Sales Gravy: Jeb Blount

On this episode of the Sales Gravy podcast, Jeb Blount (People Follow You) sits down with Leigh Cantrell and Rob Matura who are Regional Vice Presidents at Cigna to discuss the keys to leading multi-generational sales teams. It’s a fascinating conversation in which you’ll learn about the challenges and rewards of building sales teams from diverse age groups.

Leading a multi-generational sales team can be challenging. The differences in values, work styles, communication preferences, and technological competencies will stretch you as a leader. These challenges include:

To effectively lead a multi-generational sales team, you must adapt to these differences and foster collaboration, communication, and teamwork across generations.

The good news is that multi-generational sales teams bring a diverse range of skills, perspectives, and experiences to the table. This  leads to numerous strengths over teams that lack this level of diversity.

By leveraging the strengths of multi-generational sales teams, you will quickly increase sales and deliver better numbers.

Leading a multi-generational sales team requires understanding and accommodating the differences and unique strengths of each generation. It can be rewarding, but it’s not easy.

Here are a few tips to effectively lead a multi-generational sales team:

By being proactive and mindful of the different needs of your team members, you can create a positive, productive, and successful sales team.

One of the key benefits of hiring a multi-generational sales team is the diversity of skills. For example, older salespeople may have years of experience in traditional sales techniques, while younger salespeople may be more familiar with leveraging digital sales tools.

Leaders who are adept at leveraging this range of skills build more agile teams that are more responsive to changing market conditions and customer demands. Younger salespeople may bring fresh ideas and enthusiasm to the team, while veteran salespeople may bring a wealth of experience and knowledge. This combination of skills, perspectives, and energy is exactly why multi-generational teams are so strong.

This also leads to cross-generational coaching. The veterans provide guidance to younger salespeople, helping them to develop their skills. At the same time, younger salespeople can bring energy, helping to keep the team motivated and engaged.

Finally, being open to hiring multi-generational salespeople gives you access to a wider pool of candidates. This makes it easier to recruit and hire top talent. The more talented your sales team, the more likely you are to crush your competition.

Download our FREE 25-page Interview and Hiring Guide that teaches you exactly how to conduct more effective interviews and engage sales candidates in deeper and more authentic conversations that allow you to make better sales hiring decisions.

On this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, we are switching things up to take on a very important topic— Chronic Lyme Disease.

Jeb Blount (Sales Gravy) and Fred Diamond, co-founder of the Institute for Excellence in Sales (IES) discuss Fred’s latest book, Love, Hope, Lyme and his personal journey supporting a loved one with Chronic Lyme Disease.

You’ll learn what Lyme Disease is, the devastating effects that Chronic Lyme Disease has on hundreds of thousands of people each year, why prevention is key, and how you can support anyone in your life who is battling a chronic illness.

Living with a loved one who has Chronic Lyme Disease can be emotionally and mentally challenging, as the condition can cause a wide range of symptoms that can affect the person’s physical, emotional, and mental well-being. Your loved one may experience depression, anxiety, and irritability as a result of their condition.

Fred discusses how important it is to be supportive, patience, and understanding. He explains that everyone’s experience with Chronic Lyme Disease is different, so it’s important to be flexible and open to different approaches to treatment and care.

One of the most difficult aspects of living with someone who has Chronic Lyme Disease is dealing with the person’s ongoing fatigue and pain. These symptoms can make it difficult for the person to perform daily tasks and can also affect their mood and ability to socialize.

But, as Fred says, where there is love, there is hope.

Lyme disease is an infectious disease caused by a bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi. It is primarily spread through the bite of infected black-legged ticks, also known as deer ticks. The black-legged tick is found in wooded, brushy, and grassy areas, and when it bites, it can transmit the bacteria to the person.

The most common early symptoms of Lyme disease include fever, fatigue, headache, muscle and joint pain, and a bull’s-eye rash. The rash, called erythema migraines (EM), usually appears at the site of the tick bite and can expand to become a large red area.

Chronic Lyme disease, also known as post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS), is a condition that can occur after a person has been treated for an initial infection with the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.

People with PTLDS may continue to experience symptoms, such as fatigue, pain, and cognitive difficulties, long after the bacteria have been cleared from their body. Fred explains that this is why it is difficult and frustrating for people who are living with Chronic Lyme disease to get physicians and loved ones to believe them.

