Sales Gravy: Jeb Blount

If you've only sold sexy products with cool demos and unique features, you're probably missing the fundamentals that separate good salespeople from great ones.

Marcus Chan, CEO of Venli Consulting and recent guest on the Sales Gravy podcast, learned to sell in the trenches of commoditized selling: uniforms, facility services, telecom. Industries where you're locked in multi-year contract cycles, competing against five other vendors who offer the exact same thing, and selling at two to three times the market price.

"In order to get really, really good at selling in the commoditized market, where price seems to be the only factor... you have to learn how to get really good at the sales process," Chan explains. "You have to be able to take someone who has what I call a latent pain—pain they don't realize—get them to active and create urgency to move."

No flash. No sizzle. Just selling.

And that's exactly why it works.

The First-to-Market Delusion

Chan was talking with a client recently. They've closed $5 million in revenue in 12 months. Apple, Fortune 500 companies, massive wins. They're first to market in a brand new category. Zero competitors.

Their sales team is flying high.

"That's fantastic," he told them. "Now what's your plan for when competitors show up in three years?"

Silence.

Here's what happens: you get drunk on the product. You don't have to build real sales skills because the product does the heavy lifting. Then the market matures. Competitors launch. Your "unique" features become nothing new.

Most teams operate under the belief that they're different. They talk about their proprietary technology, their best-in-class service, and their innovative approach. Meanwhile, buyers are looking at five vendors saying the exact same things.

This isn't just true for uniforms and telecom. It's true for SaaS, consulting, financial services. Any market that's been around longer than 18 months gets commoditized fast.

The question isn't whether you're in a commoditized market. The question is whether you know how to sell when you are.

What Commoditized Selling Actually Teaches You

When Chan was selling uniforms at three times the competitor's price to buyers locked into five-year contracts with other vendors, he had nothing to lean on except process.

He couldn't say, "Look at this cool new feature." The uniforms were uniforms. Same fabric. Same colors. Same everything.

He had to learn three skills most salespeople never develop:

Moving buyers from latent pain to active pain. Most buyers don't think they have a problem. They're comfortable. They're "fine" with their current vendor. Your job is to help them realize what they're losing by staying put, and make it real enough that they care.

Creating urgency when the status quo is locked in. When a buyer is in year three of a five-year contract, there's zero natural urgency. You have to create it. You have to make the pain of waiting worse than the pain of switching.

Navigating complex, multi-stakeholder sales cycles without a product demo to fall back on. You need the operations manager, the finance team, and the C-suite to all agree that switching vendors is worth the headache. And you need to do it without any bells and whistles to distract them from the hard questions.

The Hidden Advantage Nobody Talks About

Mastering commoditized selling makes everything else easier.

Learn to sell uniforms at a premium price, and differentiated products become simple. The hard skills transfer—objection handling, stakeholder navigation, urgency creation.

But the real value is that your process becomes your product.

In commoditized markets, you compete on how you sell. Your discovery process. Your ability to diagnose the real problem. Your consultative approach. The way you make the buyer feel heard and understood.

That's what buyers remember and what separates you from the five other vendors in their inbox.

Stop Hiding Behind Your Product

Chan sees it all the time with sales teams from "sexy" industries. They lead with features because they can. They lean on their demo because it works. They let the product do the selling.

Until it doesn't.

Because eventually, every market commoditizes. Your competitor launches the same feature. Buyers stop caring about your "innovative solution" and start asking about price.

The salespeople who win in commoditized markets win because of process, not product. They've mastered diagnosis, urgency, and navigating complexity when there's nothing shiny to distract the buyer.

A Commoditized Market Is the Best Sales Training Ground

If you're selling in a commoditized market right now, congratulations. You're getting an education most salespeople never get—how to compete when you're "just another vendor," how to create value when the product doesn't, how to win on process instead of features.

Sell commodities at premium prices to buyers locked into competitor contracts, and you can sell anything. Master the fundamentals where there are no shortcuts, and those fundamentals become automatic.

