Sales Gravy: Jeb Blount

Here's a question that'll stop you in your tracks: Would you let someone walk up to you, take your wallet, empty out all your cash and credit cards, and leave your family with nothing?

Of course not. That's insane.

But if you're in sales and you let rejection stop you from making calls, booking appointments, and closing deals, that's exactly what you're doing. You're handing over your commission check to fear.

That was the powerful insight from Wendy Ramirez, a leading Mexican sales expert and author of Lo que nadie habla de las ventas: Estrategias para no ser llamarada de petate or What Nobody Talks About in Sales: Strategies to Avoid Being a Flash in the Pan, on a recent episode of Ask Jeb the Sales Gravy Podcast. When you give rejection the power to stop you, you're literally taking money away from your family. Let that sink in.

The Science of Why Rejection Hurts

Let's get one thing straight right now: I'm not going to sit here and glorify rejection. Nobody wants to be rejected. Unless you're a pure sociopath who feels nothing (and there aren't many of those in sales), rejection is going to hurt you.

It doesn't matter if you're highly outcome-driven like me or highly empathetic. Rejection hurts everyone in different degrees, but it hurts. Period.

Here's what's actually happening inside your body when you get rejected: Your brain treats rejection like a physical threat. Fight or flight kicks in. It's a neurophysical response that dumps adrenaline into your bloodstream, makes your heart race, and creates this overwhelming urge to either run away or fight back.

That uncomfortable feeling? That's not weakness. That's just science.

The Problem: Sales Is a Rejection-Dense Profession

Here's the brutal reality about selling: If you don't face rejection, you're going to fail.

Sales is what I call a rejection-dense profession. When you hit rejection in sales, you don't have the option of going backwards. You can go over it, through it, around it, or dig under it. But your job is literally to go out into the world, find rejection, and bring it home.

That's the job description. That's what we signed up for.

Think about it like this: A few years back, I got invited to jump out of an airplane with the Golden Knights, the U.S. Army's elite parachute team. I'm not a skydiver (just like I'm not a Spanish speaker), but what an honor to jump with probably the best parachute team worldwide.

I asked the guy I was tandem jumping with how many times he'd jumped. Ten thousand times, he said. So I asked him, "Do you ever get afraid?"

His answer changed everything for me: "Of course, I get afraid. I'm jumping out of an airplane. Your body is going to get afraid. I've just done it so many times that I know exactly what the process is. I'm able to get myself to jump even though my brain says this is the wrong thing to do."

That's exactly what you have to do in sales.

Building Obstacle Immunity

In my book Objections, I talk about something called obstacle immunity. It's the process human beings go through of facing something that feels really big and uncomfortable, but doing it enough times that we lower the size of that obstacle.

The fear of being rejected never fully goes away. But you can lower that fear.

Here's how you do it:

Develop the Ledge TechniqueThe ledge technique allows you to interrupt or break the pattern you feel in fight or flight when you get rejected. It helps you regain your poise and confidence so you know what to say next. It's about taking control of the conversation when someone gives you an objection.

Understand the Difference Between Objections and RejectionAn objection isn't the same as a rejection, even though they feel essentially the same in your body. When someone objects, they're giving you information. When someone rejects you, they're saying no. Learn to tell the difference.

Focus on Emotional DisciplineIn emotionally tense situations, you've got to be emotionally disciplined. You've got to gain control, gain poise, and handle those objections in a way that allows you to achieve your desired outcome.

The Mindset Makes All the Difference

Sales is a skill position. There are particular skills, techniques, and tools you need to deploy to be good at the craft. But the thing that makes all the difference is what's in your head.

This is no different than athletics. Elite athletes all operate at similar skill and talent levels. They'll tell you that winning or losing happens between the ears.

I'm a big golfer. The difference between me having a really good game or a really bad game is one hundred percent what's in my head. My body knows what to do. I know how to swing the club. The mental game is everything.

If you don't fix your mindset, you're not going to get the results you're expecting. People think they're stuck and can't move forward. But it's just about moving your mindset. Get more information. Learn something new. Apply what you learn. That's how you increase your mindset and get better results.

Stop Giving Away Your Power

When Wendy said, "When you give to the clients, when you give to the people that rejected you, the power to stop you, that's exactly what you do," it hit me like a freight train.

You wouldn't let someone take your wallet. You wouldn't let someone steal from your family. So why would you let rejection steal your future?

The next time you feel that uncomfortable feeling in your chest after getting rejected, remember this: That feeling is just your body doing what it's supposed to do. It's not telling you to quit. It's telling you that you're doing something hard, something that matters, something that will pay off.

Face your fear. Make the next call. The difference between average salespeople and elite performers isn't talent. It's the willingness to go through rejection instead of around it.

That's how you win.

Ready to take your sales game to the next level? Check out The LinkedIn Edge to learn how to leverage the world's most powerful B2B social selling platform to fill your pipeline, build relationships, and close more deals.

Your prospects know when you're waiting for your turn to talk. They can feel when you're performing instead of partnering. And the moment they sense you're treating them like a transaction, you've already lost the sale, or at least the loyalty that comes after it.

The difference between good salespeople and unforgettable ones isn't about closing techniques or fancy proposals. It's about becoming the trusted sales advisor your buyers can't imagine doing business without. It's about evolving from vendor to linchpin—the person who holds everything together.

What Does It Mean to Be a Linchpin?

A linchpin is the small pin that holds a wheel on its axle. Remove it, and everything falls apart.

In sales, being a linchpin means you're more than someone who takes orders or delivers quotes. You're the trusted sales advisor buyers turn to for guidance, validation, and expertise. They don't just buy from you; they believe in you. They want your opinion. They rely on your consistency. And when things get messy, they know you'll help them make sense of it all.

But most salespeople never reach linchpin status. They stay stuck in the vendor zone: quoting, pitching, following up, moving on. It's safe. It hits metrics. But safety doesn't create loyalty.

Why Most Sellers Stay Vendors

The vendor zone is comfortable. You know what to do. You have a process. You check boxes.

But here's the problem: your prospect can feel when you're focused on yourself instead of them. They know when you're running through a script or waiting to launch into your pitch. And that feeling—that sense of being just another number—kills trust before it ever has a chance to grow.

Being a trusted sales advisor requires something different. It requires you to slow down, tune in, and genuinely care about the person across from you. That's where the magic happens.

Build Emotional Connection Through Reading the Room

The best salespeople don't take behavior at face value. They interpret it.

When a buyer seems distracted or cold, linchpin sellers pause and ask themselves: What's really happening here? Is this person overwhelmed? Skeptical because of a bad past experience? Or just thinking deeply because they need time to process?

Here's how to sharpen your ability to read buyer emotions:

Match and mirror. Notice their pace, tone, and energy, then subtly align with it. People feel safer with people who move at a similar rhythm.

Say what you're thinking. Use your inside voice as your outside voice. Try: "It sounds like this project has a lot of pressure behind it" or "You seem hesitant—can I ask what's causing that?" Naming emotions and behaviors politely opens doors.

Embrace the silence. Silence doesn't mean rejection. It means your buyer is thinking, absorbing, processing. This is where most salespeople blow it. They open their mouths too soon because they can't handle the quiet. Five extra minutes of patience is often what stands between winning and losing a deal.

Reading people is empathy in motion. But it takes work. And most salespeople don't take the time.