The cause of PTLDS is not fully understood, but it is thought that it may be related to ongoing inflammation or damage to tissues caused by the initial infection. Some researchers also believe that the bacteria may persist in the body, despite treatment, and continue to cause symptoms.

The symptoms of Lyme disease can vary widely and may be different for each person. The most common symptoms include:

Symptoms of Lyme disease can appear in stages. Early symptoms usually appear within days to weeks after a tick bite.

However, if left untreated, the infection can become chronic Lyme disease. It can spread to other parts of the body and cause more serious symptoms such as neurological problems, heart problems, and joint inflammation.

This is why it is important to seek medical attention immediately if you suspect you have been bitten by a tick and experience symptoms of Lyme disease.

It is important to note that, diagnosis of PTLDS can be difficult, as there is no specific test for the condition, and symptoms are often non-specific. Due to lack of specific diagnostic criteria, treatment for PTLDS is also not well defined, often results in misdiagnose, and can be controversial.

In most cases, Lyme disease is treated with antibiotics, such as doxycycline or amoxicillin, and symptoms usually improve within a few weeks. However, if left untreated, the infection can spread to other parts of the body and cause more serious symptoms such as neurological problems, heart problems, and joint inflammation.

Treatment for Chronic Lyme Disease typically involves symptom management and may include medications to reduce pain and inflammation, and physical therapy to help manage joint pain. Some people may also benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy or counseling to help cope with the emotional and psychological effects of the condition.

There are several steps you can take to avoid tick bites and reduce your risk of contracting Lyme disease:

It is important to note that, even if you take all the precautions, you may still get a tick bite. Therefore, it is important to check your body regularly for ticks, especially after spending time in tick-infested areas.

If you have been bitten by a tick, it’s important to take the following steps to reduce your risk of contracting Lyme disease or other tick-borne illnesses:

It’s important to note that not all ticks carry Lyme disease and not all tick bites result in infection. But if you have been bitten by a tick and you have symptoms of Lyme disease, it is important to seek medical attention right away because, untreated, it can become Chronic Lyme Disease.

On this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount and Colleen Stanley discuss the importance of Reality Testing sales pipeline opportunities. **Please note that this episode was recorded in a restaurant in Milan Italy. The content quality is excellent. The sound quality not so much.

Reality testing sales pipeline opportunities is an important step in ensuring the success of your sales efforts and the effective use of your time. It’s important to regularly check the accuracy of your assumptions about the viability of the deals in your pipeline against hard evidence that those deals are advancing in line with your sales process.

Reality testing is described as the ability to see things as they are, rather than what you would like them to be. You cannot afford to waste time with pipeline opportunities that you won’t win. Nor can you spend time with stakeholders who can’t or won’t buy.

For sellers, the greatest waste of time is spending it with the wrong prospect. As we move into a period of market volatility, it is critical for self-professionals to get real about what’s in their pipeline. 

Confirmation bias is a type of cognitive bias that involves paying more attention to information that confirms one’s preexisting beliefs or hypotheses, while giving less attention to information that contradicts those beliefs. It is the human tendency to see what we want to see and hear what we want to hear. 

With sales pipeline opportunities, confirmation bias can lead salespeople to interpret new information in a way that fits with their preexisting views, even if that interpretation is not necessarily accurate. It’s the act of putting on rose colored lenses. 

For example: When a buyer says, “I might be interested.” It is interpreted to mean, “I absolutely want to do business with you.”

Confirmation bias can have a number of negative effects. It causes salespeople to hold onto false beliefs, make flawed decisions, have clouded judgement, and to be more resistant to pushback from leaders during pipeline reviews.

Awareness is the key to overcoming this natural human bias. This, in fact is what reality testing is all about – considering a diversity of viewpoints from your leaders and team members along with actively testing and challenging your own beliefs and assumptions. 

Confirmation bias and false beliefs about sales pipeline opportunities run rampant on sales floors. Just sit in a pipeline review for ten minutes and you’ll hear salespeople using all manner of excuses to justify deals that will never close. This is why most sales pipelines are little more than pipe dreams and sales teams consistently miss forecasts.

The culprit, in most cases though, is simple: Empty pipelines.

When salespeople are consistently prospecting and keeping their pipe full, they are much more in tune with reality. When an opportunity is not advancing they quickly run a reality test and if it doesn’t meet their win probability standards, they’ll walk away.

