Sales Gravy: Jeb Blount

Why do even high-performing sales teams plateau or collapse under growth? In this episode, Jeb Blount sits down with Dayna Williams, author of The Diligence Fix, to explore how disciplined leadership, aligned teams, and a resilient sales culture keep revenue organizations from breaking under pressure. Learn the ten dimensions of organizational diligence and practical strategies to build a high-performing, scalable sales culture that drives results.
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Here’s a question that should stop you in your tracks: What do you do when you’re booking meetings but prospects keep ghosting you?

That was the challenge posed by Brittany, a sales rep watching her show rates crater quarter after quarter, on this week’s episode of Ask Jeb on The Sales Gravy Podcast featuring Will Frattini. Brittany was putting in the work, getting prospects to say yes on the phone, and then sitting alone on Zoom watching the clock tick. If you’ve been there, you know how demoralizing that is.

The first thing you need to understand is the math. The best show rate you can hope for on first-time appointments is about fifty percent. If you’re above that, keep riding it. But fifty percent is the benchmark. That means for every ten meetings you book, expect five no-shows. The fix isn’t magic. The fix is volume and process.

Stop Pushing People Into Meetings They Don’t Want

Before you even think about your confirmation sequence, go back and listen to your prospecting calls. Ask yourself honestly: did that prospect agree to meet because they were genuinely interested, or because you wore them down and they said yes to get off the phone?

If you’re so good at closing for the meeting that you’re talking people into it rather than compelling them, you’ve already lost. That’s not a show rate problem. That’s a buyer’s remorse problem. The prospect hangs up, questions their decision, and when Thursday rolls around they’ve convinced themselves they never really needed to meet in the first place. Strengthening your prospecting approach so that prospects are genuinely curious when they agree is the only real fix for that.

The Confirmation Process That Actually Works

Assuming you have a real reason to meet, the work doesn’t stop when they say yes. Here’s what actually stops prospects from ghosting.

Before you get off the phone, confirm the meeting out loud. Say it. “I’m looking forward to seeing you Thursday at two.” Get that verbal confirmation back. Then ask for their email address on the spot and send the calendar invite immediately. Do not wait. And when you title that invite, don’t put “Meeting with Will.” Put your name, your company, their name, their company, and what you’re meeting about. A prospect who sees a generic calendar placeholder will delete it without a second thought. A specific, descriptive invite looks like real business and that’s exactly the psychological signal you need to send.

The ten-and-two rule is worth using when you’re booking the meeting. Give two time options, not an open-ended “what works for you.” Something like: “I have Tuesday between ten and ten-thirty or Thursday around two. Does Thursday at two work?” Give a choice, take one away, let them pick. It creates agency and it creates commitment.

Stay Visible, Stay Relevant

Between the booking and the meeting, do not disappear. Send a short personalized video or email mid-week that reinforces why the meeting is worth their time. “I looked into your organization and I’m looking forward to learning more.” That’s it. No pitch. No agenda. Just warmth and presence. What you’re doing is building what I call the guilt asset. You’ve shown up. You’ve done the work. For most people, not showing up now would feel rude. You’ve made it harder for them to ghost you.

For high-stakes meetings, large accounts, or anything where you’re bringing additional executives, confirm directly. Call or email. The calculus changes when the cost of a no-show is high. But for a standard first-time appointment with a single stakeholder, skip the confirmation call because it hands them an easy exit. Instead, if you have their office number, call the night before after hours and leave a voicemail. Let them know you’re looking forward to it and you’ll see them tomorrow. Now they have to do the work to cancel, and most people simply won’t.

Keeping your pipeline full of qualified first-time appointments is the foundation. But turning booked meetings into actual conversations is where the money lives.

When They Still Don’t Show

You did everything right. They still ghosted. Now what?

Here’s the message: “Hey, I hope everything’s okay. I was on the meeting for about seven minutes. I’ve got time reserved Thursday and Friday morning between nine and ten. Just let me know if you’re okay, and if you don’t want to meet, I have really thick skin.” Keep it human. Keep it short.

