Episodes

  • The 4-Step Lead-Generating Podcast Strategy Sales Pros Swear By

    The 4-Step Lead-Generating Podcast Strategy Sales Pros Swear By
    Sep 4 2025
    While your competitors are stuck in voicemail purgatory, a small group of top performers has unlocked a secret pipeline of qualified sales leads. They've discovered how to stop chasing and start attracting, all by generating warm leads through podcast interviews. Not by starting their own shows, but by treating every podcast appearance as a lead generation machine built on conversation and credibility. As Molly Ruland, CEO of Heartcast Media, puts it, "You don't need a hundred new clients tomorrow. Two people who really like you and understand your business talking about you in rooms you're not in can change your pipeline." This mindset shift transforms how you approach every conversation so that it compounds into trust, referrals, and revenue. The Real Problem with Your Pipeline You’re sending out hundreds of emails, making dozens of cold calls, and hoping something sticks. It’s exhausting—and it rarely produces the kind of relationships that lead to real opportunities. Your prospects don't want to be sold to. They're sick of transactional relationships. They want genuine conversations and solutions from people they trust. This is where most salespeople fail to find a qualified sales lead. They're focused on the sale, not the connection. So what’s the alternative? It’s learning to treat every podcast appearance as more than just an interview. Done right, podcasts become a warm stage where you can demonstrate expertise, build credibility, and start relationships that turn into pipeline. To make this work, you need a simple, repeatable system—a four-step process that transforms a single podcast conversation into a flow of qualified leads. Step 1: Finding the Right Stage The process is about being smart, not getting famous. You don’t need to get on the biggest podcast in the world. You need to get on the right podcast. The right podcast is where your ideal customer profile (ICP) is already gathered, listening, and learning. A show with 50 listeners who are all in your target market is a thousand times more valuable than a show with 50,000 listeners who will never buy from you. How do you find the right podcasts? Ask your best clients what they listen to. Research key influencers in your space. Look for shows that specifically address the problems you solve. Your goal is simple: Find and get on shows hosted by industry connectors, aggregators, and experts who have already earned the trust of your prospects. This allows you to skip the cold outreach and get a warm introduction to your next qualified sales lead. Step 2: The Introduction That Doesn’t Sound Like a Pitch Once you’ve identified your target shows, the next step is getting invited. This is a crucial moment. A generic email won’t cut it. You have to craft a message that offers value, not asks for a favor. Your outreach needs to be personalized and direct. Don’t talk about how great you are. Talk about the host’s audience. Explain why your expertise, insights, or unique perspective will provide undeniable value to their listeners. Reference a specific episode or a past guest to prove you’ve done your homework. And don’t limit yourself to email. LinkedIn is one of the most effective platforms for securing podcast invitations. Sending a thoughtful, personalized LinkedIn message—paired with a strong profile that showcases your expertise—positions you as a credible guest. When a host sees you consistently sharing relevant insights on LinkedIn, your ask feels natural instead of opportunistic. When you offer to help them provide a great episode, you position yourself as a partner. You’re not begging for airtime. You’re offering a valuable conversation. This approach immediately sets you apart and begins the relationship-building process that is essential to finding a qualified sales lead. Step 3: Mastering the Conversation The interview itself is not a sales call. Your goal is to be a helpful,
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    32 mins
  • How to Overcome Sales Burnout and Stop Crashing During Long Days (Ask Jeb)

    How to Overcome Sales Burnout and Stop Crashing During Long Days (Ask Jeb)
    Sep 2 2025
    Day in the life of a rep heading toward sales burnout: You wake up ready to crush your sales goals, skip breakfast to get an early jump on calls, grab fast food between appointments, and by 2 PM you're mentally checked out, struggling to focus on that critical prospect meeting. That's the reality facing Angela Mendez from Austin and Marcus Taylor from Denver. Angela's crashing every afternoon when she skips meals or eats on the go. Marcus is burning out fast juggling a packed pipeline and back-to-back Zoom meetings. If you're nodding your head right now, this article is your wake-up call. Because the energy crisis and burnout epidemic in sales isn't just about being tired—it's costing you deals, destroying your performance, and stealing your edge when you need it most. Why Sales Reps Experience Afternoon Energy Crashes and How to Fix Them Let's start with the brutal truth about energy management: Your brain is an engine, and like any engine, it needs the right fuel to perform. When you skip meals or grab whatever's convenient, you're essentially putting sugar water in a Ferrari and wondering why it's sputtering. Here's what happens when you don't fuel properly: Your blood sugar crashes, your focus evaporates, and your personality literally changes. You become irritable, indecisive, and ineffective—exactly when you need to be sharp, confident, and persuasive. The solution isn't complicated, but it requires preparation and discipline. Start with breakfast—period. This isn't negotiable. You need something that gives you a slow burn: oatmeal with fruit, protein like eggs, something that keeps you steady until lunch. If you don't eat protein in the morning, you'll be hungry by 10 AM and making poor food choices. Pack your day the night before. Get a cooler. Fill it with real food: apples and almond butter, walnuts, dried fruits without