But these sources do:

• Recent press releases about new initiatives or leadership changes
• LinkedIn posts from executives at the company (especially the person you’re calling)
• Company blog posts about their strategic direction
• Industry news articles mentioning the company
• Their “About Us” or “Newsroom” page for current priorities
• Analyst reports or industry trend pieces relevant to their sector

If you’re selling to publicly traded companies, earnings call transcripts and annual reports (10-Ks) are gold mines. But most new AEs aren’t calling on Fortune 500 companies. The good news is that smaller companies often share more on LinkedIn and their blogs because they’re trying to build their brand.

Upload PDFs or paste content directly into your AI tool. Then let it analyze the content through the lens of the role you gave it. The output will focus on strategic priorities, not corporate history.

Step 3: Ask Follow-Up Questions Based on Persona

If you’re calling into marketing, tech, security, or customer experience, the priorities are different. Your AI agent should help you understand how company-wide initiatives affect the specific person you’re talking to.

After the initial analysis, ask: “How would these initiatives specifically impact the VP of Marketing’s goals this quarter?”

Now you have talking points that matter to the person on the other end of the call.

Step 4: Validate With Human Intelligence

AI gets you 80% of the way there in three minutes instead of fifteen. But you still need to cross-check. Look at LinkedIn. Check recent news. If you have access to account managers or customer success reps who work with similar companies, ask them if the trends you’re seeing match reality.

AI account planning is a tool, not a replacement for critical thinking. If the output feels off, it probably is. Trust your gut and adjust.

How to Turn Research Into Value Messages

The goal of account planning isn’t to memorize facts about a company. It’s to walk into a conversation with an informed hypothesis about what they’re trying to accomplish.

When you do this right, your opening changes. Instead of starting cold with “Tell me about your role,” you can say:

“I saw your CEO recently posted about accelerating your digital customer experience, and I’m assuming that’s putting some pressure on your team to modernize how you’re approaching customer engagement. But I could be completely wrong. What’s actually taking up most of your time right now?”

Here’s how you’ve impacted your prospect: First, it proves you did real research. Second, it gives the prospect something specific to react to instead of making them explain their entire world from scratch. Third, and this is critical, it still leaves room for discovery.

You’re not skipping the “What are your biggest challenges?” question. You’re earning the right to ask them by showing you’ve already thought about their business. When prospects talk about their challenges in their own language, you learn how they frame problems, what matters to them, and where your solution might actually fit.

Even if your hypothesis is wrong, you’ve separated yourself from the 90% of reps who show up with nothing. And when you’re right, you skip past the surface-level conversation and get straight into the dialogue that matters. That’s how you earn credibility as a new account executive, even when you don’t have ten years of experience to lean on.

Building a Repeatable AI Account Planning Workflow

This only scales if you systematize it. You can’t rely on remembering the perfect prompt every time or recreating your process from scratch for every account.

Create separate agents for different use cases. One for account planning. One for prospecting outreach. One for call preparation. Train each agent for the output you need so you aren’t constantly course-correcting.

Save your account plans in a central location. The information changes, so plan to refresh your research quarterly. What mattered in Q2 might not matter in Q4, and your account planning needs to reflect that.

The key is building a system that you can repeat across your entire territory without burning out. Two to three minutes per account. Not fifteen. Not thirty. That’s how you research 50 accounts in a week instead of just five.

What This Actually Looks Like in Practice

Let’s say you’re targeting a mid-market software company. You start by checking their LinkedIn. The CEO posted last week about expanding into healthcare verticals. You pull up their blog and find three recent posts about compliance challenges in healthcare tech.

You upload screenshots or copy the text into your AI agent and give it the prompt:

“You’re an AE trying to close this software company in 90 days. The first meeting is with their Chief Revenue Officer. What are the top three priorities they’re likely focused on, and how do those connect to the company’s broader goals?”

The AI analyzes the content and tells you:

1. They’re investing heavily in healthcare vertical expansion, but facing longer sales cycles due to compliance requirements
2. They’re dealing with the need to build credibility fast in a regulated industry
3. Their CEO has committed to proving ROI in healthcare within two quarters

Now you have a hypothesis. The CRO is probably under pressure to close healthcare deals faster while managing a team that doesn’t have deep healthcare expertise. That’s your angle.

You cross-check this with LinkedIn and see that the CRO has been engaging with posts about sales enablement in complex verticals. You look at recent news and find they just hired a VP of Healthcare Sales. Everything lines up.

Your outreach message writes itself. You’re not pitching. You’re acknowledging what they’re working on and offering a perspective on how companies in similar situations have approached the same problem.

What to Do After the Meeting

Your AI workflow doesn’t end when the call does. This is where most reps leave value on the table.

After your meeting, take the transcript from your call recording tool (Fathom, Gong, Chorus, whatever you use) and upload it to your AI agent. Then ask specific questions:

“Where was there friction or confusion in this conversation?”

“What objections did the prospect raise, and did I address them effectively?”

“What questions should I have asked but didn’t?”

You’ll see patterns you didn’t notice in the meeting. You’ll catch the places where the prospect hesitated, pushed back, or seemed unclear about what you were saying. 

Use those insights in your follow-up. Send an email that says, “When we talked about X, I realized I didn’t explain Y clearly. Here’s what I should have said.” That kind of self-awareness builds trust. It shows you’re listening and thinking, not just pitching.

This also helps you get better at discovery over time. You’ll start to notice which questions land and which ones don’t. You’ll refine your approach based on real data from your own calls, not just what worked for someone else.

The Bottom Line

AI account planning is about getting to the right information faster so you can spend your time having conversations instead of doing research. The reps who master this early will outpace people with twice the experience.

Set up your agents. Feed them the right materials. Validate the output. Turn research into hypotheses. Ask great discovery questions. And then use what you learn to get even better for the next call.

That’s how you land C-suite appointments when you’re brand new. Not by knowing everything, but by knowing what matters right now.

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.

That’s the situation Dwayne Malmberg from Sugar Land, Texas found himself in. He’d been crushing it in inside sales and appointment setting since the 90s. He was good at it. Really good. But after taking just over two years away from the phones, a new opportunity came along, and suddenly he was facing something he didn’t expect.

The call reluctance. The trepidation. The mental resistance to picking up that phone and dialing invisible strangers.

If you’ve ever taken time away from prospecting and felt that same knot in your stomach when it’s time to get back on the phones, you’re not alone. And more importantly, there’s a systematic way to rebuild that muscle and get back to crushing it.

The Raw Truth About Cold Calling Fear

Let’s get brutally honest: Cold calling creates emotional angst. Period.

I’ve made tens of thousands of cold calls. I make them with my clients during training sessions. I’ll make them tomorrow morning. And I still feel that trepidation on the first couple of calls of the day.

It’s just human. It’s natural. It never completely goes away.

Think about it like jumping out of an airplane. A few years ago, I got the chance to jump with the United States Army Golden Knights. I was terrified. My heart was pounding. A sergeant even asked if I was okay because, apparently, I looked frightened.

When we got strapped in, I turned to the Golden Knight I was jumping with and asked, “Do you ever get scared?” His answer was revealing: “Yeah, of course I do. My heart’s beating a little bit because it’s an airplane and I don’t know what’s going to happen. But I’ve done it so many times, and I’ve got a routine.”

That’s the key. The routine. The process. The mental preparation that gets you past the fear and into action.

The Big Pull: Why You Need Something Worth Fighting For

Here’s the problem with facing fear: If you don’t have something pulling you forward that’s bigger than the discomfort you’re feeling right now, you’ll procrastinate forever.

The discipline to run a prospecting block and do your prospecting is the discipline to sacrifice what you want now for what you want most.

So before you even think about picking up the phone, sit down and write out what you want. Why are you doing this? What’s the goal? Is it a paycheck? A promotion? Financial freedom? Providing for your family?

That’s your big pull. That’s what you focus on when you start your day, not whatever might happen on the call. Because when you’re thinking about something as scary as facing rejection, if you don’t have a big pull driving you, you’ll end up avoiding the work that matters most.

For Dwayne, part of his why was clear: He’s a caregiver for his disabled wife and needs the flexibility to work from home while still providing for his family. That’s a powerful pull. That’s something worth pushing through fear for.

Building the Muscle: You Can’t Bench Press 250 on Day One

Let’s say you were a bodybuilder in your 30s. You were strong, lifting heavy, crushing it in the gym. Then life happened. Kids came along. Your career took off. You quit working out.

Now you decide it’s time to get back in shape. What happens if you walk into the gym and try to bench press 250 pounds on day one?

You’re going to hurt yourself. Maybe badly.

The same principle applies to prospecting after time away. You already know how to do it. You’ve got the muscle memory. Everything inside you is saying, “I got this.” But you can’t expect to jump back in at the same intensity level you had before.

You have to rebuild the muscle gradually. Start with the equivalent of those 20-pound dumbbells and work your way back up.

The High-Intensity Sprint Strategy

When I found myself in a similar situation years ago, uncomfortable and fearful about making calls, I developed a strategy that I now call high-intensity prospecting sprints.

Here’s how it works: Break your prospecting into very small, short blocks. Sometimes just five minutes. Make five calls in five minutes. Or ten minutes. Or fifteen minutes.

The key is this: Make it so small and manageable that your brain can’t talk you out of it. If I tell you to make cold calls all day long, that feels overwhelming. But if I ask you to knock out just five calls, you can do that.

Then here’s the critical part: Follow each sprint with something inspiring. Read a chapter from Fanatical Prospecting. Listen to a segment of your favorite sales podcast. Watch a training video. Put good stuff in your ears and in front of your eyes that builds your courage and strengthens your heart.

Then do another sprint. More inspiration. Another sprint. Repeat.

What happens is two things: First, by actually doing it instead of thinking about it, you get better at doing it. You get what I call sales endorphins. You feel good about yourself because you realize, “Hey, I can do this. Everything’s okay.”

Second, by backing up each sprint with inspirational content, you’re feeding your mindset. You’re building back that mental muscle alongside the practical muscle.

The Time Management Factor for Busy Sales Professionals

If you’re like Dwayne and have a lot of responsibilities outside of sales, time management becomes critical. You can’t afford to waste time or dilute your prospecting efforts.

The solution is ruthless prioritization and time blocking.

Start your day with your most important, highest priority sales activity. Get your prospecting done first thing in the morning when your willpower is strongest and your emotional energy is highest.

Here’s why this matters: When you’ve got a lot going on and you’re also doing the hardest job in sales (making outbound calls), by the time you get later into your day, you’re worn out. Your willpower is depleted. It’s going to be exponentially harder to find the motivation to interrupt strangers.

But first thing in the morning? You’re fresh. You’re ready. You can knock out that prospecting block and then ride that momentum through the rest of your day.

Block your calendar in core chunks for everything you need to do. If you have an appointment at 3 PM that’ll take three hours, fine. But that first hour of your day? That’s sacred prospecting time. Nothing else touches it.

The Mindset Foundation: Feed Your Mind Daily

The first section of Fanatical Prospecting focuses on mindset because that’s where everything begins. If your mindset isn’t right, technique doesn’t matter. Scripts don’t matter. Nothing matters because you won’t execute.

Feed your mind daily with content that builds you up. Listen to a sales podcast three days a week. Read sales books. Watch training videos. Surround yourself with messages that reinforce the behaviors you want to develop.

When you’re in a situation where you feel fear or emotional angst, putting good stuff in your ears and eyes has a tendency to make your heart stronger and build your courage.

This isn’t fluffy motivation. This is practical psychology. You’re literally rewiring your brain to associate prospecting with positive emotions instead of fear and anxiety.

The Bottom Line

Getting back in the prospecting game after time away isn’t about summoning superhuman courage or pretending the fear doesn’t exist. It’s about acknowledging the fear, building a routine to work through it, and gradually rebuilding the muscle you once had.

You already know how to do this. You’ve done it before. You just need to give yourself permission to start small, build consistently, and focus on progress over perfection.

Start with your why. Build your prospecting sprints. Front-load your day. Feed your mind with the right content. And remember: The first call is always the hardest because you’re lifting that 10,000-pound weight. But once you make it, the momentum starts building.

You’ve got this. Now go pick up the phone and prove it to yourself.

Want to learn how to leverage LinkedIn to fill your pipeline and never run out of opportunities? Check out Jeb Blount’s latest book with Brynne Tillman, The LinkedIn Edge, and discover how to turn social selling into your secret weapon.

I found a potential candidate at a high-end furniture store: a stunning cherry table. 

I ran my hand along its smooth, cool surface, picturing it loaded with platters of food, surrounded by the people I love. But then I saw the price tag. It was prohibitively expensive. My wallet slammed shut. I knew it was perfect, but I just couldn’t bring myself to pay for it. I walked out, resigning myself to a life of settling.

In the end, I found a mass-produced, joined-piece from a department store. And for the next six months, I was miserable. My kitchen table was just … a table. It was functional, but it had no soul. I griped about it constantly, and every time I looked at it, I was reminded of what I’d given up.

Discovering Sweat Equity

Finally, out of options and patience, I took the advice of an antique store owner.

“Go see a woodworker,” she said. 

I drove to the address, a dingy, dark garage on the southside of town that smelled of sawdust and varnish. Here, in this dusty, disorganized space, I found the most beautiful tables of every shape and size imaginable.

A gruff man with calloused hands appeared. I told him about my predicament and my budget. He gave me a direct response: “I can’t build you a table for that price.”

Just as I was giving him an obligatory thanks and turning to leave, he hit me with an unexpected question: “Are you interested in learning how to make one? It might cost you less than what I’ve already made.”

He wasn’t selling me a table. He was selling me an experience. A partnership.

Becoming a Co-Creator

And so, we began. He showed me the design software. We walked through different scenarios, from Christmas dinner to my kids doing their homework. We chose the wood, figured out the curves for the legs, and decided on the thickness for the top. Every line was to my specifications. I was a co-creator, not a consumer.

When he finally showed me the quote for materials and his lessons, it was 30% more than the expensive showroom table. And yet, the decision was simple. I looked at the plans, the time we’d invested in the design, the conversations we had shared, and I said, “Let’s build this.”

I picked out the perfect piece of maple. He taught me how to cut it, sand it, and shape it. How to use a router to create decorative edges. How to apply gloss for a perfect shine. And when we were done, I paid that higher price gladly—despite all its imperfections (I am not a professional carpenter.).

This was my table, built with my sweat, crafted with my hands. I’d earned it.

One leg was a half-inch too short. 

The decorative edges I’d spent hours on didn’t quite match. And the lacquer? Let’s just say it had a certain, unique texture. This table was, objectively, flawed. And yet, I loved it more than any piece of furniture I had ever owned.

When I brought it home, I was so proud. I invited people over just so I could show it off. Every time I looked at it, I found myself thinking how perfect it was, even with its flaws. That slightly askew table wasn’t just furniture; it was a blinding flash of the obvious and a lesson in the concept called The IKEA Effect.

Applying the Principle in Sales

Not long after my dive into woodworking, I found myself in a similar situation with a prospect.

We were selling a sales training program, and the decision-maker leveled with me in our proposal meeting: “I love what you’re proposing, but your competitors are beating your price. We’re on a budget.”

I was about to chalk the deal up to closed-lost when the memory of that woodworker’s shop flashed through my mind.

“How about this,” I said, “I know our price is higher, but I think we—you and I—can design something perfect for your team. What if we work together to craft a custom solution, one that covers all your needs and fits into your company culture?”

He was skeptical, but he agreed. So we began our own version of a woodworking project.

Instead of sawdust and maple, we worked with spreadsheets and shared documents. We spent hours in meetings, outlining their team’s specific pain points, the obstacles they faced with pipeline hygiene, and the skills they were lacking. We designed a plan with the right workshops, the right coaching, and the right support for their specific problems.

When I finally presented the final proposal, it included a fee that was 20% higher than the competition. But it wasn’t a surprise. We had built it together, every step of the way. He saw not just a list of services, but a reflection of his own team’s needs. He had invested time, effort, and insight, and had a sense of ownership.

How Co-Creation Wins the Deal

With our co-created plan in hand, the client happily paid our higher fee. We’d edged out the competition not because of our price, but because we had triggered The IKEA Effect. This behavioral economic principle states that people place a disproportionately higher value on things they have helped to create.

Every frustrating moment, every small victory when we are building something creates what behavioral economists call “effort justification.” Your brain can’t accept that all that work you put in was for something ordinary, so it reframes the result as extraordinary. It’s the same reason my handmade table, with its slight wobble and imperfect edges, felt more valuable to me than the flawless, expensive showroom piece.

And it’s exactly why that prospect was willing to pay a premium for our sales training. By involving him in crafting the solution—by making him a co-creator rather than just a buyer—we triggered the same psychological principle. He didn’t just purchase a program; he helped design it.

The Lesson: Ownership Matters

When people build something—whether it’s furniture, solutions, or relationships—they don’t just create the thing itself. They create ownership.