Then, if they’re a real account worth pursuing, reach out to reschedule by suggesting the same time on the same day of the following week. They agreed to that slot once, which means it was likely open. Don’t make them think about a new time. Just reset the existing appointment.

Here’s the principle behind all of this: when you do the work, you own the moral high ground. And when you own the moral high ground, your prospect feels like they owe you. That means a higher probability they reset the meeting, and a much higher probability they actually show up next time. Treat them like a transaction and they’ll treat you the same way.

This is the system, the discipline, and the follow-through necessary to win. Not just activity for activity’s sake, but deliberate execution at every step of the process.

The Bottom Line

Stop blaming prospects ghosting you on bad luck. Most of the time it comes down to one of three things: you pushed someone into a meeting they weren’t sold on, you didn’t build enough relevance and visibility between the booking and the meeting, or you let the confirmation process fall apart. Fix those three things and your show rates will improve. Not to one hundred percent, because that’s not real life. But to a level where your pipeline starts working for you instead of against you.

Jeb and Will go even deeper on getting past the people standing between you and the deal. Watch their Reach Decision Makers Faster: Beating AI & Human Gatekeepers webinar and put these tactics to work today.

Have you ever had a moment where the answer you were looking for was right in front of you? I’m talking about a giant neon sign moment where you realize that a strategy is working, and the proof is undeniable.

Today, I want to share a quick story about an unexpected moment of validation that I recently had, and the valuable lesson that every top sales producer needs to keep front of mind.

The Annual Sales Summit That Changed Everything

I have a client that I’ve worked with for several years now. Each month, I deliver virtual training workshops focused on different areas of sales. Some months our topic will be on prospecting best practices, and other months we may focus on things like sales negotiation skills or how to advance deals in the pipeline. These workshops are optional for the sales team to attend at this particular company.

So recently, I was invited to attend their annual sales summit. It was the first time that I’d be putting faces to names and shaking hands with the people who showed up to my sessions, month after month. It was a pretty big event. There were hundreds of members of the sales team from around the US.

After grabbing my badge at the registration desk, I walked towards the main event space, and the sound of hundreds of conversations filled the room. It was that feeling of energy and the buzz of excitement when you’re surrounded by people who are having fun together.

As I walked through the mingling crowds, I saw it. There was a giant board, I’m guessing about five feet tall, and at the top it read “Top Producers of the Year.”

Now, if you’re in sales, you know what these boards represent. It’s the ultimate recognition and a testament to your consistency, grit, and incredibly hard work.

I found myself looking through the photos and the names. These were my clients’ top producers, the ones who really earned their spot. And as I looked at each photo, a pattern started to emerge. I noticed a face that I recognized and then another. And then another.

I couldn’t help but start to smile as I kept scrolling through this list of the fifteen names on the wall. All but one of them were people who were showing up to the monthly workshops month after month. I was shocked. Not just proud, but genuinely humbled.

Now, I’d like to believe that our training played a part in their success. But the truth is, they earned it. Their spot on that board, their results, their massive recognition—it was a direct reflection of the continuous investments that they had been making in themselves. They didn’t wait to be great. They were proactively working on stepping up their skills one month at a time.

What You Need to Remember

Now, if you take one thing from this article, let it be this: top producers don’t wait for success. They prepare for it.

That board wasn’t just a list of the most talented sales reps. It was also a list of the most intentional. It was a direct consequence of four behaviors that they had displayed:

Showed up to the monthly workshops even though they were optional.

Asked hard questions in these workshops.

Applied new techniques and tools and put them into action immediately.

Treated sharpening their skills as a non-negotiable.

Here’s the truth: the person who dedicates one hour a week to getting better will always beat the person who’s naturally gifted but a little lazy. Intention beats talent every single time.