In other words, a full pipeline begets clear judgement.

On the other hand, salespeople with empty pipelines are desperate. They are consumed with confirmation bias. They hold on to loser deals and waste inordinate amounts of time working opportunities that will never close.

Therefore, the easiest way to get good at reality testing your pipeline opportunities is to start prospecting and keep your pipeline full.

This may be a blinding flash of the obvious but if you want to sell more, spend your time with and invest resources in deals that will close. Desperate sales reps have a bad tendency to ignore win probability and scratch lottery tickets.

High-performing sales professionals are consistency reality testing on every deal to gauge win probability. When WP drops below a comfortable threshold, they walk away and focus their time and attention on winnable deals.

Reality testing starts with getting clear on your ideal qualified prospect.

An ideal qualified prospect is a potential customer that is a good fit for your company’s products or services; AND that is also likely to make a purchase. In other words, high win probability.

In order to identify ideal qualified prospects, you’ll typically use criteria such as industry vertical, business size, demographics, geographic location, budget, purchasing habits, and other relevant characteristics.

The best place to begin when developing your IQP is by building a detailed description of the characteristics of your best existing customers. Take time to analyze customers that are the best fit, easy to work with, generate the most profit, and view you as a long-term partner.

Then, focus your time and attention on finding more of these types of customers. 

During sales conversations, be careful not to brush over signs that your prospect may not be committed to the process. Sometimes they are just not that into you or the process. Never forget that you cannot force someone to buy from you.

When a buyer seems to be hedging their bet or hesitating ask them about it directly.

Say: “I’m sensing some hesitance. It seems like you have a lot going on right now. I’m just curious, on a scale of 1-10, how committed are you to this project?”

The objective of this question is to switch hats with your buyer and compel them to sell you on why you should invest more time with them.

Likewise, test engagement by asking stakeholders to do things for you. If they are willing to give you information, lean in and answer questions honestly, willingly introduce you to other stakeholders, and agree to next steps, and show up to meetings it’s a good sign that they are engaged.

No matter how hard you try, sometimes you are just too close to the deal. Sometimes confirmation bias is so strong you can’t break its gravitational force. This is where reviewing your deals with your sales team and leaders can help you get right with reality.

One key objective a deal review is to help you make an informed decision about whether to continue to pursue a particular deal or not.

The key is being open to hearing out the opinions of your sales team members no matter how bad the truth hurts. You’ll be surprised how often the members of your team can see through the BS story that you are telling yourself about the viability of the deal and cut right to the truth – your pipeline opportunity is never going to close.

Reality testing sales pipeline opportunities on a regular basis, ensures that your sales efforts are prioritized on deals that you can win.

Learn more about effective qualifying and reality testing in Jeb Blount’s bestselling audiobook Sales EQ: How Ultra High Performers Leverage Sales-Specific Emotional Intelligence to Close the Complex Deal

In today’s world there are few barriers to career change. Top sales talent can walk out of your door to another career opportunity at any time. This puts more pressure on sales leaders than ever before to foster a sales culture and team environment that compels people to stay.

On this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount (People Follow You) sits down with Helen Fanucci author of the brand new book, Love Your Team, to discuss what sales leaders must do to retain talent build and stronger teams through human connection.

In this wide ranging discussion on modern sales leadership you’ll learn:

In her new book, Helen writes that the hybrid work revolution has made sales management the most pivotal role in the innovation economy. Pivotal means that your team’s performance rest squarely on your shoulders. To be successful you must be adept at both implementing and executing a system of sales management AND winning the hearts of your sellers.

Hiring the right salespeople is a huge challenge for sales leaders. This is why we developed the Sales Managers Ultimate Interview Guide. This FREE 25 page guide walks you through a step-by-step process for hiring your next sales superstar: https://salesgravy.com/ultimate-sales-interview-guide/

They say you can’t make more time. On this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, I challenge you to consider how you can make more time through improvements in sales productivity and reinventing the way that you work.

I want you to take a moment and think back to the early days of the pandemic. You were likely working at home because everything was locked down. 

Then fast forward a couple of months to the summer of 2020. Sales teams were hitting all time records. Many individual sales professionals were selling more and earning more than ever before. 

The secret to their success? They were suddenly more productive.

Sellers were getting more done, in less time, with better outcomes because all of the distractions that typically took them away from high impact sales activities were gone. 

