If you can’t figure out who makes the buying decision, every cold call starts with a guess.

In this episode of Ask Jeb on the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount answers a question from David, a business development rep making a high volume of cold calls daily into a highly technical market. His challenge: how much research is enough before you dial, and how do you find the right contact when the decision maker could be an engineer, a project manager, or the CEO?

Jeb’s answer starts with a mindset shift. Prospecting and research are separate jobs, so block time for each and never do both at once. He then walks David through an ABCD list system that moves every lead toward fully qualified, so your first call block goes to appointment-ready prospects and the rest of the day builds tomorrow’s list.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to find the decision maker when job titles don’t tell you who buys
• How to get the gatekeeper to give you the contact you need within the organization
• Why separating prospecting time from research time protects your call blocks
• How to sort prospects into A, B, C, and D lists so every call has a clear goal
• How to build qualifiers that tell you when a lead is ready for an appointment
• Why multithreading matters in complex sales
• How to use AI tools to help you build a local prospecting list in minutes
• How to build an ideal customer profile with your team to stop setting unqualified appointments
• Why every new piece of information counts as a win for SDRs and BDRs

-

Submit your question: salesgravy.com/ask

Purchase Jeb Blount's new book: 90 Days to Level Up Your Sales Skills

Grab your tickets for OutBound Conference

Follow Jeb Blount on LinkedIn

Homeowners decide within seconds whether to trust the person on their porch. Jessica Stokes shares nine door-to-door prospecting tips to make those seconds count, from the because statement that turns a pitch into a conversation to handling objections without arguing and turning a quick doorstep chat into a scheduled follow-up.

👉 Download our free 7 Steps to Building Effective Prospecting Sequences Guide

📖 Purchase Jeb Blount's new book, 90 Days to Level Up Your Sales Skills

💻 Enroll in Sales Gravy University Courses with Jessica Stokes

Your CRM says the quarter is safe. So why does the forecast keep slipping? Sales Gravy Master Trainer Jessica Stokes joins Jeb Blount Jr. to explain why so many pipelines look bigger than they are, and why deals without a confirmed meeting on the calendar are the first to stall. They dig into the fear that keeps reps clinging to dead deals, a simple 15-minute calendar invite that gets quiet prospects to respond, and how Jessica became her team’s top seller with the leanest pipeline. Whether you carry a quota or coach the people who do, you’ll know exactly which deals are real after your next sales pipeline review.

👉 Download our Free 7 Step Guide to Building Effective Prospecting Sequences

📖 Purchase Jeb Blount's new book, 90 Days to Level Up Your Sales Skills

💻 Enroll in Sales Gravy University Courses with Jessica Stokes

🔗 Watch the full episode on YouTube!