Here’s how you can apply this to your own sales process:

• Discovery is the new co-creation. Your discovery calls shouldn’t be a simple Q&A. It should be a collaborative workshop. Use tools like a shared whiteboard or a live-edited document to build the solution with your prospect in real time. Frame it as, “Let’s figure this out together.”
• Your proposal is a project plan, not the final word. Think of your proposal as the culmination of shared work, not a final document you deliver. Refer to it as “our plan” or “the solution we designed.” This language reinforces the joint effort.
• Make it their idea. The more effort your prospect invests in the process—even just by providing a little bit of input—the more they’ll value the outcome. Ask open-ended questions that require them to provide genuine insight. Say things like, “Help me understand…,” or “What would the ideal outcome look like for you?” When they tell you, it’s their vision, and you’re helping them bring it to life.

The Big Takeaway

The IKEA Effect is far more than a psychological quirk; it’s a strategic weapon for every salesperson who wants to stop losing on price. The truth is, your customers aren’t buying a product or a service—they’re buying the feeling of a win. 

When you empower your prospects to become co-creators in the sales process, you don’t just solve their problem; you make them the hero of their own story. 

You don’t need to be the low-price leader to get the business. You just need to have the courage to ask them to build a solution with you.

Hear more insights based on real-life business successes and flops on Jeb Blount Jr.’s podcast 30 Minutes or Less: How Flawed Sales Incentive Programs Cost Domino’s $78 Million, part of The Sales Gravy Podcast.

Month one: Your new SDR is on fire. Energy through the roof. They’re excited about cold calling.

Month two: Still strong. Meetings are getting booked. Dashboard looks good.

Month three: Cracks appear. Rejections pile up. But they hang in.

Month four: Burnout.

The dials drop. The energy’s gone. That superstar you hired 90 days ago is updating their LinkedIn profile—and you know exactly what that means. Now you’re back in hiring mode, your team’s pipeline is slipping, and your recruiting budget just took another hit.

But it’s not that the SDR role is broken—the system is. Sales teams are great at starting fast and terrible at sustaining it. People get thrown in with a script and a quota, celebrate quick wins, then act surprised when burnout becomes inevitable.

Tim Hester, VP of Sales Development at Alliance HCM, leads one of the fastest-promoting SDR teams in the industry. His team survives month four and keeps thriving. Some SDRs promote out in 60 days. Others stay because they’re growing, not just grinding.

It’s a tactical framework that stops inefficiency.

The Problem: You’re Forcing SDRs to Run Without a Finish Line

When Tim inherited his SDR team, he saw the pattern immediately. One SDR position. No progression. No momentum. Just grind.

Talented people hit quota, kept hitting quota, and then started asking themselves: Why am I still doing the exact same job six months later? “Just wait your turn” doesn’t cut it anymore. Maybe it never did.

The wake-up call came when Tim realized something critical: The things that kill SDR motivation aren’t trainable.

Work ethic. Mindset. How someone approaches their day and prospecting blocks. That’s character. You can’t coach it in a workshop. Tim tried way too many times before figuring that out.

You can teach someone objection handling. You can show them how to use the CRM. But if there’s no light at the end of the tunnel, no amount of training fixes that. That’s on leadership, not the rep.

The Solution: Build a Roadmap That Rewards Performance, Not Tenure

Tim flipped the script on how SDR performance gets measured and rewarded. He created tiered SDR levels based purely on performance thresholds. Not tenure. Not politics. Not “when a spot opens up.”

The roadmap has clear levels: from new SDR to quota-hitting SDR to exceeding SDR who now trains the team. Each level comes with a comp bump and more responsibility. Most importantly, it proves effort matters.

This framework ensures that when your reps look at the dashboard, they see a clear, actionable path for progression. It’s the sales leader’s job to ensure that dashboard clarity is tied directly to the next level.

The impact is immediate. Reps see exactly what they need to level up. There’s no waiting for someone to quit so that a spot opens. Those who want to move fast can; those who need more time have a clear path, too.

This framework changed recruiting entirely. Tim could tell candidates on day one: People move up at their own rate; you control your trajectory at this company.

Suddenly, the SDR role wasn’t a holding pattern. It was a launchpad.

The Dashboard: Four Metrics That Actually Matter

Metrics are your scoreboard. If your reps don’t trust the score, they stop playing hard.

When Tim took over, the dashboard was a mess. Crowded with metrics nobody understood or trusted. Reps tuned it out because they didn’t know what half the numbers meant or how they connected to their success.

Tim stripped it down to four metrics:

1. Dials – Shows effort and how they’re working the database. Everyone can pick up the phone.
2. Connections – Only counts conversations with decision-makers. Not gatekeepers. Not assistants. This shows outreach quality.
3. Meetings Scheduled – The conversion from connection to meeting. This is where you see who’s actually selling.
4. Meetings Ran – If they don’t show up, what’s the point?

For Tim, the most important is the latter three because of their impact. He’s measuring what drives meetings and revenue. Simple. Clear. Actionable. No vanity metrics.

The Training: Start with Mechanics.

Most companies try to turn SDRs into product experts on day one. Tim does the opposite.

He breaks training into three buckets:

Mechanics – CRM management, using the dialer, and objection handling. These are fundamental basics that must be mastered before there can be further movement.

Knowledge – Developing an ICP and persona basics. Narrow and focused. Build your knowledge on the people who matter.

Art – The intangible skills that develop over time as reps sit in on meetings and watch demos.

Setting that expectation allows reps to move fast. It might not be the straightest line, but they’re executing, gaining confidence, and booking meetings in week two instead of week eight.

SDRs aren’t closing six-figure deals. They’re scheduling introductory meetings and bringing in the account executive who has the expertise to close. Expecting perfect performance on day one slows ramps and kills confidence. Employ mechanics first and let the art follow.

The Mindset: Small Changes, Big Impact

Before Tim was a leader, he spent too much time searching for the silver bullet. He’d toss the whole playbook after one bad call, desperately seeking the one “secret” that would make prospecting easy.

His breakthrough was realizing his job as a leader wasn’t to teach the art of the perfect call, but to build the system that rewarded consistent effort.

Now, he drills this into his team: consistency. It’s a direct result of the structure he built. Reps commit to consistency because they know the roadmap proves that their small daily progress will compound into a promotion.

The commitment to consistency starts during onboarding. By clearly presenting the tiered performance levels and the four key metrics on day one, leadership sets the expectation that results are driven by process, not luck. When the path is clear, reps stop searching for a shortcut.

Consistency beats flash every time. Average SDRs become consistent producers. Consistent producers become top performers. The system is the guarantee that their consistency will pay off.

Month Four Doesn’t Have to Be the End

The SDR graveyard isn’t full of lazy people; it’s full of frustrated talent who were put on a treadmill when they needed a ladder. By month four, a high-performer has mastered the basics and is staring at the ceiling. Same script. Same job. Same quota. They burn out from futility, not from effort.

Tim Hester’s approach stops this cycle. He proves that the only way out is up.

• Clear metrics keep the focus sharp.
• Tiered levels create propulsion.
• A performance-driven roadmap ensures reps know they control their destiny.

The question every sales leader must ask is: “What message does our system send on day one?”

Empower your reps with a plan they can believe in, and your top talent will be busy working toward their next title, not updating their resume.

Your roadmap gives your SDRs the path, but they still need the tactics to fill their calendar and earn that promotion. Download Sales Gravy’s 25 Ways to Ask for the Appointment on a Cold Call guide.

That’s the challenge Brendan Carlington from Mount Pleasant, Michigan, brought to me on a recent episode of Ask Jeb. Brendan jumped back into auto sales this year after spending time in other industries, and he noticed something big. Traditional sales positions are disappearing. Customers can research everything online, get quotes instantly, and even start negotiations with a click. What’s missing is training that teaches sales pros how to create an experience people actually enjoy.

The vehicle isn’t the differentiator. The experience is.

Why the Experience Matters More Than the Product

I told Brendan something I have felt for a long time. Customers already know what they want before they walk into the dealership. They have seen every trim, every feature, every price point. What they do not know is whether they will enjoy the buying process.

That is where you, the salesperson, become the product. Your job is not just to sell the car. Your job is to guide your customer through the process, reduce friction, build trust, and make them feel confident that they are making the right decision.

When I buy a car, I already know what I want. If the experience is miserable, I put it off. If I know it will be smooth, engaging, and human, I buy immediately. Modern buyers are craving a guide, not a grinder.

The Power of Frameworks

Brendan had a simple but powerful philosophy. He said there are three conditions to win: sell a car, give the customer a great experience, and make as much money as possible without compromising those things. That mindset is exactly what great sales frameworks are built on. A framework gives you rails to run on while keeping you flexible in the conversation. It is not a script. It is a repeatable system that lets you adapt to the customer while staying disciplined.

When you take complex sales processes and make them simple and repeatable, you create reliability and confidence. That principle is at the heart of fanatical prospecting and objection handling. Learning to simplify complex ideas into actionable steps separates average salespeople from top performers.

How to Become the Trusted Guide

If you are in car sales or any sales role where buyers can research online, here is the playbook:

1. Unpack your customer’s fears. They walk in with emotional baggage from past experiences. Acknowledge it.
2. Ask better questions. The more they talk, the better they feel. When the customer does most of the talking, they have a good experience.
3. Create a VIP moment. Buying a car is a milestone, not a transaction.
4. Build a repeatable system. Know your greeting, discovery questions, and closing flow cold and practice it until it is second nature.

Using systems that focus on outcomes, such as first-time appointments, conversion rates, and pipeline velocity, makes the difference between a salesperson who spins their wheels and one who consistently drives results. Practicing this every day builds the kind of discipline that leads to consistent performance and customer loyalty.

Making It Fun Again

Brendan shared something I loved. Before car sales, he worked in the Vegas nightlife industry and he asked, “Why can’t buying a car be fun?” That is the kind of thinking that transforms an industry. Fun does not mean loud music or strobe lights. It means energy, curiosity, and enthusiasm. When people enjoy buying from you, they tell everyone they know.

If your dealership or team has lost that spark, it is time to rebuild your sales culture. Focus on making the customer experience unforgettable. Strong sales leadership and coaching techniques help teams focus on guiding the buyer through the process instead of just pushing products. Developing those skills consistently pays huge dividends in customer retention and referrals.

The Big Lesson

At the end of our conversation, I told Brendan something simple. The car industry does not need more closers. It needs more guides. When every spec and price is a Google search away, the only true differentiator left is how the customer feels.

You cannot automate human connection. You cannot AI your way into trust. You can build systems that make people feel seen, heard, and valued. Simplify the process. Ask more questions. Be a guide. Make it an experience worth repeating. That approach works whether you sell cars, software, or consulting services.

If you are serious about building influence and opportunity in the modern sales landscape, my newest book with Brynne Tillman, The LinkedIn Edge, is your playbook for creating meaningful professional connections.

From now until the first week of January, you’re going to face a perfect storm of distractions, excuses, and temptations that can absolutely destroy your year end number and your first quarter production next year. Sadly, most salespeople don’t even see it coming. It’s not until the end of December that they realize they’re in trouble, but by then, it’s too late. 

The Trouble With the Holidays

The trouble typically starts Thanksgiving week in the United States and continues as we move into the first week of December. That’s when distractions start flooding in. You’ve got company parties, family obligations, shopping to do. All of which knock you off of your routine causing your daily prospecting and follow up activities to drop.

And let’s be honest, you’ve been grinding hard for the entire year and you’re ready to let your guard down and coast a bit before the end of the year. 

By the second and third week of December many of the opportunities in your pipeline that you were counting on closing start to ghost you or tell you that their pushing decisions off to next year. And by now you’re so mentally checked out that you’re barely doing any prospecting at all. 

Once we move into the Christmas and New Years weeks your office is a ghost town, the phones are silent, your pipeline is stalled, you’ve missed your forecast and you convince yourself there’s no point in even trying. 

And just like that, you’ve lost an entire month of selling.

My book The LinkedIn Edge gives you the master blueprint for turning LinkedIn into an optimized, revenue-generating sales engine—whether you’re deploying Sales Navigator or not.

Learn to work LinkedIn like a professional with step-by-step, immediately actionable tactics that supercharge your presence on the world’s largest networking platform. Get it today wherever books are sold.

Holiday Sales Math

But here’s the brutal truth: You didn’t just lose a month. You lost three months. Because all of those prospects that pushed off decisions until the new year are not coming back; and that empty pipeline you’re staring at, as you move into January, is going to haunt you through March and potentially, through the entire year. 

Your average sales cycle is probably 60-90 days. That means deals you put into the pipeline over the next two to three weeks are crucial for a good January. Likewise, the ones you add in December are the key to delivering a solid February and March. 

But if you allow the Holidays to take you off of your game, you might not recover until April or May. Your entire first quarter is shot. 

This is the killer and how so many promising sales careers end prematurely. I’ve witnessed far too many salespeople get fired in March for pipeline problems that started in November when they let their discipline slip during the holidays.

Do Not Allow Active Deals Stall and Die

The deals currently in your pipeline are more vulnerable right now than at any other time of year. Your prospects have the perfect excuse to push decisions. 

When deals sit idle for a month, bad things happen. Stakeholders change. Budgets get reallocated. Priorities shift. Your champion gets distracted by seventeen other initiatives. Your competitors slip in while you’re eating fruitcake and drinking eggnog.

I’ve watched salespeople lose six-figure deals that they thought were “locked up” in November, simply because they took their foot off the gas during the holidays. 

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Pipeline opportunities that push into the new year are not coming back. Do not count on them. Do not allow yourself to be delusional about them. If you don’t get forecasted opportunities closed by the end of the year, consider them dead!

For this reason, you must be vigilant with follow up, assertive with your communication and do whatever it takes to get those deals closed. 

The Holiday Discipline Advantage

When it comes to prospecting, the activity that keeps your pipeline healthy, the real reason you struggle during the holidays is because you give yourself permission to slack off. You tell yourself little lies to justify taking it easy. “Nobody’s making decisions right now anyway.” “Everyone’s on vacation.” “I’ll ramp back up in January.”

Yes, some prospects are on vacation. But not all of them. Yes, some decisions get pushed. But not all of them. Yes, it’s harder to get people on the phone. But not impossible.

The salespeople who crush it during the holidays understand something that everyone else forgets: Outselling the holidays is all about disciplined. It is discipline that transforms holiday impulsiveness into intention and a higher income. 

This is where mental toughness pays off and shows up in your bank account.During the holidays, more than ever, you need a concrete plan and the discipline to execute it.

5 Keys to Outselling the Holidays

Here’s what you need to do right now, and I mean this week:

Step One: Conduct a Pipeline Audit

Go through every deal in your pipeline. Assess the risk of each one stalling during the holidays. Then decide what needs to be done before year end to get them closed. 

For your most important opportunities, create a specific action plan. Don’t assume anything will “just keep moving forward” on its own. These deals will not close themselves. Nothing moves forward without your effort.

Step Two: Block Your Calendar

Pull up your calendar for the rest of this year. Block time for daily prospecting, deal advancement and follow-ups.

Yes, I know you have holiday parties and family obligations. Put those in too. The key is planning everything in advance so you don’t drop the ball.

You may have to get creative. Maybe you prospect for an hour before the rest of your family wakes up or make follow-up calls during your lunch break. Maybe you work a few hours on the weekend.

The point is, if it’s not on your calendar, it won’t happen. And if your calendar is blank for the next month, your pipeline will be blank in January.

Step Three: Set Non-Negotiable Activity Targets

This is critical. Decide right now what your daily minimums are going to be during the holiday season. Set the targets. Write them down. Commit to them. Then—and this is the important part—review your progress against these targets every single morning and every single afternoon to hold yourself accountable. Nobody else is going to do this for you. You have to be your own accountability partner.

Step Four: Front-Load December

We know that the last two weeks of the year are going to be a circus so double down and bank as much activity as possible at the end of November and into the early part of December. That way, by the time Santa comes down the chimney, you’ve already done the work to keep your pipeline healthy.

Step Five: Plan Your January

Don’t wait until January 2nd to start thinking about your first quarter. Plan it now. What’s your goal for Q1 revenue? How much pipeline do you need to hit that goal? What actions do you need to take now to start strong in January? Top performers don’t “get back into it” in January. They hit January running because they planned for it in November.

This isn’t about working 80-hour weeks. It’s about being strategic with your time so you can be productive AND enjoy time with your family. By maintaining discipline during the holidays, you actually feel less stressed and enjoy them more. 

Take Action Now

Now here’s your assignment: Block two hours on your calendar this week. Use that time to conduct your pipeline audit, build your holiday schedule, and set your activity targets.

Don’t wait. Don’t tell yourself you’ll get to it next week. Do it now.

The salespeople who take this seriously will end the year strong and start off next year even stronger. The salespeople who ignore this advice will spend the first quarter digging themselves out of a hole.

The only question that remains is which one of these salespeople are you going to be?

And remember, when it’s time to go home, especially during the holidays when you’re tempted to call it early, always stop and make one more call. That discipline is often the difference that will help you outsell the holidays. 