6 Best Practices to Inject Intention Into Your Week

So how do you inject that kind of intention into your own week? Here are six best practices to help you:

Show Up Before You Need To

These top sales reps on the board didn’t wait for their production to dip before they started investing in training. They were already winning, and they still kept showing up. Skill building is like compounding interest. Small, consistent investments create exponential returns.

Treat Sales Training Like a Workout

You don’t go to the gym once and expect to be in shape. You show up three times a week for a year. That’s how you need to approach your professional development. Consistency is greater than intensity. Every session you attend adds a new tool, a perspective, or an edge to sharpen your game.

Decide That You Are Always a Learner

The reps who excelled weren’t afraid to ask questions that other people might consider basic. They were seeking clarity, not just validation. Remember, ego is expensive. Curiosity is profitable. Never stop being the most curious person in the room.

Don’t Confuse Activity for Growth

Many sales reps are busy; they’re active. But how many are truly intentional about growth? Top producers set aside uninterrupted time for professional development even when their schedule is getting full. So block out time to get better, not just to do more.

Implement One Thing Immediately

After attending a workshop or even listening to a podcast episode, challenge yourself to pick one tactic to put into action within twenty-four hours. Knowledge is power. Implementation is what turns that knowledge into results.

Surround Yourself with Other Top Performers

It’s easy in sales to get frustrated when we lose a deal or when things are not going our way. By surrounding yourself with other top performers, you’re going to help lift yourself up in those moments when you need a little extra support and motivation.

Why This Moment Mattered

Seeing that board of top performers, that physical printed validation, it really struck me—the emotion of realizing that the reps who had quietly and consistently invested in themselves all year long, had literally risen to the top. It was a powerful moment and reminded me why not only I do the work that I do, but it also absolutely confirmed that top performers are the ones disciplined enough to invest in themselves.

I encourage you to commit to just one of these six tips that I shared today. Write it down and put it into action within twenty-four hours. Momentum doesn’t come from waiting. It comes from action.

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The top performers on that board didn’t wait—they invested in training that got results. Explore my courses on Sales Gravy University and get the same strategies they used to reach the top.

Morgan Keim, founder of Ocean Ridge Capital, raised over $400 million in venture capital before he turned 35. One of his companies alone pulled in over $300 million pre-revenue—convincing pension funds and VCs to invest hundreds of millions in a company that hadn’t made a single dollar yet.

On a recent Sales Gravy podcast, he broke down exactly how he did it. The surprising truth? It had almost nothing to do with the pitch itself.

“Your single biggest tools in your toolkit are going to be your eyes and ears,” Morgan said. “It’s about listening and seeing where your prospect is and what they really want. That might be different than the words they use.”

Consider this: only 7% of communication comes from actual words. Another 38% comes from tone, and the remaining 55% shows up in body language and nonverbal cues.

If you’re in high-ticket sales, you’re probably spending most of your time perfecting that 7%, while missing the other 93% of what your prospect is really telling you.

What You’re Missing in Every Conversation

Most salespeople obsess over crafting the perfect email. They rehearse their pitch until it’s flawless. They tweak their value proposition endlessly. All of that lives in the 7% of communication that comes from words.

Meanwhile, prospects are giving away everything you need to know through their tone, body language, and the questions they ask—or avoid.

Morgan learned this quickly when raising capital for a food tech startup. Different investors wanted completely different things, even when they all said they cared about “returns.”

One investor cared deeply about sustainability and environmental impact.

Another focused purely on velocity of capital and exit timelines.

A third had unusual mandates that weren’t apparent until Morgan listened carefully in person.

“It all comes down to having a real understanding of the emotion that person’s feeling, the desired state of where they want to be,” Morgan explained. “Living in that reality of who they are and what they want.”

High-ticket sales often fall apart here. Salespeople treat follow-up like a broadcasting exercise: same message, same pitch, same value proposition to everyone because it’s “efficient.”

Efficiency without effectiveness is wasted motion.