Move to a market with actual differentiation, and you don't just have a good product—you have a good product and the skills to sell it.

Winning in Commoditized Selling

The best training ground for sales isn't the hottest SaaS company or the coolest startup. It's the "boring," commoditized industries where the product doesn't do the work for you. Where you have to diagnose the problem, create urgency, and navigate complexity without flash to hide behind.

The skills you build when nothing else can save you? Those are the skills that make you unstoppable everywhere else.

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If you want to sharpen the fundamentals that win in any market, start with prospecting. Download the free Seven Steps Prospecting Sequence Guide and build a process that creates urgency and fills your pipeline on purpose.

Here's a question that'll make every salesperson's blood pressure spike: What do you do when your cold call gets an objection in the first five seconds because prospects immediately stereotype you as something you're not?

That's the challenge facing Rick VanNess from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Rick co-founded a company that helps healthcare providers collect on older insurance claims (the ones sitting out 45-90 days that billing departments struggle to get paid). His team augments existing billing operations rather than replacing them.

But here's the problem: The second Rick mentions what he does, billing directors immediately think "outsourcing" and shut down the conversation. They've either had bad experiences with outsourcing or they're terrified of losing their jobs to a vendor that promises to do it all.

If you've ever been stereotyped, dismissed, or written off before you could even explain what you actually do, you know exactly how frustrating this is. And it's costing you deals.

The Fatal Mistake: Arguing Instead of Agreeing

When a prospect says "We already have billing" or "We don't outsource," most salespeople instinctively go into argument mode. They try to explain how they're different, how they're not really outsourcing, how their service is special.

This is exactly the wrong move.

Here's the brutal truth: When you argue with a prospect's reflexive response, you're fighting against their primary concern. For a billing director, that concern isn't whether you can help them. It's whether you're going to cost them their job.

Think about that for a second. You're calling someone whose entire world revolves around protecting their position, especially in an age where AI and automation are threatening white-collar jobs left and right. Their antenna is already up. They're listening for any reason to say no.

So when you argue with their objection, you're actually validating their fear. You're making them dig in deeper.

The Power of the Ledge-Disrupt-Ask Framework

Instead of arguing, try this: Agree with them.

When Rick hears "We already do billing" or "We don't outsource," here's what I told him to say:

"That's perfect, because none of my customers do outsourcing. They all have internal billing departments. What we do is complement what they're already doing by picking up the really hard things like collecting on insurance claims that have been sitting for 45 to 90 days and getting them paid faster."

Notice what's happening here? You're using the Ledge framework that top performers use to handle objections:

Ledge: A simple statement that settles your brain and lowers tension ("That's perfect...")

Disrupt: Pattern interrupt that reframes the conversation ("...because none of my customers do outsourcing")

Ask: Move toward a meeting ("Wouldn't it make sense for us to take a few minutes to see if this could help you?")

You're not fighting them. You're joining them on their side of the table, then pivoting to the real problem you solve.

Lead With the Problem, Not Your Solution

Here's another critical mistake Rick was making: He was leading with his pricing model ("no risk to you, you don't pay until we collect").

While this might sound like a great selling point to you, to a prospect it sounds like every other too-good-to-be-true pitch they've heard. It creates skepticism rather than interest.

Instead, focus obsessively on the problem you solve. For Rick's business, that's the money sitting in accounts receivable that billing departments are too busy to collect. According to industry data, many practices have millions sitting out there at 45+ days.

That's pure profit that's not in the business. That's real money being left on the table.

When you frame your prospecting messaging around the problem rather than your solution mechanics, you create curiosity and urgency. Save the pricing conversation for when you're actually negotiating an agreement.

The Multi-Level Prospecting Strategy

One of the most powerful insights from my conversation with Rick was this: Don't limit yourself to just one contact at the organization.

Rick was focusing solely on billing directors and managers because they'd at least give him 15 seconds. But there's a better approach.