Lead With Curiosity

Curiosity is the trait that rarely gets enough attention in sales training. But when you're genuinely curious about what makes your buyers tick—what drives their decisions, what matters most to them, what keeps them up at night—you move past small talk and into real conversations.

When you show up to serve instead of showing up to sell, curiosity becomes natural. You ask questions to understand what your customers actually need. You build solutions together. And that's the moment you become essential to solving their problems.

Here's how to leverage curiosity as a trusted sales advisor:

Ask one more question. When your buyer answers, don't jump into your pitch. Say, "Tell me more about that" or "What else is behind that concern?" That extra question is where the truth often lives.

Replace judgment with wonder. When a prospect makes an odd request, don't think "That's ridiculous." Think "I wonder what's driving that?" That mindset shift changes your energy completely—and they can feel it.

Prep curiosity prompts before each meeting. Write down three open-ended questions that start with "how" or "what." Questions like "How will this impact your team's workload?" or "What happens if nothing changes?" uncover real motivation.

The phrase "I'm so curious about..." has become a game-changer in discovery calls. It opens doors to deeper conversations. Most buyers will jump right in, and the conversation flows naturally. Your job is to listen, take notes, and get even more curious as they open up.

Evolve Into an Indispensable Consultant

Most salespeople understand the concept of being consultative: asking questions, offering insights, guiding decisions. But the best take it further. They become so valuable that their clients' success feels harder to imagine without them.

When you become indispensable, things don't function properly without you. People need you, not just want you. You bring unique value that can't easily be replaced, because nobody is you.

Here's how to go beyond helpful and become essential:

Diagnose before you recommend. Don't rush to fix. Take time to fully understand the client's situation. Ask deeper questions. Look for patterns. Confirm what really matters before offering solutions. You'll gain trust faster through understanding than urgency.

Teach through insight. Help your clients see their business from a new angle. Bring context, data, or perspective they haven't considered. When they walk away from a meeting thinking differently because of you, you're no longer just a vendor—you're a resource.

Lead with consistency and integrity. Show up when it's easy, but also show up when it's not. Be steady, dependable, and transparent, especially when outcomes are uncertain. Indispensable consultants don't disappear when things get complicated. They stay close, communicate clearly, and make it easier for clients to move forward with confidence.

When you understand deeply, teach clearly, and lead consistently, you become more than a salesperson. You become part of your clients' strategy. You become the trusted sales advisor they call first.

People Buy You First

Being a linchpin isn't about what you sell. It's about how you show up for the buyer.

When markets shift or leadership changes, your product might change—but your presence shouldn't. People will always buy you first.

Show up curious. Listen for meaning, not just for answers. Teach what you know. Stay steady when others panic.

This approach moves you from being one of many to being the one they call first. That's how you go from vendor to linchpin.

Ready to master the techniques that turn you into the trusted sales advisor your buyers can't live without? Download the FREE Sales Gravy Book of Play by Gina Trimarco and get the tools, tactics, and techniques to become a more effective and agile communicator in spontaneous sales conversations.

The automated "Great job, team!" email blasted to 47 people at 4:37 PM on a Friday isn’t authentic appreciation. Neither is the generic gift basket ordered by someone in HR who’s never met your top performer, or the corporate recognition program where nobody actually feels valued.

These things look like recognition, but your people know the truth: leadership is outsourcing one of the most human tasks—seeing the people who show up every day and make things happen. And your teams feel the disconnect.

As Jeb Blount Jr. recently said on the Sales Gravy Podcast: "Don't make your appreciation to customers, to your team, to yourself a completely outsourced behavior. It will be cheap, and everyone will know it."

Authentic appreciation can’t be delegated to your human resources team or automated through your CRM. And that's exactly why it works.

Where Sales Leaders Go Wrong with Recognition

Most sales leaders fall into one of two camps.

Camp one believes they don't have time for appreciation because they're focused on results. The numbers are what matter. Recognition is soft skills territory—nice to have, but not essential.

Camp two wants to show appreciation but defaults to the path of least resistance. They sign the company card. Approve the budget for the year-end gift. Forward the congratulatory email from the VP. Box checked.

Both camps are missing what actually moves people. Recognition that matters requires you to see the work that often goes unseen. It demands that you pause long enough to notice not just the outcome, but the effort behind it. That's not something you can outsource.

Why Small Moments Compound Into Big Results

There’s a concept in professional development about making 1% improvements every single day. Over 365 days, those tiny adjustments compound into exponential growth.

Authentic appreciation works the same way.

You don’t need a massive recognition program. You don’t need elaborate gestures or expensive rewards. You need consistency in the small moments that tell your team: I see you, and what you are doing matters.

Consider the sales rep who stays late to prep for tomorrow’s presentation. The account manager who defuses a client issue before it reaches your desk. The teammate who mentors the new hire without being asked. These moments happen every day, and most leaders miss them entirely because they’re scanning for the big wins.

But your team isn’t just looking for recognition when they close the monster deal. They’re looking for it on Tuesday afternoon when they’re grinding through their 50th prospecting call. They’re looking for it when they’ve had a brutal week and still show up ready to perform.

Small acts of authentic appreciation in these moments build trust faster than any annual award ceremony ever will.

3 Elements of Authentic Appreciation

Authentic appreciation has three non-negotiable elements.

Specific means recognizing exactly what someone did and why it mattered. Not "great work on that account," but "the way you handled that objection about pricing showed real creativity—you reframed value instead of dropping price, and that's exactly the approach we need more of."

Timely means you don’t wait for the quarterly review or the annual celebration. You recognize the effort when it happens, while it’s still fresh and meaningful.

Personal means you deliver it in a way that resonates with that individual. Some people want public recognition. Others prefer a quiet conversation. Some treasure a handwritten note. Others just want to hear it directly from you in the moment.

Here’s what this looks like in real leadership: One sales leader makes it a practice to handwrite notes to team members. Not emails. Not Slack messages. Actual pen-on-paper notes. Some are two sentences. Some are three paragraphs. But everyone is specific to something that person did and why it mattered to the team.

Is it efficient? No. Does it scale? Not really. But those notes end up on office walls, in desk drawers, and tucked into planners. Years later, people still have them. That’s the difference between authentic and outsourced.

Integrate Authentic Appreciation Into How You Already Work

Most sales leaders know they should show more appreciation. They feel guilty about it. They add it to their to-do list. And then the day gets away from them.

The problem is treating appreciation as an extra task instead of integrating it into what you’re already doing.

You’re already having one-on-ones. Reviewing deals. Walking the floor or jumping on calls. The question isn’t whether you have time—it’s whether you’re paying attention in those moments.

When reviewing pipeline, don’t just look at the numbers. Notice the effort. "I see you’ve been hitting activity goals consistently for six weeks straight. That discipline is setting you up for a strong Q1."

When someone sends an update email, reply with more than “thanks.” Take 30 seconds to acknowledge what they did: "This breakdown made my job easier. I didn’t have to dig for answers. That kind of communication makes our team more efficient."

These aren’t grand gestures. They’re small moments of paying attention and responding like a human being who notices when people do good work.

Building a Culture Where Authentic Appreciation Flows Both Ways

The best team cultures don’t just flow from leader to team member; they flow in every direction.

When you model authentic appreciation, your team starts doing it for each other. They notice the work that happens behind the scenes. They start going the extra mile. The culture shifts from everyone waiting for the leader’s approval to everyone building each other up.