Alex Weber knows it, too. He’s one of the few people to go from hosting American Ninja Warrior to competing on the show. When I asked him what separates winners from everyone else on an episode of The Sales Gravy Podcast, he said:

“Winners believe they’re going to win. You’re not going to win every deal. But even as I say that, I’m never going to let myself actually believe that.”

This is a masterclass in sales mindset—the mental toughness every top salesperson needs. The difference between a competitor who freezes and one who performs is simple: The winner chooses belief over hesitation, every single time. 

Stop Managing Doubt, Start Dictating Belief

The average salesperson walks into a deal trying to manage their doubt. They worry about the competition, they worry about the price, and they worry about rejection. That hesitation bleeds through every presentation, email, and follow-up.

The average rep tells themselves, “I hope I get this deal.”

Winners decide before the phone rings that they are the best solution, they deserve the business, and they are going to win. That mindset is the foundation of high-performance selling.

The moment you let the “what if I lose?” question become dominant, you pull back. You ask soft closing questions. You accept the first objection. Top salespeople know that a soft sales mindset guarantees a hard loss. You must carry the confidence of a winner, even when the odds are stacked against you.

Failure is Feedback: Burn the Ship and Move On

In high-stakes competitive environments, you can’t dwell on failure. If a Ninja Warrior misses a jump, they can’t afford to spend five minutes replaying the error in their head; they are already in the water.

In sales, the deep end is rejection. Too many salespeople treat a “no” like a personal failure instead of professional feedback. They let one bad call destroy their attitude for the entire week. This is why their sales mindset is fragile.

Winners understand that every loss is simply data to be analyzed. What did the client object to? Where did you lose control? What did the competitor do better? Process it immediately, then move on.

When you fail, you need to “burn the ship.” You acknowledge the loss, extract the lesson, and sever the emotional attachment. The inability to recover fast is the #1 killer of a sales mindset. You are guaranteeing an underperforming pipeline if you can’t reset your mental state between calls. Commit to the next interaction, not the last one.

Build Your Muscle Memory for Pressure

You can’t expect to be calm and collected during a high-pressure, high-dollar negotiation if you haven’t trained for it. Elite competitors don’t rely on game-day adrenaline. They rely on muscle memory built through intentional practice under pressure. Practice is how you develop the sales mindset that never wavers.

Identify the parts of the sales cycle that make you uncomfortable. If handling tough objections is your weakness, practice them relentlessly until your response is automatic. If you freeze up when cold calling top-tier decision-makers, role-play the opening three minutes of that call until you can deliver it with confidence. Your pipeline grows on competence, not hope. 

Stop Waiting for Motivation: Execute on Discipline

The worst lie in sales is the idea that you have to feel motivated to prospect. Motivation is an emotion. It comes and goes. Discipline is a decision.

The champion’s sales mindset relies on routine and process. You don’t need to feel excited to make that fifth cold call or send that critical follow-up. You just need to execute your process.

If you let your feelings dictate your schedule, you will only prospect when the conditions are perfect. That is an amateur move.

Winners know the work is non-negotiable. Discipline is showing up every day, executing the critical, revenue-generating tasks, whether you feel like it or not. Action generates confidence, not the other way around.

Mindset Self-Check

Before your next call, take a quick inventory. Are you waiting to feel motivated before you move? Trying to perfect your pitch before you prospect? Avoiding rejection instead of embracing feedback? Hoping your natural talent alone will carry you?

These are the quiet traps that keep a sales rep average. Winners don’t eliminate fear or doubt—they acknowledge those feelings and act in spite of them. Awareness is the first step to changing your mindset.

The Champion’s Blueprint: Practical Sales Mindset Application

Belief is useless without action. Here is how you convert these principles into real-world results:

• Sign the Pre-Game Contract: Before every high-stakes call, mentally commit to executing your process perfectly. Measure success on execution, not outcome.
• Implement the 10-Minute Failure Review: Immediately after a significant loss, spend five minutes documenting the facts and five minutes identifying one tactical weakness. Then burn the ship and reset before the next call.
• Drill the Difficult: Identify your five hardest objections. Role-play them ten times in a row until responses are instant and fluid. This builds pressure-proof sales muscle.
• Anchor to Ownership: Eliminate excuses. If you lose, it’s your responsibility to figure out why and fix it. Ownership anchors performance in proactive power.
• The 60-Second Reset: Before each appointment, take a brief break. Stand up, walk away from your desk, and reset your mental state to give the next customer 100% focus.

The Bottom Line: Dive In

The choice is clear. Fear can dictate your actions, or you can adopt the sales mindset of a champion.

Show up tomorrow and do the work whether you feel like it or not. Make the calls that scare you. Go after the deals that feel out of reach. Stack evidence that you’re getting better.

It all comes back to belief. The winners who dive into the deep end don’t wait for confidence to appear—they tell themselves they’re going to win, then act like it until it’s true.

The deep end isn’t where you sink. It’s where you prove you belong.

If you’re ready to build the mindset, discipline, and belief that top performers rely on, we can help. Whether you’re a salesperson leveling up, a leader developing your team, or a business owner driving growth, we’ll build a coaching path around you. Check out our coaching programs!

That’s the question Matthew Feit from Toms River, New Jersey, posed on an Ask Jeb episode. Matthew’s living the dream that most salespeople chase their entire careers. He’s at the top of his game financially. He’s proven everything he set out to prove. And now he’s stuck in this weird limbo where the fire that got him there has gone cold.

If you’re shaking your head right now, thinking this is a champagne problem, you’re missing the point. This is one of the most dangerous positions a high achiever can find themselves in, and it’s costing top performers their edge every single day.

The Jim Story: When Achievement Becomes Your Enemy

Let me tell you about Jim. Years ago, when I was living in Florida, I had this sales rep who was an absolute monster. Top of the ranking report. Presidents Club. Rolex on his wrist for winning. Then one day, his director of sales wanted to put him on a performance improvement plan. In sales, a PIP means you are a dead man walking.

I drove up to Jacksonville thinking there had to be some mistake. When I sat down with Jim, I realized the problem wasn’t his ability. The guy was still incredibly talented. The problem was he’d won everything there was to win, and he just didn’t have the next goal driving him anymore.

Here’s what I learned: The things we do in sales are hard. They’re repetitive. We deal with difficult people. It takes massive discipline, which is simply sacrificing what you want now for what you want most. But when you don’t know what you want most anymore, that discipline evaporates.

Jim’s answer surprised me. He wanted a Harley-Davidson, but his wife wouldn’t let him buy it. So I worked out a way to structure his commissions so he could get his Harley while still bringing home the money his wife expected. Suddenly, his sales went through the roof again. He had something driving him.

The Cognitive Dissonance of High Achievement

Here’s what’s happening with guys like Matthew and what happened with Jim: They’ve got this level of cognitive dissonance. Part of them is a stone-cold high achiever who needs to be achieving. The other part is saying, “I don’t feel it anymore. I don’t have that juice.”

When you’re younger or earlier in your career, you’re sketching out goals constantly. I remember having a goal book where I wrote down everything I wanted. One of my goals was a house on the inter-coastal waterway in South Florida. I achieved that goal. Then one day I’m sitting there going, “Well, what do I do now?”

It’s easy to get comfortable when you don’t know where to go next. But comfortable is the enemy of excellence in high-performance sales cultures.

What Do You Really Want?

I hit the same wall this year. Twenty years building this business, book number 17 coming out, and I’m asking myself the same question Matthew asked: “What now?”

I finally figured it out. My wants aren’t things anymore. Maybe in my 20s and 30s it was about what I was going to own, but today it’s different. It’s about what I want to accomplish and who I want to work with.

I realized I want to work with people and companies I know I can help. That are a challenge for me. Where I can watch them grow and enjoy seeing them succeed. Who really want to work with me and see me as part of their organization, not as a vendor.

As a result, I’ve been rearranging my world so I can be very picky about what I’m going to do, who I’m going to work with, and who I’m going to speak to. I want to do things that give me joy and fulfill my purpose, which is to help people sell more. That’s why I believe God put me here.

The Twenty Year Vision

When I was a little older than Matthew, I looked at my life and asked: “What are the next 20 years going to be like?”

I had won every award you could win in sales. I was operating at the top level of a Fortune 200 company. I had the accolades, the money, all of it. So I asked myself that simple question.

What happened over those 20 years completely changed my life. Everything shifted. I wrote my first book when I was 38. It wasn’t great. But it was my story, and it was the beginning. I made a goal to write five books in five years. Twenty years later, The LinkedIn Edge is book is number 17.

Here’s the thing: When I was 38, I didn’t know exactly where I’d be at 58. I just knew I was going to make a massive impact over the next 20 years as I pursued my purpose. It was simply about helping people.

Stop Thinking, Start Doing

Matthew mentioned wanting to write a book about his journey and helping other people. That’s a perfect path for someone at his level.

Here’s my advice: Sit down and look ahead. If you were looking at yourself 20 years from now, what would you want that person to look like? It’s not so much about what you want to achieve. It’s about who you want to be.

Don’t wait for the perfect vision. I didn’t have some crystal clear picture of where I’d be today. I just knew I needed to change and make an impact. The journey gets you there, but you have to start moving.

For Matthew and for anyone else who’s climbed every mountain in their current world: You have everything it takes to do whatever you want. You know that already. But if you get more time to just sit in your vacation home, you’re going to go out of your mind in no time because you’ll know you’re not living up to your potential.

The question isn’t whether you should keep pushing. The question is: What are you pushing toward? Answer that, and the fire comes back. Ignore it, and you’ll keep wondering why success doesn’t feel like it used to.

The best part? Once you reconnect with your purpose and set new goals that actually matter, you’ll discover that all those skills that got you to seven figures become even sharper. You’re not starting over. You’re leveling up.

Jeb Blount is the author of 17 books, including the groundbreaking classics Fanatical Prospecting, Sales EQ, Objections, and Inked. In The LinkedIn Edge, co-authored with Brynne Tillman, Jeb teaches sales professionals how to leverage LinkedIn to build their personal brand and fill their pipeline with qualified prospects.

What’s the first line item to feel the squeeze? Training and development.

It is often incorrectly labeled a ‘want’ and not a ‘need.’ We hear leaders say, “It can wait until next quarter,” or, “Once we stabilize revenue, we’ll invest in the team.” 

This short-sighted thinking doesn’t save money. Instead, it’s costing organizations a significant, quantifiable amount of revenue and talent. When professional development is treated like a luxury, we undermine the foundational ability of our teams to perform consistently at a high level.

Training is the Foundational Requirement for Peak Performance

Sales leaders should consider peak performance in any high-stakes environment. In the military, or in elite professional sports, ongoing training is not a choice—it is a non-negotiable, daily priority. 

So why is it that, in Sales, we view continuous development as optional or too expensive? The simple truth is that lack of training is the most expensive mistake you can make.

Think about the rate of technological change. Most of us have upgraded our cell phones in the last three to five years because the old ones simply couldn’t keep up. 

The same principle applies to your sales team’s skill set. If your representatives are still relying on techniques learned 5, 10, or 15 years ago, then they are operating at a competitive disadvantage. They will be outmaneuvered and outperformed by competitors who are strategically investing in modern sales frameworks every time.

Henry Ford’s famous quote still holds true: “The only thing worse than training employees and losing them is to not train them and keep them.” If you believe training is expensive, you must take a moment to calculate the monumental loss of reps consistently missing their quotas.

The True Cost of Inconsistency and Turnover

Look at the numbers. Assume three of your representatives are consistently missing quota by just 20%. That deficit is lost revenue—but it also represents wasted leads, missed opportunities, and the corrosive ripple effect of deals that never even make it into your pipeline. The amount of potential revenue lost due to underperformance is often far greater than the entire annual budget you would allocate to comprehensive sales training.

Action Plan for Sales Leaders & Managers

To reverse this loss, you must treat coaching as a continuous operational requirement, not a perk.

1. Calculate the ‘Cost of Inaction’ to Justify Budget: Reframe thinking of training as an expense and start focusing on the cost of the status quo. Calculate the annualized revenue loss from your bottom 20% of underperforming reps (e.g., missed quota * average deal size). Use that concrete number to justify and secure a budget for development, proving that not training is your biggest liability.
2. Implement a Continuous Coaching Framework: Don’t rely on annual training events. Transform your managers into daily coaches by mandating 30 minutes of structured, one-on-one coaching per week focused on skill development. This reinforcement is what locks in new behaviors and prevents the initial energy gained in training from fading.

The Hidden Expense of Disengagement

Talent turnover is another critical cost of lack of training that is often overlooked. A representative who feels unsupported, or who consistently misses quota because they don’t have the necessary tools and coaching, is highly likely to seek opportunities elsewhere. 

The cost of recruiting, onboarding, and ramping a replacement—which includes the loss of established customer relationships and the disruption to team morale—significantly outweighs the expense of proactive investment.

How to Take a Struggling Rep From Liability to Asset

A struggling representative is not necessarily a failure. More often than not, they are simply a motivated individual who has not been properly coached, developed, or given a clear framework for success. They begin their job eager to prove themselves, but without guidance, that initial energy quickly dissipates.

Investing in development can be the deciding factor that transforms a dedicated, yet struggling, team member into a consistent top performer. When you strategically invest, you convert what could have been a liability into a high-value asset for your organization. You also ensure that the talent seeking growth and success will find it with you, not with your competition.

Action Plan for Sales Leaders & Managers

1. Implement a Mandatory Tiered Coaching Cadence. Shift from generic pipeline reviews to mandating a structured, tiered coaching system: Tier 1 (The Weekly Huddle) for metric accountability; Tier 2 (The 1-on-1 Call) for strategic deal review; and Tier 3 (The Dedicated Call Critique Session) where the rep listens to and dissects a recent call recording (a win or a loss). 
2. Run a Quarterly ‘Skill Obsolescence’ Audit. Your team’s skills are your greatest asset, but they have a shelf life. Conduct a quarterly audit to identify the top three techniques that are obsolete but still being used by your underperformers (e.g., leaving long, rambling voicemails or sending generic proposals). Then, mandate a one-week “kill period” where your entire team replaces that obsolete technique with a modern, proven one.

The Strategic Advantage of a Cohesive Culture

When you commit to consistent training, you don’t just sharpen skills—you create alignment, clarity, and confidence across your organization. Every team member speaks the same sales language, follows a unified playbook, and builds the same winning habits. 

Training sharpens individual skills, but it also creates a culture where representatives feel supported, valued, and fundamentally equipped to win. The world’s best-performing organizations, from elite sports teams to world-class businesses, all share one critical characteristic: They never stop training.

As you plan for the year ahead, move past the outdated notion that development is an optional line item. See it as the essential fuel for your sales engine. 

If you are serious about hitting bigger quotas, accelerating deal velocity, and retaining your high performers, sales training has to be a strategic priority. The organizations that win are not the ones that cut corners on development; they are the ones that double down on it. 

Don’t budget for failure. Invest in the skill set that guarantees your next quarter’s revenue.

Don’t let your pipeline run on empty. Take control of your team’s performance today. Enroll your team in the next Fanatical Prospecting Bootcamp Live or visit Sales Gravy University to find more high-impact training options and learn more from Master Trainer Jessica Stokes.

These moments feel intensely personal and isolating. But the truth is, every rep who’s lasted in this profession has been there. On an episode of The Sales Gravy Podcast, Ashley Blount and I collected nightmare sales stories from our years in the automotive and telecommunications industries, plus stories from the sales community. We found 16 tales that prove no one faces this alone. Here are some of the most terrifying.

Smelly Dave: The Angel of Death

This sales horror story comes from the automotive industry, posted on Reddit by someone who still sounds traumatized. Dave started at the dealership after Sears closed. We found out he’d been the “Angel of Death” at several franchises—Sears, Future Shop, RadioShack. Every place he touched eventually shut down.

Dave was in his early 40s, wore the same shirt with the same coffee stain on it every single day, and smelled terribly. Customers would flee after test drives, refusing to come back into the building with him. On one occasion, a customer was dry heaving. Management tried to delicately bring up the hygiene issue, but Dave wouldn’t listen.

One day, the manager was told to drop off a sold vehicle to a customer, and Dave drove the chase car. As they returned together, the smell in that enclosed space was so unbearable that the manager walked into the boss’s office afterward and apologized for whatever he had done to deserve that punishment. The boss laughed, called Dave in, and fired him on the spot.

The Bluetooth Incident That Still Haunts Ashley

Ashley had been selling cars for a few months when a sweet older couple came into the dealership. The husband was retiring, probably late 60s, and they were one of those rare couples who were actually pleasant to work with. He picked out a lime green Ford Fiesta for his retirement car.

They completed the test drive, finished all the paperwork, and Ashley sent the vehicle back to get ready for delivery. When delivering a new vehicle, you always get in with the customer to help them connect their phone to Bluetooth and walk them through all the features. Since it was a couple, the husband was in the driver’s seat, his wife was in the front passenger seat, and Ashley was sitting in the middle of the back seat.

They got his phone connected to the Bluetooth, matched the code, and turned up the volume on the car. He went to open his phone. The most explicit, obscene audio you can imagine came blasting out of the speakers.

