Heidi cohen interviews Jeb Blount
Q: What’s your best piece of advice for readers looking to improve their marketing?
Step into your prospective customer’s shoes and learn to speak their language. This is the key to connecting with them and pulling them in.
Q: What was the inspiration for your book?
The number one reason for failure in sales is an empty pipeline and the number one reason for an empty pipe is the failure of sales teams to prospect. This has created an epidemic in sales. Salespeople consistently miss quota and look to marketing to keep the leads flowing. However, marketing can only do so much. Salespeople must play their part and actively prospect for new opportunities.
Q: What is the key concept behind your book?
The book teaches salespeople to take a balanced approach to prospecting which leverages all of core prospecting channels: phone, email, social, in-person, text, networking, referrals, and proactive chat. I developed the concept of balanced prospecting by observing the habits of superstar sales professionals. These top performers use a combination of prospecting channels to consistently deliver superior results.
Q: What do you want readers to take away from your book?
They will gain the tools, techniques, and confidence to prospect effectively in the real world with real prospects.
Q: How do you describe yourself professionally?
I am a Sales Acceleration expert 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.
Q: What are 1-3 books that inspired your work?
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie – a book I read once a year – powerful lessons that have helped me build deep and lasting relationships with others.
Q: What is the biggest challenge that you’ve had to overcome in your life or career?
Leaving Corporate America and starting my own company – SalesGravy.com
Q: What’s something unusual or fun that most people don’t know about you?
I live in a pecan orchard with my wife, son, three horses, two dogs, and two of cats
Q: Is there a piece of content, a social media campaign or a marketing campaign that you worked on that you’re particularly proud of?
I’m really proud of FanaticalProspecting.com – it is a membership site that contains extended content that we were unable to include in the book. Since the launch of the book it has become an active micro-community that has opened the door to deeper relationships with our readers and corporate training programs.
Contact information
- Name: Jeb Blount
- Company: Sales Gravy
- Blog: http://www.JebBlount.com/
- Book(s): Fanatical Prospecting: The Ultimate Guide to Opening Sales Conversations and Filling the Pipeline by Leveraging Social Selling, Telephone, Email, Text, and Cold Calling
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/peoplebuyyou
- Twitter: @salesgravy
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jebblount
Happy Marketing,
Heidi Cohen
Heidi Cohen is the President of Riverside Marketing Strategies.You can find Heidi on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.
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