Go bottom-up and top-down simultaneously:

Bottom-up: Call claims adjusters and billing clerks. They don't care what you're selling. But they'll tell you exactly what's broken in their organization. Ask questions like "How much money do you have sitting out there over 45 days that you're struggling to collect?" These narrators give you the stories and data points you need.

Top-down: Use that intelligence to reach the CFO. Now you're not pitching a service. You're providing insight about their business: "I spoke with your team and discovered you have $5 million in receivables sitting at 45+ days. Here's how we help organizations like yours collect 80% of that money 40% faster."

Middle-out: Armed with data from below and endorsement from above, the billing director conversation becomes completely different. You're not a threat. You're a resource.

This is straight from the Sales EQ playbook: Read the room, understand everyone's motivations, and position yourself as the person who makes everyone's life better, not worse.

Stand in Their Shoes

The breakthrough moment in any prospecting challenge comes when you stop thinking about your message from your perspective and start viewing the world through your prospect's lens.

When you call a billing director, their number one job is to protect their position. When you call a CFO, their primary concern is whether this conversation is worth their time. When you call someone lower in the organization, they're just trying to get through their day without more headaches.

Your job isn't to convince them you're different. Your job is to meet them where they are, validate their concerns, and then show them how what you do makes their specific situation better.

That's how you stop getting objections and start closing.

The Bottom Line

Stop fighting your prospects' reflexive objections. When they say "We already have that" or "We don't need outsourcing," the worst thing you can do is argue with them.

Instead, agree with them. Everyone you work with already has that. Then pivot to the gap you fill and the problem you solve.

Save your solution mechanics for later. Lead with problems, not pricing. And remember: The best salespeople aren't the ones who argue the hardest. They're the ones who listen the deepest and position themselves on the same side of the table as their prospects.

That's how you break through buyer resistance. That's how you build trust. And that's how you win deals others walk away from.

Want to master the art of breaking through buyer resistance? Join us at Outbound 2026 in Las Vegas this November, where we'll be diving deep into strategies for overcoming objections, building rapport, and closing more deals. Learn more and grab your ticket at salesgravy.com/live.

You're at a networking event and someone corners you. For the next ten minutes, they talk nonstop about their vacation, their dog, their new car. You're not having a conversation. You're trapped in their monologue. You're annoyed. You tune out. You start looking for the exit.
That's exactly how your prospects feel when you make yourself the star of the conversation.
What Is Sales Main Character Syndrome?
Sales main character syndrome is when you position yourself as the hero instead of your prospect. You see it everywhere:
On the phone: You launch into a five-minute pitch about your company history before asking a single question.
In email: You send giant blocks of text about features without mentioning their actual problems.
On LinkedIn: Your connect request immediately hits them with "Here's my product, here's my calendar link, let's meet."
No matter the channel, it all leads back to the same place: your product, your company, your agenda.
Prospects don't care about your product yet. They care about their problems, their goals, and what’s at stake in their world. When you make it all about you, you trigger resistance. Buyers feel sold to instead of collaborated with. And that leads to ghosting, objections, and stalled deals.
Nobody wants to sit through a feature dump. People need relevance. They want to feel heard and know you actually get them.
The Real Cost of Sales Main Character Syndrome
Sales main character syndrome has consequences that will wreck your quota.

Prospects disengage. When you focus on yourself and your product instead of the buyer and their needs, they tune out. Calls feel like lectures. Emails read like brochures. Messages get deleted without a response. Lose their attention, and you've lost your shot.
You miss the real opportunities. By making the interaction about yourself, you fail to ask the right questions. You don't hear what's actually going on in their world. You can't identify the true pain points, the real goals, or what's actually motivating them. So you pitch solutions that don't align with what they need. You waste discovery time chasing the wrong problems.
Destroy trust before it’s built. Your prospects stop seeing you as a helpful guide. Instead, you're just another salesperson pushing a product. Without trust, everything gets harder and long-term relationships become impossible.