Each moment of your sales day you make one of three choices about time. You can do:

The most impactful thing you can do is put new opportunities into the pipeline and then advance those opportunities through the pipeline. If you’re an account manager, you make an impact by expanding and retaining your accounts. 

The equation for productivity is: Efficiency + Effectiveness = Productivity

Simply put, the key to productivity is getting more done, in less time, with better outcomes. That’s how you win in sales. It is also the key to making more time in your life for the things that really matter.

I’m always shocked by just how much time sales professionals waste.  For example, a recent study demonstrated that salespeople leak two to three hours each day from distractions – little things like looking down at their phone when it buzzes, beeps, or the screen lights up. 

At one point in my career, I was the number one sales professional in my company with a high six-figure income to show for it. I was able to accomplish this by working hard for about 10 hours a week because I allowed no leakage of time. I sold more more, in less time than my peers who wasted an extraordinary amount of time on superfluous activities. This afforded me time to invest with my family and in other pursuits. 

If you take an honest look at your own day, you’re likely leaking time everywhere.

When I’m working with sales professionals on productivity improvement initiatives, I’ll often break their day apart into blocks and demonstrate how they can get their normal eight to ten hours of work accomplished in five to six hours through time blocking, attention control, and work compression. 

Veterans who have a good handle on their territories and pipeline, can do their job in about four hours a day once they learn how to compress work into short sprints. 

One of the big things that we learned during the pandemic is the importance of making more quality time in our lives for family, friends, and ourselves. 

Yet, now that the pandemic has ended, the workplace is quickly snapping back from the days of work from home productivity to trading time for money. In other words, the boss or the company dictates an “8 hour day” or “5 day work week” and therefore we expand our work into those constructs regardless of how long it actually takes to get the work done. 

In sales, at least in field sales, you have much more autonomy with how you manage your time than most employees. Because of this, you have the unique luxury to break free from the time for money handcuffs and begin trading productivity for more time.

If you make the choice to become disciplined with time and your sales day, so that you accomplish more impactful work, in less time with greater outcomes, you’ll quickly make time to do the fun things in your life that really matter. 

It is also important to understand how crucial it is that you become more productive in this time of extreme economic volatility. Executives are already taking a microscope to their sales teams, and they’re starting to make cuts. The salespeople they’re cutting are the ones who are less productive.

During an economic downturn, you must work harder, sometimes a lot harder to get the same results you were getting before the crisis began.

If you’re more productive than other people, you can deliver the same results you were getting before the downturn, plus more. This high level of productivity allows you to win while everyone else is losing – protecting both your income and career. 

The formula for becoming more productive is relatively simple. The first and most important step is blocking your sales day into high intensity sprints.

During these short sprints, you’re going to focus on only one thing at a time. It’s all about attention control. Turn everything else off and remove all distractions. 

High-intensity activity sprints can be 10 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, or four hours depending on the activity or project. The key is concentrating all of your power on one thing with no leakage of time to distractions. 

If you’re a field sales representative, this also means managing your territory better. Map and segment your territory by day then develop the discipline to plan appointments and cold calling activity inside those segments.

Driving is not an accomplishment. It is the often the biggest waste of time in your sales day.  For this reason, just like concentrating your focus within a time block, you should be concentrating the time you spend in your territory each day within one tight geographical area. 

Now some homework:

You won’t change everything at once. Habits and patterns are hard to break. So begin with small changes. For example, outbound prospecting blocks. 

Tomorrow morning try running this sprint: 15 minutes, 15 dials, with a goal to set one appointment. 

Run the sprint. Take a break to update your CRM. Run it again 2-3 more times. Then move on with the rest of your sales day.

You will be stunned with how much prospecting you accomplish inside of these short sprints. Efficiency + effectiveness = productivity.

In Jeb Blount’s hit NEW Book Selling In A Crisis you’ll learn 55 proven tips, techniques, and tactics to stay motivated and increase sales in volatile times. Download three free chapters here.

Economic winter is coming. Storm clouds are brewing. And with it is going to be a recession. On this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount discusses why you need to prepare right now for the economic storm.

This recession will be different than anything we’ve recently experienced because we’ll also be dealing with inflation. There will be the potential for the long slog of stagflation in some some economies. 

We are still going to have some supply chain issues and interest rates are going to be crazy. If you need to borrow money, it will be painful.

