Sales Gravy: Jeb Blount

• How to Scale a $300K Company to Multi-Million Dollar Revenue (Ask Jeb)

  Here's a question that'll keep you up at night: How do you take a company from $300K in annual revenue to $1.5 million in 18 months, then scale to $3-5 million within five years? That's the challenge facing Greg Hirschi from Colorado. He's the new executive leader of an 18-year-old company selling ethics assessment services to professional licensing boards. They've expanded from an entrepreneurial model to a small team with one salesperson and one customer service person. The goal is aggressive growth, and Greg needs to know where to focus his limited resources to get the biggest bang for his buck. If you're nodding your head right now because you're in a similar situation, pay attention. Because the mistakes you make at $300K will haunt you at $3 million. The Resource Reality Check Let's be brutally honest about what a $300K revenue company means: You have no money. You have a razor-thin budget. You have one salesperson and one leader trying to do everything. At this stage, you have exactly one priority: REVENUE. You don't have the luxury of fixing operations, perfecting your tech stack, or building elaborate systems. You need to sell. Period. But here's where most small companies screw this up. They think selling means taking anything with a pulse. If it can fog a mirror, they'll do business with it. That's a death spiral disguised as growth. The Operator's Dilemma Greg comes from an operations background. He's analytical, process-driven, and systematic. Those traits are incredible assets for building a business, especially when the goal is to scale fast. But they can also be a liability when managing salespeople. Here's what happens: Operators think in systems and logic. Salespeople think in relationships and emotion. Operators want everything organized and predictable. Salespeople throw deals on the table that are messy and unpredictable. If you're an operator trying to lead sales, you need to understand this fundamental tension. Your salesperson is out there getting hammered with objections every single day, building narratives in their head about why people won't buy. You're thinking, "Just brush it off and do it again. What's wrong with you?" They're thinking, "You have no idea what it's like out here." This is why reading New Sales Simplified by Mike Weinberg is non-negotiable if you're an operator managing sales. You need to learn how salespeople think, how they operate, and how to lead them effectively without losing your mind. Start With Your ICP or Die Trying The single most important thing Greg needs to do right now to scale is get laser-focused on his Ideal Customer Profile. Not kind of focused. Not "we have a general idea." I mean obsessively, precisely, ridiculously dialed in on exactly who they should be selling to. Here's why this matters so much at $300K: Greg's salesperson has a $600K pipeline and will close 50% of it. Sounds great, right? But if half those customers churn because they're the wrong fit, requiring constant re-education and hand-holding, Greg's salesperson will get stuck in account management mode. They'll stop prospecting for new business because they're too busy re-selling existing accounts. That's how you stay stuck at $300K forever. Your ICP drives everything. It determines your messaging, your marketing, your presentation materials, and which stakeholders you need to reach inside target organizations. It helps you build relevant social proof stories. It allows you to coach your salesperson on handling specific objections instead of generic brush-offs. Most importantly, it gives you guardrails. You can ask your salesperson in pipeline reviews: "Tell me the strategic reason why we should chase this account. How does it fit our ICP? Why is this worth our limited resources when our singular goal right now is growth?" When you're running a $300K company with one salesperson and one leader, you cannot afford to chase every deal.

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• Building Sales Teams That Actually Want to Show Up