added sugar, vegetables and hummus. Keep fresh fruit and vegetable juices without added sugar in small bottles. This isn't about being a health fanatic—it's about maintaining peak performance when deals are on the line. Here's the game-changer: Don't wait for fatigue or extreme hunger. Stay ahead of it. The moment you feel your energy dipping, that's too late. You should be fueling consistently throughout the day, not rescuing yourself from a crash. And here's a pro tip that might sound simple but works: carry apples everywhere. When you start getting hungry and your personality begins to shift, an apple gives you just enough sugar and energy without the crash that comes from processed snacks. It's your emergency reset button. How Back-to-Back Meetings Create Sales Burnout and What to Do Instead Now let's talk about Marcus's burnout problem, because this one hits close to home for every salesperson drowning in Zoom fatigue and calendar chaos. Here's the hard truth: Being on camera wears you out way faster than face-to-face meetings. If you're scheduling yourself back-to-back-to-back without recovery time, you're your own worst enemy. There's no formula that's going to solve the problem of walking from one meeting directly into the next meeting into the next meeting. Your brain can't handle it, and your performance will suffer. Take control of your calendar. I know this sounds obvious, but how much of your scheduling nightmare did you do to yourself? How often do you say yes when you should say no? How many meetings do you accept because of FOMO—fear of missing out—when the meeting is actually superfluous? Audit your last 30 days of meetings. Really look at them. How many could you have declined? How many were necessary for moving deals forward versus just making you feel busy and important? Here's what's really happening: You're filling your calendar to prove your value and demonstrate how busy you are. But a packed calendar isn't a badge of honor—it's a recipe for burnout and poor performance. It takes confidence and self-ownership to say,
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    9 mins
  • 5 Sales Leadership Skills You Can’t Fake

    5 Sales Leadership Skills You Can’t Fake
    Aug 29 2025
    Leadership is the single most important factor in a sales team’s success. You can have talented reps, strong products, and a solid sales process, but without effective leadership, performance stalls. As Duff Tucker, Sales Trainer, puts it on this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast: "You have to model the behaviors that you want your team to live out. When you model those, you get a lot of credibility. You have respect. You have influence.” In today's hyper-competitive sales environment, your team has choices. Top performers can work anywhere. Average reps will coast if you let them. But the teams that consistently crush quotas, retain top talent, and create cultures where everyone wants to win all have one thing in common: a leader who has mastered the fundamental skills that turn potential into performance. Here are five leadership skills every sales manager must master to drive their team to the next level. 1. Clear Communication: No Confusion, No Excuses Sales teams don’t fail because of a lack of talent—they fail because of unclear expectations. Leadership starts with communication. If your reps don’t know exactly what you expect, how you measure success, or where they’re falling short, you’re setting them up to miss the mark. Clarity means: Defining priorities: What activities matter most (calls, meetings, proposals) and why. Eliminating ambiguity: No mixed signals, no “read between the lines.” Giving feedback in real time: Don’t wait for quarterly reviews to correct course. Practical tip: After every meeting, send a short recap of agreed actions and timelines. It reinforces expectations and removes excuses. Vague leadership creates vague results. 2. Goal Setting & Vision: Building Direction, Not Just Numbers A sales leader isn’t just a scoreboard watcher. Your job is to give your team something bigger to aim at than just “hitting quota.” Without a clear vision, teams drift into reactive mode and lack initiative. People perform better when they’re chasing a clear, meaningful vision. Effective goal setting requires more than revenue targets. It’s about: Tying team goals to organizational strategy. Breaking big objectives into manageable activity benchmarks. Painting a picture of what winning looks like so reps can see themselves in it. Practical tip: Start every month by walking your team through why their goals matter and how success impacts the company, the customer, and their own careers. When reps buy into the vision, they push harder to achieve it. 3. Coaching: From Boss to Builder Micromanagers kill momentum. Coaches create it. Leadership in sales means shifting from telling people what to do to building people who can do it themselves. Great sales coaching involves: Observation: Ride-alongs, call reviews, pipeline inspections. Targeted feedback: Specific, actionable, focused on behaviors, not personality. Development mindset: Every interaction is a teaching moment. Practical tip: Block weekly one-on-one coaching sessions that focus on skills and pipeline health. Ask questions that uncover roadblocks instead of delivering lectures. Consistently coached reps outperform those left to figure it out alone. 4. Adaptability: Leading Through Change Markets shift, customers evolve, and strategies that worked yesterday won’t guarantee tomorrow’s success. The best leaders view challenges as opportunities. Adaptability looks like: Adjusting sales strategies with confidence. Staying ahead of industry trends, not reacting late. Modeling resilience when things don’t go according to plan. Practical tip: Hold monthly “market pulse” sessions where you and your team discuss shifts in buyer behavior, competitor activity, and emerging tools. This keeps your team agile and ready to move, rather than stuck waiting for direction. 5. Accountability & Recognition: The Performance Balance Leadership is about balance, not being a cheerleader or tyrant.