One practice that works: create space in team meetings for peer recognition. Not forced or formal—just an open moment where anyone can call out something they appreciated from a teammate that week. Keep it optional. Keep it genuine. You’ll be surprised how quickly it becomes part of your team’s rhythm.

Additionally, most high performers are terrible at acknowledging their own progress. They hit a goal and immediately move to the next one without pausing to appreciate what they just accomplished.

In coaching sessions, start by asking: “What’s a win from this week?” Make them say it out loud. Make them acknowledge their own growth. That internal recognition builds resilience and momentum that external praise alone can’t create.

What Happens When You Get This Right

When you stop outsourcing appreciation and start building it into your leadership, everything shifts.

Retention improves. People stay where they feel seen and valued. They leave when they feel invisible.

Team energy changes. Appreciated people bring more to the table. They take ownership. They go the extra mile because they want to.

Difficult conversations get easier. When someone knows you genuinely care about their success, they’re more open to feedback and coaching.

Culture becomes magnetic. Top performers want to work on teams where their contributions matter. They can feel the difference between authentic and transactional leadership from a mile away.

Take Action This Week

Stop waiting for the perfect appreciation program or the right company initiative. Start with what you can control right now.

This week:

Write one handwritten note to someone on your team. Be specific about what they did and why it mattered.

In your next one-on-one, ask “What’s a win from this week?” and let them acknowledge their own progress.

Catch someone doing something right—however small—and tell them in the moment.

End your next team meeting with clear recognition for one person. Not generic praise, tell them exactly what you noticed and why it mattered.

This month:

Create a recognition moment in every team meeting. Make it specific, not generic.

Ask yourself: What recognition do I wish I were receiving? Then give that to someone else.

When reviewing pipeline or performance, comment on the effort, not just the outcome.

Stop Outsourcing What Should Be Human

The work you do as a sales leader matters. The people on your team matter. And the small moments where you choose to show up and recognize their effort—those matter most of all.

Your team isn’t waiting for the next corporate initiative or the annual awards ceremony. They’re waiting for you to notice. They’re waiting for you to care enough to say something about the work they’re doing right now.

Stop outsourcing what should be human. Lead with authentic appreciation today, and watch your team thrive. 

Want to turn recognition into motivation that sticks? Our Sales Gravy University course, 4 Keys to Keeping Your Sales Team Motivated When Everything Hits the Fan, gives you the proven framework to transform appreciation into performance. Learn how to build a sales culture where people feel seen, valued, and driven — even in hard times.

Here's a question that'll expose one of the most common productivity killers in sales: How much research should you do before making a cold call?

That's the challenge Michael Bricker from West Monroe, Louisiana, brought to a recent Ask Jeb episode. Five months into his role at Cantara Networks, a fiber-backed internet provider, Michael was supposed to spend three minutes researching each prospect. Instead, he found himself spending 15 to 30 minutes per call, terrified he'd miss the one critical insight that would unlock the door.

Sound familiar? If you're nodding right now, you're not alone. This "research paralysis" is one of the most insidious productivity traps in modern sales, and it's killing your pipeline velocity.

The Big Lie Your Brain Tells You

Let's get one thing straight: Research is not prospecting. Research is research.

Every minute you spend digging through a prospect's LinkedIn profile, reading their latest press release, or analyzing their org chart is a minute you're not actually doing any prospecting activity. You're not talking to anyone. You're not having conversations. You're not moving deals forward.

But here's where it gets dangerous. When you add in the basic human fear that comes with making cold calls, research becomes an emotional crutch. Your brain lies to you and whispers, "If I just know all this information, it'll be so much better."

So you spend 15 minutes researching, make the call, and it goes to voicemail. You make 12 calls a day. Everyone goes to voicemail. All that research, and you didn't get anywhere.

How Much Do You Actually Need to Know?

Michael had a breakthrough realization that changed everything: "I'm not looking to make a sale on that initial cold call. I'm looking to make a connection."

That's the insight that separates efficient prospectors from research addicts.

On your first cold call, you're not selling them anything. You're trying to set an appointment so you can ask questions and figure out whether it makes sense to keep talking. That's it.

So how much do you really need to know to set that appointment? The answer is not a lot.

Think about it this way: The more you get to know your customers, your business, and your industry, the more business acumen you gain. Over time, you'll talk to ten businesses just like the one you're about to call. You'll recognize patterns. You'll see that companies in a certain sector or geographic area all face the same three challenges.

You don't need 15 minutes of research to recognize those patterns. You just need to build a message around them.

When Research Actually Matters

Now, before you throw all research out the window, let me be clear about when it does matter.

If you're sending a prospecting email, do some research. You're putting something in writing, so you better have some insight that's not AI-generated garbage.

If you make a call, get a hard no from the CEO, and want to try again with a different message, do the research before you call back. You've hit a wall. Now you need ammunition.

If you've had a first meeting and you're going into discovery, absolutely do deep research. You're walking in armed because you know they'll be there waiting. All that effort will pay off.

But for that first cold call? Stop overthinking it.

The Batching Solution

If you feel like you absolutely need to do research (and I get it, some people do), here's the fix: Schedule time before your call block for research.

Do all your three-minute lookups in one batch. Write your notes next to each name. Then go make the calls.

Why does this work? Because you're going to hit voicemail a lot anyway. But at least you'll have the research done and maintain your call momentum.

Let's say you run a call block on 25 cold leads. You talk to five people. Those five give you information like "I'm not the right person" or "We don't have that problem." Now you know something. Now go back and do deeper research on those five so you can come back with a better message.

That's efficiency. That's strategy. That's how you maximize your prospecting time.

The Power of Targeted Messaging

Here's what really unlocks productivity: Creating targeted messages for roles or industries instead of personalizing every single call.

If you're calling 25 CIOs in the healthcare sector, you and I could sit down and quickly identify what they're dealing with. What issues are they facing? What do they want from their business? How could you help them?

We could build one or two messages that'll connect with most people on that list without researching every single prospect.

Then you make 25 calls in an hour instead of researching five people and making five cold calls in three hours.

Which approach do you think sets more appointments?

Every Meeting Has One Job

Michael asked about moving deals forward after discovery, and here's the framework that keeps everything simple:

The entire purpose of a prospecting cold call is to get the first meeting.

The entire purpose of the first meeting is to get the next meeting.

Everything else is academic.

Each step in your sales process exists to advance to the next step with a committed micro-commitment. When deals stall, it's almost always because you didn't nail down that next step or you didn't test stakeholder engagement.

If a prospect says, "I'll get you that information next week," and next week comes and goes, what are they telling you? They're not that into this. It's not a priority.

Keep deals moving by driving momentum through committed next steps.

The Bottom Line

Stop letting research become a productivity trap. The goal isn't to know everything before you make a call. The goal is to have enough conversations to fill your pipeline while making each one count.

Be confident in your ability to get someone on the phone and convert them into an appointment. If you hit a wall and get valuable information, then go back and research for your next attempt.

But if you're researching every prospect before every cold call, you're lying to yourself about productivity. You're avoiding the hard work of actually prospecting.

Batch your research. Build targeted messages. Focus on conversations that convert. That's how you build a pipeline that actually moves.

