Sales Gravy: Jeb Blount

• You Need Sales Coaching

  Let’s kill the myth: sales coaching isn’t just for newbies or underperformers.  It’s for closers, leaders, and the ones who want more—more pipeline, more wins, more control over their career. If you're in sales, you need coaching. Period. This isn’t feel-good fluff. Sales is a performance sport. Every high-performance athlete has a coach, and every inspiring performer has a mentor for a reason. Everyone, and I mean everyone, needs a coach. From the elite to the desperate, everyone can benefit from guidance. 1. The Desperate: The Bottom 20% You know who you are. You’re missing quota—again. Every call feels heavier, your confidence is tanking, and you’re out of answers. Here’s the truth: you don’t need more time—you need better habits, tighter processes, and someone to call out your excuses. You need guidance. Sales coaching forces you to stop guessing and start fixing. A good coach will rip the blinders off: Are you dodging the phones? Are you hesitating at the close? Are you talking too much and listening too little? You're not going to claw your way out of the bottom 20% by working harder. You get out by working smarter, with someone who’s done it before and won’t let you off the hook. Find yourself a coach—do it now—before the hole you’ve dug gets any deeper. 2. The Mediocre Middle You’re not bottom of the pack, but you’re not standing out either. You’re just … fine. Quietly average. Here you are, coasting on a couple of decent months, dodging attention, not making waves, paying your bills but treading water accomplishment-wise. And that should scare you. This is not where you want to be. This is where most reps stay stuck—not because they don’t care, but because they don’t change. Coaching breaks the cycle of complacency. It’s the flashlight in the dark that shows you exactly what’s holding you back. Weak discovery? Inconsistent follow-ups? Soft closes? You don’t need a miracle. You need fresh eyes and someone who pushes you past the edge of “fine.” Seek out a coach who’s been there and knows how to break through the ceiling you’re trapped under. 3. The Ultra High Performer You’re already top tier. You’ve pushed your way into the 5%. President’s Club. You’ve got the trophies, the income, and the T-shirt to prove it. So why do you need coaching? Because the best never stop training. They don’t rest on wins—they refine, seek out marginal gains, and build muscle when others relax. Coaching helps you identify the 2mm adjustments that turn a winner into a legend. The ultra-high performers I’ve seen who get coaching consistently shorten deal cycles, multiply referrals, and close with precision. The ego stays in check, the mindset stays sharp, and the momentum stays up. They’re breaking into enterprise-level sales on the regular. The moment you stop chasing growth is the moment someone else starts catching up. Your ideal coach has climbed to the top of the mountain themselves and is willing to help you scale it, too. 4. The Solopreneur You’re running a business, selling the service, delivering the product, and following up with the clients. You’re building the plane mid-air. But let’s be real—most solopreneurs need some help to truly master sales. With your passion, you’re the best sales rep for your product you’ll ever have—but right now, you’re winging it. “Coaching helps you build a real sales process—consistent outreach, confident pricing, and predictable revenue.  You can’t afford wasted time or wasted energy. A coach helps you cut distractions, stop chasing bad-fit leads, and finally build the kind of pipeline that scales with you. If you want to play a bigger game, you’ve got to start selling like a pro—not an amateur. Go land a coach who’s as committed to making you a top-tier sales rep as you are to your business. 5. The Sales Leader You coach your team, run the numbers, and lead the meetings. You’re trying to hit your own number while calling all...

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• Road Warrior Prospecting (Ask Jeb)

