Jeb Blount Quotes

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. —Dale Carnegie

There is no easy button in sales. Prospecting is hard, emotionally draining work, and it is the price you have to pay to earn a high income.

mediocrity is like a broke uncle. Once he moves into your house, it is nearly impossible to get him to leave.

Law of the Universe: Nothing happens until something moves. Law of Business: Nothing happens until someone sells something. —Jeb Blount

Here is the brutal reality. If you don't have a plan, you will become a part of someone else's plan. You can either take control of your life or someone else will use you to enhance theirs. It's your choice.

The 30-Day Rule states that the prospecting you do in this 30-day period will pay off for the next 90 days. It is a simple, yet powerful universal rule that governs sales and you ignore it at your peril. When you internalize this rule, it will drive you to never put prospecting aside for another day. The implication of the 30-Day Rule is simple. Miss a day of prospecting and it will tend to bite you sometime in the next 90 days. Miss a week and you will feel it in your commission check. Miss the entire month and you will tank your pipeline, fall into a slump, and wake up 90 days later desperate, feeling like a loser, with no clue how you ended up there.

The enduring mantra of the fanatical prospector is: One more call.

The fact is, if you are having a hard time getting appointments, getting to decision makers, getting information, or closing the deal, 9 out of 10 times it is because you are not asking.

It is no different in sales. Elite salespeople, like elite athletes, track everything. You will never reach peak performance until you know your numbers and use those numbers to make directional corrections.

Overcoming doesn't work. There is a universal law of human behavior: You cannot argue another person into believing that they are wrong. The more you push another person, the more they dig their heels in and resist you.

Effective delegation begins with effective communication.

Perfectionism is highly correlated with fear of failure

Not ​everything is a priority, and in some cases, this means that there are tasks that may not get done. That's okay. Keep the pipe full and get the deals closed and no one will ever remember.

Time blocking is transformational for salespeople. It changes everything. When you get disciplined at blocking your time and concentrating your power, you see a massive and profound impact on your productivity. You become incredibly efficient when you block your day into short chunks of time for specific activities. You get more accomplished in a shorter time with far better results.

The key to connecting and winning others over is, therefore, extremely simple: make them feel important . The real secret to making others feel important is something you have at your disposal right now. It’s listening

Nothing requires a higher level of emotional control than asking for something and subsequently dealing with objections. This leads us again to the single most important lesson in this book: In every sales conversation, the person who exerts the greatest amount of emotional control has the highest probability of getting the outcome they desire. You must first gain control of your emotions before you can influence the emotions of other people. Getting past no in all its various forms, begins and ends with emotional control.

One of the most effective ways to unload nonsales activity is to just say no. You don't have to take on or do everything that others bring to you. Whenever someone brings a task to you that has the potential to derail your Golden Hours and it is not mission critical—say no. This won't be easy. However, if you consistently create reasonable boundaries, it won't take long for others to get the message.

in sales, activity drives everything—that’s the law. Activity is the hard work of sales and it is the price you pay for your commission checks. Activities include: Cold calling, first-time visits, follow-up calls, product demonstrations, walk-throughs, test drives, site visits, open houses, tours, presentations, proposals, referrals, direct mail, and so forth. The fact is, if you have enough activity, you will at least sell something, even if you do everything else wrong. If you have no activity, but do everything else right, you will sell nothing.

Why do prospects lie—consciously or subconsciously? One of the most cogent explanations I've heard comes from Seth Godin.1 He says that prospects lie because salespeople have trained them to, and “because they're afraid.” They have learned that when they tell the truth, “the salesperson responds by questioning the judgment of the prospect. In exchange for telling the truth, the prospect is disrespected. Of course we [prospects] don't tell the truth—if we do, we're often bullied or berated or made to feel dumb. Is it any surprise that it's easier to just avoid the conflict altogether?”​