Want to transform your approach to prospecting and turn LinkedIn into your ultimate lead generation machine? Check out The LinkedIn Edge and learn how to leverage the world's most powerful B2B platform to fill your pipeline with qualified opportunities.

This is a very special Monday because it's Thanksgiving week here in the United States.

This is the week we pause to express gratitude for the people in our lives, for what we've been given, and for what we've accomplished.

But gratitude isn't just a feel-good emotion reserved for the holidays. It's also a performance- and life-enhancing routine that can give you sales superpowers.

Gratitude Builds a Strong Mindset

Sales is a mental game. Your mindset, attitude, and beliefs have more impact on your sales outcomes and ultimate success than any technique, script, or strategy ever will.

This isn't soft psychology. This is neuroscience. Gratitude activates the parts of your brain associated with reward and emotional regulation. It releases dopamine and serotonin, neurotransmitters that make you feel good, leading to increased happiness and decreased anxiety and stress. Your confidence rises, your mind clears, you gain emotional control, and you make wiser decisions.

Gratitude fundamentally rewires how your brain processes the world around you. When you practice gratitude consistently, your brain shifts from focusing on what could go wrong and starts seeing what could go right.

Gratitude and insidious self-pity cannot coexist. Instead of dwelling on the deal you lost, the prospect that rejected you, or the leads you don’t have, you appreciate the lessons you’ve learned and the opportunities still in front of you.

But it goes deeper than just feeling better.

Gratitude Builds Resilience

In sales, you face rejection constantly. Bad weeks, tough months, prospects who ghost you after months of work, and deals that fall apart at the last minute, even though you did everything right.

In this brutal profession, the salespeople who survive and thrive are the ones who bounce back faster from these inevitable setbacks.

One of the key traits of highly successful people is an enduring belief that everything happens for a reason. When you can find something to appreciate even in difficult situations, you maintain your emotional stability. You don't spiral into negativity. You don't let one bad call ruin your entire day. Instead, you process the setback, learn from it, and move forward.

Abundance vs Scarcity Thinking

When you focus on what you do have—your skills, your relationships, your opportunities, your resources—you shift from scarcity thinking to abundance thinking.

Scarcity thinking is the mother of negativity. It says: "I don't have enough leads. I don't have enough time. I don't have enough support. I'm going to miss my number."

Abundance thinking is a mindset of opportunity and potential. It says: "Look at the skills I've developed. Look at the customers who trust me. Look at the opportunities in my pipeline. Look at what's possible."

When you operate from gratitude and abundance, you become more creative, more energetic, more persistent. You stop fixating on limitations and start exploring possibilities.

You show up differently. You bring positive energy. And people feel it. They want to work with people who are confident, positive, and focused on what's possible rather than what's impossible.

Cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude

But here’s the thing. You don't wait to feel grateful. You choose to practice gratitude. The feelings follow.

Every morning, you are empowered to make a conscious choice about where to focus your attention. You can focus on what's missing, what's wrong, who’s against you, and what's hard. Or you can focus on what's present, what's working, what's possible. Both perspectives contain truth. But only one moves you forward toward the success and happiness you are seeking.

Here are some practical ways to build gratitude into your daily routine:

Keep a gratitude journal. Every morning or evening, write down three things you're grateful for. My friend Eric, who suffered from a severe brain injury, does this, and the impact it has had on his recovery is nothing short of a miracle.

Thank someone every day. Send a text, an email, or better yet, make a phone call. Thank a customer. Thank a colleague. Thank a team member. Express genuine appreciation for something specific they've done.

People naturally gravitate toward those who express genuine appreciation. When you thank a customer for their business, when you acknowledge a colleague's help, when you recognize someone's support, you strengthen those relationships. It makes you someone people want to work with, buy from, and help succeed.

Mentally acknowledge the good. During your day, when something positive happens, pause for just a moment and mentally acknowledge it or say a prayer of thanks. Don't let it pass by unnoticed.

Reframe challenges. When something goes wrong, ask yourself: "What can I learn from this? What opportunity might this create? What's the hidden gift in this situation?" This isn't about pretending problems don't exist. It's about looking for the lessons and possibilities within them.

Start your week with gratitude. Every Monday, give thanks for the week ahead and the opportunity you’ve been given to make a difference in your life, for your family, company, and customers.

The beautiful thing about gratitude is that it is like a muscle; it gets stronger with exercise.

My Gratitude to You

Before wrapping up, I want to take this opportunity to pause and express my gratitude to you.

I'm grateful to you for listening to the Sales Gravy podcast. My team and I pour our hearts into producing this show, and your support means everything to us. Your comments, your reviews, your messages telling us how the podcast has helped you, fuels us.

I'm thankful for the fans of my books. Writing is one of my greatest joys in life, and you make that possible. Every time someone tells me that "Fanatical Prospecting," or "Sales EQ," or "The LinkedIn Edge" changed their career, it reminds me why I do this work.

I'm grateful for the companies around the world that trust Sales Gravy to train their teams. You let us into your organizations, trust us with your people, and give us the opportunity to make a real difference. That's a privilege we never take for granted.

I'm grateful for the sales professionals who invest in themselves through Sales Gravy University. Your commitment to getting better inspires us to keep creating better content.

And most of all, I'm grateful for the amazing people who choose to work at Sales Gravy. We are blessed with an incredible team that wakes up every morning focused on serving you and making a difference. They're the reason we can do what we do.

Thank you for allowing us to be part of your professional journey.

Reflecting on Gratitude

So as we head into Thanksgiving week, I’ll leave you with this simple reflection:

Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire. If you did, there would be nothing left to reach for, no reason to dream, no horizon pulling you forward.

Be thankful that you don't know everything. It means life still has mysteries to reveal and lessons waiting to shape you.

Be thankful for the difficult times. It's in these seasons that you grow stronger, wiser, and more resilient.

Be thankful for your limitations. They remind you that there is still room to stretch, improve, and become more than you are today.

Be thankful for challenges and obstacles. They forge your strength, your courage, and your character. These are the things that truly endure.

Be thankful for your mistakes, because each one is a teacher guiding you toward better choices and deeper understanding.

Be thankful for what you've been given. Every gift is proof that someone cares, someone believes in you, and someone has invested in your journey.

Be thankful for the people who push you, support you, frustrate you, and inspire you. Each one plays a role in shaping the person you are becoming.

Be thankful for beginnings, endings, and every transition in between. They are the chapters and seasons of a life story still being written.

Be thankful for Monday, because Monday brings new possibilities.

And at the end of the day, when you are tired and weary, when you’ve stopped and made one more call, be thankful because it means you've made a difference.

An attitude of gratitude changes how you approach your day—and your prospects. My new book, The LinkedIn Edge, shows you how to leverage that mindset to build genuine connections, engage with your network, and create opportunities that actually convert.

Most new account executives stare at their territory list and feel the weight of it immediately. Fifty accounts. A hundred accounts. Sometimes more. Each one needs research, a plan, and outreach that doesn't sound like every other cold email clogging their prospect's inbox. 

Jake McOsker, an account executive at Forrester Research, found himself facing exactly this problem when he moved from BDR to AE. He cracked it by changing how he used AI for account planning. 

"Rather than taking 10 to 15 minutes to get an account plan out or understand who the notable stakeholders and the decision makers that I need to go with," he explained, "it's a 2 to 3 minute process to go through each one of these accounts."