Dead silence in that vehicle for what felt like forever. Ashley wished them well, exited the car, and walked back inside, mortified. When asked how it went, she told them the story and muttered, “I don’t really want to follow up. I’m not sure that’s appropriate.”

The Telecom Contractors Who Started a Gunfight

I had door-knocked a large hair salon and built a relationship with the salon owner, who also owned the building. He helped me get in the door with all four of his tenants. Because he was switching, they all switched. I closed three to four months of quota on this one deal because of what he did for me. 

Installation day arrives. At 6 a.m., my phone rings. I try to sound as awake as possible with my gravelly morning voice, and the owner immediately screams, “Jeb, what the f**k?”

He explains that our contractors came out the night before, got in a huge argument, waved guns at each other—he swears one of them shot at the other. Then they came back in the morning and dug a trench that cut every single internet line to the building. Every single one. No internet on the salon’s busiest day, and all the other stores were out, too.

I arrived at 6:45 a.m. to a foxhole-sized trench and abandoned equipment everywhere. My heart sank. I escalated straight to the senior VP—two levels below the CEO. It wasn’t elegant, but the problem got fixed. I still use that hair salon to this day/

The $1.4 Million HIPAA Violation

One sales rep had a pediatrics practice ready to purchase his product for $1.4 million. They had already negotiated terms. The last step was to follow up with references, and then they were going for the signature.

Someone on the sales operations team had the brilliant idea to put them in an early adopter program without a test server. They crashed the client’s entire live system, and one of the consequences was sending bills to the wrong addresses, which violated HIPAA law. This cost the pediatrics practice not just money but also reputation with its patients. 

The deal was completely killed, and the practice announced that it was leaving for a competing system. The rep also lost $600,000 in annual recurring revenue. The sales rep did everything right and watched it all disappear because of a decision someone else made.

The VP Who Sabotaged Everything

Ashley worked on a high-volume account for multiple years. Hitting the mark on everything. The CEO and entire organization loved the work. Then renewal time came, and one of the VPs started making everything difficult.

Meetings became confusing. Clear agreements would somehow transform into something else. Ashley would leave meetings questioning whether she was interpreting things correctly. Her team felt it, too. Was this actually happening, or were they all going crazy?

Eventually, this VP went out with someone from Ashley’s company and admitted the whole thing. She was intentionally making everything difficult because she wanted to work with a friend at another firm. Nothing against the work. Nothing against Ashley. Just personal preference dressed up as professional obstacles.

Ashley still won the account. The VP found another job. But the psychological warfare of working on an account where someone is actively sabotaging you—not because of performance but because of hidden agendas—takes a serious toll.

The First Door Knock That Went Horribly Wrong

Sales horror stories aren’t always about lost deals; sometimes they’re about getting chased out of a building. Ashley was doing her first day of field sales training with a senior rep. They found new construction, talked to someone on-site, and were directed to the owner’s main office.

The gatekeeper walked them straight back to the owner’s office. He seemed pleasant enough at first. They introduced themselves and mentioned the new building. The minute they started talking about their services, he flipped like a switch.

He started screaming at them to get out, demanding to know why they were soliciting, how they made it all the way back to his office, and who let them in. He chased them out of the building in front of all his employees, yelling the entire time. His office was in the literal back of a shotgun-style building, so it was a long walk of shame past everyone.

They got in the car and sat in silence. Finally, the senior rep looked at Ashley and said, “They’re not all like that. I promise.” A brutal first lesson in field sales.

When Sales Goes Wrong: What The Best Reps Do

These sales horror stories all share something important: Sales will always put you in situations you can’t predict or control. You can do everything right—prospect well, qualify hard, deliver value—and still watch a deal unravel for reasons that make no sense.

What matters is how you respond. The best reps don’t disappear or point fingers. They show up fast, escalate when needed, and take ownership even when the problem isn’t their fault. They fight for their customers and for the relationship.

If a story like this brings up your own nightmare deal, take it as a good sign. It means you care about your work and take your commitments seriously. That’s what defines a true professional.

The pain doesn’t last. The customer who had the Bluetooth issue still bought the car. The salon owner stayed as a client. Ashley won that renewal. What once felt like failure becomes proof that you stayed in the fight, and that’s what the best reps do.

You’re Not Alone 

The worst part of a nightmare scenario is feeling isolated. But every rep has a story that still makes them cringe.

What matters is what you do next. Process it, learn from it, and bounce back stronger. Knowing every other sales professional has their own version of disaster can be the fuel that keeps you going.

Listen to the full episode of The Sales Gravy Podcast for all 16 sales horror stories and a reminder: Your worst day in sales doesn’t define your career. How you respond does.

If you’ve lived through your own sales nightmare, don’t let it haunt your next call. Start winning more on cold calls with our free guide, 25 Ways to Ask for the Appointment on Cold Calls, and turn your next “no” into a comeback story.

That’s the situation Peter Kleinman from Provo, Utah, finds himself in. As the sales and marketing guy for his dad’s startup, he’s tasked with landing enterprise clients while juggling full-time classes at BYU. He has LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, and a burning desire to make it work.

He also has virtually no chance of success using his current approach.

If you’re nodding your head right now, keep reading. Because Peter’s problem is your problem if you’re trying to sell into enterprise accounts without the business acumen, social proof, or strategy to break through.

The 100-Foot Wall Problem

Here’s the biggest issue: Fortune 1000 CHROs and C-suite executives have built a wall around themselves that’s about 100 feet high. Their entire job is keeping people like you from wasting their time.

And if you’re young, inexperienced, or new to enterprise sales? That wall might as well be 1,000 feet high.

Peter is doing everything the sales books tell you to do. He’s going straight to the top. He’s messaging decision makers on LinkedIn. He’s targeting the right titles.

He’s also getting absolutely nowhere.

Here’s why: It has nothing to do with age and everything to do with business acumen. You can’t speak the language of enterprise buyers if you’ve never lived in their world. You don’t understand their buying process, their risk aversion, or the organizational politics that determine whether your deal lives or dies.

Most critically, you’re trying to sell something they don’t even know they need. And you have zero social proof to back up your claims.

That’s not a recipe for success. That’s a recipe for frustration, burnout, and a pipeline full of nothing.

The Bottom-Up, Top-Down Strategy

If you can’t get to the top, start at the bottom.

I’m not talking about giving up on enterprise accounts. I’m talking about running a multi-threading strategy that builds your business acumen while creating pathways into those massive organizations.

Here’s how it works:

Find the amplifiers. These are the people in the trenches who actually deal with the problem your solution solves every single day. They’re not directors or VPs. They’re managers, analysts, and coordinators who feel the pain but lack the authority to fix it.

These people are 100 times easier to talk to than C-suite executives. They’ll take your call. They’ll teach you. They’ll tell you exactly what’s broken in their organization and how decisions actually get made.

Compress your experience. When you talk to these amplifiers, you’re not selling. You’re learning. You’re asking questions like, “Help me understand how you make these decisions,” and “What problems are you running into?”

Every conversation compresses years of experience into hours. You learn the language. You understand the pain points. You gather insights that become ammunition for conversations with decision-makers.

Surface the insights upward. Now when you finally get in front of that CHRO or VP of Benefits, you’re not some kid with a PowerPoint. You’re someone who understands their organization better than they do. You can tell them stories about what their own people are experiencing and how you can close the gap.

That’s how you get meetings. That’s how you build credibility. That’s how you win deals when you have no business acumen and no social proof.

The Insurance Broker Shortcut

Here’s another path Peter needs to explore: Insurance brokers.

If you can’t talk to the self-insured companies directly, talk to the people who advise them. Insurance brokers work with these organizations every day. They understand the buying process. They know the pain points. They’re infinitely more accessible than Fortune 1000 executives.

Better yet, they can become your distribution channel. If your software helps them serve their clients better, they’ll sell it for you.

This is classic fanatical prospecting. When your ideal customer is hard to reach, find the people who already have relationships with them. Build those relationships first. Let them open doors you can’t open on your own.

Stop Playing in LinkedIn’s Sandbox

Peter spends a lot of time on LinkedIn. Posting to the company page. Messaging prospects. Running outreach campaigns.

Here’s the truth: C-suite executives aren’t hanging out on LinkedIn waiting for your cold outreach. They’re not there. And the few who are there ignore 99% of the messages they receive.

LinkedIn is great for research and building your personal brand. But if that’s your entire go-to-market strategy, you’re dead in the water.

You need real tools. A proper CRM like HubSpot to manage your pipeline and run marketing campaigns. A platform like ZoomInfo to identify the right people and get their actual contact information. An integrated stack that lets you execute across email, phone, and social simultaneously.

Most importantly, you need to pick up the phone. Real conversations with real people will always beat automated LinkedIn messages. Always.

The Real Investment Required

Peter’s dad hates sales. He wants to build a great product and have customers magically appear. The company is running its entire sales operation on an Excel spreadsheet.

That’s not going to cut it.

If you want to win enterprise deals, you need to invest in the tools, training, and processes that make it possible. You’re looking at $50,000 per year minimum for the tech stack alone. Plus conferences, trade shows, and face-to-face relationship building.

That sounds expensive until you land your first six-figure deal. Then it looks like the smartest investment you ever made.

Your Action Plan

If you’re in Peter’s shoes, here’s what you do right now:

Stop going straight to the top. Identify the amplifiers at the bottom of your target organizations and start having conversations with them. Learn the language. Gather insights. Build your business acumen fast.

Find adjacent markets. If decision-makers are too hard to reach, find the brokers, consultants, or advisors who already have relationships with them.

Invest in real tools. Get off the Excel spreadsheet. Build a proper sales tech stack with a CRM, contact database, and marketing automation. Use AI to accelerate everything.

Get face-to-face. Attend conferences. Work trade shows. Build relationships in person where trust forms faster than it ever will over LinkedIn.

Enterprise sales doesn’t require working harder. It requires working smarter with the right strategy, the right tools, and the relentless discipline to execute even when the path forward isn’t clear.

That’s how you break through the wall. That’s how you win deals you have no business winning. And that’s how you turn yourself from a struggling startup intern into an enterprise sales machine.

Ready to master LinkedIn and build a prospecting system that actually works? Grab a copy of The LinkedIn Edge for the complete handbook on leveraging LinkedIn, AI, and modern sales tools to win more deals.

The entire event was fake. It was a perfectly executed radio drama by 23-year-old Orson Welles.

Here’s the sales lesson tucked into The War of the Worlds sci-fi scare: Welles wasn’t just reading a script. He was executing a masterful lesson in emotional engagement. He had listeners hooked, buying into his story emotionally before their brains had time to register, “Wait, this can’t be real.” 

That emotional buy-in is a core tenet of sales: People buy on emotion and then justify it with logic and facts.

If rational adults can flee their homes over a fictional Martian invasion, imagine the force of emotion you can unleash when you find your prospect’s emotional trigger. Sharpen your emotional intelligence, and you deploy a powerful sales tool.

Emotion Gets the Attention, Data Seals the Deal

Welles sold tension, uncertainty, and gravity, not a product. His voice was calm yet urgent, delivered with the authority of a trusted news anchor. The audience felt an adrenaline surge—heartbeats rising, eyes widening—before they had time to check the facts.

This is the non-negotiable first step in sales. Your passionate storytelling creates the emotional charge. Your tone carries more weight than any spreadsheet full of ROI data. Emotion gets your buyer leaning in and invested in the outcome. The data you provide simply helps them sleep well at night after they’ve already made their decision.

If your message isn’t landing, stop reviewing your product deck and start analyzing your delivery. Are you speaking with urgency, and are you connecting to their emotional state? Without that emotional resonance, even the best solution just adds to the noise.

Authority Isn’t Arrogance, It’s Command

Welles dressed his fictional story in familiar trappings like live news bulletins, eyewitness reports, and crackling radio static. Each detail made the unbelievable feel legitimate. He commanded belief by establishing immediate, undeniable authority.

Bring that same presence to your sales interactions. Authority isn’t arrogance; it’s commanding belief. Sound like someone who’s been there, knows the terrain, and has the solution. Communicate with unwavering authority, and you build trust before price discussions begin.

This is how you sell the experience. Prospects must believe in you and your company; belief in your product comes next. They buy the experience of working with you before seeing the product. If you sound uncertain, you’ll never build a foundation of trust.

Stay Steady to Control the Chaos

Welles predicted a strong reaction to his broadcast and stayed calm, controlled the narrative, and guided the audience through the panic he was creating.

In sales, moments of crisis or uncertainty test your professionalism. When a prospect goes cold, objections arise, or a competitor attacks, do not panic. Do not mirror their anxiety—it only feeds chaos and cedes control of the deal.

Control the process, control yourself, control the outcome. When deals wobble and emotions spike in your buyer, that is your moment to shine. Breathe, slow down, ask questions, and lead steadily. Be the calm voice that reassures, guides, and inspires confidence. Mastering internal composure is the essence of emotional intelligence in sales. 

Your Action Plan: Develop Your Sales EQ

Mastering composure under pressure is a skill, not a gift. It requires commitment to developing emotional intelligence so you can use logic while others react in fear.

1. Start a ‘Rejection Journal’ Drill. Stop letting rejection or setbacks paralyze you. Create a Failure Log to immediately document your feelings (frustration, anger, anxiety) and behaviors (rushing calls, getting defensive). This practice builds self-awareness and helps you identify emotional triggers before they hijack your sales process.
2. Practice the ‘Mute Button’ Listening Exercise. On your next call, mentally mute your urge to speak. Analyze the prospect’s delivery: tone, pace, hesitation. This drill sharpens social awareness and forces you to catch subtle emotional cues—the things they won’t email. This is how you truly understand their situation.
3. Implement the ‘Two-Second Pause’ Rule. When a high-stakes moment occurs—a sharp objection, competitor mention, or deal crisis—pause for two seconds before speaking. This creates a cognitive buffer, shifting you from reactive to controlled.

Your Story Is Your Greatest Weapon

The Orson Welles broadcast is nearly a century old, yet it still teaches us today that a gripping story delivered well can move mountains. The way you connect, build trust, and influence emotion hasn’t changed since radios ruled the living room.

You are an broker of features and benefits. You are a storyteller, and the calm in your prospect’s noisy, chaotic world. You are the guide who connects the dots between their terrifying “Martian invasion” of a problem and your ultimate solution.

Embrace this role, and you move past objections and skepticism. You stop triggering defensive panic and start inspiring action.

Your ability to command a room starts with your ability to command your own emotional intelligence. When the sales airwaves get noisy, keep your voice steady, your mind sharp, and your heart connected. 

Master your emotions, and you will close deals your competition can’t.

The real battlefield in sales is psychological, and if you can’t master your own emotions, you will never master your prospects. Jeb Blount’s book Sales EQ gives you the psychological edge to win the business your competition can’t even touch.

On the Sales Gravy Podcast, sales expert and author Victor Antonio shares this quote: “You won’t lose your job to AI. You’ll lose your job to people who are using AI.” 

While everyone debates whether artificial intelligence will replace salespeople, the real shift is already happening. What you need to know is which parts of your job will still matter when a machine can do everything else.

The Trust Formula Still Requires Humans

Most people think AI in sales is about automation. It’s not. It’s about augmentation.

Yes, AI can write your emails. It can analyze your pipeline. It can schedule your meetings and generate your proposals. But it can’t build trust with a buyer who’s about to make a six-figure decision they’re terrified of getting wrong.

Trust in selling comes down to three things:

1. Understanding the buyer’s point of view
2. Demonstrating real expertise
3. Keeping the buyer’s best interest front and center

When a buyer is staring at a purchase order that could make or break their business, they don’t want a chatbot. They want a human being who says, “I’ve got you. This is the right move.”

Simple Sales No Longer Require a Sales Rep 

Transactional jobs are disappearing.

AI sales agents can already handle simple sales from start to finish. A customer calls about a broken window seal. The AI analyzes the image, checks inventory, schedules a technician, verifies the warranty, and puts the appointment on the calendar. No human required.

This isn’t science fiction. These systems exist today.

AI handles simple tasks easily, but complex sales still require humans. Everything on the straightforward end—cold outreach, basic prospecting, routine follow-ups—is getting automated fast.

But complex B2B sales are different. When deals involve multiple stakeholders, custom solutions, and high-stakes decisions, buyers still need salespeople. Humans don’t trust machines with decisions that keep them up at night.

Your job security lives in complexity. If you’re selling simple products with simple processes, you need to start adding value now. 

What You Should Be Doing Right Now

Most salespeople are waiting while AI transforms the industry. Don’t make that mistake.

Here’s how to start experimenting with AI today:

• Use ChatGPT, Google’s Notebook LM, or your AI of choice to digest long articles and research reports in minutes instead of hours.
• Feed it information about your products and competitors to create your own custom knowledge base.
• Role-play objection handling by assigning it different buyer personas and practicing your responses.
• Ask it to critique your proposals before you send them to catch weak points you might miss.

These tools aren’t perfect. They’ll feel clunky at first. But you’re not trying to master AI today. You’re building comfort with technology that will be 100 times more powerful in just a few years.

