“Prospecting is the price that you have to pay in advance, in sales, for the income you receive.” - Jeb Blount 

• His dedication to sales as a profession and being a true pro.

• In 25 years he has made every sales mistake.

• Has had great success and great failure.

• His decision to leave corporate America and start his own company.

  • How tough it was.

  • The work it took.

  • Had to GRIND every day.

  • How he worked so hard he hurt physically.

  • How he got up at 2:00am to work on his business.

  • How his wife said that she believed in him, and knew he was doing the right thing, but would like to see some evidence. (The lovely Dizzy D says the same thing to me…)

  • It was intimidating and a blow to his ego to start over.

  • He was willing to take a step back to move forward.

  • The need to burn the ships. It leaves only one choice… to succeed!

  • It took him nearly six years to get his company on a very sturdy foundation.

• There is no secret to success. Just hard work! GRIND.

Fanatical Prospecting

• Why it has struck such a chord.

• There is a strong emotional connection with the readers.

• He wrote the book because he was pissed off at the charlatans who were telling salespeople they didn’t need to prospect.

• The tone and directness that someone would tell them the truth.

• “Prospecting is the price that you have to pay in advance, in sales, for the income you receive.” – Jeb Blount  (Tweet That)

• The fear of interrupting vs. cold calling.

• The greatest fear for people is rejection and how it is a biological problem, not a psychological problem.

• The people who say cold calling doesn’t work are the people that aren’t cold calling.

• Our job in sales is interrupting people and we need to do it a lot.

• The need to balance your prospecting across multiple channels.

• “All sales is, is bending win probability in your favor.”

Objections

• Why so little has been written about objections…..

• Why cheesy scripts don’t work.

• Why the advice, “Don’t take it personally” is dead wrong.

• “The awareness of why we do things is the mother of change.”

• Why buyers give you objections.

• We all have to face rejection and the fear that it creates. We can deal with it or run away.

• You can’t argue people into changing their mind. It brings out the inner brat in them.

• People are wired to pay attention to anomalies and ignore things that are the same.

• How objections create a physiological change in your body.

• The amygdala responds to real rejection and perceived rejection exactly the same.

• “In sales, it’s the person who exerts the greatest control over their emotions that has the highest probability of getting the outcome they desire.”

• What a ledge is and how it allows for the magic 1/4 second.

• Reflex responses help you gain control of your amygdala and engage your neocortex.

• Prospects are wired to argue with you. When you agree with them it totally shuts them down.

Micro-commitments

• Why we should get lots of small, low-risk micro-commitments.

• The investment effect – We tend to value that which we invest in.

• We want a yes or a no… Maybes kill you.

• Looking for how many micro-commitments can I ask for (within reason) to extend the sales process so that it isn’t too long but isn’t too short.

• You must get the next micro-commitment. If you walk out of any meeting with anybody and you don’t have a next step, you have failed.

• You have to get a next step and that next step has to be on their calendar and your calendar.

Buying Level Commitments

• Don’t introduce objections… That’s stupid.

• Being afraid to ask the hard questions because you might get an objection is just as stupid.

• Dealing with objections at the micro commitment level is much easier than at the buying commitment level.

• There are “impossible objections” that you will never get around.

• 80% of the sales process is creating an emotional connection and discovery.

• The difference between objections and negotiation.

Murder Boarding

• The process of killing your deals.

• Looking at every scenario that could kill the deal.

• The universal law of awareness of sales says, “You can’t be delusional and successful at the same time.” (Tweet that)

• Salespeople are often delusional about what is in their pipeline.

• The human confirmation bias.

• Going into a meeting thinking of every reason the prospect could say no to you and rehearsing your response. (So it loses it’s power over you.)

• The importance of Voluntary Benefits and why Jeb has a special place in his heart for Voluntary Benefits agents.