The traditional approach to AI account planning doesn't solve the territory problem. You ask ChatGPT or Claude for company information, and you get Wikipedia summaries. Founded in 1987. Headquartered in Dallas. 15,000 employees. The chief sales officer you're calling doesn't care about any of that, and showing up with generic facts makes you look lazy, not prepared.

When you're new to the role, you don't have years of pattern recognition to fall back on. You don't know what good account planning looks like yet. You just know you need to get meetings with people who have better things to do than talk to a rep they've never heard of.

The solution isn't using AI as a search engine. It's using it as a sales assistant with a specific job to do.

The Problem With How Most Reps Use AI for Account Planning

Here's what usually happens. A rep needs to prepare for a call with a VP of Marketing at a healthcare company. They open their AI tool of choice and type: "Tell me about [Company Name]."

The AI spits back:

Company history

Product offerings

Recent press releases

Maybe some executive names

The rep skims it, copies a few bullet points into their CRM, and calls it account planning. Then they get on the call and realize they have no idea what this VP is actually trying to accomplish this quarter. They ask surface-level questions. The prospect checks out. The meeting goes nowhere.

This happens because most reps are using AI like a faster Google. They're asking for information instead of asking for intelligence.

AI account planning only works when you give the AI a role and a specific outcome to deliver. Not "tell me about this company." Instead, "You're an account executive trying to book a meeting with this company's CMO in the next two weeks. Based on their recent announcements and what their executives are posting on LinkedIn, what initiatives are they likely prioritizing right now?"

How to Set Up AI Agents for Account Planning

The difference between a basic AI chat and an AI agent is memory and context. When you create an agent, you're teaching it what kind of output you need every single time. You're not starting from scratch with every account.

Here's the framework that works:

Step 1: Give Your AI Agent a Clear Role

Don't just ask questions. Set up the scenario with urgency and context. For example:

"You are an account executive at [Your Company]. You've been tasked with bringing in [Target Company] as a new customer within the next 90 days. Your first call is with their [specific role, like Chief Sales Officer]. Based on the materials I'm providing, what are the top three business initiatives this person is likely focused on right now?"

This does two things. First, it forces the AI to think from your perspective instead of just summarizing data. Second, it prioritizes current, actionable information over historical background.

Step 2: Feed It the Right Source Material

Wikipedia summaries don't help you. But these sources do:

Recent press releases about new initiatives or leadership changes

LinkedIn posts from executives at the company (especially the person you're calling)

Company blog posts about their strategic direction

Industry news articles mentioning the company

Their "About Us" or "Newsroom" page for current priorities

Analyst reports or industry trend pieces relevant to their sector

If you're selling to publicly traded companies, earnings call transcripts and annual reports (10-Ks) are gold mines. But most new AEs aren't calling on Fortune 500 companies. The good news is that smaller companies often share more on LinkedIn and their blogs because they're trying to build their brand.

Upload PDFs or paste content directly into your AI tool. Then let it analyze the content through the lens of the role you gave it. The output will focus on strategic priorities, not corporate history.

Step 3: Ask Follow-Up Questions Based on Persona

If you're calling into marketing, tech, security, or customer experience, the priorities are different. Your AI agent should help you understand how company-wide initiatives affect the specific person you're talking to.

After the initial analysis, ask: "How would these initiatives specifically impact the VP of Marketing's goals this quarter?"

Now you have talking points that matter to the person on the other end of the call.

Step 4: Validate With Human Intelligence

AI gets you 80% of the way there in three minutes instead of fifteen. But you still need to cross-check. Look at LinkedIn. Check recent news. If you have access to account managers or customer success reps who work with similar companies, ask them if the trends you're seeing match reality.

AI account planning is a tool, not a replacement for critical thinking. If the output feels off, it probably is. Trust your gut and adjust.

How to Turn Research Into Value Messages

The goal of account planning isn't to memorize facts about a company. It's to walk into a conversation with an informed hypothesis about what they're trying to accomplish.

When you do this right, your opening changes. Instead of starting cold with "Tell me about your role," you can say:

"I saw your CEO recently posted about accelerating your digital customer experience, and I'm assuming that's putting some pressure on your team to modernize how you're approaching customer engagement. But I could be completely wrong. What's actually taking up most of your time right now?"

Here’s how you’ve impacted your prospect: First, it proves you did real research. Second, it gives the prospect something specific to react to instead of making them explain their entire world from scratch. Third, and this is critical, it still leaves room for discovery.

You're not skipping the "What are your biggest challenges?" question. You're earning the right to ask them by showing you've already thought about their business. When prospects talk about their challenges in their own language, you learn how they frame problems, what matters to them, and where your solution might actually fit.

Even if your hypothesis is wrong, you've separated yourself from the 90% of reps who show up with nothing. And when you're right, you skip past the surface-level conversation and get straight into the dialogue that matters. That's how you earn credibility as a new account executive, even when you don't have ten years of experience to lean on.

Building a Repeatable AI Account Planning Workflow

This only scales if you systematize it. You can't rely on remembering the perfect prompt every time or recreating your process from scratch for every account.

Create separate agents for different use cases. One for account planning. One for prospecting outreach. One for call preparation. Train each agent for the output you need so you aren’t constantly course-correcting.

Save your account plans in a central location. The information changes, so plan to refresh your research quarterly. What mattered in Q2 might not matter in Q4, and your account planning needs to reflect that.

The key is building a system that you can repeat across your entire territory without burning out. Two to three minutes per account. Not fifteen. Not thirty. That's how you research 50 accounts in a week instead of just five.

What This Actually Looks Like in Practice

Let's say you're targeting a mid-market software company. You start by checking their LinkedIn. The CEO posted last week about expanding into healthcare verticals. You pull up their blog and find three recent posts about compliance challenges in healthcare tech.

You upload screenshots or copy the text into your AI agent and give it the prompt:

"You're an AE trying to close this software company in 90 days. The first meeting is with their Chief Revenue Officer. What are the top three priorities they're likely focused on, and how do those connect to the company's broader goals?"

The AI analyzes the content and tells you:

They're investing heavily in healthcare vertical expansion, but facing longer sales cycles due to compliance requirements

They're dealing with the need to build credibility fast in a regulated industry

Their CEO has committed to proving ROI in healthcare within two quarters

Now you have a hypothesis. The CRO is probably under pressure to close healthcare deals faster while managing a team that doesn't have deep healthcare expertise. That's your angle.

You cross-check this with LinkedIn and see that the CRO has been engaging with posts about sales enablement in complex verticals. You look at recent news and find they just hired a VP of Healthcare Sales. Everything lines up.

Your outreach message writes itself. You're not pitching. You're acknowledging what they're working on and offering a perspective on how companies in similar situations have approached the same problem.

What to Do After the Meeting

Your AI workflow doesn't end when the call does. This is where most reps leave value on the table.

After your meeting, take the transcript from your call recording tool (Fathom, Gong, Chorus, whatever you use) and upload it to your AI agent.

Here's a question that hits closer to home than most sales reps want to admit: What do you do when you've been away from prospecting for a while and suddenly the call reluctance feels brand new again?

That's the situation Dwayne Malmberg from Sugar Land, Texas found himself in. He'd been crushing it in inside sales and appointment setting since the 90s. He was good at it. Really good. But after taking just over two years away from the phones, a new opportunity came along, and suddenly he was facing something he didn't expect.