  Your sales team has the tools. They know the pitch. The CRM is full of leads. So why are half your reps still missing quota? Randy Wilinski spent 15 years building high-performance sales teams before joining our training team at Sales Gravy. His answer to this question cuts through the usual explanations about territory problems or skill gaps. The real issue? Most sales leaders are managing activity instead of developing people. They're applying pressure instead of addressing the mental blocks that sabotage performance before reps ever pick up the phone. The Real Problem Holding Back Sales Teams Walk into any sales bullpen and you’ll hear the same beliefs on repeat: “I’m not good at cold calling.” “Nobody wants to hear from me.” “I don’t know if I can hit these numbers.” Most leaders dismiss this as an attitude problem or lack of confidence. So they fire up the team with a motivational speech, send everyone back to their desks—and nothing changes. Here’s what’s being missed: These aren’t attitude problems. They’re belief systems that determine behavior. And behavior determines results. Nobody was born knowing how to sell. Your top performer didn’t start with the ability to handle objections or close deals. They learned it. But the reps who believe they can’t learn it won’t put in the work to improve. They’ll make half the calls, avoid the hard conversations, and prove themselves right. The real work of building elite performers is getting inside your reps’ heads and rooting out the thought processes that are killing their performance. That’s where true coaching separates managers from leaders. Why One-on-One Coaching Unlocks Growth Group training builds skill, but addressing mental blocks requires one-on-one coaching—where you can dig into patterns, ask uncomfortable questions, and challenge unhelpful thinking. Why does this rep always sabotage themselves right before closing a big deal? Where did this idea that "people don't like being sold to" come from? What past failure is creating this blind spot? Good coaches shine a light on the patterns that people fail to recognize or flat-out avoid. They name the behavior that’s been there all along, but no one wanted to confront. Awareness alone doesn't create change. Your rep can have that breakthrough moment where they realize they are the problem, and still fall back into the same habits. Real coaching means holding people accountable to the change they commit to making. It means checking in, following up, and not letting them slide back into old patterns when things get uncomfortable. That’s the difference between feel-good conversations and actual performance improvement. The Coaching Gap in Sales Leadership Most sales leaders don't actually coach. They manage activity, review numbers, and deliver pep talks. But managing metrics does not build high-performance sales teams. Developing people does. Coaching starts with curiosity. It means sitting down one-on-one and asking questions that uncover what is really holding a rep back. Not "why didn’t you make enough calls?" but "what made those calls hard to make?" Sometimes the barrier is a belief. Other times, it is a communication issue between the rep and the leader. If you do not understand how each person communicates and processes feedback, you will keep missing the mark. When you tailor your coaching to match how a rep thinks and responds, conversations become more productive and performance starts to shift. That is how coaching turns from another meeting on the calendar into a catalyst for real growth. Creating an Environment Where New Reps Actually Develop The best thing you can do for your team is lower the pressure on outcomes and increase the focus on process. This doesn't mean accepting mediocrity—it means being relentless about the activities while being patient with the results. Your new reps are going to struggle. It’s a reality you have to accept,

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• How to Train MLM Recruits to Sell Without Sales Experience (Ask Jeb)