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    23 mins
  • 5 Ways to Stop Sales Territory Disputes From Destroying Your Team (Ask Jeb)

    5 Ways to Stop Sales Territory Disputes From Destroying Your Team (Ask Jeb)
    Aug 26 2025
    Here's a question about sales territory disputes that'll make your head spin: What do you do when overlapping territories and shared relationships turn your sales team into a collection of lone wolves fighting over who owns what? That's the exact predicament faced by Kayla Lujan, VP of Sales at Down to Earth Landscape and Irrigation, in Orlando, Florida. Her team manages defined territories, but their business model creates inevitable crossover with HOA managers who oversee multiple properties spanning across different reps' territories. As she put it: "I've really seen the team kind of lose focus on working as one or team selling and more of … a what's mine versus working together." If you're nodding your head right now, you're not alone. Territory disputes are one of the most destructive forces in sales organizations, and they're costing companies their collaborative culture and their best deals. The Psychology Behind Sales Territory Wars Salespeople are wired to win. And when territories overlap, that competitive drive turns inward, creating internal battles that hurt everyone. I learned this lesson the hard way when I was a VP of sales managing local and regional account executives. We had big regional accounts sitting in local territories, and the fighting was relentless. Local reps would work around the system, hide opportunities, and go through back doors to protect "their" accounts. The result? We lost major deals because the wrong person with insufficient skills was working them solo, or we'd win the business only to have explosive commission disputes after the fact. But here's what shocked me most: When we gave people the choice between money or credit on the ranking report, they fought harder over the credit than the commission. They'd forgo 100% money but wage war over who got recognition for closing the deal. That tells you everything you need to know about sales psychology. It's not just about money—it's about winning, recognition, and status. The Real Cost of Territorial Thinking Territory disputes create uncomfortable team meetings and destroy your sales effectiveness in three critical ways: Lost Deal Value: When the wrong rep works a deal alone because they're protecting their turf, you lose the collective expertise that could close bigger opportunities. Relationship Damage: Customers get confused when multiple reps approach them without coordination, making your organization look disorganized and unprofessional. Top Performer Exodus: Your best salespeople get frustrated with the politics and infighting, leading them to seek opportunities at companies with better team cultures. The companies that figure this out win big. The ones that don't hemorrhage talent and revenue to organizations that actually know how to build high-performing sales teams. The Solution: Strategic Commission Pools and Clear Ownership For Kayla's HOA challenge—and similar overlapping territory situations—here's the framework that actually works: Assign Relationship Ownership: The rep with the core relationship (the HOA headquarters contact) owns account retention and expansion. They're responsible for keeping that account long-term and get compensated accordingly. Create Local Opportunity Roles: Local reps in each territory focus on building relationships with on-site contacts—facility managers, groundskeepers, community center staff. They get compensated for new project acquisition and spot opportunities within their geographic area. Implement Commission Pools: Instead of fighting over who gets what percentage, create a commission pool for each major account. The pool gets divided based on roles and contributions, not territorial claims. Force Up-Front Agreements: Here's the crucial part: Make involved parties agree on commission splits before any work begins. Post-deal disputes are exponentially harder to resolve than pre-deal agreements. The Leadership Mindset Shift
