Fanatical Prospecting: The Ultimate Guide to Opening Sales Conversations and Filling the Pipeline by Leveraging Social Selling, Telephone, Email, Text, and Cold Calling by Jeb Blount
Jeb Blount is a Sales Acceleration Specialist who helps sales organizations reach peak performance fast by optimizing talent, leveraging training to cultivate high-performance sales culture, developing leadership and coaching skills, and applying more effective organizational design.
Jeb has more than 25 years of experience with Fortune 500, SMBs and start-ups. Today Jeb serves as CEO of Sales Gravy, which has become a global leader in sales and customer service enablement solutions.
Jeb spends more than 200 days each year delivering keynote speeches and training programs to high-performing sales teams and leaders across the globe.
He is widely published on leadership, sales, account management, and customer service. He has been named one of the top 50 most influential sales and marketing leaders and he is the most downloaded sales podcaster in iTunes history; amongst many other accolades.
Jeb is also the bestselling author of six other books including “People Buy YOU: The Real Secret to What Matters Most in Business” and “People Follow YOU: The Real Secret to What Matters Most in Leadership.”
The Host’s Perspective:
It’s no secret that the way people buy has changed. Now, instead of going to a salesperson to get information, buyers prefer to do online research and use technology to avoid unwanted sales and marketing messages.
Modern buyers are like Ninjas – you don’t often see them until they’re ready to pounce and buy. Perhaps not surprisingly, in this modern era of informed Ninja buyers, along come loud, so-called sales “experts” who preach that prospecting— proactively pursuing prospects— no longer works. What’s particularly dangerous about this wrongheaded teaching is that it’s exactly what struggling salespeople want to hear. Why do the hard work to prospect and generate new sales opportunities when some “guru” lets you off the hook by telling you that it’s “old school” and “doesn’t work anymore”? Why block out time to pick up the phone if instead you can tweet, write blog posts, or play around on LinkedIn for hours?
Well, here’s the Blount truth – the number one reason for failure in sales is an empty pipeline and the root cause of an empty pipeline is the failure to consistently prospect.
In “Fanatical Prospecting,” Jeb Blount explains that by ignoring prospecting, many otherwise competent salespeople and sales organizations consistently underperform.
The book takes you through not only the best tools and tactics to use in proactively prospecting, but it also acknowledges that it’s a tough line of work, and that if rejection doesn’t bother you, you’re probably a psychopath.
I liken the notion of prospecting to losing weight. The good news is that all you have to do is eat less and exercise more. The bad news is you actually have to eat less and exercise more.
It’s the same with sales. You have to actively prospect. And if you are consistently prospecting, even just a few hours a week, you’ll be surprised at the results you can achieve. In “Fanatical Prospecting,” Jeb Blount shows you exactly what to do – and what not to do.
Listen to the Interview:
Show Notes:
“How to Win Friends & Influence People” by Dale Carnegie
“See You at the Top” by Zig Ziglar
“Stop Telling, Start Selling” by Linda Richardson
“Good to Great” by Jim Collins
“Audience” by Jeffrey K. Rohrs (Marketing Book Podcast interview)
“Five Minds for the Future” by Howard Gardner
“Subliminal” by Leonard Mlodinow
Book Website (FanaticalProspecting.com)
Jeb’s Website (JebBlount.com)
Jeb’s Twitter (@SalesGravy)
Jeb’s Instagram (@SalesGravy)
Jeb’s Facebook (facebook.com/SalesGravy)
Jeb’s Agency (SalesGravy.com)
Douglas Burdett and Jeb Blount at the first Outbound Conference, Atlanta, Georgia.
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