The salespeople who are experimenting now will be the ones who know how to use AI when it really matters. The ones waiting for their leaders to force them to adopt AI will scramble to catch up.

The Skills That Survive AI

So what actually matters when AI handles the busywork?

The biggest obstacle in complex sales isn’t convincing buyers that your solution works. It’s helping them trust their own judgment enough to decide.

Buyers freeze not because of your pitch, but because of fear: What if I’m wrong?

AI can show data, ROI models, and comparison charts—but building buyer confidence still requires human judgment.

That’s the skill that matters: Building buyer confidence.

You need to get exceptional at reading hesitation—when a buyer goes quiet or starts asking the same questions in different ways. They’re not confused about your product. They’re uncertain about themselves.

Your job is to help them trust their judgment. That means understanding internal politics, knowing who has veto power, and recognizing when more information helps, or when it just creates more doubt.

The other critical skill? Using AI tools effectively. Knowing what AI can handle lets you offload routine work and focus on moments that require your human judgment.

The salespeople who win will be the ones who master both. Human skills for the moments that matter. AI skills for everything else.

The Bottom Line

AI isn’t your replacement. It’s your upgrade.

The sales skills you need most are the ones that have always mattered: understanding people, building trust, solving complex problems, and giving buyers confidence in risky decisions.

What’s changing is everything else. The admin work, research, and proposals are getting automated whether you like it or not.

Irreplaceable reps are the ones who use AI to eliminate grunt work so they can spend more time doing what only humans can do. The ones who lose are the ones still doing everything manually while insisting they don’t need help from a machine.

Pick one AI tool this week and start using it. Get uncomfortable. Make mistakes. Learn.

The future of sales is happening right now. And the only question that matters is whether you are ready.

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.

That’s the challenge facing Greg Hirschi from Colorado. He’s the new executive leader of an 18-year-old company selling ethics assessment services to professional licensing boards. They’ve expanded from an entrepreneurial model to a small team with one salesperson and one customer service representative. The goal is aggressive growth, and Greg needs to know where to focus his limited resources to get the biggest bang for his buck.

If you’re nodding your head right now because you’re in a similar situation, pay attention. Because the mistakes you make at $300K will haunt you at $3 million.

The Resource Reality Check

Let’s be brutally honest about what a $300K revenue company means: You have no money. You have a razor-thin budget. You have one salesperson and one leader trying to do everything.

At this stage, you have exactly one priority: REVENUE.

You don’t have the luxury of fixing operations, perfecting your tech stack, or building elaborate systems. You need to sell. Period.

Here’s where most small companies screw this up. They think selling means taking anything with a pulse. If it can fog a mirror, they’ll do business with it. That’s a death spiral disguised as growth.

The Operator’s Dilemma

Greg comes from an operations background. He’s analytical, process-driven, and systematic. Those traits are incredible assets for building a business, especially when the goal is to scale fast. But they can also be a liability when managing salespeople.

Here’s what happens: Operators think in systems and logic. Salespeople think in relationships and emotion. Operators want everything organized and predictable. Salespeople throw deals on the table that are messy and unpredictable.

If you’re an operator trying to lead sales, you need to understand this fundamental tension. Your salesperson is out there getting hammered with objections every single day, building narratives in their head about why people won’t buy. You’re thinking, “Just brush it off and do it again. What’s wrong with you?” They’re thinking, “You have no idea what it’s like out here.”

This is why reading New Sales Simplified by Mike Weinberg is non-negotiable if you’re an operator managing sales. You need to learn how salespeople think, how they operate, and how to lead them effectively without losing your mind.

Start With Your ICP or Die Trying

The single most important thing Greg needs to do right now to scale is get laser-focused on his Ideal Customer Profile.

Not kind of focused. Not “we have a general idea.” I mean obsessively, precisely, ridiculously dialed in on exactly who they should be targeting.

Why does this matters so much at $300K? Greg’s salesperson has a $600K pipeline and will close 50% of it. Sounds great, right? But if half those customers churn because they’re the wrong fit, requiring constant re-education and hand-holding, Greg’s salesperson will get stuck in account management mode. They’ll stop prospecting for new business because they’re too busy re-selling existing accounts.

That’s how you stay stuck at $300K forever.

Your ICP drives everything. It determines your messaging, your marketing, your presentation materials, and which stakeholders you need to reach inside target organizations. It helps you build relevant social proof stories. It allows you to coach your salesperson on handling specific objections instead of generic brush-offs.

Most importantly, it gives you guardrails. You can ask your salesperson in pipeline reviews: “Tell me the strategic reason why we should chase this account. How does it fit our ICP? Why is this worth our limited resources when our singular goal right now is growth?”

When you’re running a $300K company with one salesperson and one leader, you cannot afford to chase every deal. You need to focus on the right deals that will close and stick around.

The Resell Problem

Greg’s company doesn’t have contracts. They discovered that larger organizations with stable staff become sticky customers once they see the value. Smaller organizations with high turnover require constant re-education and reselling.

This is not how you scale.

If you don’t segment your market correctly and build processes around retention, you’ll hit a wall fast. Your salesperson will close deals, then get pulled back into account management, abandoning the pipeline. Salespeople will always choose talking to people they already know over talking to strangers.

You don’t have this problem yet at $300K. But you will as you begin to scale. Start thinking strategically now about your retention process and which customer segments are worth the ongoing investment.

The Foundation That Changes Everything

Getting your ICP right isn’t just about qualifying accounts. It’s about building a foundation that allows you to scale without constantly backtracking to fix problems you created by going after the wrong customers.

Every time you chase the wrong deal, you’re creating downstream problems. You’re wasting limited resources. You’re building frustration in your team. You’re teaching your salesperson bad habits about what constitutes a qualified opportunity.

The leap from $300K to $600K in annual revenue is hard. The leap to $1.2 million is harder. The leap to $3.5 million is brutal. But if you get the foundation right now while you have backing and support, those leaps become exponentially easier.

Your Playbook for Growth

Start with objection handling fundamentals that are specific to your ICP. When you know exactly who you’re targeting, you can anticipate their concerns and craft precise responses that resonate.

Build your messaging around the multi-threaded stakeholders in your target organizations. Who needs to be involved in the buying decision? What does each person care about?

Create a systematic, process-based approach to pipeline management. As an operator, this is your superpower. You can bring discipline and structure to a highly emotional profession.

The Bottom Line

At $300K, you’re essentially starting from scratch. You have aggressive growth targets, limited resources, and one shot to get this right.

Stop being reactive. Start being strategic. Get obsessed with your ICP. Build processes around the right customers. Coach your salesperson with precision instead of frustration.

That’s how you scale from $300K to millions. That’s how you avoid the mistakes that kill small companies. And that’s how you build a business that doesn’t just grow, but grows sustainably.

The good news? You have the backing to do this right. Don’t waste it chasing the wrong customers just because you need revenue today. Build the foundation that generates revenue for years to come.

Lead your salesperson, focus on the right deals, and scale from $300K to millions—start Jeb Blount’s Sales Leadership Essentials course on Sales Gravy University today.

My favorite posts are from salespeople who took this advice, called a customer, and were surprised—even stunned—to discover that their customer actually wanted to talk. It’s more proof that buyers are starving for real, authentic, human-to-human conversations with their sales reps and account managers. 

When Sellers Make Their First Call in Years

I saw one post yesterday from an account manager who said that, for the first time in years, he had picked up the phone and called a customer. In his post, he described how rewarding it was to have a real, live conversation—as if this was some new revelation. He said that even though the phone was “old school,” he had given it a try because his customers weren’t responding to his emails anymore. 

Although I’m super pleased to see that salespeople are rediscovering the power of the humble phone, I was bothered by this particular post because it is an indictment of just how far the sales profession has fallen over the past few years.

It also exposes the malpractice of this guy’s leadership team. Seriously, how is it possible that his leaders and company allowed him to avoid having actual conversations with his customers for years? 

Pick Up the Phone and Talk to Your Customers

Account managers who are not talking with their customers, the ones who keep their customers at digital arm’s length and send random “just checking in emails,” are swinging the door open and inviting competitors in.

When you fail to proactively manage relationships—when you don’t talk with your customers—those customers end up talking to your competitors and considering other options.

Nearly 70 percent of customers are lost due to neglect. Not prices, not products, not the economy, not aggressive competitors.

Neglect! They feel the sting of being taken for granted. If you’ve ever been taken for granted (and I bet you have), you know that it makes you feel unimportant, small, and resentful, which can lead to the feeling of contempt.

Resentment and contempt are the two most powerful negative emotions in the pantheon of human emotions. They are the gangrene of relationships, festering below the surface, slowly rotting away the connections that bind people together until the relationship is destroyed.

The good news is the secret to defending accounts is completely in your control. It’s simple. Pay attention to your customers.

And guess what? A simple, regular phone call can make all the difference. Just pick up the phone, dial their number, and ask or say:

• How are you doing?
• What can I do to help you?
• I have an idea for you.  
• Have a great weekend.
• Thank you for your business.

Regular telephone contact ensures that you are top of mind with customers. Hearing your voice lets them know that you care. It doesn’t need to be anything particularly special. You don’t need to schedule it on their calendar. You don’t need a reason to tell your customers that you appreciate them. 

Pick up the phone and say “hello” because it doesn’t cost a thing to pay attention to your customers.

A “How AI Will Replace You” Reality Check

But it’s not just that account manager and his company. Rather than picking up the phone and talking with people, sales professionals everywhere have replaced this beautiful, synchronous sales communication tool with email.

This aversion to talking with people by phone has become so acute that at least half of Sales Gravy’s training and consulting engagements have focused on one thing: Teaching and compelling salespeople to pick up the damn phone and just have real-time human conversations. 

So, let’s start with a reality check:

• The telephone is not old school. 
• Talking in real time with your prospects and customers on the phone is not old school. 

Pay attention: Talking with people is THE School with a capital THE. 

That’s what you get paid to do. The more people you talk with, the more you will sell. And the easiest, fastest, lowest-friction means of talking with people is by phone. 

Last Monday, I discussed the reasons why AI will not be displacing sales professionals any time soon. I made the argument that sales is the most human-centric career choice in the age of AI. 

But there is a caveat. If you choose to keep your customers and prospects and digital arm’s length or if you avoid engaging in synchronous conversations by phone, in-person, or video, AI can and will replace you. 

The Workhorse of Selling

Ever since Alexander Graham Bell uttered the first words on the first phone over 140 years ago (Mr. Watson, com here, I want to see you.) the telephone has been the workhorse of selling. The telephone has always been and will continue to be your most powerful sales tool.

I’ll bet my next book royalty check that there is a phone near you right now. People sleep with their phones, eat with their phones, and are more likely to lose their car keys and wallet than their phone. Though it is probably used more for texting, posting selfies, and watching cat videos, if you dial a number, in an instant, you can be in a sales conversation.

So, I’m going to say this one more time, slowly, for the folks in the back of the room who are still not tracking. You get paid to talk with people. There is no other tool that will connect you to people faster, deliver better results, fill your pipe more effectively, and help you cover more accounts and ground in less time than the humble telephone. 

The Lazy Excuse for Not Using the Phone

If you are one of the many salespeople who are quick to say, “My customers like it better when I use email,” I’ve got a message for you. The “My customers like it better when I use email” trope is primarily a BS story that YOU keep telling yourself to justify why YOU are not talking with people.

This lazy excuse is why so many salespeople have devolved into asynchronous sellers. Trust me, if you keep this behavior up, the robots are coming for you.

I’m not downplaying email as a sales channel. There are plenty of situations when email is the most appropriate communication tool. 

What I’m trying to get through to you is that when you consistently default to an asynchronous communication channel like email—because emotionally it’s easier for you to keep people at arm’s length—human connections begin breaking.

How the Phone Improves Productivity

What’s beautiful is that the phone can make you more productive. In so many cases, one short phone conversation can replace five or more emails and the frustrating back and forth that comes with them. 

When there is a misunderstanding, before you reach for your keyboard to blindly send another email, stop and pick up the phone.

Over my many years in business, I’ve found that the phone is the quickest and most effective way to easily solve problems and handle sales tasks that require human-to-human connection.  

When in Doubt, Pick Up the Phone

I live by a simple sales mantra: When in doubt, pick up the phone.

• Got a customer service issue? Pick up the phone.
• Have a misunderstanding? Pick up the phone.
• Want to stay in touch and keep your relationships anchored? Pick up the phone.
• Need a reference or a referral? Pick up the phone.
• Have a question? Pick up the phone.
• Need to follow up? Pick up the phone.
• Deal stalled? Pick up the phone.
• Need to qualify an opportunity or identify a buying window? Pick up the phone.
• Before you schedule yet another excruciating Teams or Zoom meeting? Try giving your customer a call. I’m positive that they’ll appreciate not needing to schedule time on their calendar and be on camera when you can both just jump on the phone. 
• Empty pipeline? Put the cat video down and pick up the damn phone!

And when it’s the end of the day and you’re tired and ready to go home, always stop and will yourself to pick up the phone and make one more call. 

If you haven’t ordered my book The LinkedIn Edge yet, stop now and take action. This instant bestseller will transform your relationship with LinkedIn, give you new tools and techniques for using LinkedIn for prospecting, and make you a lot of money. 

Here’s what one five-star reviewer said on Amazon: “I’m impressed by how Jeb cuts through the noise and delivers sales insights that feel practical, human, and immediately useful. What stood out to me is how he shows you not only how to leverage LinkedIn & AI to increase sales, but also how to bring the human side back into the process—reminding us that relationships are at the heart of sales.” 

————————————————————————————————————————

If you don’t have The LinkedIn Edge, go now and get your copy at Barnes & Noble or Amazon.

The real issue? Most sales leaders are managing activity instead of developing people. They’re applying pressure instead of addressing the mental blocks that sabotage performance before reps ever pick up the phone.

The Real Problem Holding Back Sales Teams

Walk into any sales bullpen and you’ll hear the same beliefs on repeat:

“I’m not good at cold calling.”

“Nobody wants to hear from me.”

“I don’t know if I can hit these numbers.”

Most leaders dismiss this as an attitude problem or lack of confidence. So they fire up the team with a motivational speech, send everyone back to their desks—and nothing changes.

Here’s what’s being missed: These aren’t attitude problems. They’re belief systems that determine behavior. And behavior determines results.

Nobody was born knowing how to sell. Your top performer didn’t start with the ability to handle objections or close deals. They learned it. But the reps who believe they can’t learn it won’t put in the work to improve. They’ll make half the calls, avoid the hard conversations, and prove themselves right.

The real work of building elite performers is getting inside your reps’ heads and rooting out the thought processes that are killing their performance. That’s where true coaching separates managers from leaders.

Why One-on-One Coaching Unlocks Growth

Group training builds skill, but addressing mental blocks requires one-on-one coaching—where you can dig into patterns, ask uncomfortable questions, and challenge unhelpful thinking.

Why does this rep always sabotage themselves right before closing a big deal? Where did this idea that “people don’t like being sold to” come from? What past failure is creating this blind spot?

Good coaches shine a light on the patterns that people fail to recognize or flat-out avoid. They name the behavior that’s been there all along, but no one wanted to confront.

Awareness alone doesn’t create change. Your rep can have that breakthrough moment where they realize they are the problem, and still fall back into the same habits.

Real coaching means holding people accountable to the change they commit to making. It means checking in, following up, and not letting them slide back into old patterns when things get uncomfortable. That’s the difference between feel-good conversations and actual performance improvement.

The Coaching Gap in Sales Leadership

Most sales leaders don’t actually coach. They manage activity, review numbers, and deliver pep talks. But managing metrics does not build high-performance sales teams. Developing people does.

Coaching starts with curiosity. It means sitting down one-on-one and asking questions that uncover what is really holding a rep back. Not “why didn’t you make enough calls?” but “what made those calls hard to make?”

Sometimes the barrier is a belief. Other times, it is a communication issue between the rep and the leader. If you do not understand how each person communicates and processes feedback, you will keep missing the mark.

When you tailor your coaching to match how a rep thinks and responds, conversations become more productive and performance starts to shift. That is how coaching turns from another meeting on the calendar into a catalyst for real growth.

Creating an Environment Where New Reps Actually Develop

The best thing you can do for your team is lower the pressure on outcomes and increase the focus on process. This doesn’t mean accepting mediocrity—it means being relentless about the activities while being patient with the results.

Your new reps are going to struggle. It’s a reality you have to accept, not a problem to solve. They need to fumble through bad calls, make mistakes, and learn from real conversations with prospects. You cannot prepare someone to be good at sales. They have to do it badly first.

The question is whether you’re creating an environment where that’s okay. Where making a mess is expected, and failure is part of the learning process, instead of a reason to panic about their future with the company.

Consider the typical new rep experience: second week on the job, a prospect tears them apart on a call. The bullpen laughs. The rep feels like an imposter. They’re making dozens of dials a day and destroying every conversation.