The myth that the phone no longer works—because people don't answer—is disproven daily in our Fanatical Prospecting Boot Camps. The myth is disproven by our sales team at Sales Gravy and with thousands of sales teams across the country that survive and thrive on the phone. The statistics don't lie. We see between a 15 percent and 80 percent contact rate on the phones depending on the industry, product, and role level of the contact. For example, in the business services segment, contact rates are consistently between 25 and 40 percent. This, by the way, is far higher than response rates with e-mail and light-years higher than those of social prospecting. All

What's the secret that separates superstars from everyone else, and why do they consistently outperform other salespeople? Fanatical prospecting. Superstars are relentless, unstoppable prospectors. They are obsessive about keeping their pipeline full of qualified prospects. They prospect anywhere and anytime—constantly turning over rocks looking for their next opportunity. They prospect day and night—unstoppable and always on. Fanatical! My

many technology companies and pundits (usually with an ulterior motive) suggest that “people” are no longer how the game of sales is won or lost, that technology is what matters most, Jeb Blount comes forward with Sales EQ. This extraordinary message about sales-specific emotional intelligence and human relationships will radically improve your sales results and change the way you look at sales. In Sales EQ, you will gain a deeper understanding

Life is simple, but we insist on making it complicated. —Confucius

Poor-quality production in virtual training increases the cognitive load on your learners' brains. Attention control diminishes, both short- and long-term memory are negatively impacted, and it becomes more difficult for learners to connect with you and focus.

In fact, that is exactly what discipline is: sacrificing what you want now (easy) for what you want most—the mission and making a real impact (challenging).

Another expert cold-called my VP of Sales at Sales Gravy on the telephone to pitch her social selling program as an advanced lead generation program that would eliminate cold calling forever. He challenged her: “If your program is so good, why are you cold-calling me? Shouldn't I be calling you?” That abruptly ended the call.

Hi, Candace, this is Jeb Blount from Sales Gravy. The reason I am calling is to schedule an appointment with you to show you our new sales onboarding automation software. Many of my clients are frustrated because it takes too long to get new salespeople ramped up to full productivity and find that it's holding their business growth back. Our software typically cuts onboarding time and costs for new sales reps by 50 percent, and makes it super easy to manage new rep onboarding, giving you the peace of mind that your new hires will start selling fast. I have 2:00 PM on Thursday open. How about we get together for a short meeting so I can learn more about you and see whether it makes sense to schedule a demo?

There are no guarantees, no magic pills, no holy grail. There is only poetry and probability.

the foundational root of all success in sales is a fanatical focus on prospecting,

down. Until one day they get so far down that they can't get back

Act enthusiastic, think enthusiastic thoughts, and use enthusiastic language and you will begin to feel enthusiastic and eventually become enthusiastic.

the brutal reality that in sales it is not about what you have sold but rather what you have sold today.

The cumulative impact of many poor decisions, slips in self-disciplines, and things put off until it is too late.

In the sales profession, it's not about what you have sold, it is about what you sell today.

Your Actions Your Reactions Your Mindset

Everything you ever need to know about anything is contained in a book. Everything! If you want to learn something or become an expert at anything, all you need to do is read. Yet,

Most salespeople never get lucky because they only do the minimal amount of prospecting required to just squeak by, and when they do start prospecting (usually out of desperation), they expect instant miracles. When those miracles don't happen, they gripe that prospecting doesn't work and crawl back into the warm comfort of mediocrity.

Arnold Palmer: “The more I practice, the luckier I get.

I don't focus on what I'm up against. I focus on my goals and I try to ignore the rest. —Venus Williams

The brutal fact is the number one reason for failure in sales is an empty pipe, and, the root cause of an empty pipeline is the failure to prospect.

The implication of the 30-Day Rule is simple. Miss a day of prospecting and it will tend to bite you sometime in the next 90 days. Miss a week and you will feel it in your commission check. Miss the entire month and you will tank your pipeline, fall into a slump, and wake up 90 days later desperate, feeling like a loser, with no clue how you ended up there.

The lesson the Law of Replacement teaches is that you must constantly be pushing new opportunities into your pipeline so that you're replacing the opportunities that will naturally fall out. And, you must do so at a rate that matches or exceeds your closing ratio. This is where a fanatical prospecting mindset really begins to pay off.

