Oct
24
Top Web site pumps up sales professionals
By BOB MASSEY
Editor
Where would you find the largest online community for sales professionals in the world? New York, perhaps? Los Angeles? London?
Would you believe Cape Coral?
With the trademarked tag line “Sales Professionals Are the Elite Athletes of the Business World,” Sales Gravy (www.salesgravy.com) is the self-proclaimed “portal to all things Sales.” And founder Jeb Blount has worked hard to make it that way.
“I was the head of sales for a large, $13 billion company – I handled sales for the Southeast region – and got tired of flying in airplanes all the time,” he said.
So Blount decided he would take a different tack – he just wasn’t sure what.
“While I was waiting to figure it out, my wife said she would divorce me if I didn’t find something else,” he quipped.
But he already had the answer; he just hadn’t recognized it.
The man with the ‘Power’
Blount had already written a book – “Power Principles” – and dedicated a Web site to engage potential readers. What he noticed was that people came flocking to the site, giving him the idea to start another dedicated to the sales industry.
By December 2006, Blount had put the pieces together, launching the Web site in January 2007.
He apparently took the Smucker’s approach to branding: “I figured Sales Gravy is a name people will remember,” he said.
With a name like Sales Gravy, it had to be good. And visitors agreed.
“The community has grown,” Blount reports. “We have 1,000 new subscribers to the e-zine every week, 250,000 downloading the podcast. We had almost 250,000 unique visitors (to the site) in August.”
Sales Gravy boasts more than 18 consecutive months of growth, having generated 1.8 million page views in June, and 2.2 million in July.
Hefty numbers, indeed. But it hasn’t been easy getting there.
“I work long hours – eight in the morning till 2 a.m. every night,” Blount said.
But his efforts have not only earned Sales Gravy the top spot among sales Web sites, but the No. 2 job board in cyberspace.
More than 500 employers and recruiters currently post available sales positions to 5,300 registered job seekers. An average of 300 new résumés are posted each week.
Most impressive of all, there is no charge to post jobs, search resumes or search for jobs at Sales Gravy Jobs (www.salesgravyjobs.com).
“If you’re a business owner or a sales manager, you can post a job for free – and it’ll end up on 25,000 Web sites,” Blount said.
So what else will visitors find at www.salesgravy.com? When it comes to sales, it would be easier to catalogue what they won’t find.
A virtual tour
For starters, the site offers hundreds of articles, videos and audio programs on sales and sales leadership, produced by globally recognized sales experts, trainers and authors – all at no charge, and all designed to help sales professionals gain the winning edge in their careers.
Sometimes, Blount said, he hears a sales manager or professional lament that “I spent hours on the Internet looking for a certain type of sales training video, but couldn’t find it.”
“Let us find it for you,” Blount offers, “and you can play it from the Sales Gravy Web site.”
Sales Gravy also has the Internet’s largest community of sales pros.
“You can network with people you wouldn’t ordinarily have access to,” Blount said. “We’re considered by many to be the Facebook of selling.”
And the company produces the two highest-ranked sales podcasts on iTunes.
Another arm of the company, Sales Gravy Press, launched in July signing many of the world’s best known sales authors to publishing contracts. A recent release, “The Real Secrets of the Top 20%” by Mike Brooks, rose to No. 6 on the Amazon Sales Techniques bestseller list. (See sidebar.)
Another endeavor, Reach Sales (www.reachsales.com), is a full-service advertising network that links the top sale Web sites together, allowing advertisers to gain access to thousands of sales professionals asnd leaders – and receive standardized metrics and rates.
“All of the companies in our group are sales related,” Blount said. “We decided to do sales and do sales well.”
Closing the sale
“We’ve moved fast and made a lot of mistakes along the way,” he added. “We’re making enough money right now to pay our bills, but we’re reaching one of those tipping points. I just know it’s going to all come together.”
So far, Sales Gravy has been successful without the help of outside investors.
“I’ve been able to generate enough revenue on my own,” Blount said, “but I’d love to have someone else come in. For a long time, I didn’t take anybody’s money, because I didn’t know if Sales Gravy was going to be viable or not. My belief is you’ve got to offer value to the investor.”
While Blount has obviously solved the viability problem, he voiced another concern about partnership with outsiders.
“When you have a passion (for a business), most people don’t come in sharing that passion,” he said.
Blount has taken that passion and distilled what makes his Web site successful into one word: fun.
“That’s the whole thing about the Web site,” he said. “It’s fun.
“We’re not like anything else on the Web. I challenge you to find anything that looks like, talks like or acts like Sales Gravy.”
Odds are it would be a sucker’s bet.
Comments
One Response to “Sales Gravy … for the ‘athletes of the business world’”
Leave a Reply
-
Subscribe Now
Get 26 issues of Southwest Florida Business Today! [by major credit card] We'll help you stay on top of your business game. Subscribe Now!
I can definitely attest to the fact that Sales Gravy is FUN! I am an Account Executive at Reach Sales and Jeb is constantly keeping me on my toes with new and inventive ideas each day! He is incredibly knowledgeable, but humble about his success at the same time.