  Here's a question that'll make your head spin: How do you train MLM recruits who have zero sales experience to actually sell instead of just posting on social media and hoping for the best? That's the question Andrew Osborne from Pittsburgh brought to me. Andrew works in direct selling and network marketing, specifically health and wellness nutrition supplements. Like most MLM leaders, he's frustrated watching new recruits default to the guru-approved strategy of posting on Instagram and waiting for the magic to happen. Spoiler alert: The magic never happens. If you're nodding your head right now, you're not alone. The "social media is the new cold calling" myth is one of the most damaging lies being sold to new direct sales representatives today, and it's costing MLM organizations their best potential talent. The Social Media Trap: When Easy Becomes Impossible Remember that story in Fanatical Prospecting where I went head-to-head with someone who swore their social media guru had all the answers? I said, "Great, you do yours for a week, I'll do mine for a week, and we'll test it out." Guess who won? Here's the brutal truth: Posting on social media feels easy because it lets you keep people at arm's length. You don't have to face rejection. You don't have to interrupt strangers. You don't have to have uncomfortable conversations. But here's what actually happens. After two months of posting videos that get one view each and zero sales, your recruits quit. They're demoralized, broke, and convinced MLM doesn't work. The real problem? They were never taught how to actually sell. Why MLM Sales Training Is Harder Than You Think When Andrew recruits someone into his network marketing organization, they're making two types of sales: selling the product and recruiting new team members. Most of these people have never sold anything in their lives. They came from every background imaginable except sales. Something happened in their life that made them say, "I want more." That motivation is critical, but motivation without skill is just frustration wrapped in hope. The things they need to do are really hard. Nothing in their life has prepared them for what sales prospecting actually requires. They have to sacrifice what they want now (ease and comfort) for what they want most (their goals). That's why the first question I ask every new recruit is this: What are your top five goals in the next twelve months? Not company goals. Not team goals. Their goals. Because if they don't want something bad enough to go through the pain of rejection, nothing else matters. The Only Formula That Actually Works In MLM, there's one simple formula that works every single time: Go talk with people. The more people you talk with, the more you recruit. The more product you sell. It's that simple. Think about it this way. If you had a marketing strategy that could create all your product sales and recruiting automatically, you wouldn't need an MLM. You'd just have an e-commerce business. The reason network marketing exists is because a network of people can spread the word and sell better than online ads. But here's the problem. Talking with people means getting past your discomfort. It means interrupting a stranger in line at Walmart. It means seeing someone at church who mentions financial problems and saying, "Hey, what if I had a way to help you out?" Most people would rather post on TikTok than have that conversation. What to Teach Your MLM Team If I'm building an MLM sales training program for recruits, here's exactly what I'm teaching them, in this order: First, teach them how to open conversations. Not pitches. Conversations. With strangers and with people they know. What's the first question they ask? How do they approach someone in line at Walmart? How do they bring up their network marketing business with friends without being weird? Run drills on this. Practice it until it becomes muscle memory.

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• Is AI Coming for Your Sales Job? (Money Monday)

  You’ve probably heard it a hundred times lately—AI is coming for your job. Every week, there’s a new headline about another role being automated, another company replacing people with bots, another “AI agent” that can do the work of ten humans in half the time. And if you spend too much time reading those headlines, it’s easy to start wondering, What happens to me? What happens to salespeople like us in a world where machines can do almost everything we used to do? AI is Here to Stay You can't escape the truth. AI is going to change everything and impact almost every part of our lives. The train has left the station, and it will not be turning back. AI is going to displace a lot of people and jobs, but it’s not going to replace everyone. Because no matter how smart machines get, they can’t feel or connect the way you and I can. Sales is, and always will be, the ultimate human profession. It’s the one job built entirely on human emotion, human judgment, and human connection. What You Can Do That AI Can't Just think about it: AI can write words. But it can’t create belief. It can predict who might buy. But it can’t build trust. It can score a lead. But it can’t lead a human being through uncertainty, fear and doubt while giving them confidence to make the right decision in complex situations.  That’s what you do. That’s what we do. That’s what salespeople have always done—long before there was technology, long before there was AI, and long before algorithms tried to simulate emotion. In sales, it’s not about the product. It’s about the person. People buy you. What you sell might get you to the door, but it is how you sell that determines whether they let you in.   Every sale is a transfer of emotion from one human being to another. It’s the transfer of  belief and confidence and trust. When a customer says “Yes,” they’re not just saying yes to a proposal or a price. They’re saying 'Yes' to you. No matter how powerful technology becomes, that moment—that human moment—will never be replaced by a line of code. As modern sellers, what we need to understand is that AI isn’t the end of selling. It’s just the next leap forward in our incredibly resilient profession.  Keeping it Real AI will replace some salespeople, so we need to keep it real. There are reps who are lazy, transactional, and just go through the motions and never bother to think, adapt, or grow. Those reps will get left behind. So AI will not make sales professionals less valuable, but it will absolutely make the gap between poor and exceptional salespeople wider and more pronounced.  But the top performers—the ones who combine human empathy with AI-powered insight—will be unstoppable. Because when you merge the intelligence of machines with the intuition of a human being, it becomes a force multiplier.  How to Become Irreplaceable with AI Right this moment, top sales professionals and high-earners are elevating their performance with AI tools that do the grunt work. It’ll build your lists, do your research, automate your follow-ups, and write every sort of draft.  It will give you more time for human-to-human connections: to listen, discover, develop creative solutions, persuade, and see the emotional context behind the data. The question isn’t whether AI will replace you. The question is whether you’ll use AI to become irreplaceable. It's simple. AI can give you the right words to say. But only you can make someone feel something when you say it. AI can pull the data, do the research, and build your presentation. Only you can look someone in the eye and say “Trust me. We can solve this together.” and close the sale.  Your Emotional Intelligence Seals the Deal That’s The AI Edge. It’s not about the tools. It’s about using the tools to amplify your humanity. In the age of AI, your #1 competitive advantage is emotional intelligence. It’s your ability to understand how people feel,