But if they keep showing up and keep making calls, something happens: They get slightly less terrible every week. That’s the compounding effect you need to protect in your team. Consistency over time produces skill development. But only if you don’t crush people’s confidence before they have a chance to build competence.

Your job as a leader is to set clear activity expectations, hold people to them, and trust the process. Make 50 calls. Talk to 10 decision-makers. Run 5 demos. Do that every day for three weeks and watch what happens. The skills develop naturally when the reps are unavoidable.

You can’t do this if you’re constantly freaking out about weekly results or applying pressure instead of providing coaching. High-performance sales teams aren’t built on fear. They’re built on consistent execution supported by leaders who actually develop their people.

What Building a High-Performance Sales Team Looks Like in Practice

Working one-on-one with reps creates breakthrough moments. They start to recognize the patterns that have been holding them back—the beliefs that quietly shape every call, and the habits that limit their results.

But breakthroughs only matter if they lead to change. The real coaching happens in the follow-up:

• Check in regularly. Ask what they’ve done differently since your last conversation.
• Revisit commitments. Remind them of what they promised to work on.
• Hold the line. Don’t let them slip back into the comfort of old habits.
• Celebrate progress. Reinforce small wins that build long-term confidence.

That’s the unglamorous work of building a high-performance sales team. It’s not about motivational speeches or new methodologies. It’s consistent, intentional development of each person on your team.

Professional athletes have coaches. CEOs have coaches. Your sales team deserves the same level of focus and accountability. Managers track numbers; coaches develop capability.

Beyond Activity: Develop the People Behind the Numbers

Building high-performance sales teams through connection instead of pressure doesn’t mean ignoring activity—it means understanding that activity is only effective when driven by the right beliefs and behaviors.

Most of the time, it’s not effort. It’s not laziness. It’s mental blocks that determine behavior. What people do drives what they achieve. If you want different results, you need to address the thought processes first.

This requires coaching people individually, having uncomfortable conversations, creating an environment where consistent execution is valued over short-term outcomes, and staying with people through the messy middle of skill development.

Pressure doesn’t create lasting excellence. It burns people out and creates a revolving door of mediocre performers who never stick around long enough to get good.

Connection is what separates high-performance sales teams from those that simply survive.

When you connect, you don’t just hit the number—you build a team that crushes it again and again.

Most sales leaders know they should coach—few actually know how. Learn the framework that works and book a free consultation. 

That’s the question Andrew Osborne from Pittsburgh brought to me. Andrew works in direct selling and network marketing, specifically health and wellness nutrition supplements. Like most MLM leaders, he’s frustrated watching new recruits default to the guru-approved strategy of posting on Instagram and waiting for the magic to happen.

Spoiler alert: The magic never happens.

If you’re nodding your head right now, you’re not alone. The “social media is the new cold calling” myth is one of the most damaging lies being sold to new direct sales representatives today, and it’s costing MLM organizations their best potential talent.

The Social Media Trap: When Easy Becomes Impossible

Remember that story in Fanatical Prospecting where I went head-to-head with someone who swore their social media guru had all the answers? I said, “Great, you do yours for a week, I’ll do mine for a week, and we’ll test it out.”

Guess who won?

Here’s the brutal truth: Posting on social media feels easy because it lets you keep people at arm’s length. You don’t have to face rejection. You don’t have to interrupt strangers. You don’t have to have uncomfortable conversations.

But here’s what actually happens. After two months of posting videos that get one view each and zero sales, your recruits quit. They’re demoralized, broke, and convinced MLM doesn’t work.

The real problem? They were never taught how to actually sell.

Why MLM Sales Training Is Harder Than You Think

When Andrew recruits someone into his network marketing organization, they’re making two types of sales: selling the product and recruiting new team members. Most of these people have never sold anything in their lives.

They came from every background imaginable except sales. Something happened in their life that made them say, “I want more.” That motivation is critical, but motivation without skill is just frustration wrapped in hope.

The things they need to do are really hard. Nothing in their life has prepared them for what sales prospecting actually requires. They have to sacrifice what they want now (ease and comfort) for what they want most (their goals).

That’s why the first question I ask every new recruit is this: What are your top five goals in the next twelve months?

Not company goals. Not team goals. Their goals. Because if they don’t want something bad enough to go through the pain of rejection, nothing else matters.

The Only Formula That Actually Works

In MLM, there’s one simple formula that works every single time: Go talk with people.

The more people you talk with, the more you recruit. The more product you sell. It’s that simple.

Think about it this way. If you had a marketing strategy that could create all your product sales and recruiting automatically, you wouldn’t need an MLM. You’d just have an e-commerce business. The reason network marketing exists is because a network of people can spread the word and sell better than online ads.

But here’s the problem. Talking with people means getting past your discomfort. It means interrupting a stranger in line at Walmart. It means seeing someone at church who mentions financial problems and saying, “Hey, what if I had a way to help you out?”

Most people would rather post on TikTok than have that conversation.

What to Teach Your MLM Team

If I’m building an MLM sales training program for recruits, here’s exactly what I’m teaching them, in this order:

First, teach them how to open conversations. Not pitches. Conversations. With strangers and with people they know. What’s the first question they ask? How do they approach someone in line at Walmart? How do they bring up their network marketing business with friends without being weird?

Run drills on this. Practice it until it becomes muscle memory. Because if they can’t start the conversation, nothing else matters.

Second, teach them how to listen. Most network marketing reps who actually work up the courage to talk to someone immediately blow it by pitching for five minutes straight. The prospect’s eyes glaze over and they walk away.

The secret to sales influence isn’t what you say. It’s what you hear. Get the other person talking. Ask questions that trigger the self-disclosure loop. Find out what’s wrong in their life, what they’re frustrated with, where they’re feeling stuck.

Third, teach them to build value bridges. Once someone is talking about their problems, your job is to connect where they are to where they want to be using your product or opportunity as the bridge.

Tell stories. Use social proof. “I met someone three weeks ago just like you who told me the same thing. Here’s what they did, and here’s what their life looks like now.”

New recruits don’t have their own stories yet, so give them yours. Give them other people’s stories. Teach them how to take what someone tells them and give it back in the context of how you can help.

Finally, teach them to ask. Asking is the most important discipline in sales. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. But asking means you have to set yourself up properly so you can reduce objections before they happen.

Stop Making Excuses, Start Having Conversations

Look, I get it. Your recruits didn’t come from a sales background. They’re starting from scratch. They don’t know what to do.

But that’s exactly why they need you to teach them the fundamentals instead of pointing them to another Instagram guru.

Have some grace for them, sure. But also have some standards. Because if you’re not teaching them how to actually have conversations with real human beings, you’re setting them up to fail.

The beautiful thing about selling health and wellness products? Everyone is a prospect. Everyone needs what you’re selling. Everyone you meet could potentially join your team.

You have a 300 million person prospecting pipeline in the United States alone.

Stop hiding behind social media and start talking to people. That’s how you build a real MLM business. That’s how you develop successful recruits. And that’s how you stop losing good people to the myth that posting and praying is a real strategy.

Want to leverage LinkedIn the right way instead of just posting and praying? Check out Jeb’s new book The LinkedIn Edge and learn how to turn social selling into real conversations that convert.

Every week, there’s a new headline about another role being automated, another company replacing people with bots, another “AI agent” that can do the work of ten humans in half the time.

And if you spend too much time reading those headlines, it’s easy to start wondering, What happens to me? What happens to salespeople like us in a world where machines can do almost everything we used to do?

AI is Here to Stay

You can’t escape the truth. AI is going to change everything and impact almost every part of our lives. The train has left the station, and it will not be turning back.

AI is going to displace a lot of people and jobs, but it’s not going to replace everyone.

Because no matter how smart machines get, they can’t feel or connect the way you and I can. Sales is, and always will be, the ultimate human profession. It’s the one job built entirely on human emotion, human judgment, and human connection.

What You Can Do That AI Can’t

Just think about it:

• AI can write words. But it can’t create belief.
• It can predict who might buy. But it can’t build trust.
• It can score a lead. But it can’t lead a human being through uncertainty, fear and doubt while giving them confidence to make the right decision in complex situations. 

That’s what you do. That’s what we do. That’s what salespeople have always done—long before there was technology, long before there was AI, and long before algorithms tried to simulate emotion.

In sales, it’s not about the product. It’s about the person. People buy you. What you sell might get you to the door, but it is how you sell that determines whether they let you in.  

Every sale is a transfer of emotion from one human being to another. It’s the transfer of belief and confidence and trust.

When a customer says “Yes,” they’re not just saying yes to a proposal or a price. They’re saying ‘Yes’ to you. No matter how powerful technology becomes, that moment—that human moment—will never be replaced by a line of code.

As modern sellers, what we need to understand is that AI isn’t the end of selling. It’s just the next leap forward in our incredibly resilient profession. 

Keeping it Real

AI will replace some salespeople, so we need to keep it real.

There are reps who are lazy, transactional, and just go through the motions and never bother to think, adapt, or grow. Those reps will get left behind.

So AI will not make sales professionals less valuable, but it will absolutely make the gap between poor and exceptional salespeople wider and more pronounced. 

But the top performers—the ones who combine human empathy with AI-powered insight—will be unstoppable. Because when you merge the intelligence of machines with the intuition of a human being, it becomes a force multiplier. 

How to Become Irreplaceable with AI

Right this moment, top sales professionals and high-earners are elevating their performance with AI tools that do the grunt work. It’ll build your lists, do your research, automate your follow-ups, and write every sort of draft. 

It will give you more time for human-to-human connections: to listen, discover, develop creative solutions, persuade, and see the emotional context behind the data.

The question isn’t whether AI will replace you. The question is whether you’ll use AI to become irreplaceable.

It’s simple. AI can give you the right words to say. But only you can make someone feel something when you say it.

AI can pull the data, do the research, and build your presentation. Only you can look someone in the eye and say “Trust me. We can solve this together.” and close the sale. 

Your Emotional Intelligence Seals the Deal

That’s The AI Edge. It’s not about the tools. It’s about using the tools to amplify your humanity.

In the age of AI, your #1 competitive advantage is emotional intelligence. It’s your ability to understand how people feel, adapt to their emotions, and guide them through uncertainty toward a decision.

Think about the last time you made a big decision. It could’ve been buying a car, changing jobs, or moving to a new city. You didn’t make that decision because of pure logic. You made it because someone—maybe a friend, maybe a spouse, maybe a salesperson—made you feel confident. They helped you believe it was the right move.

That’s exactly what elite salespeople do every single day. They help other humans feel confident. And confidence can’t be coded.

As AI floods the marketplace with automation and shallow, synthetic communication, real human connection becomes even more valuable. Buyers are exhausted from automated everything and are craving authenticity they can feel.

You Must Develop Your Humanity

So, what does this mean in practical terms? It means you need to double down right now on the one thing AI can’t replicate: your humanity.

Develop your listening skills. Grow your emotional intelligence. Learn how to become a more convincing communicator. Build your skills for influencing buying decisions. Learn how to connect and build relationships with people.

Because in our brave new world, soft-skills are the new hard skills. The future belongs to the sales pros who merge emotional intelligence with artificial intelligence.

Leverage AI—Or Lose to It

Look, AI isn’t going away. You can choose to fear it, or you can choose to leverage it. You can choose to complain about it, or you can choose to get curious and learn. You can choose to stand still or evolve.

Powerful AI still needs a human guide. A sales rep who understands how to lead a conversation, build trust, read a face, and feel what another person feels.

That’s the magic of sales. That’s what makes our profession the ultimate human career choice.

If you don’t have my new book The LinkedIn Edge: New Sales Strategies for Unleashing the Power of LinkedIn + AI to Cold Call Less and Sell More, go get this book now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and where ever books are sold. 

And remember, at the end of the day, when you’re tired, worn-out, and all you want to do is quit, always stop and make one more call.

If you’re ready to finish the year strong and blow past your quota, these five battle-tested sales strategies from previous podcasts will transform how you sell.

1. Deliver an Unforgettable Customer Experience by Mastering Your Emotions

Your prospect doesn’t care about your bad morning or the three deals that fell through yesterday. When you walk through the door or dial their number, you’re the only conversation they’re having with your company today.

Elite salespeople know emotional consistency separates closers from pretenders. Think of it like a pro golfer staying calm and cruising forward regardless of what happened on the last hole.

As Jeb Blount explains: How your customer feels about you is more predictive of outcome than any other variable. They buy you first, and then they buy your product. They buy you because they feel safe, heard, and confident you will deliver.

This means you have to compartmentalize every interaction. Your fifth appointment of the day deserves the same intensity and professionalism as your first. When you show up desperate, prospects sense it immediately. When you rush through discovery, they feel undervalued.

Jeb emphasizes this critical point: Buying a house, car, or service is deeply emotional for the customer. Before every interaction, take sixty seconds to reset. Acknowledge whatever is bothering you, mentally file it away, then walk in focused entirely on their world and their goals.

2. Commit to the Day One Follow-Up Mindset

Ask yourself: How many times do you attempt to reach a prospect before quitting?

If you answered three or four, you are leaving money on the table. Most reps quit after just three or four attempts, and sometimes without ever hearing a ‘No.’ They just stop and let leads rot in the CRM instead of risking rejection.

As Jessica Stokes reminds us, top producers understand this: While you are tracking your sixth or seventh outreach attempt, for the prospect, every touchpoint feels like day one. They are busy running their business—not waiting for your call.

The problem is not just the number of attempts; it is the spacing. When you leave a voicemail and wait a month to “give them space,” you lose momentum and start from scratch every time.

The winning sales strategy is persistence with velocity. That means touching base every few days or weekly. When you maintain momentum, prospects remember you. The real failure is letting quality leads die because you are afraid to pick up the phone and risk hearing “No.”

3. Turn Your Empathy Into a Weapon, Not a Weakness

If you have ever hesitated before making a cold call because you thought, “I don’t want to bother them,” you are dealing with what Jeb Blount calls projection, and it is costing you deals.

Projection happens when you assume prospects hate being interrupted as much as you do. You start deciding for them before you’ve even made the call.

Successful salespeople recognize interruption is a professional necessity. Your job requires it; your income depends on it.

Letting empathy paralyze your prospecting is dangerous. The internal conflict is real: You want to be an empathetic person, but you also have to be an interrupter.

The mindset shift: Understand that projecting is the most dangerous thing in sales because you are deciding for your customer in advance what they want or need. Real empathy means showing up, asking sharp questions, and letting them tell you what they need. You cannot solve problems you never discover because you were too afraid to start the conversation.

4. Build a Velvet Rope Around Your Business

What if your clients felt less like transactions and more like VIPs getting an exclusive invitation? That is the power of the Velvet Rope framework, a human-centered sales strategy developed by Kristin Andree that makes prospects want to work with you.

Kristin observed that people get excited to attend exclusive events. Her insight led to a three-part framework built around Know, Find, Love:

1. Know your people: Get crystal clear on your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
2. Find your people: Execute disciplined activity that consistently fills your pipeline.
3. Love your people: Deliver experiences so exceptional that customers become your most effective marketing channel.

The “Love your people” element is where most drop the ball. Kristin focuses on “surprise and delight”, doing something unexpected that clients don’t see coming.

For example, giving personalized, curated gifts as a surprise creates a ripple effect. Clients talk about these personalized gifts with friends and colleagues, resulting in more referrals because there is a buzz about you. Curated clients don’t just stay; they sell for you. This is genuine relationship building at scale.

5. Develop Velocity Mindset: Speed With Direction

Most salespeople confuse activity with progress. They move fast, make lots of calls, send countless emails, but they are not actually getting anywhere because they are chasing the wrong outcome.

When Ron Karr asks what velocity means, everyone says “fast.” But that’s not velocity. Velocity is speed with direction. Direction requires knowing the destination before you start the journey. The biggest problem for most salespeople is that they are not going after the right outcome.

Ron’s solution? Hold a board meeting with yourself. When you’re stuck or not getting traction, step back and reframe your thinking. Ask yourself: What outcome am I really chasing? Am I pitching features when I should be diagnosing the real problem?

This shift in perspective changes everything. When you get clear on the outcome that matters to your prospect—not the one that matters to you—you stop competing on specs and start filling gaps that matter deeply to them.

When you master the velocity mindset, the close becomes inevitable because you have made the decision obvious.

The Choice is Yours. Stop Making Excuses.

Elite salespeople don’t wait to “feel” motivated. They execute proven sales strategies daily, regardless. These insights from Jeb Blount, Jessica Stokes, Kristin Andree, and Ron Karr give you the roadmap to stop selling on hope and start selling with discipline and certainty.

You have the knowledge. Now it is time to choose.

Do you keep making excuses—or do you show up, execute, and finish strong?

Start winning more on cold calls with our free guide: 25 Ways to Ask for the Appointment on Cold Calls, and boost your results today.

That’s what Jeff Vellas asked on a recent Ask Jeb episode, and it’s the question that separates the pros from the amateurs in sales.

Sales is the hardest profession in business. It’s the only job where you have to go out and find rejection and bring it home every single day. Every ask you make carries the potential to be rejected at a deep, painful level.