The call reluctance. The trepidation. The mental resistance to picking up that phone and dialing invisible strangers.

If you've ever taken time away from prospecting and felt that same knot in your stomach when it's time to get back on the phones, you're not alone. And more importantly, there's a systematic way to rebuild that muscle and get back to crushing it.

The Raw Truth About Cold Calling Fear

Let's get brutally honest: Cold calling creates emotional angst. Period.

I've made tens of thousands of cold calls. I make them with my clients during training sessions. I'll make them tomorrow morning. And I still feel that trepidation on the first couple of calls of the day.

It's just human. It's natural. It never completely goes away.

Think about it like jumping out of an airplane. A few years ago, I got the chance to jump with the United States Army Golden Knights. I was terrified. My heart was pounding. A sergeant even asked if I was okay because, apparently, I looked frightened.

When we got strapped in, I turned to the Golden Knight I was jumping with and asked, "Do you ever get scared?" His answer was revealing: "Yeah, of course I do. My heart's beating a little bit because it's an airplane and I don't know what's going to happen. But I've done it so many times, and I've got a routine."

That's the key. The routine. The process. The mental preparation that gets you past the fear and into action.

The Big Pull: Why You Need Something Worth Fighting For

Here's the problem with facing fear: If you don't have something pulling you forward that's bigger than the discomfort you're feeling right now, you'll procrastinate forever.

The discipline to run a prospecting block and do your prospecting is the discipline to sacrifice what you want now for what you want most.

So before you even think about picking up the phone, sit down and write out what you want. Why are you doing this? What's the goal? Is it a paycheck? A promotion? Financial freedom? Providing for your family?

That's your big pull. That's what you focus on when you start your day, not whatever might happen on the call. Because when you're thinking about something as scary as facing rejection, if you don't have a big pull driving you, you'll end up avoiding the work that matters most.

For Dwayne, part of his why was clear: He's a caregiver for his disabled wife and needs the flexibility to work from home while still providing for his family. That's a powerful pull. That's something worth pushing through fear for.

Building the Muscle: You Can't Bench Press 250 on Day One

Let's say you were a bodybuilder in your 30s. You were strong, lifting heavy, crushing it in the gym. Then life happened. Kids came along. Your career took off. You quit working out.

Now you decide it's time to get back in shape. What happens if you walk into the gym and try to bench press 250 pounds on day one?

You're going to hurt yourself. Maybe badly.

The same principle applies to prospecting after time away. You already know how to do it. You've got the muscle memory. Everything inside you is saying, "I got this." But you can't expect to jump back in at the same intensity level you had before.

You have to rebuild the muscle gradually. Start with the equivalent of those 20-pound dumbbells and work your way back up.

The High-Intensity Sprint Strategy

When I found myself in a similar situation years ago, uncomfortable and fearful about making calls, I developed a strategy that I now call high-intensity prospecting sprints.

Here's how it works: Break your prospecting into very small, short blocks. Sometimes just five minutes. Make five calls in five minutes. Or ten minutes. Or fifteen minutes.

The key is this: Make it so small and manageable that your brain can't talk you out of it. If I tell you to make cold calls all day long, that feels overwhelming. But if I ask you to knock out just five calls, you can do that.

Then here's the critical part: Follow each sprint with something inspiring. Read a chapter from Fanatical Prospecting. Listen to a segment of your favorite sales podcast. Watch a training video. Put good stuff in your ears and in front of your eyes that builds your courage and strengthens your heart.

Then do another sprint. More inspiration. Another sprint. Repeat.

What happens is two things: First, by actually doing it instead of thinking about it, you get better at doing it. You get what I call sales endorphins. You feel good about yourself because you realize, "Hey, I can do this. Everything's okay."

Second, by backing up each sprint with inspirational content, you're feeding your mindset. You're building back that mental muscle alongside the practical muscle.

The Time Management Factor for Busy Sales Professionals

If you're like Dwayne and have a lot of responsibilities outside of sales, time management becomes critical. You can't afford to waste time or dilute your prospecting efforts.

The solution is ruthless prioritization and time blocking.

Start your day with your most important, highest priority sales activity. Get your prospecting done first thing in the morning when your willpower is strongest and your emotional energy is highest.

Here's why this matters: When you've got a lot going on and you're also doing the hardest job in sales (making outbound calls), by the time you get later into your day, you're worn out. Your willpower is depleted. It's going to be exponentially harder to find the motivation to interrupt strangers.

But first thing in the morning? You're fresh. You're ready. You can knock out that prospecting block and then ride that momentum through the rest of your day.

Block your calendar in core chunks for everything you need to do. If you have an appointment at 3 PM that'll take three hours, fine. But that first hour of your day? That's sacred prospecting time. Nothing else touches it.

The Mindset Foundation: Feed Your Mind Daily

The first section of Fanatical Prospecting focuses on mindset because that's where everything begins. If your mindset isn't right, technique doesn't matter. Scripts don't matter. Nothing matters because you won't execute.

Feed your mind daily with content that builds you up. Listen to a sales podcast three days a week. Read sales books. Watch training videos. Surround yourself with messages that reinforce the behaviors you want to develop.

When you're in a situation where you feel fear or emotional angst, putting good stuff in your ears and eyes has a tendency to make your heart stronger and build your courage.

This isn't fluffy motivation. This is practical psychology. You're literally rewiring your brain to associate prospecting with positive emotions instead of fear and anxiety.

The Bottom Line

Getting back in the prospecting game after time away isn't about summoning superhuman courage or pretending the fear doesn't exist. It's about acknowledging the fear, building a routine to work through it, and gradually rebuilding the muscle you once had.

You already know how to do this. You've done it before. You just need to give yourself permission to start small, build consistently, and focus on progress over perfection.

Start with your why. Build your prospecting sprints. Front-load your day. Feed your mind with the right content. And remember: The first call is always the hardest because you're lifting that 10,000-pound weight. But once you make it, the momentum starts building.

You've got this. Now go pick up the phone and prove it to yourself.

Want to learn how to leverage LinkedIn to fill your pipeline and never run out of opportunities? Check out Jeb Blount's latest book with Brynne Tillman, The LinkedIn Edge, and discover how to turn social selling into your secret weapon.

A few years ago, I was on a desperate search for a dining table. My favorite from my old place was a gorgeous, single-piece antique that mathematically wouldn’t fit in my new home. I loved that table, and losing it felt like losing a member of the family. So I started the hunt for a replacement, a piece worthy of its memory.

I found a potential candidate at a high-end furniture store: a stunning cherry table. 

I ran my hand along its smooth, cool surface, picturing it loaded with platters of food, surrounded by the people I love. But then I saw the price tag. It was prohibitively expensive. My wallet slammed shut. I knew it was perfect, but I just couldn’t bring myself to pay for it. I walked out, resigning myself to a life of settling.

In the end, I found a mass-produced, joined-piece from a department store. And for the next six months, I was miserable. My kitchen table was just … a table. It was functional, but it had no soul. I griped about it constantly, and every time I looked at it, I was reminded of what I'd given up.

Discovering Sweat Equity

Finally, out of options and patience, I took the advice of an antique store owner.

"Go see a woodworker," she said. 

I drove to the address, a dingy, dark garage on the southside of town that smelled of sawdust and varnish. Here, in this dusty, disorganized space, I found the most beautiful tables of every shape and size imaginable.