  Kyle, a field sales rep from British Columbia, is struggling with a common prospecting challenge: how to consistently prospect when you're constantly on the move. Kyle's situation likely resonates with many of you in outside sales. He described his typical day—starting at job sites at 7:30 AM, running between appointments, sending proposals from his truck, and working from Starbucks in between meetings. Sound familiar? He had read my book, Fanatical Prospecting, where I advocate for dedicated time blocks for prospecting. But Kyle's reality made traditional time blocking nearly impossible. So what's a field rep to do? What follows is the advice I gave Kyle, cleaned up and expanded so every field seller, territory manager, and outside sales road warrior can put it to work—right now. Focus on Activity Count, Not Time Blocks If you're in Kyle's shoes (or truck), here's my advice: Stop obsessing over time and start focusing on activity counts. Instead of trying to carve out a rigid one- or two-hour block, set a daily activity goal. For someone in Kyle's position, committing to 30 quality outbound touches per day is likely sufficient. In my early days, I personally made 100 dials daily, no matter what—but you need to find your number. It's amazing what you can accomplish in small pockets of time. Got 10 minutes between appointments? You can make 10 dials. These micro-prospecting sessions add up throughout your day. Instead of asking, “How do I find two uninterrupted hours?” ask, “How many outbound touches do I need to hit my pipeline goal?” Reverse-engineer your math. If 30 dials typically create two meetings—and two meetings a day keep your funnel fat—commit to 30 dials, period. Activity over chronology. Whether you burn those calls in one block or in six five-minute bursts between site visits doesn’t matter. Hitting the activity target does. Prospecting is like push-ups: the muscle only cares that you completed the reps, not whether you did them all at once. Practical Fanatical Prospecting Implementation for Field Reps Here's how to make this work in the field: Set up your list the night before: Don't waste precious morning energy building your call list. Have everything ready to go when you start your day. A pre-built list eliminates the mental drag of figuring out who to call while you’re juggling mud, invoices, and traffic. Use the gaps: Those small windows between appointments are prospecting gold. Five minutes here, ten minutes there—use them. Capture information efficiently: Most calls will go to voicemail. For the ones who answer, quickly note any important information to input into your CRM later. Don't try to update your CRM in real-time between every call. Be safe: Obviously, don't text and drive. Pull over if you need to take notes or send follow-up messages. What Kyle is experiencing is common for outside sales professionals. You can't prospect the same way as an inside sales rep with a dedicated desk and phone. Your office is your vehicle. Your desk is wherever you can find a flat surface. Your schedule is dictated by customers and job sites. Create a Mobile Prospecting Kit Salesforce is great—when you have stable Wi-Fi and two hands on a keyboard. Field reps need something that works when the LTE bars dip to one. Print or export your list with phone numbers and a skinny note column. Hyperlink mobile numbers in a notes app so a single tap dials the next contact—no scrolling, no fumbling. Use a hands-free auto-dial app (tons exist) if local regulations allow. Safety first; quotas second. Capture notes on paper or dictate voice memos. At day’s end, batch-enter critical intel into your CRM. Perfect data hygiene is optional; capturing deal-moving facts is mandatory. Rule of thumb: Log information, not activity. Managers love call-count metrics, but conversations and follow-up triggers win deals.

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• 5 Lessons From Rory McIlroy’s Win at the Masters (Money Monday)

