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Sales Gravy: Jeb Blount

Sales Gravy: Jeb Blount

By: Jeb Blount
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 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 Career Success Economics Leadership Management & Leadership Marketing Marketing & Sales
Episodes
  • How to Spot Dead Deals Hiding in Your Pipeline Before It’s Too Late (Ask Jeb)

    How to Spot Dead Deals Hiding in Your Pipeline Before It’s Too Late (Ask Jeb)
    Jun 24 2025
    Here's a question that'll make your blood boil: Why do most sales leaders spend their pipeline reviews asking about dollar amounts and close dates while completely ignoring whether their reps actually have real deals? That's the brutal reality I see in sales organizations every single day. Leaders are obsessing over MEDIC, BANT, and other qualification frameworks while their pipelines are stuffed with dead deals that will never close. Meanwhile, their forecasts are consistently wrong, deals keep getting pushed, and reps are burning time on opportunities that died months ago. If you're nodding your head right now, you're not alone. Focusing on surface-level qualification instead of true deal engagement is one of the most backward approaches to pipeline management I see today, and it's costing companies millions in missed forecasts. The Qualification Theater Problem: When Frameworks Become Fantasy Remember when everyone thought MEDIC and BANT were the holy grail of qualification? Sales leaders everywhere started drilling reps on budgets, authority, need, and timing like they were conducting a police interrogation. But here's what actually happens: Reps learn to check the boxes without understanding whether they have a real deal. They'll tell you they've qualified the budget, but they're talking to someone who has to "go talk to the boss." They'll say there's urgency and timing, but the prospect is waiting to hire an executive in a completely different department before making a decision. Traditional qualification frameworks are the opposite of real pipeline inspection. They're vanity metrics disguised as sales rigor. Here's the brutal truth: You can have a deal that checks every qualification box and still have a 2% chance of closing. Meanwhile, a deal that looks "unqualified" on paper might be ready to close tomorrow because the right stakeholders are engaged and moving forward. Why Most Pipeline Reviews Are Theater, Not Strategy The reason most sales leaders run terrible pipeline reviews is because it's easy. It requires zero investment in actual deal coaching, stakeholder analysis, or strategic thinking. Think about it: It's much easier to ask, "What's the budget?" than it is to dig into whether the decision-maker actually sees value in solving this problem. But here's what happens when you manage this way: You end up with pipelines full of zombie deals that look good on paper but will never close. Your reps get comfortable keeping deals in the pipeline because they've "qualified" them. Your forecasts become fiction because you're counting revenue from prospects who aren't actually buying. What Actually Matters: The One Question That Reveals Everything Instead of obsessing over qualification checklists, elite sales leaders focus on the one metric that actually predicts deal success: What's the next step? This isn't just another question—it's the ultimate deal quality detector. Here's why: Dead deals have no next steps. When a rep says, "They're going on vacation, so I'll call them in a few weeks," that deal is dead. When they say, "They told me to call back in a month," that's not a pipeline deal—that's a prospect. Real deals have committed next steps. When a rep says, "We're doing a technical demo with their IT team on Friday, and the CFO specifically asked to see ROI projections by Tuesday," that's a deal with momentum. Engaged prospects match your effort. If you're doing all the work—sending proposals, scheduling calls, following up—while they're giving you vague responses, you don't have a deal. You have a prospect who's being polite. The Three-Question Pipeline Inspection System When I'm inspecting pipeline quality, I use a simple three-question framework that reveals everything: 1. What's the Next Step? This is the deal-killer question. If there's no specific, committed next step with a date and stakeholders involved, the deal is stalled or dead. Period. 2.
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    Less than 1 minute
  • Why You Need to Become Obsessed With Process Goals (Money Monday)