A gruff man with calloused hands appeared. I told him about my predicament and my budget. He gave me a direct response: “I can’t build you a table for that price.”

Just as I was giving him an obligatory thanks and turning to leave, he hit me with an unexpected question: “Are you interested in learning how to make one? It might cost you less than what I’ve already made.”

He wasn’t selling me a table. He was selling me an experience. A partnership.

Becoming a Co-Creator

And so, we began. He showed me the design software. We walked through different scenarios, from Christmas dinner to my kids doing their homework. We chose the wood, figured out the curves for the legs, and decided on the thickness for the top. Every line was to my specifications. I was a co-creator, not a consumer.

When he finally showed me the quote for materials and his lessons, it was 30% more than the expensive showroom table. And yet, the decision was simple. I looked at the plans, the time we’d invested in the design, the conversations we had shared, and I said, "Let's build this."

I picked out the perfect piece of maple. He taught me how to cut it, sand it, and shape it. How to use a router to create decorative edges. How to apply gloss for a perfect shine. And when we were done, I paid that higher price gladly—despite all its imperfections (I am not a professional carpenter.).

This was my table, built with my sweat, crafted with my hands. I’d earned it.

One leg was a half-inch too short. 

The decorative edges I’d spent hours on didn’t quite match. And the lacquer? Let’s just say it had a certain, unique texture. This table was, objectively, flawed. And yet, I loved it more than any piece of furniture I had ever owned.

When I brought it home, I was so proud. I invited people over just so I could show it off. Every time I looked at it, I found myself thinking how perfect it was, even with its flaws. That slightly askew table wasn’t just furniture; it was a blinding flash of the obvious and a lesson in the concept called The IKEA Effect.

Applying the Principle in Sales

Not long after my dive into woodworking, I found myself in a similar situation with a prospect.

We were selling a sales training program, and the decision-maker leveled with me in our proposal meeting: "I love what you're proposing, but your competitors are beating your price. We're on a budget."

I was about to chalk the deal up to closed-lost when the memory of that woodworker's shop flashed through my mind.

“How about this,” I said, "I know our price is higher, but I think we—you and I—can design something perfect for your team. What if we work together to craft a custom solution, one that covers all your needs and fits into your company culture?"

He was skeptical, but he agreed. So we began our own version of a woodworking project.

Instead of sawdust and maple, we worked with spreadsheets and shared documents. We spent hours in meetings, outlining their team's specific pain points, the obstacles they faced with pipeline hygiene, and the skills they were lacking. We designed a plan with the right workshops, the right coaching, and the right support for their specific problems.

When I finally presented the final proposal, it included a fee that was 20% higher than the competition. But it wasn't a surprise. We had built it together, every step of the way. He saw not just a list of services, but a reflection of his own team's needs. He had invested time, effort, and insight, and had a sense of ownership.

How Co-Creation Wins the Deal

With our co-created plan in hand, the client happily paid our higher fee. We’d edged out the competition not because of our price, but because we had triggered The IKEA Effect. This behavioral economic principle states that people place a disproportionately higher value on things they have helped to create.

Every frustrating moment, every small victory when we are building something creates what behavioral economists call "effort justification." Your brain can't accept that all that work you put in was for something ordinary, so it reframes the result as extraordinary. It's the same reason my handmade table, with its slight wobble and imperfect edges, felt more valuable to me than the flawless, expensive showroom piece.

And it's exactly why that prospect was willing to pay a premium for our sales training. By involving him in crafting the solution—by making him a co-creator rather than just a buyer—we triggered the same psychological principle. He didn't just purchase a program; he helped design it.

The Lesson: Ownership Matters

When people build something—whether it's furniture, solutions, or relationships—they don't just create the thing itself. They create ownership.

Here’s how you can apply this to your own sales process:

Discovery is the new co-creation. Your discovery calls shouldn't be a simple Q&A. It should be a collaborative workshop. Use tools like a shared whiteboard or a live-edited document to build the solution with your prospect in real time. Frame it as, "Let's figure this out together."

Your proposal is a project plan, not the final word. Think of your proposal as the culmination of shared work, not a final document you deliver. Refer to it as "our plan" or "the solution we designed." This language reinforces the joint effort.

Make it their idea. The more effort your prospect invests in the process—even just by providing a little bit of input—the more they'll value the outcome. Ask open-ended questions that require them to provide genuine insight. Say things like, "Help me understand...," or "What would the ideal outcome look like for you?" When they tell you, it's their vision, and you're helping them bring it to life.

The Big Takeaway

The IKEA Effect is far more than a psychological quirk; it's a strategic weapon for every salesperson who wants to stop losing on price. The truth is, your customers aren’t buying a product or a service—they're buying the feeling of a win. 

When you empower your prospects to become co-creators in the sales process, you don't just solve their problem; you make them the hero of their own story. 

You don’t need to be the low-price leader to get the business. You just need to have the courage to ask them to build a solution with you.

Hear more insights based on real-life business successes and flops on Jeb Blount Jr.’s podcast 30 Minutes or Less: How Flawed Sales Incentive Programs Cost Domino’s $78 Million, part of The Sales Gravy Podcast.

To a sales leader, it’s a familiar story.Month one: Your new SDR is on fire. Energy through the roof. They’re excited about cold calling.Month two: Still strong. Meetings are getting booked. Dashboard looks good.Month three: Cracks appear. Rejections pile up. But they hang in.Month four: Burnout.

The dials drop. The energy’s gone. That superstar you hired 90 days ago is updating their LinkedIn profile—and you know exactly what that means. Now you’re back in hiring mode, your team’s pipeline is slipping, and your recruiting budget just took another hit.

But it’s not that the SDR role is broken—the system is. Sales teams are great at starting fast and terrible at sustaining it. People get thrown in with a script and a quota, celebrate quick wins, then act surprised when burnout becomes inevitable.

Tim Hester, VP of Sales Development at Alliance HCM, leads one of the fastest-promoting SDR teams in the industry. His team survives month four and keeps thriving. Some SDRs promote out in 60 days. Others stay because they’re growing, not just grinding.

It’s a tactical framework that stops inefficiency.

The Problem: You’re Forcing SDRs to Run Without a Finish Line

When Tim inherited his SDR team, he saw the pattern immediately. One SDR position. No progression. No momentum. Just grind.

Talented people hit quota, kept hitting quota, and then started asking themselves: Why am I still doing the exact same job six months later? “Just wait your turn” doesn’t cut it anymore. Maybe it never did.

The wake-up call came when Tim realized something critical: The things that kill SDR motivation aren’t trainable.

Work ethic. Mindset. How someone approaches their day and prospecting blocks. That’s character. You can’t coach it in a workshop. Tim tried way too many times before figuring that out.

You can teach someone objection handling. You can show them how to use the CRM. But if there’s no light at the end of the tunnel, no amount of training fixes that. That’s on leadership, not the rep.

The Solution: Build a Roadmap That Rewards Performance, Not Tenure

Tim flipped the script on how SDR performance gets measured and rewarded. He created tiered SDR levels based purely on performance thresholds. Not tenure. Not politics. Not “when a spot opens up.”

The roadmap has clear levels: from new SDR to quota-hitting SDR to exceeding SDR who now trains the team. Each level comes with a comp bump and more responsibility. Most importantly, it proves effort matters.

This framework ensures that when your reps look at the dashboard, they see a clear, actionable path for progression. It’s the sales leader’s job to ensure that dashboard clarity is tied directly to the next level.

