While your competitors are stuck in voicemail purgatory, a small group of top performers has unlocked a secret pipeline of qualified sales leads. They've discovered how to stop chasing and start attracting, all by generating warm leads through podcast interviews. Not by starting their own shows, but by treating every podcast appearance as a lead generation machine built on conversation and credibility.

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. Grab your copy today and start building the kind of pipeline your competitors can’t touch.

A day in the life of a rep heading toward sales burnout: You wake up ready to crush your sales goals, skip breakfast to get an early jump on calls, grab fast food between appointments, and by 2 p.m., you're mentally checked out, struggling to focus on that critical prospect meeting. 

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.

Leadership is the single most important factor in a sales team’s success. You can have talented reps, strong products, and a solid sales process, but without effective leadership, performance stalls. As Duff Tucker, Sales Trainer, puts it on this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast:

"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.

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 … 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.

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 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.

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. 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? Pre-order The LinkedIn Edge (releasing Oct. 6th) and discover how to turn social selling into systematic revenue generation with both fast outbound prospecting and relationship-building sequences that actually convert.

In today's economy, being the account manager who keeps clients happy and renewals steady simply isn’t enough. Every budget line item is under the microscope. Customers want proof of ROI, so you have to show measurable value while driving growth.

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.

Overcoming call reluctance starts with understanding why even seasoned sales pros freeze up when it's time to pick up the phone. They're paralyzed by one simple fear: interrupting a prospect's day.

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'sVirtual Selling Skills Master Classfor comprehensive virtual sales development.

In 1960, two brothers scraped together $900 and bought a failing pizzeria in Michigan, launching what would become a cautionary tale about sales incentive programs gone wrong. Within months, one brother traded his half of the business for a beat-up Volkswagen, leaving Tom Monaghan alone with his ambitions.

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:

Team focuses on activity over outcomes - More calls and emails don't matter if they're not creating meaningful prospect conversations

Short-term wins at expense of customer relationships - Discounting heavily to hit monthly numbers while sacrificing long-term value

High turnover among top performers - Your best people leave because the system rewards the wrong behaviors

Ethical corners being cut to hit numbers - When quotas become more important than integrity

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.

The transition from closer to coach is where most new sales leaders struggle.

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.