The cost is too high. So how do you flip the script?
The Mindset Shift: From Hero to Trusted Guide
Your job is to be a trusted guide, not the hero. Think Yoda, not Luke Skywalker.
Your prospect is the hero of their own story. They're the ones facing the challenge, making the decision, and living with the outcome. 
When prospects feel like the main character, they engage more. They open up. They trust you. And trust moves deals forward.
Here's a simple three-step framework you can use in every conversation.
Step #1: Change Your "I" to "Why"
Stop starting conversations with:

"I want to show you..."
"I'd love to introduce..."
"I think you'll like..."

Your buyers don't care about your "I." They care about their “why.”
Why should this matter to them? Why is it relevant right now? Why does it solve a problem they're actually facing?
Lead with "why," and the focus shifts from your agenda to their reality. You'll stop sounding like a salesperson and start being seen as someone who understands their world.
Before: "I'd love to show you our new platform and walk you through all the features we've built."
After: “Companies in your industry are losing 20% of their pipeline to manual data entry errors. Here's how to fix that."
One is about you. The other is about them.
Step #2: Define What You Solve, Not What You Sell
Most salespeople can rattle off what they sell. A platform. A service. A software solution. That's not what your buyer cares about.
Buyers don't wake up thinking, "I need a new vendor today." They wake up thinking, "I need to fix this problem that's making my life harder."
When you define the problem you solve instead of the product you sell, you build immediate value. You position yourself as a partner in their success, not just another pitch in their inbox.
Product-focused: "We're a sales engagement platform with email sequencing, call tracking, and analytics."
Problem-focused: "We help sales teams stop losing deals to slow follow-up and inconsistent outreach."
Stop leading with what you sell and start leading with what you solve. Conversations convert faster when prospects see themselves in the problem you're addressing.
Step #3: Listen to Hear, Not to Respond
The biggest mistake in sales? Listening just long enough to jump in with your answer.
Most reps wait for their turn to talk. They're mentally preparing the pitch while the buyer is still speaking. It feels efficient. It's actually ineffective.
Listening to hear means shutting up long enough to understand. You catch the nuance. You pick up on the emotion. You uncover the hidden pain points that competitors miss because they're too busy pitching.
Slow down. Tune in. Let your buyer feel heard. That's when trust starts to build and when real opportunity opens up.
Your Challenge: Put It Into Practice This Week
The shift from sales main character syndrome to trusted guide isn't complicated. But it does require awareness and intention. You have to catch yourself when you're about to launch into your standard pitch. Pause and ask, "Am I making this about me or about them?"
Your prospect is the hero. Your job is to guide them to success. Make it about them. Lead with relevance. Listen deeply. Watch what happens when you get this right.
Because the most successful salespeople aren't trying to be impressive. They're trying to be useful.
Make your prospect the main character in every conversation. Do it consistently, and you won't have to chase attention. You'll earn it.
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Stop getting tuned out. Download the Free ACED Buyer Style Playbook and learn how to speak your buyer’s language.

Imagine that you’re so angry about a business deal gone wrong that you grab a chisel, find a slab of stone, and spend hours carving your complaint. That’s exactly what a Mesopotamian merchant did in 1750 and made sales history. 

The merchant was furious because he’d been promised high-grade copper, but the final product was subpar. That angry customer complaint is now sitting in the British Museum, 4,000 years later. The tablet reads: “What do you take me for? That you treat someone like me with such contempt?”

If you think dealing with issues in the sales process is a modern problem, you’re off by about four millennia.

Sales Hustle Is Ancient

We talk about sales like it’s a modern corporate invention. CRMs and automated sequences are new, but the art of the deal and dealing with angry customers? That’s been around since humans started trading.

The copper merchant in 1750 BCE wasn’t just selling copper. He was managing client expectations, handling logistics, and clearly failing at quality control. The core practices of B2B sales—promise, delivery, and relationship management—haven’t changed.

1600s: Sales Becomes a Profession

Fast forward to 1600, and you see the founding of the East India Trading Companies. They were some of the first corporations that allowed people to buy shares in a business.