To succeed in sales, simply talk to lots of people every day. And here's what's exciting—there are lots of people! —Jim Rohn

One of the commonalities that I observe among top salespeople and fanatical prospectors across all market segments—inside and outside—is manual tracking of activity.

There are three steps to asking: Ask with confidence and assume you will get what you want. Shut up. Be prepared to deal with reflex responses, brush-offs, and objections.

prospecting, all you really need to do is give your prospect a good enough reason to meet with you and they'll say yes. It doesn't need to be perfect—just good enough to get in the door.

Consider Jerry. His prospecting is inconsistent at best. Several of the deals he was counting on and put into his forecast pushed off decisions to next quarter or were lost to a competitor. Because of this, he has only a handful of viable opportunities left in his pipeline. Now, with the end of the quarter looming, Jerry is under tremendous pressure. He desperately needs one of these deals to close. As Jerry becomes more desperate to close anything, he comes face to face with a cruel reality: Desperation magnifies and

The problem is, most companies can't create enough qualified inbound leads to keep the pipeline full. And,

Superstars view prospecting as a way of life. They prospect with single-minded focus, worrying little about what other people think of them. They enthusiastically dive into telephone prospecting, e-mail prospecting, cold calling, networking, asking for referrals, knocking on doors, following up on leads, attending trade shows,

The seven mindsets of a fanatical prospector are 1) optimistic and enthusiastic, 2) competitive, 3) confident, 4) relentless, 5) thirsty for knowledge, 6) systematic and efficient, 7) adaptive and flexible. You can see all of these mindsets in every successful person around you.

They push phone prospecting, e-mail prospecting, social selling, trade shows, referrals, networking, or inbound marketing as the one true way while disparaging all other forms—usually by labeling the forms they don't like “cold calling” to create the ultimate turnoff. “Do it my way,” they'll tell you, “and you'll get unlimited qualified leads. All for only $999!

If you want sustained success in your sales career, if you want to maximize your income, then you've got to interrupt prospects.

Interrupting your prospect's day is a fundamental building block of robust sales pipelines. No matter your prospecting approach, if you don't interrupt relentlessly, your pipeline will be anemic.

So the question is not, to cold call or not to cold call. Instead, the question is how to strategically balance prospecting across the various prospecting channels to give you a competitive advantage when interrupting prospects in the crowded, competitive marketplace.

Starting today, I will no longer allow rejection to control me or my actions. I will take responsibility for my own life. I will set my own course. I will make my own success. I will take action. I will persist. I will ask confidently for what I want. I will find lessons in rejection. I will embrace it and allow it to fuel my ambition. I will look forward, not backward. I will turn my haters into motivators. I will be empowered by my circumstances, not impeded by them. I will do the things others are unwilling to do. I will make no more excuses! Rejection no longer owns me. This is my independence day! I will RISE!

Quitting is a choice. Most people when faced with challenges quit too soon—often right as they are on the cusp of success.

The very best salespeople have mastered balanced prospecting in the same manner that wealthy people have mastered balance in their investment portfolios. Balance simply means that to get the best return from your prospecting time investment, there should be a mixture of telephone, in-person, e-mail, social selling, text messaging, referrals, networking, inbound leads, trade shows, and cold calling. The relative distribution of your time investment in each prospecting methodology should be based on your unique situation.

The first step toward building an endless pipeline of new customers is acknowledging the truth and stepping back from your emotional need to find Easy Street. In sales, easy is the mother of mediocrity, and in your life, mediocrity is like a broke uncle. Once he moves into your house, it is nearly impossible to get him to leave.

Let's begin with a basic premise: The feeling of rejection is real. When a prospect tells you no, your brain doesn't know the difference between the prospect rejecting your proposition or rejecting you. To your brain, it is one and the same.

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.

Procrastination is an ugly disease that plagues the human race.

Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.

