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.2025 Jeb Blount, All Rights Reserved Economía Exito Profesional Gestión y Liderazgo Liderazgo Marketing Marketing y Ventas
Episodios
  • 5 Ways to Stop Sales Territory Disputes From Destroying Your Team (Ask Jeb)

    5 Ways to Stop Sales Territory Disputes From Destroying Your Team (Ask Jeb)
    Aug 26 2025
    Here's a question about sales territory disputes that'll make your head spin: What do you do when overlapping territories and shared relationships turn your sales team into a collection of lone wolves fighting over who owns what? That's the exact predicament faced by Kayla Lujan, VP of Sales at Down to Earth Landscape and Irrigation in Orlando, Florida. Her team manages defined territories, but their business model creates inevitable crossover with HOA managers who oversee multiple properties spanning across different reps' territories. As she put it: "I've really seen the team kind of lose focus on working as one or team selling and more of kind of like 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 Here's the brutal truth about salespeople: we're 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 take 100% of the 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 don't just create uncomfortable team meetings. They 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.
    Más Menos
    19 m
  • Stop Mistaking Sales Activity Motion For Pipeline Momentum

    Stop Mistaking Sales Activity Motion For Pipeline Momentum
    Aug 22 2025
    Sales activity is the lifeblood of your career. But for too many salespeople, it’s the very thing holding them back. You’re generating a ton of activity, your calendar is packed, your inbox is overflowing, and by the end of the day, you’re drained. But your numbers aren’t moving. You’re not gaining ground; you’re just driving in circles. As Ron Karr, author of Velocity Mindset, says, the difference between amateurs and top performers isn’t how fast they move, but whether they’re moving with a clear, defined direction. The problem isn’t laziness. It’s that you’re mistaking motion for momentum. And that’s why you feel stuck. 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 cu...
    Más Menos
    40 m
  • Why Cultural Intelligence Beats Language Skills in International Sales (Ask Jeb)

    Why Cultural Intelligence Beats Language Skills in International Sales (Ask Jeb)
    Aug 20 2025
    Here's a question that'll flip your understanding of cultural intelligence in sales upside down: How do you win over a room full of skeptical Spanish teenagers when you're the obvious American outsider who barely speaks their language? That's exactly what Spencer Birmingham from Arkansas faced when he called into Ask Jeb. Fresh out of college with a marketing degree and an internship at International Paper under his belt, Spencer was heading to Spain for eight months as a language teaching assistant. His challenge? Figure out how to connect with Spanish students and "sell" them on American culture and the English language. What started as a simple question about gaining cultural perspective turned into a must-listen discussion of the universal principles of influence—principles that work whether you're closing deals in boardrooms or winning over teenagers in Spanish classrooms. 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.
    Más Menos
    21 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.