One of the East India Trading Companies was owned by “the 17 gentlemen”—a group of wealthy investors who funded global trade expeditions. They kept spices like nutmeg, pepper, and cinnamon flowing across continents. The spices were so valuable that they were practically currency.

This was B2B sales at scale. Shareholders’ expected returns. Merchants negotiated deals across continents. The stakes were massive, and so were the profits.

This era established something critical to modern sellers: the separation between ownership and operation. The 17 gentlemen didn’t sail the ships or negotiate every spice deal. They hired people to do it. Sales stopped being a personal trade and became a repeatable profession with accountability structures built in.

1851: Visibility and Competition Arrive

The Great Exhibition in London in 1851 was the world’s first massive B2B trade show in sales history. Thousands of exhibitors. Hundreds of thousands of attendees. A giant glass building called the Crystal Palace.

Nearly 200 years later, sales pros still pack convention centers, set up booths, and fight to stand out in a sea of competitors.

This is where B2B sales became visible. You weren’t just competing against one or two local merchants anymore. You were standing next to dozens of alternatives, all promising similar value. Differentiation became mandatory.

Following up meant writing a letter and waiting weeks for a response. Today, if you’re not following up within 24 hours, you’re losing to competitors who are.

1957: Reach and Leverage Scale Up

The first inside sales team was formed at a company called Dial America in 1957. Before that, if you wanted to sell, you hit the road. Door-to-door, city-to-city, face-to-face. Every single deal required physical presence.

The telephone changed everything. Suddenly, salespeople could work virtually, reach more prospects, and close deals without leaving the office. One seller could now have 20 conversations in a day instead of three. The math of sales productivity fundamentally shifted.

Fast forward to today, and inside sales is the dominant model. The tools have evolved—Zoom calls, screen shares, digital demos—but the core principle remains: you don’t need to be in the same room to build trust and close deals.

From Stone Tablets to Instant Messages: Why Speed Matters Now

Think about the effort that the merchant put into carving his complaint into stone. He didn’t fire off a quick email. He didn’t leave a one-star Google review. He created a permanent record that would outlive both him and the seller by thousands of years.

Today, complaints are easy. Maybe too easy. A customer can blast you on LinkedIn, tank your review scores, or CC your entire executive team on an email thread—all before lunch. 

Every major shift in B2B sales increased speed. Trade shows multiplied visibility. Telephones let sellers reach 20 prospects a day instead of three. Email collapsed follow-up from weeks to hours. Social media made reputation instant and permanent.

In 1750 BCE, you had time to respond. Now, you have hours—maybe minutes. Each acceleration rewarded the sellers who could execute fast without sacrificing quality. The ones who couldn’t keep up disappeared.

Why This Timeline Matters More Than You Think

We’re in another massive shift in sales history. AI, automation, predictive analytics—the pace is relentless. It’s easy to think everything has changed. Zoom out 4,000 years, and the pattern emerges: speed accelerates, but the core practices stay the same.

So the next time you get a harsh email from a customer, remember that stone tablet. You don’t have to worry about your failure being displayed in a museum 4,000 years from now. But you do have to worry about your reputation spreading across the internet in hours.

The tools change, the pace accelerates, but the rule is simple: earn trust, deliver value, and handle problems before they handle you.

You just saw how history teaches that speed and execution have always mattered — and now AI is the biggest shift we’ve seen yet. If you want to turn the disruption into an advantage, download The FREE AI Edge Book Club Guide.

Imagine that you're so angry about a business deal gone wrong that you grab a chisel, find a slab of stone, and spend hours carving your complaint. That's exactly what a Mesopotamian merchant did in 1750 and made sales history. 

The merchant was furious because he'd been promised high-grade copper, but the final product was subpar. That angry customer complaint is now sitting in the British Museum, 4,000 years later. The tablet reads: "What do you take me for? That you treat someone like me with such contempt?"

If you think dealing with issues in the sales process is a modern problem, you're off by about four millennia.