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    19 mins
  • Stop Mistaking Sales Activity Motion For Pipeline Momentum

    Stop Mistaking Sales Activity Motion For Pipeline Momentum
    Aug 22 2025
    Sales activity is the lifeblood of your career. But for too many salespeople, it’s the very thing holding them back. You’re generating a ton of activity, your calendar is packed, your inbox is overflowing, and by the end of the day, you’re drained. But your numbers aren’t moving. You’re not gaining ground; you’re just driving in circles. As Ron Karr, author of Velocity Mindset, says, the difference between amateurs and top performers isn’t how fast they move, but whether they’re moving with a clear, defined direction. The problem isn’t laziness. It’s that you’re mistaking motion for momentum. And that’s why you feel stuck. The Problem: Sales Activity Without Purpose Most salespeople today are trapped in a cycle of sales activity that leads nowhere. Instead of pursuing long-term, meaningful outcomes, they chase short-term wins: a quick meeting booked, a proposal sent, a Request for Proposal (RFP) answered. But those wins don’t move the needle. They pull you onto a field controlled by competitors. You’re responding to bids, filling out forms, and competing on price. That’s not selling—it’s order-taking. And order-taking will keep you broke no matter how much activity you pile on. The Real Cost of “Busyness” Busyness isn’t just about wasted time. It’s about emotional avoidance. The reason you bury yourself in low-value sales activity is that it feels safe. These tasks create the illusion of productivity while shielding you from what you’re really afraid of: rejection. Instead of calling the prospect who’s gone cold, you refresh your CRM. Rather then reaching out to the big account you’ve been circling, you tidy your inbox. Instead of pushing into a tough conversation, you polish the proposal one more time. You’re not lazy. You’re working hard. But effort without purpose is like a car spinning its wheels in the mud. Lots of noise, lots of energy, but no forward motion. The Solution: High-Leverage Sales Activity Not all sales activity is created equal. Some actions produce a 10x return. Others are pure waste. Top performers know the difference—and ruthlessly prioritize the former. Here are three high-leverage sales activities that separate pros from amateurs: Proactive Prospecting Your sales pipeline is the fuel tank for your career. If it’s empty, you’re not going anywhere. Prospecting isn’t a side task you do when you have extra time. It is the job. That means making outbound calls, sending personalized emails, and using LinkedIn to connect with people who aren’t already in your orbit. Stop waiting for the phone to ring. Go make it ring. Meaningful Conversations Once you get a prospect’s attention, the goal isn’t to rattle off product features. It’s to have a value-driven conversation. That means asking discovery questions that uncover their goals, their pain points, and their motivations. It means showing up as an expert and positioning yourself as a trusted advisor, not another vendor. When you consistently create conversations that center around the customer’s needs, you become indispensable. Prospects should feel like they’d be foolish not to work with you. The Power of “No” Not every opportunity deserves your time. Amateurs say yes to every opportunity and demo request. Top performers say no. Qualify hard; disqualify fast. The hours you spend chasing a dead deal are hours you could invest in finding a stronger one. Being busy with the wrong opportunities makes you broke. Saying no to the wrong leads frees you up to say yes to the right ones. Your Action Plan To Go From “Just Busy” To Productive Breaking the cycle of wasted sales activity requires intention and discipline. Here’s how to start: Step 1: The Activity Audit For one week, track everything you do—calls, emails, meetings, busywork. At the end of the week, review your log and ask: Which of these activities directly moved a deal forward or created new pipeline? Most of what you thought was productive won’t make the cu...