That’s why we get paid so well. And that’s why most people can’t hack it.

But the ones who do? They’ve figured out the secret.

Find Your Carrot

My friend Will Fratini from ZoomInfo nailed it when he talked about what motivates him, or what his carrot is. His five-year-old daughter once bought him a carrot Christmas ornament, and he carries it with him everywhere as a reminder of why he shows up every day.

Here’s what matters: Your carrot needs to be specific and tangible. Not some vague “I want to be successful” nonsense. I’m talking about something real. A commission check of X dollars. A boat. Generational wealth through real estate. A college fund for your kids.

Think of it like an old-time horse and carriage. You put a carrot on a stick in front of a stubborn horse, and suddenly it’ll go forward even when it wouldn’t before. That’s what your carrot does for you when everyone else is giving up.

Your carrot is what pushes you past the point where giving up would be completely justified. It’s what separates the best from the rest.

The Hard Truth About Sales Discipline

Let’s be clear about what sales discipline actually means. You have to show up every day and do a certain number of activities. Every. Single. Day.

And to do those hard things consistently, you need that carrot.

It’s about sacrificing what you want now (which is easy) for what you want most (which requires doing hard things). I want to do things that are easy. But to get what I want most, I’ve got to do things that are hard.

That’s the entire game.

The Scottie Scheffler Example

Look at Scottie Scheffler, the PGA golfer. When he makes a bogey, he bounces back with a birdie or better 62 percent of the time. The rest of the field? Less than 18 percent.

Why? Because Scheffler is crystal clear about what’s important to him. He knows his carrot. He understands what fulfillment means. When something goes wrong, there’s no cascade of “everything is wrong.” His ego doesn’t take a hit because he’s focused on what matters most.

He picks himself back up, brushes himself off, and keeps moving.

What most people don’t know is that it wasn’t always this way. When he first brought on his caddie, Ted Scott, Ted told him straight up: “I’m not working for you unless you get the attitude, temper, and anger under control.”

Think about that. The caddie refused to work with him unless he fixed his mindset first.

That’s how important mindset in sales really is. Everything else comes after.

Your Visual Cue

Go get yourself a carrot ornament. Seriously. Find one on Amazon, hang it in your office, and use it as your visual cue for what matters most.

When you’re sitting at your desk in the morning trying to get started, or when something has gone wrong and you’re trying to bounce back, that carrot will remind you why you chose this soul-sapping profession in the first place.

Because maybe the only thing harder than sales is golf. But you chose it. Now own it.

The Secret Superpower

Here’s the bonus that Will dropped that’s pure gold: Sometimes your carrot isn’t even about you. Sometimes the ultimate sales superpower is genuinely helping someone else be the star of the show.

The best sellers in the world don’t care about how great their product is. They care about making their customer the hero. If you genuinely believe you’re there to help someone else’s day get better, you’re going to come through.

And when you have that extra little carrot hanging there (that house, that milestone, that college fund), it’s going to doubly remind you that the reason you’re doing this is to serve others first.

Sales is really hard because it’s hard to put other human beings before yourself. If you have a carrot to motivate you to push through, and you know deep down that your intrinsic motivation is to help someone else, you will do great.

That’s what turns things around. That’s what creates longevity in sales.

The Bottom Line

Stop overthinking this. The formula is simple:

1. Define your specific, tangible carrot
2. Put a visual reminder where you’ll see it every day
3. Remember that you’re here to make your customer the star
4. Show up and execute with discipline, even when it’s hard
5. When you’re tired, hungry, worn out, and ready to go home, make one more call

That’s how you prepare your mindset, create discipline, and separate yourself from everyone else who’s just going through the motions.

Ready to dominate your prospecting game? Check out my book, The LinkedIn Edge, and discover how to leverage LinkedIn to fill your pipeline with qualified prospects.

In sales, everything rests on putting qualified opportunities in your pipeline. Prospecting is the beginning and the end, alpha and omega. If you don’t prospect, you will fail. That is a guaranteed truth.

Each and every sales day, you must connect with prospects, engage them in meaningful conversations, and convert them into pipeline opportunities. 

It’s a Noisy World

The problem is that we live in a noisy world in which those same prospects are being inundated with prospecting messages from dozens of other salespeople who are also attempting to get their attention. 

So, if you don’t stand out, you lose. 

But I doubt I’m telling you anything that you don’t already know. It’s freaking hard to get attention when prospecting, and it’s not getting easier. There are days when it feels like you could be jumping up and down in front of your prospect in a pink bunny suit while throwing hundred-dollar bills in the air, and they’d still ignore you. 

The Sledgehammer Approach Is Dead

One of the key reasons so many salespeople fail to break through is that their entire prospecting strategy is pounding away at prospects through a single communication channel—typically a series of automated emails sent through a sales engagement platform like Outreach or SalesLoft. 

Sadly, this sledgehammer approach just doesn’t work anymore. Recent data reveals that salespeople are sending as many as eight times more emails today than they did five years ago and getting just a tenth of the results. 

A big reason prospects are tuning out is that AI-powered sales automation tools have scaled email prospecting activity to an extraordinary level. 

In the past, writing a prospecting email involved strategic thought and taking time to craft a message that was unique to each prospect. It was a slow process, which meant salespeople sent fewer but better prospecting emails.

Today, AI engines can pump out hundreds of cold email variations in seconds with shallow, and often cringeworthy, personalization that, more often than not, turns prospects off. And as AI-generated prospecting emails flood inboxes, the sheer volume of this outreach has eroded any impact from the improved efficiency. 

Constant exposure to this irrelevant, repetitive AI-generated crap has left business executives exasperated. They are overwhelmed and have tuned out, turned off, and are ignoring all prospecting messages—good or bad, human or AI-generated.

Break Through the Noise

Most sales professionals today are desperate to find new techniques to help them break through the noise and get attention when prospecting so that they can engage in more meaningful conversations. 

Most salespeople want a bigger, stronger pipeline filled with qualified opportunities. Yet many overlook one of the most powerful prospecting tools right at their fingertips: LinkedIn.

Why LinkedIn, Why Now

It can be argued that the moment the sales profession changed forever and the door opened to modern selling as we know it was when Alexander Graham Bell said on the very first telephone call, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.”

The telephone’s impact on the sales profession was profound and lasting. Then, as now, the phone remains the most efficient and effective means for conducting real-time, synchronous human-to-human conversations with prospects.

Bell made his call to Mr. Watson 150 years ago. Since then, only a handful of pivotal technologies have advanced the sales profession with such impact:

• The automobile gave sellers the freedom to cover wider regional territories more efficiently.
• Air travel literally gave sales professionals wings, expanding their reach nationally and globally.
• The internet put unimaginable data at the fingertips of both sales professionals and buyers.
• Smartphones put powerful computers in our pockets and made communication ubiquitous.
• Video calling shrunk the globe and accelerated sales cycles.
• CRM (we still hate it) made it possible to efficiently capture, organize, and access data.
• Artificial intelligence is transforming the way we develop insight from this data—revolutionizing targeting, prospecting, communication, deal strategy, and forecasting.

But, of all these advances, none has had a more dramatic impact on the sales profession and your ability to connect with almost anybody, anywhere, at any time than LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is a Vibrant Sales Ecosystem

LinkedIn is a vibrant ecosystem where a billion business professionals are linked together. It’s a prospecting and sales Swiss Army knife with dozens of tools and applications for a variety of purposes:

• Prospecting
• Networking
• Research, qualifying, and list building
• Multi-threading and stakeholder mapping
• Pre-call planning
• Discovery
• Communicating
• Building familiarity and personal branding
• Projecting thought leadership and authority

What makes LinkedIn truly unique is that this giant database and sales ecosystem is constantly self-updating. This means that the data and contacts are never stale.

It is the only sales data center where you are always working with the most current information about prospects and their companies, which makes it an excellent list-building tool. It gets even more powerful when you combine LinkedIn with AI and data platforms like ZoomInfo. 

This matters because when prospecting, the better your list, the better your outcomes.

When you consider that the very essence of selling is connecting with people, building relationships, and solving problems, it’s easy to understand why LinkedIn is the most important technological advancement in the history of the sales profession.

A Prospecting Swiss Army Knife

To break through the noise and earn attention, you need to ditch the sledgehammer and pick up a multi-function Swiss Army Knife. 

Multichannel prospecting sequences that leverage LinkedIn are that Swiss Army Knife. 

Sequences diversify your outbound strategies with a multi-channel, multi-touch, interwoven-message strategy that helps you stand out. And LinkedIn amplifies the impact of these sequences. 

A multichannel sequence gives you the opportunity to meet prospects where they are and how they prefer to communicate. It also allows you to experiment with multiple iterations and formats of your message to hone in on the one message that pulls your prospect in. 

LinkedIn, when combined with AI and traditional communication channels like the phone and email, can give you almost superhuman prospecting powers.

Superhuman Prospecting Powers

Sales professionals who harness LinkedIn in their Fanatical Prospecting sequences can transform their prospecting strategy and explode their pipeline with high-quality opportunities by generating more leads, opening more doors, and engaging in more meaningful conversations.

To be sure, LinkedIn is not a prospecting panacea. It will not provide an endless stream of inbound leads with little effort. It requires hard work and time investment, and it must be combined with other communication channels to be effective. 

LinkedIn is, however, a key component of a complete prospecting system. From list building and direct outreach to lead generation and long-term cultivation of future opportunities, LinkedIn’s panorama of features can be a crazy powerful weapon in your prospecting arsenal. 

This is why I want you to stop today and consider how you are using LinkedIn. Do you feel like you are getting everything out of LinkedIn that you should be? Are you scheduling consistent LinkedIn blocks on your calendar, or are you erratic with your efforts? 

Take some time this week to consider new possibilities for how to make LinkedIn work better for you and recommit to making LinkedIn a core part of your fanatical prospecting routine. 

The LinkedIn Edge: The “Fill Up the Pipeline” LinkedIn Book

In my new book, The LinkedIn Edge, I give you a comprehensive prospecting playbook. You’ll gain tools, tactics, and techniques for building a robust pipeline with both fast and long-game strategies for landing big, lucrative deals and dream accounts.

Prospecting on LinkedIn can feel utterly overwhelming, so I’m going to teach you:

• How and where to get started.
• How to build better prospecting lists and find who and what you are looking for.
• Develop effective prospecting messaging for InMail and LinkedIn Direct Messages.  
• How to communicate on LinkedIn and conduct more effective prospecting conversations.
• How to get found and generate inbound leads.
• How to generate referrals and warm introductions.
• How to differentiate, build trust, and stand out in a world that wants to commoditize you.

My mission is to teach you exactly how to enhance, elevate, and accelerate your prospecting efforts by blending LinkedIn seamlessly into your sales toolkit. Don’t wait, go get my new book: The LinkedIn Edge.

And here’s a bonus: Once you purchase The LinkedIn Edge, you’ll get access to a comprehensive LinkedIn Course (a $50 value) with 10 videos and a reading & reflection guide. Just purchase the book, and then take your receipt to salesgravy.com/edge to redeem your free course. 

And never forget, when it’s time to go home, always stop and make one more call.

Before transitioning into sales, Steve Munn spent nine years as a professional hockey defenseman. As a hockey player, his job was to make life difficult for the other team and absorb whatever they dished back. 

“Part of it was getting punched in the face,” he said on a recent episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast. “If I get a no from a prospect, that’s maybe a bad day, but it’s certainly not as bad as getting a concussion or a broken nose again.”

That perspective shift, understanding what actually constitutes a threat, changes everything about how you approach cold calling. It goes beyond being tougher or having thicker skin.

Your Fear Isn’t About the Call

Most sales professionals will do anything to avoid call blocks. They’ll update their CRM. Reorganize their pipeline. Respond to emails that could wait three days. Anything but pick up the phone.

The problem isn’t the person on the other end of the line. You don’t want to be the one who fumbles, doesn’t have the right answer, or proves you don’t belong in that conversation.

Imposter syndrome thrives in sales because every call is another opportunity to prosecute yourself. Every objection becomes evidence that you’re not cut out for this. Every hang-up confirms what you secretly suspected: You’re bothering people who have better things to do.

That internal narrative is all in your head, and it’s costing you deals.

Get Your Mind Right First

You can’t make effective cold calls when you’re living in your head. Anxiety, overthinking, or trying to sound perfect makes every conversation feel forced. Nothing bad actually happens on a sales call. Your life isn’t in danger, and a hung-up phone or curt “not interested” barely registers as a problem.

The best cold callers aren’t fearless. They’re prepared mentally before they start dialing.

Find what gets you into the right frame of mind: review recent wins, remind yourself that you’re solving real problems, or call a colleague for perspective. The goal is connecting with another human, not executing a perfect pitch. People can tell the difference.

Separate Message From Delivery

When someone says “we’re all set” and hangs up, they’re not making a judgment about your worth as a salesperson or a human being. They’re communicating one thing: They’re not interested right now.

The delivery might feel harsh, and the tone might sound dismissive. But the message is simple and impersonal.

Athletes learn this early. Coaches scream. Teammates criticize. Opponents talk trash. If you react emotionally to how something is said rather than hearing what’s actually being communicated, you become ineffective.

In sales, the same principle applies. When you stop taking the delivery personally, you can actually hear what’s being said. Sometimes what sounds like a hard no is actually “you haven’t given me a reason to care yet” or “call me back in six months.”

You Don’t Need to Know Everything

One of the biggest barriers to cold calling is the belief you must have all the answers. You hesitate because you think, “What if they ask something I don’t know? I’ll look like a fool.”

Here’s what that thinking misses: You have a team.

No salesperson operates in a vacuum. You’ve got service teams, technical experts, partners, and colleagues who collectively know far more than you do individually. The expectation that you should show up with encyclopedic knowledge is self-imposed and unrealistic.

What matters on a cold call isn’t demonstrating expertise. It’s demonstrating curiosity and commitment. 

When you release yourself from the pressure to be perfect, cold calling becomes about investigation rather than performance. 

Ask Questions Nobody Else Does

Most salespeople treat cold calls like a race to present their solution. They barely understand the prospect’s world before pitching features and pricing.

The top performers do the opposite. They ask questions competitors ignore. Instead of, “Can I get fifteen minutes to show you our platform?” try, “What’s changed in your business in the last six months that’s making you rethink how you handle [specific problem]?”

Lead with understanding rather than your product. What are they dealing with that nobody else is asking about? What assumptions are they operating under that might not serve them? 

This approach positions you as someone who cares about their situation while giving you information that makes every future conversation more valuable.

Not Yet Isn’t No

You’re going to lose deals you thought you had won, make calls that go nowhere, and have weeks where it feels like every door is closed.

That’s not failure. That’s the process.

Deals lost today often become wins 12 to 18 months from now. Budgets shift, new decision-makers emerge, priorities change. Every no is simply “not yet.”

If you internalize that, cold calling becomes less emotionally charged. You’re not getting rejected—you’re planting seeds, gathering information, and building a pipeline of future opportunities.

Athletes understand this intuitively. You can’t dwell on the last play. Maybe you got burned. Maybe you made a mistake. Doesn’t matter. What matters is what you do next.

Bad call? Someone hung up on you? Got rejected? Move on to the next conversation. Your success isn’t determined by any single interaction. It’s determined by whether you keep showing up.

You’ve Already Earned Your Spot

If you’re in sales, you’ve already proven you belong by getting hired and closing deals. 

Stop waiting for permission to be confident. The voice in your head telling you to wait, prepare more, or improve is lying. It’s protecting you from discomfort, not danger. Cold calling requires perspective and repetition. The more you do it, the more the worst-case scenario barely registers as a problem.

The salespeople who excel at cold calling aren’t special. They’re just willing to be uncomfortable more often than you are. They’ve done the mental work to separate their self-worth from their call outcomes. They understand that this is a numbers game and a skill that improves with practice.

You can do the same thing. You just have to start dialing.

The Real Competition

Your biggest competitor isn’t the salesperson at another company. It’s the voice in your head that convinces you to do anything except pick up the phone.

That voice will always find reasons to wait. More research. Better timing. A warmer lead. These are perfect conditions that never actually arrive.

Meanwhile, the salespeople who are winning aren’t smarter or more talented. They’re just dialing while you’re hesitating.

Silence the self-doubt and dial. Then dial the next one. 

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.

That’s the challenge Matthew Russell brought to the table, and it’s a scenario that’s far more common than you’d think. Companies transitioning from founder-led sales often throw their first sales hire into the deep end with nothing but a laptop and a “good luck” pat on the back.

If you’re nodding your head right now, you’re not alone. But here’s the good news: Some of the most successful sales teams were built from exactly this position, and there’s a proven playbook for making it work.

The Hook Is Everything

When Will Frattini joined his boss Jane in Austin back in 2011, they had zero presence in the market. No reputation, no established relationships, no fancy tech stack. Just two people and a mission to build from scratch.

The first lesson? Your job isn’t to reinvent the wheel or create some elaborate sales process. Your job is to figure out what hook the founder used to close their first deals, then ruthlessly replicate it.