Sales Hustle Is Ancient

We talk about sales like it's a modern corporate invention. CRMs and automated sequences are new, but the art of the deal and dealing with angry customers? That’s been around since humans started trading.

The copper merchant in 1750 BCE wasn't just selling copper. He was managing client expectations, handling logistics, and clearly failing at quality control. The core practices of B2B sales—promise, delivery, and relationship management—haven't changed.

1600s: Sales Becomes a Profession

Fast forward to 1600, and you see the founding of the East India Trading Companies. They were some of the first corporations that allowed people to buy shares in a business.

One of the East India Trading Companies was owned by "the 17 gentlemen"—a group of wealthy investors who funded global trade expeditions. They kept spices like nutmeg, pepper, and cinnamon flowing across continents. The spices were so valuable that they were practically currency.

This was B2B sales at scale. Shareholders' expected returns. Merchants negotiated deals across continents. The stakes were massive, and so were the profits.

This era established something critical to modern sellers: the separation between ownership and operation. The 17 gentlemen didn't sail the ships or negotiate every spice deal. They hired people to do it. Sales stopped being a personal trade and became a repeatable profession with accountability structures built in.

1851: Visibility and Competition Arrive

The Great Exhibition in London in 1851 was the world's first massive B2B trade show in sales history. Thousands of exhibitors. Hundreds of thousands of attendees. A giant glass building called the Crystal Palace.

Nearly 200 years later, sales pros still pack convention centers, set up booths, and fight to stand out in a sea of competitors.

This is where B2B sales became visible. You weren't just competing against one or two local merchants anymore. You were standing next to dozens of alternatives, all promising similar value. Differentiation became mandatory.

Following up meant writing a letter and waiting weeks for a response. Today, if you're not following up within 24 hours, you're losing to competitors who are.

1957: Reach and Leverage Scale Up

The first inside sales team was formed at a company called Dial America in 1957. Before that, if you wanted to sell, you hit the road. Door-to-door, city-to-city, face-to-face. Every single deal required physical presence.

The telephone changed everything. Suddenly, salespeople could work virtually, reach more prospects, and close deals without leaving the office. One seller could now have 20 conversations in a day instead of three. The math of sales productivity fundamentally shifted.

Fast forward to today, and inside sales is the dominant model. The tools have evolved—Zoom calls, screen shares, digital demos—but the core principle remains: you don't need to be in the same room to build trust and close deals.

From Stone Tablets to Instant Messages: Why Speed Matters Now

Think about the effort that the merchant put into carving his complaint into stone. He didn't fire off a quick email. He didn't leave a one-star Google review. He created a permanent record that would outlive both him and the seller by thousands of years.

Today, complaints are easy. Maybe too easy. A customer can blast you on LinkedIn, tank your review scores, or CC your entire executive team on an email thread—all before lunch. 

Every major shift in B2B sales increased speed. Trade shows multiplied visibility. Telephones let sellers reach 20 prospects a day instead of three. Email collapsed follow-up from weeks to hours. Social media made reputation instant and permanent.

In 1750 BCE, you had time to respond. Now, you have hours—maybe minutes. Each acceleration rewarded the sellers who could execute fast without sacrificing quality. The ones who couldn't keep up disappeared.

Why This Timeline Matters More Than You Think

We’re in another massive shift in sales history. AI, automation, predictive analytics—the pace is relentless. It’s easy to think everything has changed. Zoom out 4,000 years, and the pattern emerges: speed accelerates, but the core practices stay the same.

So the next time you get a harsh email from a customer, remember that stone tablet. You don’t have to worry about your failure being displayed in a museum 4,000 years from now. But you do have to worry about your reputation spreading across the internet in hours.

The tools change, the pace accelerates, but the rule is simple: earn trust, deliver value, and handle problems before they handle you.

You just saw how history teaches that speed and execution have always mattered — and now AI is the biggest shift we’ve seen yet. If you want to turn the disruption into an advantage, download The FREE AI Edge Book Club Guide.