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    40 mins
  • Why Cultural Intelligence Beats Language Skills in International Sales (Ask Jeb)

    Why Cultural Intelligence Beats Language Skills in International Sales (Ask Jeb)
    Aug 20 2025
    Here's a question that'll flip your understanding of cultural intelligence in sales upside down: How do you win over a room full of skeptical Spanish teenagers when you're the obvious American outsider who barely speaks their language? That's exactly what Spencer Birmingham from Arkansas faced when he called into Ask Jeb. Fresh out of college with a marketing degree and an internship at International Paper under his belt, Spencer was heading to Spain for eight months as a language teaching assistant. His challenge? Figure out how to connect with Spanish students and "sell" them on American culture and the English language. What started as a simple question about gaining cultural perspective turned into a must-listen discussion of the universal principles of influence—principles that work whether you're closing deals in boardrooms or winning over teenagers in Spanish classrooms. The Universal Language of Human Connection Spencer had already absorbed one of the key lessons from Sales EQ—the brown paper bag of bread story about understanding what matters to your prospect. But he was struggling to see how those principles would translate across cultural and language barriers. Here's the breakthrough: The five core decisions people make before they buy into you—Do I like you? Do you listen to me? Do you make me feel important? Do you get me? Do I trust and believe you?—are universal. They transcend language, culture, and geography. Whether you're selling software to executives in Atlanta or teaching English to teenagers in Madrid, every human being makes these same emotional decisions before they'll open their hearts and minds to your message. The Listening Advantage That Trumps Language Barriers Most teachers (and salespeople) make the same fatal mistake: They walk in talking. They assume their job is to deliver information, share knowledge, and demonstrate expertise. Wrong approach. The secret weapon that works in every culture? Start by listening. Instead of walking into that Spanish classroom and immediately launching into English lessons, what if Spencer started by asking questions: "Tell me something about yourself that not many people know. What are your biggest challenges with English? Why do you want to learn this language?" This approach leverages what we know about human psychology in complex sales: When you listen first, you accomplish three critical things simultaneously. First, you demonstrate likability through genuine interest. Second, you prove you're actually listening—the foundation of all trust. Third, you make people feel important, which is the most insatiable human need. Speaking Their Language (Even When You Don't) Here's where it gets fascinating. Spencer worried about the language barrier, but that's actually his biggest opportunity. The language that matters most isn't Spanish or English—it's the language of being a teenager in Spain. It's the language of their challenges, their dreams, their world. When Spencer takes what they share about themselves and incorporates it into his lessons, suddenly he's not the outsider trying to force American culture on them. He becomes the person who gets them. "Remember when you told me about your soccer tournament? Let's practice describing that experience in English." Suddenly, English isn't a foreign concept—it's a tool for expressing what matters to them. This mirrors exactly what happens in complex sales. The most successful salespeople don't speak the language of their product features—they speak the language of their prospect's business challenges, industry pressures, and personal goals. The Power of Making People Feel Heard There's a reason why building trust through active listening is foundational to every sales methodology: It's the fastest way to move from outsider to trusted advisor. Spanish teenagers, like buyers everywhere, are drowning in noise. Everyone's talking at them—parents, teachers, social media.
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    21 mins
  • 3 Account Expansion Habits of Top-Performing Account Managers

    3 Account Expansion Habits of Top-Performing Account Managers
    Aug 14 2025
    In today's economy, being the account manager who keeps clients happy and renewals steady simply isn’t enough. Every budget line item is under the microscope. Customers want proof of ROI, so you have to show measurable value while driving growth. Reva Pellerin, the #1 enterprise account manager at Vidyard, puts it bluntly: "If you simply renew your book of business at 100%, that's not your target. Your target is to grow the customer base." The best account managers aren't just order-takers. They're hunters—finding new opportunities, building pipeline, and actively selling within their own territory. They expand their influence before competitors slip in. So, how do you trade in your passive approach for a hunter's mindset? The Three-Step Hunter’s Playbook for Account Managers Top account managers share one thing in common: they work their accounts daily. They’re intentional, consistent, and always looking for ways to help clients solve new problems. Here are three steps on how to adopt the same approach. 1. Prospect Your Own Accounts Prospecting isn't just for new business reps—your current accounts are the richest hunting grounds you have. You already have access and credibility; now you need to leverage them. Even a 30-minute weekly block can uncover new revenue. Map the organization: Use tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator to map the client's company beyond your primary contacts. Look for new hires, promotions, or departures. A new executive often means new initiatives and budgets, creating a prime opening for you. Set alerts so you’re the first to know. Search for adjacent pain points: Don't just focus on the problems your solution already solves. Talk to your contact and ask them about what other departments are struggling with. A simple question like, "I'm curious, what's the biggest challenge the operations team is facing this quarter?" can lead to an introduction to a new buyer and a new opportunity. Send targeted outreach: When you identify a new potential buyer, don't cold call them. Send a personalized email referencing your existing relationship with their colleague and the value you're already providing. For example: "Hi [New Contact Name], your colleague [Existing Contact Name] and I have been working together to help their team achieve [Specific Result]. I wanted to see if the challenges you're facing in [Their Department] are similar, as we might be able to help." 2. Master the Expansion Sale Expansion sales aren’t about pushing more products—they’re about solving more of your customers’ problems. The best account managers think like consultants: they uncover needs, tailor solutions, and connect them to strategic objectives. Ask penetrating questions: Instead of asking, "Do you need more licenses?" try asking questions that reveal a need. For example: "I know you're focused on improving efficiency. Where are your biggest bottlenecks, and what’s the cost of those bottlenecks?" “What’s the next big initiative you’re planning?” “What are you under the most pressure to deliver this quarter?” Link to measurable outcomes. If your solution saves time, estimate the cost savings. If it improves output, quantify the gain. Position the expansion as risk reduction. Many leaders will spend to avoid failure before they’ll spend to chase success. Show how the additional product or service reduces operational risk, customer churn, or missed revenue. Collaborate with your champions. Work with your existing advocates inside the account to co-create the expansion pitch. They know how decisions get made internally, and they can help you frame the opportunity in language that resonates with leadership. 3. Leverage Your Success for Referrals Referrals are one of the most underused growth levers in account management. The key is asking at the right time—after you’ve delivered a clear, measurable win. Earn the right first. Advocacy follows impact.