That's it. Nothing more. So instead of whining about the things that are out of your control, focus your energy on what you can control—your attitude, choices, emotions, goals, ambitions, dreams, desires, and discipline

Here's the deal. If you want sustained success in your sales career, if you want to maximize your income, then you've got to interrupt prospects.

Top performers organize their day into distinct time blocks dedicated to specific activities, concentrating their focus and eliminating distractions within those blocks.

The more I practice, the luckier I get.

When you are desperate, you no longer focus your thoughts on what is required for success. Instead, you focus on what will happen to you if you don't get what you need, thereby attracting failure.​

The 30-Day Rule states that the prospecting you do in this 30-day period will pay off for the next 90 days. It is a simple, yet powerful universal rule that governs sales and you ignore it at your peril. When you internalize this rule, it will drive you to never put prospecting aside for another day.

agents had come up with every excuse in the book for not making the calls. One even complained to me that “he didn't ‘sign up’ for cold calling.” I politely explained that calling a current client—someone who is already doing business with you, familiar with you, and most likely to take your call—was about as far from cold calling as Perth, Australia, is from New York City.

The majority of salespeople don't track their numbers. Why? Because it is so much easier to delude themselves into thinking that they have made far more calls or prospecting touches than they have really made. The false comfort of delusion is warm and fuzzy and far more inviting than the cold edge of reality.

Every major failure in my life has been a direct result of a collapse in my self-discipline to do the little things every day.

Recently when working with a group of mobile device sales reps, I asked the question: “How many of you notice people using mobile phones in public?” All the hands went up. “How many of you notice people using outdated phones or phones with cracked and damaged screens?” All the hands went up. “How many of you think that most of these people would like an upgrade to the newest equipment or a phone screen that doesn't look like a kaleidoscope and cut their fingertips?” Most hands went up. “How many of you hand those people your business card and let them know that you can get them a new phone for little or no cost?” Not a single hand went up.​

Let me make this crystal clear. Salespeople get paid to sell. Period. End of story. Whine and complain about all the stuff you've got to do if you like, but it will not change the fact that your job is to be interacting with qualified prospects during the Golden Hours and moving them into and through the pipeline. Therefore, if you are a salesperson and you are not doing things that are directly related to selling during the Golden Hours, then you are not doing your job.

If you work for a small company or start-up, start by analyzing your product and service delivery strengths and weaknesses. Look for patterns and commonalities among your best customers. Analyze the deals you are closing and gain a deeper understanding of trigger events that open buying windows. Based on the information you know, gauge how soon you need to engage prior to the buying window opening. Uncover common buyer roles. Then develop a ​profile of the prospect that is most likely to do business with you and, over the long-term, be a profitable, happy customer.

Your prospect was going about her morning happily when her phone rang, interrupting her day. Then she realized her mistake as soon as you said “How are you doing?” Suddenly her get-away-from-this-salesperson-fast mechanism kicked in. As soon as you paused, she hit you with an objection and a stern tone of voice. That's how your prospect is doing and that's how you lose control of the call.

Don't ask, “How are you doing?” and don't pause or leave any awkward silence. Say their name and keep moving.​

A great analogy for timing your calls is investing. The investor who attempts to time the market has historically failed to beat the investor who uses a dollar-cost-averaging strategy—making incremental investments on a regular schedule over time. If you think about prospecting in the same vein, salespeople who prospect daily on a regular schedule are always more successful over time than those who make the attempt to time their prospecting. Like investing, statistics are always in the favor of the salesperson who does a little bit of prospecting every day.

Insight Squared produced a study1 on call timing that indicated that Tuesdays between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM are the best times to call. Of course, their best day to call was only 1.3 percent better than their worst day to call.

Trust me. I've had prospects scream at me on Tuesday and treat me like I'm their best friend on Wednesday. Completely oblivious to my previous call. That's why, when people tell me to “never call them again,” I call.

Superstars are relentless, unstoppable prospectors. They are obsessive about keeping their pipeline full of qualified prospects. They prospect anywhere and anytime—constantly turning over rocks looking for their next opportunity. They prospect day and night—unstoppable and always on. Fanatical!