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• 5 Battle-Tested Sales Strategies to Finish the Year Strong

  The gap between average salespeople and elite performers lies in process. While most reps chase quick wins and hope something sticks, top producers follow proven sales strategies that consistently deliver results. They've mastered the fundamentals that turn prospects into customers and customers into advocates. If you’re ready to finish the year strong and blow past your quota, these five battle-tested sales strategies from previous podcasts will transform how you sell. 1. Deliver an Unforgettable Customer Experience by Mastering Your Emotions Your prospect doesn't care about your bad morning or the three deals that fell through yesterday. When you walk through the door or dial their number, you’re the only conversation they’re having with your company today. Elite salespeople know emotional consistency separates closers from pretenders. Think of it like a pro golfer staying calm and cruising forward regardless of what happened on the last hole. As Jeb Blount explains: How your customer feels about you is more predictive of outcome than any other variable. They buy you first, and then they buy your product. They buy you because they feel safe, heard, and confident you will deliver. This means you have to compartmentalize every interaction. Your fifth appointment of the day deserves the same intensity and professionalism as your first. When you show up desperate, prospects sense it immediately. When you rush through discovery, they feel undervalued. Jeb emphasizes this critical point: Buying a house, car, or service is deeply emotional for the customer. Before every interaction, take sixty seconds to reset. Acknowledge whatever is bothering you, mentally file it away, then walk in focused entirely on their world and their goals. 2. Commit to the Day One Follow-Up Mindset Ask yourself: How many times do you attempt to reach a prospect before quitting? If you answered three or four, you are leaving money on the table. Most reps quit after just three or four attempts, and sometimes without ever hearing a ‘No.’ They just stop and let leads rot in the CRM instead of risking rejection. As Jessica Stokes reminds us, top producers understand this: While you are tracking your sixth or seventh outreach attempt, for the prospect, every touchpoint feels like day one. They are busy running their business—not waiting for your call. The problem is not just the number of attempts; it is the spacing. When you leave a voicemail and wait a month to "give them space," you lose momentum and start from scratch every time. The winning sales strategy is persistence with velocity. That means touching base every few days or weekly. When you maintain momentum, prospects remember you. The real failure is letting quality leads die because you are afraid to pick up the phone and risk hearing "No." 3. Turn Your Empathy Into a Weapon, Not a Weakness If you have ever hesitated before making a cold call because you thought, "I don't want to bother them," you are dealing with what Jeb Blount calls projection, and it is costing you deals. Projection happens when you assume prospects hate being interrupted as much as you do. You start deciding for them before you’ve even made the call. Successful salespeople recognize interruption is a professional necessity. Your job requires it; your income depends on it. Letting empathy paralyze your prospecting is dangerous. The internal conflict is real: You want to be an empathetic person, but you also have to be an interrupter. The mindset shift: Understand that projecting is the most dangerous thing in sales because you are deciding for your customer in advance what they want or need. Real empathy means showing up, asking sharp questions, and letting them tell you what they need. You cannot solve problems you never discover because you were too afraid to start the conversation. 4. Build a Velvet Rope Around Your Business What if your clients felt less like transactions and ...

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About Sales Gravy: Jeb Blount