  On this Money Monday, we're going back to Augusta where Rory McIlroy finally won The Masters and in doing so gave us 5 lessons for chasing and achieving dreams. It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t clean. It was gritty, emotional, and one of the most unforgettable moments in sports history.  Rory stepped onto the first tee looking calm, focused. Like a man who’d been here before, and this time, was ready to finish it. He was 12-under. Two shots clear. It was his tournament to lose. Then it unraveled almost immediately. A loose drive. Bad bounce. Scrambled recovery. Double bogey. That kind of start can break a player, especially at Augusta National, especially when the stakes are this high. But this year would be different. Here are five lessons we can learn from Rory Mcllroy's journey to immortality at the Masters: Lesson #1: Pressure Doesn’t Break You—It Reveals You That double bogey on the first hole could’ve crushed him. It has crushed players before. It’s crushed him before. But this time, Rory leaned into the moment. In sales, the pressure hits you just as fast. A lost deal, a missed number, or an impossible quarter. You don’t get to run from it. You fail to the level of your habits, your mindset, and your preparation. What shows up when you’re squeezed is your true game. Lesson #2: Respect the Long Game Rory didn’t panic; he recalibrated. He birdied 3, then 4. No showboating. No hero shots. Just control. He played tight through the front 9. His game wasn’t flashy—just steady. He didn’t chase. He didn’t press. Rory played smart. He trusted the process and took what the course gave him. He didn’t win with a miracle chip. He won with patience. Tempo. Smart decisions. He trusted the process. That’s how deals close. That’s how pipeline builds. You qualify. You follow up. You show up again. And you earn the right to close when the buyer’s ready—not when you’re desperate to sell. Trust the process, be consistent, and believe in your system. Lesson #3: How You Lose Matters More Than How You Win But the Augusta National did what the Augusta National always does—it tightened its grip. The 11th is long, brutal, and unforgiving. His approach caught the small bumpy hills that line the green side fairway and scuttled left. The ball screamed toward the left pond and stopped just short. Rory was able to make the save for bogey. "Amen Corner," he must have whispered to himself, exasperated. Rae’s Creek was, again, waiting on 13—and it got him. His 89-yard chip landed short and skipped into the water. Another bogey. He was slipping. You could see it in his face. The sweat. The searching for focus. The doubt that has haunted his Masters’ history creeping in around the edges. The crowd got quiet. Could it be another collapse. On the 15th, after his tee shot put him left of the fairway blocked by three Georgia Pines, Rory stood at the top of the hill—one of the last true scoring chances on the course. He pulled a 7-iron for 220 yards. A high, arching draw that tracked perfectly, landing soft on the right side of the green and rolling to within five feet of the pin. Rory bounced down the fairway to the green, walking on clouds. The crowd enveloped him in a unified chant. Then he landed another birdie on 17. Suddenly, he was back to 11-under—tied with Justin Rose, who was charging from behind with a 66 and had the crowd buzzing. 18 was Rory’s chance to seal it. But his second shot found the bunker. The blast out was clean, but the putt too strong. He missed. The gallery groaned. Another Masters heartbreak? Was this all too much to fight in one day? Did he have one more, two more, three more holes?  But Rory didn’t show frustration or melt down. He reset and walked back to the tee box for the playoff with Rose. For years, Rory has taken losses on the chin. No excuses. No drama. Just class. Grace matters. Your mindset matters. Clients see that in sales. They notice how you act when the deal doesn’t go y...

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• Don’t Blow It All: A Personal Finance Wake-Up Call for Sales Pros

  You crushed your quota. Commission check hits the account.  Your first instinct? Celebrate! You earned it, right? Not quite. You’ve earned a reward, sure. But if every check disappears faster than a cold call prospect can hang up the phone, then you’re just renting a lifestyle. Here’s the truth: Top sales pros don’t just sell like professionals—they manage their money like professionals. They know the high of a commission check can’t replace long-term financial freedom. I’ve got the financial low-down. 1. Don’t Spend It All in One Place—Or All at Once When a big check hits, it’s tempting to splurge. New watch. Fancy dinner. Extra drinks on you. But here’s the catch: commission highs come and go. Quarters fluctuate. Markets shift. Now more than ever, you can’t treat every paycheck like a lottery win. Try this instead: Split your check. A solid money rule: 50% to lifestyle, 30% to savings/investments, 20% to debt. Set auto-transfers. Remove temptation. Have a percentage automatically move to savings or investments the minute you get paid. Living below your means is how you avoid feeling broke—even during dry spells. 2. Build the "Oh Crap" Fund Sales is high-risk, high-reward. One quarter, you're crushing it, the next you're staring down a dry pipeline and a mortgage payment. Enter your emergency fund. This isn’t optional—it’s survival. Ideally, you want 3–6 months of living expenses saved in a separate account, untouched unless it’s a true money emergency. Having this cushion keeps you from making desperate decisions when things get tight—and keeps your mind clear to prospect fanatically. 3. Debt Doesn’t Care About Your Commission Credit cards. Car payments. Student loans. Debt is a silent killer of long-term wealth. And the more you make, the more it sneaks in. Why? Because it’s easy to think, “I’ll just pay it off with my next check.” Then the check comes. And goes. Start taking control: List your debts. Highest interest first. Choose a strategy. Snowball (smallest balance first) or Avalanche (highest interest first). Stick to it. Automate payments. No missed due dates. No excuses. Pay with cash. And stick to it. If you can’t afford to pay for it all now. You can’t afford it, period. Freedom means having money that belongs to you—not a credit card company. 4. Your Future Self is Counting on You It’s easy to feel invincible when you’re 25, 30, 35—closing deals, stacking checks. But time moves fast. And if you don’t start investing for the long haul, future-you will be making cold calls at 70. Start with your 401(k) if your company offers one—especially if there’s a match (that’s free money). If not, look into IRAs or Roth IRAs. Even small monthly contributions grow massively over time thanks to compounding interest. The earlier you start, the easier it is. The later you start, the harder it gets. 5. Plan, Don’t Wing It You wouldn’t wing a sales call with a high-value prospect, right? The same goes for your finances. You need a plan. Set financial goals. Pay off $10K in debt. Save $20K this year. Max out your Roth IRA. Track your spending. Use an app or spreadsheet. Know where every dollar goes. Meet with a financial advisor. Let a pro help map the path. Sales success without financial structure is just noise. You work too hard to have nothing to show for it in the end. 6. Discipline is Freedom This isn’t about deprivation. It’s about choice. When your money’s right, you can: Stop chasing bad deals. Invest in coaching, property, or your own business. Sleep well, knowing you're not one missed quota away from panic. The people who look rich often aren’t. The people who stay rich? They play the long game. Protect the Bank Account You already know how to grind. You already know how to win. Now it’s time to build a life where that effort creates lasting freedom—not just fleeting dopamine hits.