The Language Barrier Costing You Deals

There’s a language of entrepreneurial speak, a language of corporate speak, and a completely different language people use at home. You might communicate seamlessly with colleagues, but explaining your day to your spouse can feel like speaking a foreign language.

The same disconnect happens between you and your prospects. Most sellers speak “sales language,” while their buyers speak business or personal language. Top salespeople code-switch naturally. They pick up on how prospects talk, the patterns they use, and the words that matter to them—and mirror that style back.

In high-ticket sales, you’re asking someone to make a significant investment. They need to feel understood before they’ll trust you with that decision.

Take an HR leader versus a marketing leader in the same organization:

HR cares about employee retention, engagement, and compliance.

Marketing focuses on campaign ROI, conversions, and brand lift.

The same pitch to both? One will check out halfway through the first sentence.

Understanding Their Desired State

Make the prospect the hero of the story. Put your ego aside. Stop thinking about your quota. Focus entirely on their desired outcome.

Morgan never leads with what Ocean Ridge Capital offers. He starts by understanding their situation:

Are they trying to create passive cash flow?

Looking for tax efficiency after selling a business?

Building generational wealth for grandchildren?

Each scenario requires completely different emotional framing. A person focused on legacy thinks about family and long-term impact, while a recent entrepreneur selling for eight figures cares about protecting capital and deploying it efficiently. Same product, completely different language. Send the same follow-up email to both, and you’re solving the wrong problem for one of them.

How This Changes Your Follow-Up Strategy

Once you realize that 93% of your communication lives outside words, your follow-up strategy has to change. Morgan uses multiple channels:

Video messages let him read facial expressions and body language.

Phone calls provide tone, pacing, and emphasis that email strips away.

Handwritten notes show he’s willing to slow down in a world that automates everything.

Educational content positions him as a resource, not just a seller.

He runs A/B/C testing across messaging angles because he can’t assume he knows what a prospect wants. When someone doesn’t respond to initial outreach, he shifts to “passive value creation”—delivering insight, education, and context—while still prospecting actively through multiple channels.

Every touchpoint adds value. Every channel gives a new way to read the prospect, learn their language, and adjust.

What to Do on Your Very Next Call

Here’s your homework. Not next week. Not when you have time. On your very next sales call:

Spend five minutes reading the room before you pitch anything. Notice:

When their energy shifts.

Words they repeat.

Moments they lean in or check out.

Mirror it back. If they say, “We’re building something sustainable,” don’t respond with, “Our solution drives ROI.” Stay in their language. Stay in their world.

Try a different channel. Been emailing for weeks with no response? Pick up the phone. Send a 60-second video. Mail a personalized note.

The mechanics haven’t changed. You still need multiple touches. But if you ignore tone, body language, and emotional state, you’re having a completely different conversation than your prospect is.

Why This Approach Wins

High-ticket sales are about human connection more than polished words. Prospects respond to feeling understood, recognized, and respected. The words you say matter far less than how you convey empathy, awareness, and relevance.

Morgan’s results speak for themselves: reading the unspoken signals and adapting builds trust, shortens sales cycles, and secures investments that others can’t reach.

High-ticket sales aren’t only about what you say—they’re about what you see. Pay attention, and everything changes.

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Take your follow-up strategy to the next level. Download the FREE ACED Buyer Style Playbook and learn how to read what your prospects really want.

Here’s a question that cuts to the heart of what makes sales hard: What do you do when your commodity is identical to every competitor’s, the buyer knows it, and the only lever they want to pull is price?

That’s the challenge Ash from Chennai, India brought to me on a recent Ask Jeb episode. Ash works as a trader importing textile goods from Asian manufacturers and selling them into Spanish-speaking markets in South America and Spain. No proprietary product. No unique features. Pure commodity, all the way down.

And yet Ash is holding customers. Getting repeat orders. Building relationships across borders and languages. He just needed a framework to understand why it was working and how to make it work even harder.