    Why You Need to Become Obsessed With Process Goals (Money Monday)
    Jun 24 2025
    Ben Hogan, who was arguably the greatest ball striker the game of golf has ever known, taught that if you wanted to improve your swing you should focus on the cause rather than the result. This was good advice for golfers and brilliant advice for sales professionals. Because in sales, if you want to sell more it pays to become obsessed over your behaviors, techniques and processes rather than your outcomes. Most Sellers Obsess Over Outcomes Most salespeople are focused on winning or losing individual deals. They get emotionally wrapped up in every prospect, every conversation, every close attempt. When they win, they're on top of the world. When they lose, they're devastated. But top performers? They think completely differently. They're not obsessed with any single deal. They're obsessed with the process that creates consistent results over time. This mindset shift is the difference between feast-or-famine selling and predictable, sustainable success. The Downside of Outcome Based Sales Goals Here's what happens when you're obsessed with outcomes instead of process: Every deal, every month, every quarter becomes life or death. You put all your emotional energy into individual prospects and hitting numbers which clouds your judgment and makes you act desperate. You take rejection personally. When someone says no, it's not just a business decision – it feels like a personal attack on your worth as a salesperson. You make poor decisions under pressure. When you need a deal to close to hit your number, you start discounting too early, chasing bad prospects, or making promises you can't keep. Your performance becomes inconsistent. You have great months followed by terrible months because you're riding the emotional roller coaster of individual wins and losses. You burn out faster. The constant emotional highs and lows are exhausting and unsustainable. Shift to Process Goals Process goals are different. They focus on the activities and behaviors you can directly control, not the outcomes that depend on factors outside your influence. Instead of "I need to close three deals this month," a process goal is "I will make 50 prospecting calls every day." Instead of "I have to win the Johnson account," it's "I will have four meaningful touch points with stakeholders at Johnson this week." Instead of "I need to hit 120% of quota," it's "I will follow my proven sales methodology on every single opportunity." Process goals put you in control. You can't control whether a prospect buys, but you can control how many prospects you contact, how well you qualify them, and how consistently you follow your process. Why Top Performers Love Process Goals Create predictable results. When you focus on the right activities consistently, the outcomes take care of themselves. It's like compound interest – small, consistent actions create massive results over time. Reduce emotional volatility. You're not devastated by individual losses because you know that if you stick to your process, the wins will come. Improve decision-making. When you're not desperate for any particular deal, you make better strategic decisions about where to invest your time and energy. Build confidence. Every day you hit your process goals, you build momentum and confidence, regardless of whether deals close that day. Create sustainable habits. Process goals turn success behaviors into automatic habits rather than things you do when you feel motivated. The Mathematics of Sales Process Goals Here's why process goals work: Sales is a numbers game, but most people focus on the wrong numbers. Average performers focus on: How many deals they close The size of individual deals Their closing percentage on active opportunities Top performers focus on: How many new prospects they contact daily How many discovery calls they conduct weekly How many proposals they deliver monthly
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    10 mins
  • Why Building Relationships in Sales Skyrockets Your Commission

    Why Building Relationships in Sales Skyrockets Your Commission
    Jun 20 2025
    You know the drill. The quota clock is ticking, the pressure is mounting, and there's that relentless urge for a quick win. Every sales professional has felt that impulse to rush the process, to push for the immediate "yes," because, well, the numbers demand it. But here's the tough question you need to ask yourself: What if that very pressure is actively sabotaging your long-term success? What if chasing the fast buck is actually costing you the lucrative, lasting relationships that define an elite sales career and build a lasting book of business? As Sales Gravy Podcast guest Steve Pyfrom puts it: “Building relationships takes time and sales, teams need desperately to get off of this short-term win dynamic. The goal is long-term revenue for your company, lifetime value for the end user.” Focusing solely on the quick sale burns through pipeline leads faster than you can replace them, leaving you on a perpetual hamster wheel of prospecting just to stay afloat. It's time to talk about the long game, because building real relationships is where sustainable revenue lives. Why Churn Is Killing Your Commissions Let's talk numbers. According to SimplicityDX, customer acquisition costs have increased by 222% over the last eight years, while customer lifetime value has remained flat. It's getting harder and more expensive to find new customers, making the ones you have incredibly valuable. Yet most salespeople treat customers like one-time transactions. They close the deal, celebrate briefly, then immediately move on to the next prospect. This approach is financial suicide. Customers who feel rushed through the buying process rarely become loyal advocates. When a customer feels pressured into a decision or perceives the sale as purely transactional, their loyalty is paper-thin. They're constantly looking for better deals, questioning their purchase decision, and jumping ship when problems arise. When a customer churns, you lose all potential referrals, upsells, and cross-sells they could have generated. You're back to square one, hunting for new prospects to replace the revenue you just lost, all while acquisition costs keep climbing. The Trust Equation That Changes Everything Most salespeople think selling is about convincing, but selling is about connecting. When you rush a prospect, you're telling them their decision-making process doesn't matter. You're saying your timeline is more important than their comfort level. Real relationships are built on trust, and trust takes time. Think about your personal life. Your closest friends aren't the people who tried to fast-track the process. They're the ones who showed up consistently, listened without an agenda, and proved their reliability over time. The same principle applies in sales. The prospects who become your biggest advocates aren't the ones you pressured into a quick yes. They're the ones who felt heard, understood, and genuinely cared for throughout the entire process. The Compound Effect of Relationship Selling Consider Mary, a software sales rep who was in competition with 2 other software vendors for a deal with a manufacturing company. Mary's competitors immediately launched into aggressive pitches and discount offers to David, the CFO, hoping to close the deal quickly. Mary took a different approach. Instead of pitching, she spent two months understanding David's cash flow challenges and upcoming board presentation needs. She shared relevant case studies, introduced him to a supply chain consultant, and helped him think through his decision criteria. She never once mentioned her software. When David's team raised concerns about implementation timelines during their evaluation, Mary's competitors pushed back, insisting their solution was simple to deploy. Mary listened, then connected David with a similar CFO who had successfully managed a comparable rollout. That conversation addressed David's real concerns and kept Mary's soluti...
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    Less than 1 minute
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