This means getting the founder to show you exactly how they won business. Listen to their calls. Shadow their meetings. Mirror their approach. Don’t try to be clever or add your own spin yet. Just learn what actually works.

Here’s the critical part: You need the founder to be completely honest with you about your early meetings. Will’s boss had the right to refuse any meeting he set. If it didn’t qualify, she’d tell him exactly why. That feedback loop is gold because it teaches you the difference between a meeting that sounds good and a meeting that actually advances the sale.

Master the fundamentals before you try to optimize.

The Metrics That Actually Matter

Forget about creating a complex sales process with seventeen KPIs. In the beginning, you need exactly one metric that matters: qualified meetings that convert to next steps.

Will’s early goal was 20 to 30 worthwhile meetings per month. Eventually they scaled that to 60 per rep. But notice the word “worthwhile.” These weren’t just any meetings. They were conversations with real potential that the founder or sales leader validated.

The qualifier matters because it forces you to get better at targeting and messaging, not just activity for activity’s sake. You can’t game this system by booking junk meetings.

Victoria Walker asked how long it takes to build metrics in a niche market, and the answer is simple: You’ll have metrics after day one. How many calls did you make? How many connections? How many appointments set?

But most new outbound teams trip up because they expect instant results, don’t see them, and quit before the cumulative impact kicks in.

The 30-Day Rule Changes Everything

The prospecting you do today pays off in the next 90 days. This is the rule of cumulative impact, and it’s why most outbound efforts fail.

Companies start strong, don’t see immediate results, and abandon ship. Then they restart six months later with different reps, different messaging, and the cycle repeats. This is death by fits and starts.

Your commitment has to be ironclad: We’re doing this every single day for at least 90 to 120 days before we make major changes. You’ll make small tweaks to messaging and targeting along the way, but you don’t stop the engine.

Think of it like an elite sports team watching game film. You’re looking for incremental improvements. Last month you closed five good deals. This month you’re aiming for six. You’re not rebuilding the entire playbook every two weeks because the metrics look scary.

Handling the “How’d You Get My Number?” Objection

D’elvis Huerta raised a challenge every salesperson faces: Prospects who are surprised or even concerned when you call their personal cell phone. They ask how you got their information, and it throws you off your game.

Here’s Will’s brilliant reframe: That question is a gift. It’s a pattern interrupt that means they’re actually listening to you.

When someone says “How’d you get my number?” they’ve stopped what they were doing and turned their brain on. Don’t panic. Just repeat what you said, clearer and slower, then move forward.

Will’s approach: “I got your cell phone number because I’m reaching out to you. I heard on your team that you’re looking to grow into the software space, and what I hear is there’s a lot of noise from people trying to train sales teams. What I’d love to do is set some time … “

My response is even simpler: “I got it right out of the CRM. And the reason I’m calling you is to grab some of your time because … ” Then I go right into my value hook.

The key is confidence. You’re not apologizing for cold calling like a professional. You’re explaining why this conversation matters to them.

The Bottom Line

Building pipeline without tools isn’t a disadvantage. It’s actually an advantage because it forces you to master the fundamentals that matter: targeting the right prospects, delivering a compelling hook, and having conversations that advance to next steps.

Will and Jane scaled from zero to $3 million in one year. They hired five additional people. They became the fastest growing office in their company. And they did it all without fancy technology or massive budgets.

How? By staying focused on what works, getting ruthlessly honest feedback, and showing up every single day with the discipline to execute the system.

That’s the blueprint for every successful first sales hire who’s ever built something from nothing.

Ready to turn LinkedIn into your ultimate prospecting engine? Discover the strategies that combine outbound excellence with social selling in The LinkedIn Edge by Jeb Blount and Brynne Tillman.

Sales is fundamentally a mental game. Your capacity for understanding your prospects at a deeper level and developing creative solutions that solve their problems—that’s your winning edge.

In a profession where you need to outwit and out maneuver your competitors to win, your ability to think, to truly contemplate and reflect, might be the most underutilized competitive advantage in your sales arsenal.

Always Responding. Never Reflecting.

Yet most salespeople these days are starving their minds. They’re constantly in motion, constantly busy, constantly doing, constantly in front of screens—but rarely thinking. 

We’ve created a culture where being busy equals being productive. Most salespeople spend their days reacting to emails, to phone calls, to urgent requests, to the latest fire that needs to be put out. We are always responding, never reflecting. Always moving, never thinking strategically about where we are going.

Noise Kills Your Ability to Think

William Penn wrote, “True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.”

Think about that for a moment. You wouldn’t dream of going weeks without sleep because you know your body would break down. But you regularly go weeks, maybe months, without giving your mind the silence and space it needs to just think and function at its highest level.

We live in the age of noise. Constant noise. Digital noise, physical noise, mental noise.

Your phone is buzzing with notifications. Your email is pinging every few minutes. Your CRM is demanding updates. Your manager wants reports. Your prospects are texting. Your colleagues and customers are interrupting. 

We have so many things going on at once and so much noise in our lives that it has become almost impossible to think.

All of this noise is killing your ability to think clearly, to make good decisions, to see the big picture, to be the creative and thoughtful professional you were meant to be. 

Schedule Thinking Time

That’s exactly why scheduling thinking time is so important.

Most people don’t take the time to think because they don’t feel like they can afford to. Sitting quietly and thinking doesn’t feel like work. It feels like you’re being lazy. Our culture has programmed us to believe that if we’re not visibly doing something, we’re not being productive.

Likewise, constant stimulation has become a drug. Silence feels uncomfortable because we’ve forgotten how to be alone with our thoughts.

I passionately believe that we must schedule, on our calendars, time for thinking. No distractions, no music, no TV, no laptop, no phone—just you and your thoughts, alone.

Notice I said “schedule” it. If you don’t put it on your calendar, it won’t happen. You’ll always find something more “urgent” to do.

Thinking Time

Taking time to just think is powerful. It slows you down, helps you relax, and frequently generates incredible ideas and inspiration. 

Thinking time isn’t meditation, though it shares some similarities. It’s not prayer, though some people find it spiritual. It’s simply dedicated time for your mind to process, reflect, and contemplate.

The beauty of thinking time is that it can take many forms. 

The Quiet Corner Think 

Find a quiet space like your office with the door closed, a park bench, your car in an empty parking lot, or a corner of your home. The location doesn’t matter as much as the lack of distractions. Start with just 15 minutes. Don’t try to go for an hour right away. Build the habit first, then extend the time.

The Walk and Think

This is my personal favorite. Take a long walk alone, without music, podcasts, or phone calls. There’s something about the rhythm of walking that unlocks creative thinking. Steve Jobs was famous for his thinking walks. Many of his best ideas came while walking around Apple’s campus or through his neighborhood. The gentle, repetitive motion of walking seems to free up your brain to make connections it might miss while sitting still.

The Shower Think 

Some of the world’s greatest discoveries and business breakthroughs have happened in the shower. There’s actual science behind this. The warm water and routine nature of showering creates the perfect environment for what psychologists call “divergent thinking.” Your mind relaxes, and suddenly solutions appear. 

Don’t underestimate the power of a long, hot shower for generating breakthrough insights. Archimedes discovered the principle of displacement in his bathtub. The idea to write my blockbuster bestselling book Virtual Selling hit me in the shower. 

The Commute Think

If you have a regular commute, turn off the radio, the podcasts, the music—everything. Use that drive time as thinking time. Obviously, keep your eyes on the road and drive safely, but let your mind wander to your sales challenges, opportunities, and strategies.

The Early Morning Think 

Get up 30 minutes earlier and use that quiet time before the world wakes up. Grab a cup of coffee, sit somewhere comfortable, and let your mind work through whatever needs processing. I do this every morning. It makes all the difference for how I start the day. 

The Universal Principles of Thinking Time

Regardless of which approach you choose, here are the key principles for effective thinking time:

• Breathe slowly and listen closely to your inner voice. Just like a GPS, it always knows where you are and will tell you when you’re on the wrong path or when you’re on the right path.
• Don’t force specific thoughts. Let your mind wander. Sometimes the most valuable insights come from unexpected directions. Your brain is incredibly good at making connections when you give it space to work.
• Eliminate distractions. No phone, no music, no multitasking. This is pure, undiluted thinking time.
• Keep a notebook nearby. Not to take notes during the thinking time, but to capture thoughts immediately afterward while they’re still fresh. Some of your best insights will come in the final moments or right after your thinking session ends.
• Be patient with the process. Your first few attempts might feel unproductive. That’s normal. Your brain needs time to remember how to think without constant stimulation.

Gaining Clarity

Here’s why thinking time gives you such a powerful competitive advantage: While your competitors are running around like chickens with their heads cut off, reacting to everything and thinking about nothing, you’re developing clarity, insight, and strategic perspective.

You’re seeing patterns they miss. You identify opportunities they overlook. You’re solving problems they don’t even recognize exist.

The insights that come from thinking time often seem obvious in retrospect. But they’re only obvious after you’ve taken the time to think them through.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been stuck on a problem, frustrated and spinning my wheels, only to have the solution become crystal clear during a thinking session. It’s like your subconscious mind has been working on the problem in the background, and silence gives it the space to deliver the answer.

The Ripple Effects

Thinking and contemplating taps you into the amazing power of your mind. The more you practice thinking, the better you get at it and the more ideas, aha moments, and insights you produce. 

But the benefits of thinking time extend far beyond your sales results. You’ll find that you sleep better because your mind isn’t racing with unprocessed thoughts. You will make better decisions because you’re operating from clarity rather than confusion. Your confidence will build because you’ll have a clearer sense of direction.

Relationships will improve—both professional and personal—because you’ll be more present and thoughtful in your interactions.

Your stress and anxiety levels will decrease because you’ll be responding to situations from a place of calm consideration rather than knee-jerk reaction.

The power of thinking time isn’t just about becoming a better salesperson, though you will. It’s about becoming a better version of yourself.

Everybody wants to stand out and grab the attention of qualified prospects. Learn how to cut through the noise in Jeb Blount’s new book: The LinkedIn Edge

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.“

The Sales Meeting Problem Hiding in Plain Sight

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.

Why Traditional Discovery Is Failing You

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.

The Emotion Gap in Every Sales Meeting

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.

The Three Non-Negotiables of Every Winning Sales Meeting

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.

How to Prepare for Sales Meeting Success

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:

Before You Meet

• 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.

During the Meeting

• 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.

After the Meeting

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

Why Feelings Beat Features Every Time

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.

Transform Your Sales Mindset

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.

Your Win Rate Transformation Starts Here

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.

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.

The Wrong Question That’s Keeping You Stuck

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.

The Mental Shift That Changes Everything

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.

Why You’re Already Qualified to Use AI

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.

Think Like a Conductor, Not a Solo Act

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.

Your Practical Starting Point

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.

The Efficiency Multiplier Effect

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.

The Learning Curve Is Shorter Than You Think

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.

Your Competitive Advantage Is Starting Now

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.

The Bottom Line

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.

Write Your Sales Comeback Story

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.

The Grind Season Mindset

“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. 

Your Pipeline Reality Check

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. 

Recommit to Fanatical Prospecting

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. 

Advance Deals With Unwavering Decisiveness 

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. 

Embrace the Grind Season Suck

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.

Time is Short, Act Now

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. 

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.

Why Untapped Markets Are Goldmines

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.

The Data-Driven Discovery Method

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.

The 100-Conversation Rule

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.

Look for Adjacent Opportunities

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.

The Focus Formula 

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.

Building on Legacy Assets: The Hidden Accelerator

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.

The Ecosystem Approach to Market Development

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.

The Long-Term Vision That Drives Short-Term Action

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.

Turn Market Intelligence Into Sales Gold

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.

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.

The “Buy or Die” Misconception That’s Killing Your Pipeline

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.

Why Generic Messages Get You Blocked Every Time

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.

The Research Failure That Destroys Credibility

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.

How to Turn Data Overload Into Relevant Conversations

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.

The Three Pillars of Relevant Prospecting

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.

Your Prospecting Success Framework

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.

The Integration That Changes Everything

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.

Stop Making Excuses and Start Getting Results

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.

The Assassination That Shook America

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.

This Isn’t About Politics

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 Charlie Kirk’s Example Taught Me

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.

The Human Cost

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.

The Conflict We All Face

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.

The Power of Face-to-Face Conversation

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.

We Have a Choice

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.

America Was Built on Disagreement

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.

The Call to Action

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.

What This Means for How We Work and Live

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.

The Legacy We Choose

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.

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.

The Certainty Crisis Killing Your Deals

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 Science of Deep Sales Discovery

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 Power of One Question

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.

Cognitive Empathy Is The Difference Maker

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.

The AI Factor: Why Discovery Matters More Than Ever

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.

The 5-Step Discovery Revolution Framework

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 Path Forward

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.

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.

The Dysregulation Problem: When Emotions Hijack Performance

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.

Why Most Sales Leaders Miss This Completely

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.

The Three Pillars of Emotional Regulation in Sales

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.

The Courage to Trust Your Instincts

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.

How to Build Regulation Into Your Process

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.

The Bottom Line

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.

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.

The Real Problem with Your Pipeline

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.

Step 1: Finding the Right Stage

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.

Step 2: The Introduction That Doesn’t Sound Like a Pitch

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.

Step 3: Mastering the Conversation

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. 

Step 4: The Follow-Up That Closes the Loop

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 Compounding Effect

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.

The Choice Is Yours

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.

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.

Why Sales Reps Experience Afternoon Energy Crashes and How to Fix Them

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.

How Back-to-Back Meetings Create Sales Burnout and What to Do Instead

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.

The True Cost of Sales Burnout on Your Deal Pipeline and Commission

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.

Step-by-Step Plan to Prevent Sales Burnout and Boost Performance

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.

Conclusion

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.

“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. 

1. Clear Communication: No Confusion, No Excuses

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.

2. Goal Setting & Vision: Building Direction, Not Just Numbers

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.

3. Coaching: From Boss to Builder

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.

4. Adaptability: Leading Through Change

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.

5. Accountability & Recognition: The Performance Balance

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.

How These Leadership Skills Work Together

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.

Your Next Step as a Sales Leader

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.

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.

The Psychology Behind Sales Territory Wars

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.

The Real Cost of Territorial Thinking

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.

The Solution: Strategic Commission Pools and Clear Ownership

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 Leadership Mindset Shift

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.

The “We Win as a Team” Reality Check

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.

Your Action Plan

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.

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.

The Problem: Sales Activity Without Purpose

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.

The Real Cost of “Busyness”

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. 

The Solution: High-Leverage Sales Activity

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:

Proactive Prospecting

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.

Meaningful Conversations

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.

The Power of “No”

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.

Your Action Plan To Go From “Just Busy” To Productive

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

Step 1: The Activity Audit

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.

Step 2: Time-Block for High-Leverage Work

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.

Step 3: Make the Mindset Shift

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.

Stop Confusing Motion with Momentum

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.

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.

The Universal Language of Human Connection

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.

The Listening Advantage That Trumps Language Barriers

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.

Speaking Their Language (Even When You Don’t)

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.

The Power of Making People Feel Heard

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.

The Cultural Bridge Strategy

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.

Building Global Influence Skills

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 Compound Effect of Curiosity

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.

The Bottom Line

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.

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? 

The Three-Step Hunter’s Playbook for Account Managers

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.

1. Prospect Your Own Accounts

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.”

2. Master the Expansion Sale

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.

3. Leverage Your Success for Referrals

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.

Owning Your Pipeline as an Account Manager

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.

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.

The Projection Trap: Why Your Empathy Is Working Against You

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.

The One Thing That Makes Interruption Welcome

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:

1. Personalized Messaging for High-Value Prospects

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.

2. Targeted Messaging for Scaled Outreach

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.

Stop Confusing Prep Work with Prospecting

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.

From Pushy to Helpful: Reframing Interruption

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.

5-Step Action Plan to Crush Call Reluctance

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.

The Bottom Line

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.

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.

How One Sales Incentive Program Nearly Destroyed a Billion-Dollar Company

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.

The Hidden Dangers of Performance-Based Compensation

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.

5 Warning Signs Your Sales Incentives Are Backfiring

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

How to Design Sales Compensation That Drives Sustainable Growth

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.

The Bottom Line

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.

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.”

Why Most New Sales Leaders Fail

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.

Stop Being the Hero: Your New Job Description

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.

The Five Non-Negotiable Disciplines of Being a New Sales Leader

1. Master the Art of Sales Coaching

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.

2. Build and Maintain Pipeline Discipline

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. 

3. Become a Hiring Machine

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.

4. Master the Numbers That Matter

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.

5. Create a Culture of Accountability

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.

Leadership Is a Choice, Not a Title

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. 

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.

The Professor Problem: Why Being Smart Is Making You Broke

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.

Why Information Is Your Leverage—Not Your Gift

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.”

The High-Stakes Hire: What to Look for in Professional Services Salespeople

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.”

The Assessment Solution

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.

Breaking the Conditioning

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.

The Process Makes the Difference

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.

Your Action Plan

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.