The Trap Every Commodity Salesperson Falls Into

When everything looks the same, most salespeople default to one of two bad moves: race to the bottom on price, or get paralyzed trying to explain a value they can’t articulate.

Here is the brutal truth. Your buyer already knows the product is a commodity. They know they could go direct to the factory and cut you out entirely. They are not confused about that. What they are evaluating is whether the risk and hassle of cutting you out is worth the savings. Your job is to make sure the answer is always no.

That requires you to stop thinking about what your product does and start thinking about what YOU do.

Three Reasons Customers Keep Buying From Ash

When I asked Ash why his good customers keep coming back, he gave me three answers that every salesperson in a commodity business needs to write down.

You make it easy. Ash speaks Spanish. His customers speak Spanish. If they go direct to a Chinese or Vietnamese factory, they face language barriers, cultural friction, and communication breakdowns. Ash eliminates all of that. Business people will pay for less hassle. Time is money, and you are saving them both.

You are someone they like and trust. Ash follows up. He wishes customers a happy New Year. He remembers what matters to them. That is not fluff. That is relationship equity that compounds over time. When customers feel like they can trust you, when a familiar voice picks up the phone, they do not want to start over with a stranger.

You reduce financial risk. In Ash’s business, buyers put down a 20% deposit, sometimes a hundred thousand dollars or more, and pay the balance when the container arrives. The nightmare scenario is that container showing up full of the wrong product. Ash’s company has been operating for over 20 years. They do what they say they are going to do. That longevity is not just a stat. It is a security blanket.

The Power of the Micro Story

Knowing your value is half the battle. Being able to articulate it when a buyer pushes back on price is the other half.

Here is what I told Ash: You need stories. Not case studies. Not bullet points. Short, vivid, real stories that make the risk of cutting you out feel tangible.

Something like this: “I get it. You could go directly to the factory and save ten percent. Some of my customers tried that before working with me. One of them got a container full of product that was not what they ordered. It cost them more than they saved, and they had no one local, no one they trusted, to help them fix it. That is why they work with me now.”

That story is doing three things at once. It validates the buyer’s instinct to compare prices. It quantifies the real cost of the cheaper alternative. And it positions you as the solution to a problem they have not had yet but definitely do not want.

If you are newer to sales and do not have your own stories yet, go talk to your senior teammates. Read industry articles. Find examples of what goes wrong when buyers skip the middleman. Then make those stories part of your standard value conversation.

Not Every Buyer Is Your Buyer

This is the part that stings a little, but it is important. Some buyers are going to push back on your margins until the conversation goes nowhere. They will tell you the price they need, and if you cannot hit it, they will walk. That is okay.

What they are telling you is that they do not value what you bring to the table. They want the cheapest option, and that is a legitimate business decision. They are just not your customer.

Your job is not to convert every skeptic. Your job is to keep your pipeline full and find the buyers who genuinely value ease, safety, and responsiveness. Those are the ones who become long-term accounts. Those are the ones who, two or three years in, cannot imagine buying from anyone else.

Ash is already doing this well. He has visited customers in Mexico, Colombia, and Spain. He has done office meetings and factory tours. When a customer says yes to a visit, they are telling you something: you matter to us. That is what I call an engagement test, and Ash is passing it.

Your Value, Packaged Simply

In commodity sales, your pitch does not need to be complicated. It needs to be consistent. Here is how I would frame it every time a buyer pushes back:

I make this easy for you. I am responsive. And your money is safe with me.

Then back each of those up with a story.

That is the whole game. Not features. Not specs. You.

When you are tired and ready to wrap up the day, remember this: the prospecting you do today pays you for the next three months. Pick up the phone and make one more call. The buyers who value what you do are out there. Go find them.

Want to take this to the next level in person? Join Sales Gravy at one of our live events, where we work with sales professionals and leaders to build the skills, mindset, and habits that drive elite performance. See all upcoming events at salesgravy.com/live.