The impact is immediate. Reps see exactly what they need to level up. There’s no waiting for someone to quit so that a spot opens. Those who want to move fast can; those who need more time have a clear path, too.

This framework changed recruiting entirely. Tim could tell candidates on day one: People move up at their own rate; you control your trajectory at this company.

Suddenly, the SDR role wasn’t a holding pattern. It was a launchpad.

The Dashboard: Four Metrics That Actually Matter

Metrics are your scoreboard. If your reps don’t trust the score, they stop playing hard.

When Tim took over, the dashboard was a mess. Crowded with metrics nobody understood or trusted. Reps tuned it out because they didn’t know what half the numbers meant or how they connected to their success.

Tim stripped it down to four metrics:

Dials – Shows effort and how they’re working the database. Everyone can pick up the phone.

Connections – Only counts conversations with decision-makers. Not gatekeepers. Not assistants. This shows outreach quality.

Meetings Scheduled – The conversion from connection to meeting. This is where you see who’s actually selling.

Meetings Ran – If they don’t show up, what’s the point?

For Tim, the most important is the latter three because of their impact. He’s measuring what drives meetings and revenue. Simple. Clear. Actionable. No vanity metrics.

The Training: Start with Mechanics.

Most companies try to turn SDRs into product experts on day one. Tim does the opposite.

He breaks training into three buckets:

Mechanics – CRM management, using the dialer, and objection handling. These are fundamental basics that must be mastered before there can be further movement.Knowledge – Developing an ICP and persona basics. Narrow and focused. Build your knowledge on the people who matter.Art – The intangible skills that develop over time as reps sit in on meetings and watch demos.

Setting that expectation allows reps to move fast. It might not be the straightest line, but they’re executing, gaining confidence, and booking meetings in week two instead of week eight.

SDRs aren’t closing six-figure deals. They’re scheduling introductory meetings and bringing in the account executive who has the expertise to close. Expecting perfect performance on day one slows ramps and kills confidence. Employ mechanics first and let the art follow.

The Mindset: Small Changes, Big Impact

Before Tim was a leader, he spent too much time searching for the silver bullet. He’d toss the whole playbook after one bad call, desperately seeking the one "secret" that would make prospecting easy.

His breakthrough was realizing his job as a leader wasn't to teach the art of the perfect call, but to build the system that rewarded consistent effort.

Now, he drills this into his team: consistency. It's a direct result of the structure he built. Reps commit to consistency because they know the roadmap proves that their small daily progress will compound into a promotion.

The commitment to consistency starts during onboarding. By clearly presenting the tiered performance levels and the four key metrics on day one, leadership sets the expectation that results are driven by process, not luck. When the path is clear, reps stop searching for a shortcut.

Consistency beats flash every time. Average SDRs become consistent producers. Consistent producers become top performers. The system is the guarantee that their consistency will pay off.

Month Four Doesn’t Have to Be the End

The SDR graveyard isn’t full of lazy people; it's full of frustrated talent who were put on a treadmill when they needed a ladder. By month four, a high-performer has mastered the basics and is staring at the ceiling. Same script. Same job. Same quota. They burn out from futility, not from effort.

Tim Hester's approach stops this cycle. He proves that the only way out is up.

Clear metrics keep the focus sharp.

Tiered levels create propulsion.

A performance-driven roadmap ensures reps know they control their destiny.

The question every sales leader must ask is: "What message does our system send on day one?"

Empower your reps with a plan they can believe in, and your top talent will be busy working toward their next title, not updating their resume.

Your roadmap gives your SDRs the path, but they still need the tactics to fill their calendar and earn that promotion. Download Sales Gravy's 25 Ways to Ask for the Appointment on a Cold Call guide.

Here’s a truth most car dealerships don’t want to admit: people don’t hate buying cars. They hate buying cars from salespeople who make the customer experience painful.

That’s the challenge Brendan Carlington from Mount Pleasant, Michigan, brought to me on a recent episode of Ask Jeb. Brendan jumped back into auto sales this year after spending time in other industries, and he noticed something big. Traditional sales positions are disappearing. Customers can research everything online, get quotes instantly, and even start negotiations with a click. What’s missing is training that teaches sales pros how to create an experience people actually enjoy.

The vehicle isn’t the differentiator. The experience is.

Why the Experience Matters More Than the Product

I told Brendan something I have felt for a long time. Customers already know what they want before they walk into the dealership. They have seen every trim, every feature, every price point. What they do not know is whether they will enjoy the buying process.

That is where you, the salesperson, become the product. Your job is not just to sell the car. Your job is to guide your customer through the process, reduce friction, build trust, and make them feel confident that they are making the right decision.

When I buy a car, I already know what I want. If the experience is miserable, I put it off. If I know it will be smooth, engaging, and human, I buy immediately. Modern buyers are craving a guide, not a grinder.

The Power of Frameworks

Brendan had a simple but powerful philosophy. He said there are three conditions to win: sell a car, give the customer a great experience, and make as much money as possible without compromising those things. That mindset is exactly what great sales frameworks are built on. A framework gives you rails to run on while keeping you flexible in the conversation. It is not a script. It is a repeatable system that lets you adapt to the customer while staying disciplined.

When you take complex sales processes and make them simple and repeatable, you create reliability and confidence. That principle is at the heart of fanatical prospecting and objection handling. Learning to simplify complex ideas into actionable steps separates average salespeople from top performers.

How to Become the Trusted Guide

If you are in car sales or any sales role where buyers can research online, here is the playbook:

Unpack your customer’s fears. They walk in with emotional baggage from past experiences. Acknowledge it.

Ask better questions. The more they talk, the better they feel. When the customer does most of the talking, they have a good experience.

Create a VIP moment. Buying a car is a milestone, not a transaction.

Build a repeatable system. Know your greeting, discovery questions, and closing flow cold and practice it until it is second nature.

Using systems that focus on outcomes, such as first-time appointments, conversion rates, and pipeline velocity, makes the difference between a salesperson who spins their wheels and one who consistently drives results. Practicing this every day builds the kind of discipline that leads to consistent performance and customer loyalty.

Making It Fun Again

Brendan shared something I loved. Before car sales, he worked in the Vegas nightlife industry and he asked, “Why can’t buying a car be fun?” That is the kind of thinking that transforms an industry. Fun does not mean loud music or strobe lights. It means energy, curiosity, and enthusiasm. When people enjoy buying from you, they tell everyone they know.

If your dealership or team has lost that spark, it is time to rebuild your sales culture. Focus on making the customer experience unforgettable. Strong sales leadership and coaching techniques help teams focus on guiding the buyer through the process instead of just pushing products. Developing those skills consistently pays huge dividends in customer retention and referrals.

The Big Lesson

At the end of our conversation, I told Brendan something simple. The car industry does not need more closers. It needs more guides. When every spec and price is a Google search away, the only true differentiator left is how the customer feels.

You cannot automate human connection. You cannot AI your way into trust. You can build systems that make people feel seen, heard, and valued. Simplify the process. Ask more questions. Be a guide. Make it an experience worth repeating. That approach works whether you sell cars, software, or consulting services.

If you are serious about building influence and opportunity in the modern sales landscape, my newest book with Brynne Tillman, The LinkedIn Edge, is your playbook for creating meaningful professional connections.