Sales Gravy: Jeb Blount Podcast Por Jeb Blount arte de portada

Sales Gravy: Jeb Blount

Sales Gravy: Jeb Blount

De: Jeb Blount
Escúchala gratis

From the author of Fanatical Prospecting and the company that re-invented sales training, the Sales Gravy Podcast helps you win bigger, sell better, elevate your game, and make more money fast.2024 Jeb Blount, All Rights Reserved Economía Exito Profesional Gestión y Liderazgo Liderazgo Marketing Marketing y Ventas
Episodios
  • What a Secret Service Interrogator Can Teach You About Building Trust in Sales

    What a Secret Service Interrogator Can Teach You About Building Trust in Sales
    Feb 26 2026
    Brad Beeler, author of Tell Me Everything and retired Secret Service agent who has conducted more criminal polygraphs than anyone in the agency’s history, was clearing a house on a search warrant when he came across two dogs: a pitbull and a Chihuahua. 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...
    Más Menos
    39 m
  • 3 Micro Behaviors That Make You Instantly More Likable in Sales (Ask Jeb)

    3 Micro Behaviors That Make You Instantly More Likable in Sales (Ask Jeb)
    Feb 24 2026
    Let me ask you: What if the biggest thing standing between you and your next closed deal had nothing to do with your product knowledge, your pricing, or your pitch? What if it came down to three simple micro behaviors that most salespeople never bother to master? 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: Do I like you? Do you listen to me?Do you make me feel important? Do you understand me? 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....
    Más Menos
    Menos de 1 minuto
  • Failure is Not Permanent (Money Monday)

    Failure is Not Permanent (Money Monday)
    Feb 23 2026
    One of the most vivid memories from my childhood was the day I was bucked off my pony, Macaroni. I was only six years old. We were in an arena where my mother was giving me my very first riding lessons. 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...
    Más Menos
    11 m
Todas las estrellas
Más relevante
I listen to this everyday on the way to work. Most engaging sales podcast I’ve found to date. Lots of great material in here from experienced sales professionals that have also experienced the grind day in and day out. Pick up the phone!

Real life words of wisdom

Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.