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    35 mins
  • Overcoming Call Reluctance: How to Stop the Mental Block of Interrupting Prospects (Ask Jeb)

    Overcoming Call Reluctance: How to Stop the Mental Block of Interrupting Prospects (Ask Jeb)
    Aug 12 2025
    Overcoming call reluctance starts with understanding why even seasoned sales pros freeze up when it's time to pick up the phone. They're paralyzed by one simple fear: interrupting a prospect's day. That's exactly what Kirk Roberts from Richmond, Virginia, brought to the table. Kirk's problem wasn't about not knowing what to say or how to pitch—it was the mental block around the very idea of interruption. He hated being interrupted by low-quality sales calls himself. And even though 99% of the time prospects were receptive to his message, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being pushy just by dialing the phone. Kirk's got the skills. He knows what to say. His prospects love him once they're talking. But every time he reaches for the phone, his stomach knots up. Sound familiar? If you've ever stared at your phone, finger hovering over the dial button, worried about being "that pushy salesperson," you're not alone. The Projection Trap: Why Your Empathy Is Working Against You Kirk's challenge is rooted in something I call projection—deciding for your customer how they'll feel before you've even spoken to them. If you have a high level of empathy (and many great salespeople do), you naturally put yourself in the other person's shoes. You think: "I wouldn't want to be interrupted, so they won't either." Here's the brutal truth: That empathy is killing your pipeline. Because you don't actually know if your call will be an annoyance or the best thing to happen to them today. I've bought plenty of products from salespeople who "interrupted" me, because their timing and message were right. That wouldn't have happened if they'd let their fear of bothering me keep them from picking up the phone. The One Thing That Makes Interruption Welcome Nobody likes to be interrupted. But if you are going to interrupt, make it worth their time. Think about it: Would you rather get a cold call from someone who clearly knows nothing about you, or from someone who's done their homework and has a relevant, valuable reason for reaching out? There are two ways to make your outreach relevant: 1. Personalized Messaging for High-Value Prospects Do your research on the specific individual. Learn about their company, role, and current challenges. Use that to craft a tailored message that connects your solution directly to their world. This is essential for high-value, niche, or executive-level prospects. 2. Targeted Messaging for Scaled Outreach Build messaging that resonates with a clearly defined group—people who share the same role, industry, geography, or problem set. It's not as specific as personalized outreach, but it's still relevant to most people in your target list. Test it. If your calls fall flat, adjust the message until it clicks. Stop Confusing Prep Work with Prospecting Here's where most salespeople sabotage themselves: They spend their "prospecting time" researching LinkedIn profiles and crafting the perfect email instead of actually dialing. Let me be clear: Research is not prospecting. Building messaging is not prospecting. Prospecting is picking up the phone and interrupting people. Everything else is prep work. Block separate time for building your targeted or personalized messaging. Then protect your prospecting time like your mortgage payment depends on it—because it does. From Pushy to Helpful: Reframing Interruption Kirk's empathy makes him a sales rockstar once he's in conversation. But he was letting his concern for prospects' feelings rob them of the chance to work with him. That's not empathy—that's selfish. The shift is simple but not easy: You're not interrupting to take from them, you're interrupting to help them. You've earned the right to interrupt because you've done the work to make your outreach relevant. Missing a chance to help them because you didn't call? That's the real loss. 5-Step Action Plan to Crush Call Reluctance If you're struggling like Kirk,
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    18 mins