There will be poverty and hunger. People who can’t afford the cost of energy will be shivering in the cold. In the midst of this economic downturn and disruption we’ll be dealing with war and the potential for a nuclear confrontation. 

All you need to do is look at your news feed and it’s frightening.

If you are a sales professional, the big question is what should you do to prepare for the storm right now? 

Helping you to prepare is one of the key reasons I wrote my new book Selling In A Crisis.

Sales professionals are always on the leading edge of the economy. We are going to get hit hardest by the economic storm and we’re the ones that are going lead the world out of this mess. 

The most important thing you can do is to be right now. Focus on what you can control in the present.  You’ve got to get right with reality and reality is, winter is coming. 

It is not going to be easy. A few months ago your phone’s ringing off the hook today. Today, nobody is going to call you.

Therefore, you are going to need to start hunting to find the money that’s still moving. And there’s always money moving. But it’s going to be a tough grind to find it. 

Look around. Half the people that you work with right now won’t be here when we get to the end of this economic downturn. They won’t be willing to step up to the plate and do the hard work.  

This ain’t easy street. That’s why you have to get right with reality. Right now and prepare to work harder.  Start With Right Now Actions

Rather than worrying, focus on the three things you can control. Your actions, reactions, and mindset.  

In Selling In A Crisis Jeb gives you 55 easy to consume tips, techniques, and tactics that are time-tested and proven to help you stay on top when everything and everyone else is down.

Recession. Inflation. Stagflation. Stockmarket Free Fall. Energy Crisis. Supply Chain Crisis. Political Divisiveness.War.

We are living and selling in a time of deep volatility. It is more challenging to close business, objections are harsher, and qualified buyers are becoming more scarce.

On this special episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount delivers a powerful message about what it takes to outsell this crisis. You’ll learn why it pays to think like a squirrel, why rainmakers are already digging for ponies, and why you need to get right with reality and put your swimsuit on.

Right now you have to be better than you ever were before, get back to the fundamental and basics, and stay out of buckets with crabs. In this podcast you’ll learn the truth about winning and selling in a crisis.

In Selling In A Crisis Jeb gives you 55 easy to consume tips, techniques, and tactics that are time-tested and proven to help you stay on top when everything and everyone else is down. Read the first three chapters, FREE.

On this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount and Jennifer Smith, CEO of Scribe, give you tips and tactics for working smarter, dealing with repetitive tasks that slow you down, and getting more done in less time with better outcomes.

You must protect your prime selling time at all costs. Time is your most precious resource. You cannot make more, add more, or find more. Do not allow it to be diluted by non-sales activities. 

Time is the great equalizer. Every person on earth has exactly 24 hours each day. No more. The choices you make about how you invest your time, directly correlates to the sales outcomes you deliver. 

Only 6 to 8 hours each day are available for sales activities, that is, prospecting, advancing pipeline opportunities, and closing. Your daily mission is to squeeze as much selling out of these Golden Hours as possible. Sales professionals who protect their prime selling time–the Golden Hours–will get ahead, stay ahead, and win while others lose. 

Your most pressing challenge is keeping non-sales activities from interfering with your Golden Hours. This includes interruptions from customers who use you their Chief Problem Solver. When you make it easier for customers to help themselves, you’ll get more time back in your sales day for selling. Jennifer Smith is on a mission to help you protect your Golden Hours. 

Try SCRIBE for free at: https://scribe.how/salesgravy with Promo Code – SALESGRAVY

Ever wondered how you can get the attention of that elusive prospect you’ve been chasing? You know the one. The big fish that is your ticket to President’s club a huge commission check.

You know how to sell – that’s your job, after all – but getting CEOs and other VIPs to call you back is the tricky part. So what if that impossible-to-reach person weren’t so impossible to reach after all?

Hall of fame-nominated marketer and Wall Street Journal cartoonist Stu Heinecke discovered that he could get past traditional gatekeepers and reach those elusive executives by thinking outside the box and using personalized approaches that he calls “contact campaigns”.

On this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Fanatical Prospecting author Jeb Blount and Stu discuss creative ways to get meetings with anyone. You’ll learn that the secret is about being creative, thinking out of the box, demonstrating authenticity and sincerity, and having a little fun along the way.

Get more meeting with effective Prospecting Sequences. Download our free how to guide here: https://salesgravy.com/seven-steps-prospecting-sequence-guide/