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• How to Use “Pull Through” to Sell More Through Distributors and Channel Partners (Ask Jeb)

  Ross from Houston faces a common challenge in channel sales: how do you create brand preference for your product when you’re selling through distributors who carry multiple competing lines and competitors who undercut your price? His company builds industrial dust-collection equipment and ducting, but they don’t sell direct—meaning they rely heavily on distributors, contractors, and engineers to choose their brand over cheaper alternatives. Below, you’ll find key insights on how to drive more “pull-through” sales to your channel partners and convince every stakeholder—from designers to installers—to pick your product. Why Pull-Through in Channel Sales Matters When you sell through distribution, you lose a lot of direct control. Your product is on the shelf (literally or figuratively) alongside competitors, and the distributor or contractor can often steer buyers toward any brand they choose. Pull-through happens when the end user, contractor, or engineer specifically requests your brand—making your distributor the middleman who fulfills the preference you created. Educate & Collaborate With Specifiers Ross’ sales team already does lunch-and-learn sessions with engineering firms. Those engineers create the specs that contractors must follow, so if your product is “baked in” early, that’s a massive advantage later when the contractor goes shopping. But the real test comes when the contractor or installer sees a cheaper alternative on the distributor’s line card. Key Steps: Educate engineers on the deeper value and functionality of your product, so they’ll insist on it in their specs. Collaborate with contractors. Even if they’re not the final decision-maker, they can heavily influence whether your premium line or a cheaper knockoff is chosen. Brand Preference vs. Price Objections The toughest hurdle for a premium brand is the classic price objection. If the competitor’s line undercuts you, how do you prove your extra value? Unearth the Real Cost of Going Cheap. Show specifiers and end users the Total Cost of Ownership—that cheaper or less-robust solutions can lead to higher maintenance, safety issues, or inefficiencies down the line. Highlight Success Stories. Gather testimonials or case studies from buyers who saved time, boosted reliability, or lowered total cost of ownership by choosing your brand. Create Tools and Guides. Develop clear documentation or ROI calculators that help buyers see beyond sticker price—especially useful if the distributor’s rep isn’t fully equipped to present your value. Dealing with the Distributor as a Gatekeeper You can do all the contractor or engineer training you want, but if the distributor’s inside salesperson steers a buyer to a cheaper product, you still lose. That’s why building the distributor relationship is non-negotiable. Action Items: Train the Distributor’s Sales Reps. Show them exactly how to pitch your brand’s advantages, from installation ease to long-term reliability. Reward Them for Advocacy. If possible, offer spiffs or incentives when they successfully sell your line. In some cases, highlight how your product can reduce their support headaches and returns, making their life easier. Co-Sell on Big Deals. Bring major opportunities to the distributor, or volunteer to go on key calls together. When you help them close deals, they become more loyal to you. Get Proactive and Strategic One pitfall in channel sales is that your rep can become just a “help desk” for the distributor—always fixing problems instead of actively driving new deals. But a proactive approach can turn that support into a competitive edge: Offer On-Site or Virtual Coaching. Whenever the distributor or contractor hits a snag, your rep steps in, demonstrating expertise. This builds trust and brand loyalty. Balance Support with Hunting. While your reps should help,

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